What is “reconstructionist history,” and how does it differ from traditional history?

Traditional history focuses on what happened — the sequence of events, causes, and verified facts drawn from archives and official records.
"Reconstructionist" history, by contrast, seeks to re-create what it felt like to live through those events. It combines documented truth with imaginative empathy to restore atmosphere, emotion, and moral complexity often missing from the record. This form of historical novel can recount the past as accurately as traditional history, because it involves similar research methods and critical interpretation of the data.
Both An Attractive Naivety and Ashes and Sakura use this approach: they remain faithful to the evidence, but step inside it — letting readers gain a greater understanding of a specific period and why people acted as they did.