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Japan at War in the Pacific: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire in Asia: 1868-1945
By the time of Japan's surrender in 1945, an entire generation had grown up knowing nothing but conflict; but the transformation of Japan into a militarist power began decades earlier, with the toppling of the old samurai regime, and the rush of the formerly isolated nation onto the world stage.
Japan at War in the Pacific recounts the dramatic story of Japan's transformation from a Samurai-led feudal society to a modern military-industrial empire in the space of a few decades--and the many wars it fought along the way. These culminated in an attempt by Japan's military leaders to create an Asia-Pacific empire which at its greatest extent rivaled the British Empire in scope and power.
The battle for supremacy in the Pacific brought the Japanese to great heights but led ultimately to the nation's utter devastation at the end of World War II, culminating with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki--the only time such weapons have been used in warfare.
In this book, author Jonathan Clements offers fascinating insights into:
The wars that Japan fought during its rise to supremacy in the western Pacific, including the Russo-Japanese War, the seizure of Manchuria and war in China, and the Pacific theater of World War II.
The many military actions undertaken by Imperial Japanese forces including the horrific Rape of Nanjing, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the decisive defeat at the Battle of Midway, the savage Battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and many more.
The motivations and beliefs of Japan's leaders, as well as the policy decisions of a government dedicated to expansion which ultimately led to a complete dismantling of the nation's political and social order during the Allied Occupation.
With over 75 photographs and maps, this book vividly recounts the brutal story of Japan's military conquests. Clements charts the evolution of the Japanese empire in the Pacific and the influence of a ruthless military-led government on everything from culture and food to fashion and education--including the anthems and rallying calls of a martial nation which were silenced long ago but continue to echo in Asian politics.
Japan at War in the Pacific recounts the dramatic story of Japan's transformation from a Samurai-led feudal society to a modern military-industrial empire in the space of a few decades--and the many wars it fought along the way. These culminated in an attempt by Japan's military leaders to create an Asia-Pacific empire which at its greatest extent rivaled the British Empire in scope and power.
The battle for supremacy in the Pacific brought the Japanese to great heights but led ultimately to the nation's utter devastation at the end of World War II, culminating with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki--the only time such weapons have been used in warfare.
In this book, author Jonathan Clements offers fascinating insights into:
The wars that Japan fought during its rise to supremacy in the western Pacific, including the Russo-Japanese War, the seizure of Manchuria and war in China, and the Pacific theater of World War II.
The many military actions undertaken by Imperial Japanese forces including the horrific Rape of Nanjing, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the decisive defeat at the Battle of Midway, the savage Battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and many more.
The motivations and beliefs of Japan's leaders, as well as the policy decisions of a government dedicated to expansion which ultimately led to a complete dismantling of the nation's political and social order during the Allied Occupation.
With over 75 photographs and maps, this book vividly recounts the brutal story of Japan's military conquests. Clements charts the evolution of the Japanese empire in the Pacific and the influence of a ruthless military-led government on everything from culture and food to fashion and education--including the anthems and rallying calls of a martial nation which were silenced long ago but continue to echo in Asian politics.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 10, 2022
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106 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Clements
153 books124 followersJonathan Clements is an author, translator, biographer and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Marco Polo, Mao Zedong, Koxinga and Qin Shihuangdi. He also writes for NEO magazine and is the co-author of encyclopedias of anime and Japanese television dramas.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 29, 2023
It wasn’t perfect but was a well written and laid out book. It is in, generally, a high level of detail yet for me, the WW2 section is lacking.
Pros:
Mostly detailed; includes relevant photos and maps when necessary; many footnotes (shows he’s done his research) and the chapter names are intriguing.
Cons:
Chapters are constantly broken up by songs that were sung (wish they were separate at the end; seems to be quite judgmental of the Allies’ actions yet, when the Japanese do the same/ similar things, he kinda presents a different tone; can’t spell Kyiv correctly.
Overall, a solid 4 star account of the brutal and somewhat malicious Japanese empire that rose in the late 1860’s; signed treaties etc and didn’t stick with them, suffered a bit of communism and ultimately it was their will to die rather than to surrender which forced the 2 atomic bombs as otherwise many hundred of thousands of Allies would have perished.
Recommended for anyone interested in Far Eastern asian imperial/ military history in the modern world.
