In 1945, after World War II, Akiyoshi's family lost their home and returned to Japan, settling in Beppu.

[4] In 1953, under Granz's direction, she recorded her first album with Peterson's rhythm section: Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on double bass, and J. C. Heard on drums.

According to Akiyoshi, some of her success was attributed to her being an oddity, saying in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “In those days, a Japanese woman playing like Bud Powell was something very new.

The title, which translates to "one-man army", was inspired by the tale of a Japanese soldier lost for 30 years in the jungle who believed that World War II was still being fought and thus remained loyal to the Emperor.

[4] The couple moved to New York City in 1982 and assembled the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin.

[12] Akiyoshi explained that she disbanded the ensemble because she was frustrated by her inability to obtain American recording contracts for the big band.

[13][verification needed] She composed using Japanese themes, harmonies, and instruments (kotsuzumi, kakko, utai, tsugaru shamisen).

But her music remained planted firmly in jazz, reflecting influences from Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Bud Powell.

One reviewer of the live album Road Time said the music on Akiyoshi's big band albums demonstrated "a level of compositional and orchestral ingenuity that made her one of perhaps two or three composer-arrangers in jazz whose name could seriously be mentioned in the company of Duke Ellington, Eddie Sauter, and Gil Evans.

"[14] In 1999, Akiyoshi was approached by Kyudo Nakagawa, a Buddhist priest, who asked her to write a piece for his hometown of Hiroshima.

Finally, she found a picture of a young woman emerging from an underground shelter with a faint smile on her face.