- Table View
- List View
The Impact of U.S. Military Drawdown in Iraq on Displaced and Other Vulnerable Populations
by Dalia Dassa Kaye Olga Oliker Audra K. GrantAs the United States continues to draw down its forces and prepares to end its military involvement in Iraq, the implications for Iraq's at-risk populations must be considered. Oliker, Grant, and Kaye assess the risks and implications of drawdown and withdrawal for some of the Iraqis in greatest danger, both within Iraq and in neighboring states. The authors conclude with recommendations on how the United States can mitigate identified problems.
Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney
by Howard Zinn Dennis Loo Peter PhillipsThis brilliantly argued and wonderfully written collection by twenty-two of the best political analysts in the US analyzes the extraordinary and unprecedented threat the White House and its allies present to civil liberties, civil rights, the Constitution, international law, and the future of the planet. Impeach the President unearths the stories behind election fraud in 2000 and 2004, the overt lies used to justify pre-emptive war on Iraq, the extensive, ongoing commission of war crimes and torture, the tragic failures in the lead-up to and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and lesser-known but equally alarming offences of propaganda and disinformation, illegal spying, environmental destruction, and the violation of the separation of church and state. Loo and Phillips chillingly reveal the full threat behind the radical right-wing force that has taken over the world's most powerful office.
Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocractic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic
by Nathan S. RosensteinGiven the intense competition among aristocrats seeking public office in the middle and late Roman Republic, one would expect that their persistent struggles for honor, glory, and power could have seriously undermined the state or damaged the cohesiveness of the ruling class. Rome in fact depended on aristocratic competition, since no professional bureaucracy directed public affairs and no salary was attached to any public office. But as Rosenstein adeptly shows, competition appears to have been surprisingly limited, in ways that curtailed the possible destructive effects of all-out contests between individuals.Imperatores Victi examines one particularly striking case of such checks on competition. Military success at all times represented an abundant source of prestige and political strength at Rome. Generals who led armies to victory enjoyed a better-than-average chance of securing higher office upon their return from the field. Yet this study demonstrates that defeated generals were not barred from public office and in fact went on to win the Republic's most highly coveted and hotly contested offices in numbers virtually identical with those of their undefeated peers. Rosenstein explores how this unexpected limit to competition functions, reviewing beliefs about the religious origins of defeat, assumptions about common soldiers' duties in battle, and definitions of honorable behavior of an aristocrat during a crisis. These perspectives were instrumental in shifting the onus of failure away from a general's person and in offering positive strategies a general might use to win glory and respect even in defeat and to silence potential critics among a failed general's peers. Such limits to competition had an impact on the larger problems of stability and coherence in the Republic and its political elite; these larger problems are discussed in the concluding chapter. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.
An Imperfect Occupation: Enduring the South African War
by John BojeThe South African War (1899-1902), also called the Boer War and Anglo-Boer War, began as a conventional conflict. It escalated into a savage irregular war fought between the two Boer republics and a British imperial force that adopted a scorched-earth policy and used concentration camps to break the will of Afrikaner patriots and Boer guerrillas. In An Imperfect Occupation , John Boje delves into the agonizing choices faced by Winburg district residents during the British occupation. Afrikaner men fought or evaded combat or collaborated; Afrikaner women fled over the veld or submitted to life in the camps; and black Africans weighed the life or death consequences of taking sides. Boje's sensitive analysis showcases the motives, actions, and reactions of Boers and Africans alike as initial British accommodation gave way to ruthlessness. Challenging notions of Boer unity and homogeneity, Boje illustrates the precarious tightrope of resistance, neutrality, and collaboration walked by people on all sides. He also reveals how the repercussions of the war's transformative effect on Afrikaner identity plays out in today's South Africa. Readable and compassionate, An Imperfect Occupation provides a dramatic account of the often overlooked aspects of one of the first "modern" wars.
Imperfect Sword (Lost Stars #3)
by Jack CampbellPresident Gwen Iceni and General Artur Drakon have successfully liberated the Midway Star System--but the former rulers of the Syndicate Worlds won't surrender the region without a fight. The dictatorial regime has ordered the ex-Syndicate CEOs terminated with extreme prejudice and the system's citizens punished for their defiance. <P><P>Outnumbered and led by junior officers hastily promoted in the wake of the uprising, Midway's warships are no match for the fleet massing and preparing to strike. But the Syndicate isn't the only threat facing Iceni and Drakon. Another former CEO has taken control of the Ulindi Star System, the first calculated move toward establishing his own little empire. <P>With Drakon's ground forces dispatched to Ulindi, Midway erupts in violence as Syndicate agents and other, unknown enemies stoke a renewed revolt against Iceni's power--leaving both her and Drakon vulnerable to trusted officers just waiting for an opportune moment to betray them...
