Why Japan Lost World War II
Why Japan Lost World War II

Author: James B. Whisker

Publisher:

Published: 2020-07-15

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9781680539479

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When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and other Western positions in the Asia-Pacific World in December 1941, it was unprepared to go to war with the United States and the Western Democracies generally and even realized it could not win. Its navy and air force were impressive, and its army could battle impressively against China, but Japanese small arms were terrible. Japan's tanks could not compete with their opposite numbers. The Empire's logistical base was undeveloped for modern warfare. While the Allies could produce large numbers of trained many pilots, Japan produced very few. When its elite airmen were lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Japan could not replace them. At sea, Japan built battleships when it needed more aircraft carriers. The Japanese military never even attempted to win World War II by a simple and direct plan. Its planners consistently assumed that the enemy would do precisely what they assumed and countenanced no alternative analyses of facts.

Why the Axis Lost
Why the Axis Lost

Author: John Arquilla

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2020-02-27

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1476639523

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The factors leading to the defeat of the Axis Powers in World War II have been debated for decades. One prevalent view is that overwhelming Allied superiority in materials and manpower doomed the Axis. Another holds that key strategic and tactical blunders lost the war--from Hitler halting his panzers outside Dunkirk, allowing more than 300,000 trapped Allied soldiers to escape, to Admiral Yamamoto falling into the trap set by the U.S. Navy at Midway. Providing a fresh perspective on the war, this study challenges both views and offers an alternative explanation: the Germans, Japanese and Italians made poor design choices in ships, planes, tanks and information security--before and during the war--that forced them to fight with weapons and systems that were too soon outmatched by the Allies. The unprecedented arms race of World War II posed a fundamental "design challenge" the Axis powers sometimes met but never mastered.

Bodies of Memory
Bodies of Memory

Author: Yoshikuni Igarashi

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-01-09

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1400842980

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Japan and the United States became close political allies so quickly after the end of World War II, that it seemed as though the two countries had easily forgotten the war they had fought. Here Yoshikuni Igarashi offers a provocative look at how Japanese postwar society struggled to understand its war loss and the resulting national trauma, even as forces within the society sought to suppress these memories. Igarashi argues that Japan's nationhood survived the war's destruction in part through a popular culture that expressed memories of loss and devastation more readily than political discourse ever could. He shows how the desire to represent the past motivated Japan's cultural productions in the first twenty-five years of the postwar period. Japanese war experiences were often described through narrative devices that downplayed the war's disruptive effects on Japan's history. Rather than treat these narratives as obstacles to historical inquiry, Igarashi reads them along with counter-narratives that attempted to register the original impact of the war. He traces the tensions between remembering and forgetting by focusing on the body as the central site for Japan's production of the past. This approach leads to fascinating discussions of such diverse topics as the use of the atomic bomb, hygiene policies under the U.S. occupation, the monstrous body of Godzilla, the first Western professional wrestling matches in Japan, the transformation of Tokyo and the athletic body for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and the writer Yukio Mishima's dramatic suicide, while providing a fresh critical perspective on the war legacy of Japan.

Forgotten Ally
Forgotten Ally

Author: Rana Mitter

Publisher: HMH

Published: 2013-09-10

Total Pages: 485

ISBN-13: 054784056X

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A history of the Chinese experience in WWII, named a Book of the Year by both the Economist and the Financial Times: “Superb” (The New York Times Book Review). In 1937, two years before Hitler invaded Poland, Chinese troops clashed with Japanese occupiers in the first battle of World War II. Joining with the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain, China became the fourth great ally in a devastating struggle for its very survival. In this book, prize-winning historian Rana Mitter unfurls China’s drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue as never before. Based on groundbreaking research, this gripping narrative focuses on a handful of unforgettable characters, including Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, and Chiang’s American chief of staff, “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell—and also recounts the sacrifice and resilience of everyday Chinese people through the horrors of bombings, famines, and the infamous Rape of Nanking. More than any other twentieth-century event, World War II was crucial in shaping China’s worldview, making Forgotten Ally both a definitive work of history and an indispensable guide to today’s China and its relationship with the West.

Embracing Defeat
Embracing Defeat

Author: John W Dower

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2000-07-04

Total Pages: 692

ISBN-13: 9780393320275

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This study of modern Japan traces the impact of defeat and reconstruction on every aspect of Japan's national life. It examines the economic resurgence as well as how the nation as a whole reacted to defeat and the end of a suicidal nationalism.

