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Title: A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945 by Paul S. Dull ISBN: 0-87021-097-1 Publisher: United States Naval Inst. Pub. Date: February, 1978 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $47.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Be mindful of the subtext
Comment: "A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy" will make a fine and intellectually stimulating addition to a military history collection. A veritable compendium of surface naval engagements that have been revisited by Mr. Dull using Japanese-language sources, it is not, however, the most comprehensive source of information and insight about the role of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War. Other sources, for instance, that greatly complement this book include "Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941" and Prange's seminal books on Pearl Harbor and Midway.
The book has some noticeable quirks too for the non-initiated. For instance, was there ever a pink-painted Japanese cruiser? The book does not dwell on the minutiae of the warships involved, so it is rather surprising to encounter an odd little detail such as the cruiser Haguro's paint scheme.
What makes the book especially valuable to me is the subtext: the Japanese Navy had in essence intensely prepared for the wrong war to fight. Deeply absorbed in the Mahan doctrine of the decisive naval battle--a principle that emphasized destroying an enemy fleet in a grand engagement that effectively ends the conflict--Nihon Teikoku Kaigun was, by the outbreak of the Second World War, ready to confront the US fleet within the context of a short yet decisive campaign. Then, after helping Japan secure access to the mineral resources of Southeast Asia, the navy would have been instrumental in safeguarding the perimeter of the newly-won oceanic empire.
It didn't quite turn out that way. As Dull's book elucidates in meticulous detail, the Japanese Navy was forced to fight practically to the last ship. Having lost the initiative midway through the conflict, a once-powerful armada that helped subdue one-third of the globe was to all intents and purposes wiped out by the end of the war.
Rating: 1
Summary: Swill
Comment: This is one of many books claiming to be "based on hitherto unreleased Japanese documents" it purports to be told from the Japanese side which increases it's propaganda value but it's all so crudely done that only a U.S. Marine cadet and other mentally uncomplicated people could see it as anything but tiresome american chest beating.
This book is just more sickly solipsism for the kind of grubby folks who hang around gun shows and keep fading foot-ball trophies on their mantelpiece.
Just read the front cover flap and you can see how clichéd this garbage is.
Incidentally the Japanese navy didn't somehow begin in 1941 it's just convenient for the double speak of Dull to begin there. Where's the Japanese defeat of Czarist Russia, or the absurdly biased quotas at the London & Washington naval conferences?
Rating: 4
Summary: Great book. but a 'surprise' ending
Comment: This is an EXTREMELY comprehensive and detailed book, written from the IJN perspective. It gives excellent details of Japanese planning, tactics, training and ship losses (in an appendix). My only problem(s) with it are that it basically 'ends' about mid-1943, and from reading the book, you really wonder how did the Japanese LOSE if they had such great ships, men, tactics, etc?? When you read only about successes, you lose out on the lessons that can (or should) be learned from failures. The Americans learned from their mistakes early in World war II --- Dull doesn't cover how, or if, the IJN learned from theirs.
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Title: The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy by Hiroyuki Agawa, John Bester ISBN: 4770025394 Publisher: Kodansha International Pub. Date: November, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War by Eric Lacroix, Linton, Ii Wells, Linton Wells II ISBN: 0870213113 Publisher: United States Naval Inst. Pub. Date: November, 1997 List Price(USD): $99.95 |
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Title: Requiem for Battleship Yamato by Yoshida Mitsuru, Richard H. Minear, Mitsuru Yoshida ISBN: 1557505446 Publisher: United States Naval Inst. Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Rising Sun : The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 by John Toland ISBN: 0812968581 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story by Mitsuo Fuchida, Masatake Okumiya, Thomas B. Buell, Clarke H. Kawakami, Roger Pineau, Raymond A. Spruance ISBN: 1557504288 Publisher: United States Naval Inst. Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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