Imperial Affects: Sensational Melodrama and the Attractions of American Cinema
by Jonna EagleImperial Affects is the first sustained account of American action-based cinema as melodrama. From the earliest war films through the Hollywood Western and the late-century action cinema, imperialist violence and mobility have been produced as sites of both visceral pleasure and moral virtue. Suffering and omnipotence operate as twinned affects in this context, inviting identification with an American national subject constituted as both victimized and invincible—a powerful and persistent conjunction traced here across a century of cinema.
The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla: The Worldwide Fundraising Campaign for the British Flying Services in the First World War
by Margaret HallA great wave of fundraising patriotic associations followed in the wake of Great Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914, at home but also right across the empire. The most successful public campaign of all was launched in London at the beginning of 1915. Known as the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla, the scheme aimed to attract contributions towards aircraft production costs from throughout the British Empire. Any country, locality, or community that provided sufficient funds for an entire aeroplane could have it named after them. It was promised that when the machine crashed or was shot down, the name would be transferred to a new one of the same type.Margaret Hall examines the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla as a facet of imperial history. She analyzes the fundraising efforts in Canada and Newfoundland; the Zanzibar Protectorate; Fiji, Mauritius, and the Caribbean; Hong Kong; the Malay states and Straits Settlements; West Africa, especially Gold Coast; Southern Rhodesia; Basutoland; Swaziland and the Union of South Africa; the Indian empire and Burma; (British subjects in) independent Abyssinia and Siam; in the Shanghai International Settlement, and the British community of Argentina; Australia; and New Zealand. This remarkable and detailed book discusses the propaganda and counter-subversion usages of the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla—and what the support for the imperial war effort reveals about contemporary national and regional identities and aspirations.
Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World
by Noam Chomsky David Barsamian[From the book cover] Timely, illuminating, and urgently needed, this volume of interviews conducted by award-winning radio journalist David Barsamian features Noam Chomsky discussing U.S. policies in the increasingly unstable post-9/11 world. In these exchanges, appearing for the first time in print, Chomsky offers his frank, provocative, and informed views on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the doctrine of preemptive strikes against so-called rogue states, and the growing threat to international peace posed by the U.S. drive for domination. In his inimitable style, Chomsky also dissects the propaganda system that fabricates a mythic past and airbrushes inconvenient facts out of history.
Imperial Bounty (Sam McCade #2)
by William C. DietzThe interstellar bounty hunter returns in this adventure by the New York Times–bestselling author of Galactic Bounty. Since her brother's absence, Princess Claudia has seized the throne and brought the Empire to the brink of war with the Il Ronn. Only the missing Prince Alexander can stop Claudia's plans--and Sam McCade has only three months to find him. But Princess Claudia controls the Imperial Fleet and will stop at nothing to keep McCade from bringing in his imperial bounty?
Imperial Brothers: Valentinian, Valens and the Disaster at Adrianople
by Ian HughesThe latest of Ian Hughes' Late Roman biographies here tackles the careers of the brother emperors, Valentinian and Valens. Valentian was selected and proclaimed as emperor in AD 364, when the Empire was still reeling from the disastrous defeat and death in battle of Julian the Apostate (363) and the short reign of his murdered successor, Jovian (364). With the Empire weakened and vulnerable to a victorious Persia in the East and opportunistic Germanic tribes along the Rhine and Danube frontiers, not to mention usurpers and rebellions within, it was not an enviable position. Valentian decided the responsibility had to be divided (not for the first or last time) and appointed his brother as his co-emperor to rule the eastern half of the Empire. Valentinian went on to stabilize the Western Empire, quelling revolt in North Africa, defeating the 'Barbarian Conspiracy' that attacked Britain in 367 and conducting successful wars against the Germanic Alemanni, Quadi and Saxons; he is remembered by History as a strong and successful Emperor. Valens on the other hand, fare less well and is most remembered for his (mis)treatment of the Goths who sought refuge within the Empire's borders from the westward-moving Huns. Valens mishandling of this situation led to the Battle of Adrianople in 378, where he was killed and Rome suffered one of the worst defeats in her long history, often seen as the 'beginning of the end' for the Western Roman empire. Ian Hughes, by tracing the careers of both men in tandem, compares their achievements and analyzes the extent to which they deserve the contrasting reputations handed down by history.