Japanese American Incarceration
Japanese American Incarceration

Author: Stephanie D. Hinnershitz

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0812299957

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Between 1942 and 1945, the U.S. government wrongfully imprisoned thousands of Japanese American citizens and profited from their labor. Japanese American Incarceration recasts the forced removal and incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II as a history of prison labor and exploitation. Following Franklin Roosevelt's 1942 Executive Order 9066, which called for the exclusion of potentially dangerous groups from military zones along the West Coast, the federal government placed Japanese Americans in makeshift prisons throughout the country. In addition to working on day-to-day operations of the camps, Japanese Americans were coerced into harvesting crops, digging irrigation ditches, paving roads, and building barracks for little to no compensation and often at the behest of privately run businesses—all in the name of national security. How did the U.S. government use incarceration to address labor demands during World War II, and how did imprisoned Japanese Americans respond to the stripping of not only their civil rights, but their labor rights as well? Using a variety of archives and collected oral histories, Japanese American Incarceration uncovers the startling answers to these questions. Stephanie Hinnershitz's timely study connects the government's exploitation of imprisoned Japanese Americans to the history of prison labor in the United States.

Refighting the Pacific War
Refighting the Pacific War

Author: James Bresnahan

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2011-09-15

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 161251068X

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Refighting the Pacific War presents the viewpoints of more than thirty historians, authors, and veterans regarding what happened and what might have happened if events in the Pacific had unfolded differently during World War II. Contributors to this alternative history include the noted military historians William Bartsch, John Burton, Donald Goldstein, John Lundstrom, Robert Mrazek, Jon Parshall, Douglas Smith, Peter Smith, Barrett Tillman, Anthony Tully, and H. P. Willmott. In chapters organized in a roundtable discussion format, the contributors present their differing views on the possible outcomes of the major campaigns of the Pacific War and the implications of those changes on the course of history. The result is a thought-provoking collection of divergent views about the outcome of the war that will be certain to stimulate debate. The naval campaigns and battles discussed include Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf. Additionally, the book delves into key island battles like Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, as well as prewar and postwar political issues: Could Japan have inflicted even greater damage at Pearl Harbor? How might Admiral Yamamoto have achieved victory at Midway? What would have been the impact of that victory on the direction of the war? These are just some of the discussion points posed in Refighting the Pacific War. In addition, the book explores whether the war was inevitable, includes an extensive study of the opening year of the war when the Japanese war machine seemed unstoppable, and considers if the conflict could have ended without the use of the atomic bomb. Vice Admiral Yoji Koda, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (Ret.), Yamamoto’s successor as commander of Japan’s combined fleet and a pillar of the postwar alliance between the United States and Japan, provides the book’s introduction, in which he places the book in the context of the frequently told stories and views from the Japanese side.

World War II
World War II

Author: Lisa Zamosky

Publisher: Teacher Created Materials

Published: 2007-10-01

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9780743906685

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In 1939, a war that would encompass the world began in Europe. Readers will learn about the causes of World War II in this nonfiction title. The supportive text and fascinating sidebars work in conjunction with the stunning photos and appealing scrapbook layout to provide an enjoyable and enlightening experience that teaches readers about such events and topics as Pearl Harbor, blitzkreig, and concentration and internment camps. Readers will also be learn about infamous figures from the war like Adolph Hitler, Sir Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and even Rosie the Riveter. A helpful glossary, table of contents, and index is provided to aid in a better understanding of the content and simple navigation.

Racing the Enemy
Racing the Enemy

Author: Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2006-09-30

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 9780674038400

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With startling revelations, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa rewrites the standard history of the end of World War II in the Pacific. By fully integrating the three key actors in the story—the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan—Hasegawa for the first time puts the last months of the war into international perspective. From April 1945, when Stalin broke the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and Harry Truman assumed the presidency, to the final Soviet military actions against Japan, Hasegawa brings to light the real reasons Japan surrendered. From Washington to Moscow to Tokyo and back again, he shows us a high-stakes diplomatic game as Truman and Stalin sought to outmaneuver each other in forcing Japan’s surrender; as Stalin dangled mediation offers to Japan while secretly preparing to fight in the Pacific; as Tokyo peace advocates desperately tried to stave off a war party determined to mount a last-ditch defense; and as the Americans struggled to balance their competing interests of ending the war with Japan and preventing the Soviets from expanding into the Pacific. Authoritative and engrossing, Racing the Enemy puts the final days of World War II into a whole new light.