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This book is an excellent example of how history should be presented; information from the best available sources and without the anti-Japanese bias apparent in so many books written on the subject by occidental authors. My main interest is in the early period of the armies history but it was fascinating to see how the classical code of Bushido was so manipulated by the commanders to produce soldiers capable of behaving as they sadly did in the 1930-40’s. No excuses are made, this is history as it was – I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in recent Japanese history.
Rating: 4 / 5
This is an excellent, scholarly work, providing the American reader with an overview of the the history of the Japanese Army and its role in the rise of Japan from the Meiji restoration through World War II. My only criticism is that the book should have been three times as long as its 262 pages, since there were many subjects and incidents that needed to be expanded. Therefore, it must be considered as a comprehensive overview with many subjects to be expanded through further reading by those interested. Please do not take this to mean this work is introductory, however, it is much more than that. One might also read other works like the venerable “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” by Ruth Benedict to more fully comprehend the Japanese culture that gave rise and support to the army.
Most history books pass over the Meiji Restoration as inevitable given the decadence of the Shogunate and the backwardness of Japan before Perry’s appearance. Clearly, the restoration was by no means inevitable, and the military support given to it by two domains/provinces, Choshu and Satsuma, determined the makeup and leadership of the Army for many years thereafter. In Japanese culture, fighting was done by samurai, not by the common people, and indeed, it took some time before it was appreciated that individuals of common or humble origin could make good soldiers.
The pattern of brutality in the army arose out of the culture with the assumption that the common soldier needed to be brutalized to become a good fighting man. In addition, the army belonged to the emperor, not the country, and a militaristic spirit was taught to the soldiers as well as the people. This fighting spirit was supposedly able to trump all adversity, including material deficiencies, and as an outgrown of that, logistics and other service emements in the Japanese Army were neglected and often failed in fulfilling their roles.
Nonetheless, thirty-five years after the Meiji government began reorganizing the army, it was able to defeat a major European power, Russia. The text shows the difficulties in forming this army, which was more or less constantly in a state of re-organization the entire time. Officers were sent to French and German military schools for training, and European instructors were brought to Japan. Transforming small regional samurai forces relying on medieval weaponry into modern mass formations of trained common soldiers with substantial firepower and artillery was not easy to accomplish. But even by the Boxer Rebellion, Japanese detachments were proving their combat worth as equal to the Europeans.
This book does not focus on the Japanese Navy which underwent similar teething problems and development. The army greatly impacted Japanese politics as a separate force, and the Army Minister held a position of importance far above what a similar title held in the West. In addition, younger army officers were always capable of rebelling in the name of the Emperor and for the good of the state, usually paying with their lives for their actions. But Prime Ministers were assassinated, and the army was able to bully its opposition. On top of that, junior officers could even start wars, like they did at the Marco Polo Bridge. The army was simply a state unto itself, with the power to dominate the government and take the nation into war as desired.
Until after the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the army leadership was undecided on whether it wanted Japan to be a regional power or a world power. Their preceived humiliation in the terms of Portsmouth led them to the latter course, a path that Japan had neither the population nor the material (including economic) resources to travel. Although the army prepared well for the next war with Russia, it became embroiled in a long war with China where their lack of population doomed their efforts at conquering China or winning a negotiated peace. Then the Navy pushed Japan into adopting a strategy of southern expansion — a strategy for which the army was unprepared and could not fight. Although their armored formations were weak as compared to the Soviet Union’s, the army had prepared for war with the Soviet Union rather than the United States. Against the US, their only chance was to cause the US sufficient casualties so that the American people would lose heart and call for their government to make peace (like they did over Vietnam.) Unfortunately for the Japanese, Pearl Harbor prevented that.
All in all, this is an excellent book, subject to the limitations given above. I recommend it to all those readers interested in Japan or World War II.
Rating: 5 / 5
It has taken more than six decades after its fall, but at last we have a fine, well-written, well-informed English-language history of the army of imperial Japan. Given the central role that the Japanese Army played in the history of Japan and East Asia generally for half a century, it is remarkable that it has taken so long, but we can be thankful for the result.
The book is superbly balanced and remarkably inclusive. Military, political, social, and economic aspects — they are all there. It is all somewhat more condensed than one might wish — an editorial choice, no doubt, rather than any limitation of Drea’s knowledge. But the bibliography and notes provide a comprehensive guide to sources both in Japanese and English.
This is a very accessible book. The author provides a framework of historical background that can guide readers not familiar with the details of Japan’s history, but does so in a graceful fashion that will not get in the way of those who know Japan better. In particular, readers who simply want to understand the Asian part of World War II clearly should find it easy and fascinating reading.
There is absolutely no way to understand the history of modern Japan without understanding the Japanese Army, and no other book on the Japanese Army in English that can begin to compare with this one.
Rating: 5 / 5
I thought it was VERY detailed. Some books just have the basics, But this book has everything you’d ever want to know about Japan and the atomic bomb. I’m a middle school student and I had to do a report for one of my classes. On the star rating, I gave it 5 Stars!
Rating: 5 / 5
The Cooks have done an excellent job in capturing the experience of the Pacific War. It’s refreshing to find oral history and primary resources at the heart of this book. The stories are moving, the images are vivid, and the language is simplified. Thank you
Rating: 5 / 5
As an American Nisei (2nd generation) Japanese american, my parents experienced the terror of the civilian firebombing at the end of World War II. Since they, as many, are reluctant to talk about it, this book helped me to capture some of their experiences and come to a greater understanding of an extremely difficult time. The irrefutability of oral history as the direct retelling of recollection and experience creates a context for telling these heretofore untold stories. It provides a sense of the greater story in a way that documentary and narrative historiographic contexts told from the perspective of the “winner” are unable to capture.
Rating: 5 / 5
How do I describe in words the emotion this book evokes. It simply can’t be done. Of all the books I have read on this era of Japanese history, this one had the most impact by far. Oral histories are valuable because they reveal the side of history you don’t hear about in dry history books, they reveal the human side of tragic events in this case. Anyone interested in learning about Wartime Japan must read this book.
Rating: 5 / 5
Pacific War experiences related by those who lived it on the Japanese side. Excellent and moving accounts of what the disastrous war was like “on the other side.” Helps us see that all people are human beings, not the caricatures and stereotypes portrayed in propaganda of either side.
Rating: 5 / 5
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