The Imperial Cruise: A True Story of Empire and War
by James BradleyIn 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Roosevelt's glamorous twenty-one-year-old daughter Alice served as mistress of the cruise, which included senators and congressmen. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name. In 2005, a century later, James Bradley traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's mission and discovered what had transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing and Seoul. In 1905, Roosevelt was bully-confident and made secret agreements that he though would secure America's westward push into the Pacific. Instead, he lit the long fuse on the Asian firecrackers that would singe America's hands for a century.
Imperial Defence: The Old World Order, 1856–1956 (Cass Military Studies)
by Greg KennedyThis new collection of essays, from leading British and Canadian scholars, presents an excellent insight into the strategic thinking of the British Empire. It defines the main areas of the strategic decision-making process that was known as 'Imperial Defence'. The theme is one of imperial defence and defence of empire, so chapters will be historiographical in nature, discussing the major features of each key component of imperial defence, areas of agreement and disagreement in the existing literature on critical interpretations, introducing key individuals and positions and commenting on the appropriateness of existing studies, as well as identifying a raft of new directions for future research.
Imperial Defence, 1868-1887 (Cass Series: Naval Policy and History #Vol. 12)
by Donald MacKenzie SchurmanThe technical transformation of the Royal Navy during the Victorian era posed many design, tactical and operational problems for administrators from the 1830s onwards. The switch from sail to steam required the creation of a system of defended coaling stations and a greater infrastructure.
Imperial Echoes: Eye-Witness Accounts of Victoria's Little Wars
by Robert GiddingsThe years between the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 are sometimes described as 'The Long Peace', the there were in fact British Soldiers fighting somewhere in the world throughout the whole of that period, usually in an effort to restore order in some far-flung parts of the Empire 'upon which the sun never set.' Although these campaigns have been well documented by numerous historians, Robbert Giddings, well known as author, journalist and writer for radio and television, here adopts an entirely new approach and relies largely on first-hand accounts to show not mealy what happened but what it was actually like to be there. His sources are many and varied and not confined the the soldier's own records. Nothing, for instance, could surpass in vividness Florentia Sale's brilliant account of the terrible retreat from Kabulin 1842. Due respect is also paid to the courage of the opposition. As Lieutenant Charles Townshend wrote after Omdurman in 1898, 'The Valour of these poor half-starved Dervishes...would be graced by Thermopylae.' The book continues eye-witness accounts from the following campaigns and minor wars: Maratha, Gurkha, Burmese, Ashanti, opium, Afghan, Maori, Sikh, Kaffir, Persian, Abyssinian, Zulu, Boer, Egyptian, Sudanese and Matabele. The list alone shows how busy the British Soldier was throughout the nineteenth century. The text itself brilliantly recapture the nature of soldiering in that era.
Imperial Eclipse: Japan's Strategic Thinking about Continental Asia before August 1945
by Yukiko KoshiroThe "Pacific War" narrative of Japan's defeat that was established after 1945 started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, detailed the U.S. island-hopping campaigns across the Western Pacific, and culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's capitulation, and its recasting as the western shore of an American ocean. But in the decades leading up to World War II and over the course of the conflict, Japan's leaders and citizens were as deeply concerned about continental Asia-and the Soviet Union, in particular-as they were about the Pacific theater and the United States. In Imperial Eclipse, Yukiko Koshiro reassesses the role that Eurasia played in Japan's diplomatic and military thinking from the turn of the twentieth century to the end of the war.Through unprecedented archival research, Koshiro has located documents and reports expunged from the files of the Japanese Cabinet, ministries of Foreign Affairs and War, and Imperial Headquarters, allowing her to reconstruct Japan's official thinking about its plans for continental Asia. She brings to light new information on the assumptions and resulting plans that Japan's leaders made as military defeat became increasingly certain and the Soviet Union slowly moved to declare war on Japan (which it finally did on August 8, two days after Hiroshima). She also describes Japanese attitudes toward Russia in the prewar years, highlighting the attractions of communism and the treatment of Russians in the Japanese empire; and she traces imperial attitudes toward Korea and China throughout this period. Koshiro's book offers a balanced and comprehensive account of imperial Japan's global ambitions.
