In the Service of Emperor

'Here in one coherent package is a series of articles that captures the assessment of a senior scholar of Japanese military history...Many of Drea's pieces cut to the heart of the Japanese military phenomenon of the twentieth century' - Carl Boyd, author of Hitler's Japanese Confidant: General Oshima Hiroshi and Magic Intelligence, 1941-1945 . 'The experience and remarkable historical and linguistic knowledge that Drea brings to this book are unsurpassable...Every one of these essays contains material that contributes importantly to the advancement of general - not merely specialist - knowledge' - Roger J. Spiller, George C. Marshall Professor of Military History, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.Japan's war in Asia and the Pacific from 1937 to 1945 remains a subject of great interest, yet the wartime Japanese army remains little understood outside Japan. Most published accounts rely on English-language works written in the 1950s and 1960s. The Japanese-language sources have remained relatively inaccessible to western scholars in part due to the difficulty of the language, a difficulty the author, who reads Japanese fluently, surmounts. In a series of searching examinations of the structure, ethos, and goals of the Japanese military establishment, Edward J. Drea offers new material on its tactics, operations, doctrine, and leadership.Based on original military documents, official histories, court diaries, and Emperor Hirohito's own words, these twelve essays introduce western readers to fifty years of Japanese scholarship about the war and Japan's military institutions. In addition, Drea uses recently declassified Allied intelligence documents related to Japan to challenge existing views and conventional wisdom about the war. Edward J. Drea works in the Historical Office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He is the author of MacArthur's ULTRA: Codebreaking and the War against Japan, 1942-1945 .

The expansion of the Japanese Empire between 1931 until its defeat in 1945 is one of the most extraordinary yet shocking episodes in human history. Extraordinary in that a relatively non-industrialised island nation was prepared to go to war, concurrently, with China, the most populous country, Great Britain with its world-wide empire and the USA, the wealthiest and most powerful country on earth. Shocking, as those 'in the service of the Emperor' practiced persistent and unrestrained brutality as they conquered and occupied swathes of South East Asia. But, as this superbly researched work reveals, there is no denying their fighting and logistical expertise. The author examines the political, economic and strategic effects of the rapid Japanese expansion and explores the cult of deity that surrounded the Emperor. The contribution of the Allied forces and their leadership is given due attention. When retribution duly came, it was focussed on the military leadership responsible for unspeakable atrocities on their military and civilian victims. The physical perpetrators remaining largely unpunished. Japan, today, has still not acknowledged its wartime guilt. The result is an authoritative, balanced and highly readable account of a chapter of world history that must never be forgotten.