Pros:
Mostly detailed; includes relevant photos and maps when necessary; many footnotes (shows he’s done his research) and the chapter names are intriguing.
Cons:
Chapters are constantly broken up by songs that were sung (wish they were separate at the end; seems to be quite judgmental of the Allies’ actions yet, when the Japanese do the same/ similar things, he kinda presents a different tone; can’t spell Kyiv correctly.
Overall, a solid 4 star account of the brutal and somewhat malicious Japanese empire that rose in the late 1860’s; signed treaties etc and didn’t stick with them, suffered a bit of communism and ultimately it was their will to die rather than to surrender which forced the 2 atomic bombs as otherwise many hundred of thousands of Allies would have perished.
Recommended for anyone interested in Far Eastern asian imperial/ military history in the modern world.
April 8, 2023
I think this book suffers from a generic title. Which book about imperial Japan isn't about its rise and fall? The rising sun cover over advancing troops also does little to distinguish it from many similarly-styled books in the same field.
The real issue is that the title isn't really descriptive of what this specific book is doing. This touches on many familiar events, but the entirety of the Second World War happens within the last seventy pages. The book almost assumes some familiarity with the major military milestones because it wants to tell other stories. At its core, the book is not about what the Empire did, it's about how the militarist movement affected the minds and attitudes of imperial subjects.
This isn't a book about music or poetry, but one of the most striking elements of the text is how it uses contemporary songs and literature to show how attitudes connected to the Empire shifted. What kinds of artistic expression was valued publicly? Which kinds did the government tolerate? How did those lines shift and in which directions? It ends up leaving a more specific impression than a more detailed description of Khalkin Gol or Guadalcanal would anyway.
Clements also does a good job of keeping his reader aware of the throughlines. His recurring characters' context is reestablished and the reader sees how the military government could tolerate, transform, or eliminate dissent through the figures that are profiled. Ultimately, this is a book you can mostly swallow whole. It reads fast and is narratively compelling. It doesn't get bogged down in details, and you feel like you both get a bird's eye view of the subject while also having enough individual anecdotes that it doesn't feel detached from human experience.
The biggest issue with the text is... the text. It would seem that this was simply edited too quickly. There are not a million spelling errors, but there are too many. Paragraph breaks are occasionally incorrect, splitting sentences halfway through. I think that Tuttle just didn't take enough time on the back end with this one, and it can be distracting and has the unfortunate effect of making the reader less confident in the many great arguments in the text due to the visible grammatical or structural errors within it.
The real issue is that the title isn't really descriptive of what this specific book is doing. This touches on many familiar events, but the entirety of the Second World War happens within the last seventy pages. The book almost assumes some familiarity with the major military milestones because it wants to tell other stories. At its core, the book is not about what the Empire did, it's about how the militarist movement affected the minds and attitudes of imperial subjects.
This isn't a book about music or poetry, but one of the most striking elements of the text is how it uses contemporary songs and literature to show how attitudes connected to the Empire shifted. What kinds of artistic expression was valued publicly? Which kinds did the government tolerate? How did those lines shift and in which directions? It ends up leaving a more specific impression than a more detailed description of Khalkin Gol or Guadalcanal would anyway.
Clements also does a good job of keeping his reader aware of the throughlines. His recurring characters' context is reestablished and the reader sees how the military government could tolerate, transform, or eliminate dissent through the figures that are profiled. Ultimately, this is a book you can mostly swallow whole. It reads fast and is narratively compelling. It doesn't get bogged down in details, and you feel like you both get a bird's eye view of the subject while also having enough individual anecdotes that it doesn't feel detached from human experience.
The biggest issue with the text is... the text. It would seem that this was simply edited too quickly. There are not a million spelling errors, but there are too many. Paragraph breaks are occasionally incorrect, splitting sentences halfway through. I think that Tuttle just didn't take enough time on the back end with this one, and it can be distracting and has the unfortunate effect of making the reader less confident in the many great arguments in the text due to the visible grammatical or structural errors within it.
August 20, 2024
An outstanding book which covers the period between the Meiji Restoration and the end of World War II with some brief historical background (especially Commodore Perry forcing Japan to open up via gunboat diplomacy in 1853, something which the japanese would employ later).