The Imperial German Army Between Kaiser and King: Monarchy, Nation-Building, and War, 1866-1918
by Gavin WiensThis book provides a reappraisal of Germany’s military between the mid-nineteenth century and the end of the First World War. At its core is the following question: how 'German' was the imperial German army? This army, which emerged from the Wars of Unification in 1871, has commonly been seen as the 'school of the nation'. After all – so this argument goes – tens of thousands of young men passed through its ranks each year, with conscripts undergoing an intense program of patriotic education and returning to civilian life as fervent German nationalists and ardent supporters of the German emperor, or Kaiser. This book reexamines this assumption. It does not deny that devotion to the Fatherland and loyalty to the Kaiser were widespread among German soldiers in the decades following unification. It nevertheless shows that the imperial German army was far less homogenous and far more faction-ridden than has hitherto been acknowledged.
Imperial German Colonial and Overseas Troops 1885-1918
by Alejandro Quesada Stephen WalshFrom the Boxer Rebellion to Tsingtao to German East Africa (Tanzania), and colonies across Africa and the central Pacific, the Kaiser's Second Reich created a worldwide empire, and then lost it. Following Prussia's victory over France in 1871 and German unification, the invigorated Second Reich sought international status alongside the older colonial powers - Britain, France, Spain and Russia. Actual overseas settlement was always sparse, counted in the low tens of thousands only, but by the mid-1880s German trading companies had established footholds in what became German East Africa (Tanzania), German South-West Africa (Namibia), and German West Africa (Cameroon, and Togo). To consolidate their position against native resistance, and to extend their frontiers, the German Imperial government soon took over these enclaves as colonies or 'protectorates'. In the 1890s it established a new branch of the armed forces, the Schutztruppe, composed largely of African askaris with German officers and NCOs, backed up by German artillery and machine guns. In parallel, the Imperial Navy raised marine battalions - eventually, three Seebataillone - to protect its overseas bases and to reinforce the colonies as needed. After German participation in putting down the Boxer Rebellion (1900) their primary responsibility was the German concession territory at Tsingtao in China, where Germany also raised a local East Asia Brigade; but the marines also served in the German Pacific possessions - Samoa, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Northern Solomon Islands, the Marshalls, Marianas and Carolines. Marine companies were also rotated through the African colonies at need. In addition to small-scale 'police' work, the brief German colonial period involved putting down rebellions in East Africa (1888-98) and Cameroon, and crushing - with great ruthlessness - the determined resistance of the Herero and Nama tribes in SW Africa (1890-1907), where there was a degree of German settlement. In World War I, Germany soon lost almost all her colonies to much stronger Allied forces. In China, Tsingtao was captured late in 1914 by a Japanese force with token British assistance. Resistance was minimal in the Pacific; and in 1915 the last defenders of German South-West Africa surrendered to South African forces. However, in East Africa the Schutztruppe, commanded by the very able Col (later MajGen) Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, fought a skillful mobile war against much larger British and Empire forces, and were the very last German troops to surrender in November 1918. Meanwhile, the Navy's marine infantry branch had been enlarged, forming first one, then two Marine Divisions, which fought on the Western Front - including the Ypres and Somme sectors - throughout the war. Featuring specially drawn full-colour artwork, this book tells the story of Imperial Germany's colonial and overseas troops, who fought in a host of environments including China, Africa, and the Western Front of World War I.
Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918
by Roger ChickeringUnlike other existing surveys, this book explores the comprehensive impact of the First World War on Imperial Germany by offering a rich portrait of life on the home front: the pervasive effects of 'total war' on wealthy and poor, men and women, young and old, farmers and city-dwellers, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Now appearing in a second edition, this accessible book reflects important new scholarship in the field and boasts an expanded and revised bibliography. It is essential reading for all students of German and European history, war and society. First Edition Hb (1998): 0-521-56148-5 First Edition Pb (1998): 0-521-56754-8
Imperial Governor: The Great Novel Of Boudicca's Revolt (Sven Hassel War Classics)
by George ShipwayLondinium is burning. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, newly appointed governor of Roman Britain, is charged by an increasingly unstable Emperor Nero with a difficult task—the untamed island on the fringes of the empire must earn a profit. To do so, Suetonius pursues the last of the Druids into Wales and, along the way, subdues the fractious Celtic chieftains who sit atop a fortune in gold and rare metals. Meanwhile, in the provincial capital of Londinium, war is brewing. As Nero's corrupt tax officials strip the British tribes of their wealth and dignity, an unlikely leader arises—Queen Boudicca, chieftain of the Iceni, who unites the tribes of Britain and leads them on a furious and bloody quest for vengeance and liberty. A novel told in the form of a memoir, Imperial Governor is a compelling and impeccably researched portrait of Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, Roman general and first-century Governor of Britannia, who unexpectedly found himself facing one of the bloodiest rebellions against Roman rule. Shipway's masterful military adventure has long been considered one of the most accomplished works of historical fiction set in the Roman Era, providing fascinating detail of life in Roman Britain and within the Roman Legions—and a riveting saga of uprisings, war, and conquest in the ancient world.
Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground
by Robert D. KaplanIn this landmark book, Robert D. Kaplan, veteran correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and author of Balkan Ghosts, shows how American imperialism and the Global War on Terrorism are implemented on the ground, mission by mission, in the most exotic landscapes around the world. Given unprecedented access, Kaplan takes us from the jungles of the southern Philippines to the glacial dust bowls of Mongolia, from the forts of Afghanistan to the forests of South America-not to mention Iraq-to show us Army Special Forces, Marines, and other uniformed Americans carrying out the many facets of U. S. foreign policy: negotiating with tribal factions, storming terrorist redoubts, performing humanitarian missions and training foreign soldiers. In Imperial Grunts, Kaplan provides an unforgettable insider's account not only of our current involvement in world affairs, but also of where America, including the culture of its officers and enlisted men, is headed. This is the rare book that has the potential to change the way readers view the men and women of the military, war, and the global reach of American imperialism today. As Kaplan writes, the only way to understand America's military is "on foot, or in a Humvee, with the troops themselves, for even as elites in New York and Washington debated imperialism in grand, historical terms, individual marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors-all the cultural repositories of America's unique experience with freedom-were interpreting policy on their own, on the ground, in dozens upon dozens of countries every week, oblivious to such faraway discussions. ... It was their stories I wanted to tell: from the ground up, at the point of contact." Never before has America's overarching military strategy been parsed so incisively and evocatively. Kaplan introduces us to lone American servicemen whose presence in obscure countries is largely unknown, and concludes with a heart-stopping portrait of marines in the first battle in Fallujah. Extraordinary in its scope, beautifully written,Imperial Grunts, the first of two volumes, combines first-rate reporting with the sensitivity and insights of an acclaimed writer steeped in history, literature, and philosophy, to deliver a masterly account of America's global role in the twenty-first century. * Imperial Grunts paints a vivid picture of how defense policy is implemented at the grassroots level. * Kaplan travels throughout the world where U. S. forces are located. This is not just a book about Iraq or Afghanistan. * Rather than debate imperialism, Kaplan relies on a keen understanding of history, philosophy, and in-the-field reporting to show how it actually works on the ground. * Imperial Grunts escapes Washington and shows us what it's like to live with the grunts day to day. Praise for Imperial Grunts: "One of the most important books of the last several years. Robert Kaplan uses his prodigious energy and matchless reporting skills to takes us on to the front lines with the new warrior-diplomats who use weapons, imagination, and personal passion to protect and advance the interests of the United States. This is a generation every American should come to know." -Tom Brokaw. "Robert Kaplan has brilliantly captured the story of today's U. S. military operating in far-flung places on strange missions. Imperial Grunts is the most insightful and superbly written account of soldiering in the New World Disorder to date. It is a must read for all Americans." -General Anthony C. Zinni, United States Marine Corps (Ret.).
