"Japan's War", by Edwin P. Hoyt

[ccheese]

Just finished reading "Japan's War", by Edwin P. Hoyt. This is a good book, but a very slow starter. It starts in 1853 and goes to the end of WW-II. What is interesting is that Japan was an island nation that really wanted to be left alone. They were somewhat primitive, but they existed. Along came Commodore Perry who forced the Japanese into a trade agreement, which opened the door for other countries to begin trade with Japan.

Later, it goes into great account as to how Japan created "an incident" in China, where Japanese citizens were killed. Then Japan had to send a battalion of troops to "protect" the Japanese citizens.

It goes through the war, telling how "government" lied to the people, concealing the terrific losses to the Japanese Army and Navy, and exaggerating their victories.

At the end of the book is a copy of the Japanese Constitution that was written in 1946 and adopted in 1947. Of particular interest is Article 9,
which says.....

"Aspiring sincerely to an international peace, based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat of use of force as means of settling disputes."

"In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

The book is over 500 pages, including appendix's and indexes, but a very good read none the less.

Charles

 

[buffnut453]

I have that one but haven't pulled it off the shelf yet. I'm currently ploughing through "Japan's Decision for War: Records of the 1941 Policy Conferences" edited by Nobutaka Ike. It's really fascinating reading the strategic-level discussions held in Tokyo in the run up to Japan's attack against Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaya. There was a genuine belief that Japan had a right to demand whatever was wanted and, moreover, if the other party did not accede to Japanese demands, that the desired result should be achieved through force. This theme comes up time and time again regarding the stationing of forces in southern French Indo-China, the need to invade the Dutch East Indies and a willingness to accept war with both America and Britain irrespective of the consequences (or, perhaps mroe accurately, with very favourable expectations of the outcome).

 

[Thorlifter]

Sounds like an interesting book Charles. I may keep an eye out for that one.

I'm stuck reading "Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and ordinary Germans"

Absolutely fascinating!!!!! My issue is it's not only 650+ pages, but the print is very small so it could be a 800-900 page book if the words were bigger. Plus, I have a bit of dyslexia so I struggle to get through it because I have to re-read words and paragraphs.

Amazon.com: Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans (9780465049080): Eric Johnson, Eric A. Johnson: Books

I got it at Half Price Books for $7.99. I'm about 90 pages into it (I've had it for 2 months) and it is documenting how, as a whole, the Gestapo wasn't this super scary, "they are everywhere" organization. They were severely understaffed and most of their information came from ordinary German citizens.

 

[buffnut453]

Thorlifter,

That assessment of the Gestapo jives with the findings of the book "Seduced by Hitler" which is a fascinating study of how the Nazi evil took over society.

KR
Mark

 

[Thorlifter]

The author of this book, Eric Johnson, really seemed to do his homework. The small town he focuses on is Krefeld, which still has almost all of their gestapo and police documents completely intact, not only on Jews but also German citizens from 1932 - 1945.

 

[javlin]

I am reading "The Rising Sun" which sounds alot what you have there Charles.Again another thick book much like yours but starts in the early 1900's.Did yours go over the riots and rebellions in Tokoyo in the 20's by the youth of the Army?it was interesting how these influenced and changed the power struggle within the Japanese Government.

 

[ccheese]

I am reading "The Rising Sun" which sounds alot what you have there Charles.Again another thick book much like yours but starts in the early 1900's.Did yours go over the riots and rebellions in Tokoyo in the 20's by the youth of the Army?it was interesting how these influenced and changed the power struggle within the Japanese Government.

Yes, it did, not to mention the murders of high ranking officers, by junior
officers, who were never punished. The creating of "incidents" in China,
and the promise to the Emperor that the "Chinese situation" would be over in
a month.

Charles