The book never excuses Japanese later actions and atrocities, but it does whatever a good historian does: places them in a historical context and attempts to why events unfolded in a certain way. Counterfactual speculation is always shaky, but one can't help wonder what would have happened if white colonial powers had treated Japan as an equal. As Clements writes in the introduction:
According to this interpretation Japan increasingly saw securing self sufficiency as its only option, which meant territorial expansion. And we all know the result of that choice.
Saburo Ienaga would most likely regard this perspective as naïve in his book The Pacific War, 1931-1945 : A Critical Perspective on Japan's Role in World War II:
My reading of Ienaga is that there is a powerful ideological component which rises above mere material concerns.
According to Ienaga the root cause is decades of indoctrination shaping the collective psyche.
My view is that these explanations likely are complementary.
The book never excuses Japanese later actions and atrocities, but it does whatever a good historian does: places them in a historical context and attempts to why events unfolded in a certain way. Counterfactual speculation is always shaky, but one can't help wonder what would have happened if white colonial powers had treated Japan as an equal. As Clements writes in the introduction:
Militarism was not a foregone conclusion. It was an ideology forged in the rush to lift Japan out of its unequal treaties, and to secure a "cordon of interest" beyond its historical borders.
According to this interpretation Japan increasingly saw securing self sufficiency as its only option, which meant territorial expansion. And we all know the result of that choice.
Saburo Ienaga would most likely regard this perspective as naïve in his book The Pacific War, 1931-1945 : A Critical Perspective on Japan's Role in World War II:
Japanese inevitably tended to regard international relations as tests of strength decided by superior power; concepts of the equality of nations or of international justice were not thought important (efforts to revise the unequal treaties imposed by the West owed little to such idealistic notions). Japan uncritically followed the prevailing amoral code of “might makes right” among nation-states.
My reading of Ienaga is that there is a powerful ideological component which rises above mere material concerns.
[Ishiwara] represents the systematic formulation of an irrational Japanese contempt for their Asian neighbors fostered over several decades and the imperialist policies sanctioned by that attitude. As long as that mentality and policy were dominant, a military confrontation was unavoidable with a China which sought a new national identity and had begun to resist imperialist domination. Why were the Japanese people intolerant of Chinese and Koreans? Why did they lack the capacity for critical analysis of imperialist policies and the wars they bred? I think the answer lies in the state’s manipulation of information and values to produce mass conformity and unquestioning obedience.
According to Ienaga the root cause is decades of indoctrination shaping the collective psyche.
My view is that these explanations likely are complementary.
August 9, 2024
Of all the books on Japan written in English by a westerner, this is the most upfront book about Imperial Japan that I've come across. Written fairly recently (2022) and published by a foreign publisher in Malaysia, it seems to have bypassed the American censors in terms of whitewashing many of Japan's deeds and America's involvement with them until WW2.
This book is a short but easy to digest read about Japan's modernization and gives a decent look at what the mood was like in Japan as the country descended further and further into the spiraling death trap it created for itself when it settled on a policy of unending conquest to fulfill its imperial ambitions, especially after its creation of its puppet country Manchukuo in Chinese territory.
This book is an important primer for anyone who is Asian, especially those who live in the west, to fully understand their historical roots, as anyone who is E/SE Asian has been affected by Imperial Japan in one way or another. Japan's imperialist history is imperative to understanding America's Cold War policy and modern foreign policy in Asia today, which now threaten to affect all of us as America increasingly seeks further tensions with China.
This book is a short but easy to digest read about Japan's modernization and gives a decent look at what the mood was like in Japan as the country descended further and further into the spiraling death trap it created for itself when it settled on a policy of unending conquest to fulfill its imperial ambitions, especially after its creation of its puppet country Manchukuo in Chinese territory.
This book is an important primer for anyone who is Asian, especially those who live in the west, to fully understand their historical roots, as anyone who is E/SE Asian has been affected by Imperial Japan in one way or another. Japan's imperialist history is imperative to understanding America's Cold War policy and modern foreign policy in Asia today, which now threaten to affect all of us as America increasingly seeks further tensions with China.
June 10, 2024
Much more interesting than I had expected. Many new details as well as broader connections and insights. And we’ll written too. Read it over the weekend and found it hard to put down.
July 27, 2024
A decent introduction to Japanese militarism and activity in the period.
July 4, 2024
Dry and a little tedious for me. But I achieved my goal by reading this: The complexity of Japan’s history and its relationship to its neighbors are starting to take form for me.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews