• Complain

John Toland - The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

Here you can read online John Toland - The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2014, publisher: Pen and Sword, genre: History. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

John Toland The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
  • Book:
    The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Pen and Sword
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2014
  • Rating:
    5 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 100
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

This Pulitzer Prizewinning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the authors words, a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happenedmuddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox.In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history. In his Foreword, Toland says that if we are to draw any conclusion from The Rising Sun, it is that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.=======REVIEW:This is an impressive work that really makes an attempt to analyze the causes of Japans conflict with the United States during the Second World War, and the events during the war that culminate with Japans defeat. I have read no other work that goes into comparable depth as regards the complexities of 1940s Japanese politics. This work impressively manages to at least try to explain why the Japanese side decided to go to war with the United States, a country that many of its leaders understood to be more powerful than Japan in almost every measurable category of war-making capability.Author Toland does manage to inject a certain amount of pro-Japanese bias into the causes of the War. Essentially, Japan wanted for itself more or less what the British had in their own Empire: a group of states that were economically and militarily subservient to Japan. The Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere was plainly modelled on the British and other European colonial empires. Toland spends less time dealing with the fact that the countries that Japan had decided should be part of this new Empire did not wish to be Japanese colonial subjects. Further, he touches upon the fact (but deemphasizes its importance) that this Japanese ambition involved savage mistreatment of civilians that both the American government and US public opinion could not possibly have condoned.Further, Japanese politics in the 1930s and 1940s was dominated by militarists to a greater extent than any Western power. Even Nazi Germany was a civilian government to which the military was clearly subservient. (Of course its civilian government was more radical and fanatical than the German military, creating a different host of problems.) In Japan, the military faction was not above assassinating or physically intimidating its political rivals, and this resulted in a thorough domination of Japanese politics by the the military. This control of politics by Japanese militarists is the true cause of Japans aggression against China, and later the US and its allies, and indeed of the Pacific War. Some have criticized this work by Toland for somewhat brushing aside the aggressive and indeed savage actions of Japan against its neighbors and I concur with this criticism. Certainly the US was within its rights, and held the moral high ground, when it refused to supply Japan with oil and other raw materials (the actions which directly precipitated the attack on Peal Harbor) at a time when Japan was actively involved in warring upon other countries (i.e. China) that were friendly to the US. The fact that some of these lands were under European domination (i.e. Southeast Asia) in no way excuses Japans own aggression against these peoples. Tolands work to some extent attempts to create a moral equivalence by comparing Japans imperial and territorial aspirations to European empires of the time (the British, Dutch, and French). In fact, to some extent Toland seems to question the refusal of Secretary of State Hull and the Roosevelt Administration to accept, and even aid and abet, Japans wars against China and Southeast Asia. On the other hand, Toland deserves kudos for at least developing a thorough understanding of the issues as the Japanese politicians perceived them, and this book is a very insightful and very readable analysis of Japanese prewar and wartime politics.Tolands analysis of Japanese wartime politics and military strategy, and her reluctance to sue for peace, is somewhat more detached than his analysis of Japans prewar politics. Further, this portion of the book is very well-written to such an extent that I almost could not put it down. The one conclusion that I derived from the book is that Japan was thoroughly under the control of the military and the military did not contemplate either the possibility of defeat or the possiblility that Japan might achieve security and prosperity for her people by means other than conquest. This conclusion is most stark when one reviews Japans refusal to surrender or sue for peace after the war was plainly lost. In late 1944 and 1945 Japan had no Navy, its Army was cut off by the American Navy, and the US was bombing Japan almost at will, causing unspeakable hardships to the entire Japanese populace. And yet the Japanese military, still firmly in control of the country, still refused to allow its government seek surrender. This section of the book, and this chapter in history, is a study in dysfunctional government. Toland brilliantly analyzes and explains how it took essentially two extraordinary events to bring about Japans surrender. Firstly, the use by the United States of atomic weapons. Secondly, the unprecedented decision by the Emperor himself to insist upon Japans acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. Tolands analysis of the Emperors role in the wartime Japanese government is fascinating and insightful. I had never before appreciated the unprecedented nature of Hirohitos intervention into actual decision making, and here Toland is convincing.While I do not agree with all of Tolands conclusions in this book, that in no way changes the fact that this is a highly impressive work that every student of World War Two would do well to read. Tolands analysis and mastery of detail is impressive, and so is his ability to weave this detail into a readable and coherent work. One surprising shortcoming of this work in my opinion is that it is not footnoted in the usual fashion. This makes it more difficult for other scholars to contest the validity of some of Tolands conclusions. On the other hand, most readers will not notice or care about this.This is an impressive work that sets the standard for analyzing Japans role in the Second World War, and her decision to go to war against the United States. Recommended.

John Toland: author's other books


Who wrote The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
2003 Modern Library Paperback Edition Copyright 1970 and copyright renewed 1998 - photo 1

2003 Modern Library Paperback Edition

Copyright 1970 and copyright renewed 1998 by John Toland

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

M ODERN L IBRARY and the T ORCHBEARER Design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This work was originally published in hardcover in 1970 by Random House, Inc.

