JAPAN AT WAR, 1931-1945

"Carl Molesworth's book has a few flaws but it is well written, interesting, and its artwork and illustrations are a visual delight. Despite this reviewer's barbs, Carl's book will be highly interesting and useful to many readers. For those interested but who have not ventured deeply; or at all, into the aerial conflict in China it may be considered an essential addition to their library. For many others the illustrations and accounts of combat in 1944-1945 will be interesting and worthwhile." Read Richard Dunn's review

Max Hastings is an always-interesting, sometimes-annoying historian of World War II. He's one of those Englishman who have never quite forgiven the United States for eclipsing the old Empire, and indeed hastening its demise, so he finds it very difficult to say anything nice about American warfighters--for example, that they might actually have been as good as their allies and enemies. So it's no surprise that he blames the horrific destruction of Manila, not upon its Japanese perpetrators, but on Douglas MacArthur--because he didn't bypass the Philippines! But there's no denying the brilliance of Hastings's writing, or the sharpness of his judgments when they don't involve the clumsy former colonials from North America. He gives short shrift to the Hiroshima revisionists who argue that Japan would have politely surrendered without a nudge from two atomic bombs: "peddlers of fantasies," he snaps. Belongs in the library of every student of WWII. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Japan's long war:

• Nomonhan (Japan v. Russia, 1939)
• Russian aircraft losses at Nomonhan
• Elusive target: Bombing Japan from China (Richard Dunn)
• A guest of the Japanese in the Dutch Indies (Arie Biemond)
• "New Guinea was my introduction to war" (anonymous)
• Ketsu-go (waiting for the Americans, summer 1945)
• Olympic vs. Ketsu-go (the invasion that didn't happen)
• How Japan surrendered
• "The Last Raid" (August 14-15, 1945)
• The U.S. Navy arrives in Tokyo Bay, August 1945

The Hiroshima files:

• Why bomb Hiroshima? (Dave Gower and Jim Carew)
• Why Truman dropped the bomb (Richard Frank)
• How many died at Hiroshima?--counting the uncountable
• Been down that road before: NASM confronts Enola Gay
• NASM and Enola Gay: the opening round
• Hiroshima and the end of the war--a reading list
• What was the yield of the Hiroshima bomb?
• Was there a third bomb? What was its target?

The Japanese Army Air Force files:

• Notes on the Japanese Army Air Force
• The decision to move south (Japan v. the West, 1941)
• Mr. Suzuki recalls the Flying Tigers (December 1941)
• Lucky Sevens? life and death of the 77th Sentai (Richard Dunn)
• Rising sun over Burma: JAAF vs. AVG
• JAAF deployments against Rangoon, December-March (maps)
• Japanese army aircraft met by the AVG
• Joe Baugher's Hayabusa files
• Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa ("Oscar") armament (Richard Dunn)
• About those Nakajima Ki-43 machineguns
• Regimental song of the 64th Sentai (video)
• Japanese army aces and their victory claims
• JAAF fighter pilots lost in China-Burma area, 1941-42
• Ki-45 Toryu (Dragon Slayer, aka Nick)

The Zero files:

• Sussing out the 'Chengdu Zero'
• Zero Model 21: unraveling the performance data (Richard Dunn)
• Zeros over China, 1941-1942 (Ben Schapiro)
• "Never dog fight the Zero" (the San Diego evaluations)
• The A6M Zero Store (books & collectibles)
• A conversation with Saburo Sakai and a scrap of his scarf
• Rethinking the Sakai myths
• An interview with a Zero pilot

Kamikaze, cannibals, & other mysteries:

• The soldier who cut up living prisoners (London Times)
• The butchered human bodies of New Guinea
• Japanese aircraft code-names in perspective (Richard Dunn)
• Decoding Japanese military nomenclature
• A primer on the Japanese calendar
• How to stuff 25 time zones into a 24-hour day (time-zone map)
• Bushido: the Japanese Field Service Code, 1941
• "Be as one already dead"
• The Rape of Nanking: Japan in denial | recent perspectives
• Did U.S. leaders know that war was coming?
• Meet Colonel Tsuji, genius and cannibal
• 'Annihilate them all' (the order to murder PWs)
• Outram Road Prison, Singapore
• The prisoners of Rabaul
• The man who didn't shoot down Pappy Boyington
• Why the kamikaze volunteered
• A Japanese army pilot trains to die
• "Crashing bodily into a target is not easy" (the how-to manual)
• "I will be waiting for you at Yasukuni Shrine"
• Did Japanese soldiers fight for the Vietminh?

Books & stuff:

• Japan at War--book reviews on this site
• The webmaster's picks: 10 books worth reading
• Books about Japanese aircraft and aces

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