ISBN 0-8129-6858-1
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8041-8095-5

Modern Library website address: www.modernlibrary.com

v3.1

C ONTENTS

M APS

F OREWORD After World War II most Westerners felt that General Tojo and other - photo 2

F OREWORD

After World War II most Westerners felt that General Tojo and other Japanese leadersindeed the mass of Japanesewere no better than Hitler and his Nazi cohorts, and deserved whatever punishment and misfortune that befell them.

Twenty-five years have passed and Japan has recovered from almost total moral and economic disaster to resume a respected place among nations of the world. Still, the question remains: How could we have come to admire and respect a people who often acted like barbarians during the war?

This book, which is largely seen from the Japanese point of view, is an attempt to answer that question as well as others about the war that changed the face of Asia. Why did a country the size of California launch the suicidal attack on Pearl Harbor which involved it in a death struggle with an enemy ten times stronger? Was war between the two nations, which today find so much in common, inevitable and essential? Did the winning of that war perpetuate American involvement in Asian affairs?

I would not have attempted to write this bookeven with the assistance of a Japanese wife and her familybut for two things: a drastic change in Japanese attitudes toward their own immediate past and the appearance of significant new documents. In addition to the mountain of material already available in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Military History Archives of the Japan Defense Agency, valuable documents that had been hidden or lost were recently discovered, such as records of the imperial and liaison conferences, the supposedly burned portions of the Konoye Diary, and the thousand-page Notes of Field Marshal Gen Sugiyama, Chief of the Army General Staff from 1940 to February 21, 1944.

Even more important has been the willingness of Japans former military and civilian leadersincluding Marquis Koichi Kido, the Emperors chief adviser; Prince Mikasa, the Emperors youngest brother; Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka, de facto commander at Pearl Harbor and Midway; and General Kenryo Sato, perhaps Tojos most trusted confidantto talk freely and at length about the unhappy past. Gone is the reluctance, apparent only a few years ago during research for But Not in Shame, to discuss certain sensitive subjects. Moreover, they are convinced that Westerners, after their postwar experiences in Asia, will have more understanding of the blunders they made in Manchuria and China. Those who fought the war, from generals to privates, have also been more willing to talk of their mistakes, and speak of the unspeakable: cowardice, murder, cannibalism, surrenderand desertion.

In the interest of accuracy these men, as well as everyone else interviewed whose story is included in the book, read the passages about themselves and often added illuminating comments. The dialogue in the book is not fictional. It comes from transcripts, records and stenographic notes, and the memory of the participants. The extensive debates during the various imperial and liaison conferences, for example, are based on the Sugiyama Notes; the recently assembled official records; diaries; and interviews with Marquis Kido, who was given an immediate report of each conference the Emperor attended, and participants including General Teiichi Suzuki, Naoki Hoshino and Okinori Kaya. The Notes (at the end of the book) list sources for all material used, chapter by chapter.

Americas greatest mistake in World War II, I believe, was in failing to recognize that she was fighting two different kinds of war simultaneously: one in Europe against another Western people and philosophy, Nazism, and one in Asia which was not only a struggle against an aggressive nation fighting for survival as a modern power but an ideological contest against an entire continent. Millions of Orientals saw Japans battle as their own, as a confrontation of race and color; they also saw in Japans victories their own liberation from Western domination.

Each nation, the United States not excepted, has made its contribution to the welter of evil which now comprises the Far East question. Tyler Dennett, an authority on the Far East, wrote in 1922: We shall all do well to drop for all time the pose of self-righteousness and injured innocence and penitently face the facts.

If we had done so, it is very probable that our negotiations with Japan in 1941 would have ended in peace, not war, and America would not have been forced to become the moral policeman of Asia for many years. And a moral policemans lot is not a happy one, particularly when his own morality is in question.

What follows is a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happenedmuddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of contradiction and paradox. I have done my utmost to let the events speak for themselves, and if any conclusion was reached, it was that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history. We often learn more about the past from the present, in fact, than the reverse. The lessons of our own brutalities in postwar Asia, for example, have undoubtedly given Americans insight into the actions of the Japanese a generation ago.

J.T.

PART ONE The Roots of War Gekokujo - photo 3

PART ONE
The Roots of War Gekokujo The sky over Tokyo on the afternoon of - photo 4
The Roots of War

Gekokujo The sky over Tokyo on the afternoon of February 25 1936 was dark - photo 5
Gekokujo

The sky over Tokyo on the afternoon of February 25, 1936, was dark and foreboding. A thick blanket of snow already covered the city and there was threat of more to come. Three nights earlier more than a foot had fallen, breaking a record of fifty-four years, and causing such a traffic snarl that some theaters had to be turned into temporary hotels for audiences unable to get home.

Even under its white cloak of snow, Tokyo looked almost as Western as Oriental. Japan had left much of its feudal past behind to become by far the most progressive, westernized nation of Asia. A few hundred yards from the Imperial Palace with its traditional tile roof was a modern four-story concrete building, the Imperial Household Ministry, where all court business was conducted and the Emperors offices were located. Just outside the ancient stone walls and moat surrounding the spacious Palace grounds was the same mlange of East and West: a long line of modern structures, including the Imperial Theater and the Dai Ichi Building, as Occidental as the skyline of Chicago, while a few blocks away, in narrow cobblestone streets, were row upon row of geisha houses,

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945»

Look at similar books to The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945»

Discussion, reviews of the book The Rising Sun - The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.