The Imperial Guard of Napoleon - from Marengo to Waterloo
by Pickle Partners Publishing Joel Tyler HeadleyThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. J. T. Headley was born at the very end of the convulsive period of the French revolution and Napoleonic Wars that followed, and wrote a number of volumes on the French army and its leadership of the period. This volume is a short and pithy, none the less entertaining, account of the structure, growth and battles of the famed Garde Impériale of Napoleon. Starting with the formation of the Guard from the early days in its form as the Consular Guard and their baptism of fire at Marengo. In the words of Napoleon - It was Granite Column: (Words of the First Consul in his report on the battle of Marengo to the government, 27 Prairial year VII.) Headley charts the growth of a corps of a few thousand men to an army within an army from 1812 onward until their final heroic stand at Waterloo to their disbandment by the Bourbon monarchy. Leaders such as Bessières and Drouot are picked out in detail, and famous events are described with panache. The volume leans heavily on Emile Marco St-Hilaire's Histoire anecdotique, politique et militaire de la Garde impériale Paris, Penaud, 1845-47, but is none the worst for it. A jaunty read. Text taken, whole and complete, from the 1851 edition published in New York by Charles Scribner. Original 310 pages. Author - Joel Tyler Headley (30/12/1813 - 30/12/1897)
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
by Michael ScheuerNever in our history was preemptive action more needed than in the past decade against the lethal, imminent threat of bin Laden, al Qaeda, and their allies. But the U.S. invasion of Iraq was not preemption; it was-like our war on Mexico in 1846-an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantages.
Imperial Japan at Its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire’s 2,600th Anniversary
by Kenneth J. RuoffIn 1940, Japan was into its third year of war with China, and relations with the United States were deteriorating, but it was a heady time for the Japanese nonetheless. That year, the Japanese commemorated the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Empire of Japan. According to the imperial myth-history, Emperor Jimmu, descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, established the "unbroken imperial line" in 660 BCE. In carefully choreographed ceremonies throughout the empire, through new public monuments, with visual culture, and through heritage tourism, the Japanese celebrated the extension of imperial rule under the 124th emperor, Hirohito. These celebrations, the climactic moment for the ideology that was central to modern Japan's identity until the imperial cult's legitimacy was bruised by defeat in 1945, are little known outside Japan. Imperial Japan at Its Zenith, the first book in English about the 2,600th anniversary, examines the themes of the celebration and what they tell us about Japan at mid-century. Kenneth J. Ruoff emphasizes that wartime Japan did not reject modernity in favor of nativist traditionalism. Instead, like Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, it embraced reactionary modernism. Ruoff also highlights the role played by the Japanese people in endorsing and promoting imperial ideology and expansion, documenting the significant grassroots support for the cult of the emperor and for militarism. Ruoff uses the anniversary celebrations to examine Japan's invention of a national history; the complex relationship between the homeland and the colonies; the significance of Imperial Japan's challenge to Euro-American claims of racial and cultural superiority; the role of heritage tourism in inspiring national pride; Japan's wartime fascist modernity; and, with a chapter about overseas Japanese, the boundaries of the Japanese nation. Packed with intriguing anecdotes, incisive analysis, and revelatory illustrations, Imperial Japan at Its Zenith is a major contribution to our understanding of wartime Japan.
The Imperial Japanese Army
by Bill YenneThe German blitzkrieg stunned the world in 1939-1940, and so too did the Japanese "blitzkrieg" of 1941-1942 in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, and Burma. However, the remarkable Japanese land offensive involving operations of equivalent scope and complexity has received only a fraction of the attention. This is the story of that campaign.One of the few histories that tells the story of the Pacific War from the Japanese side, this is the long-awaited overview of the years when the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) was conducting its seemingly unstoppable ground campaign in the Far East. It includes extensive background and biographical information on Japanese commanders, including Homma and Yamashita. In just eight weeks following December 7, 1941, the IJA pushed the Americans out of the Philippines, and defeated the British to captured Manila, Hong Kong, the Malay Peninsula, and the great bastion at Singapore--called the "Gibraltar of the East." They also forced the capitulation and occupation of Siam and the occupation of Burma. A month later, the Japanese had added the Netherlands East Indies, with an area and depth of natural resources more than twice that of Japan, to their trophy case. In The Imperial Japanese Army, author Bill Yenne recounts how the IJA faced and surmounted technical challenges that the Wehrmacht did not have--transportation. Whereas most of the German conquests were reachable by highways or rail lines, all of the IJA operations required ship transport, and most required amphibious landings. For example, in the Malay Peninsula campaign, the IJA famously used bicycles for the drive on Singapore.Unlike most histories of the Pacific War that focus on the Allied experience, The Imperial Japanese Army examines the year of victory from the Japanese perspective, when the mighty Japanese naval and ground forces swept all before them both throughout the Pacific and on mainland Asia.
Imperial Japanese Naval Aviator 1937-45
by Osamu Tagaya John WhiteThe fateful attack on Pearl Harbor forced the Western world to revise its opinion of Japan's airmen. Before World War II (1939-1945), Japanese aviators had been seen as figures of ridicule and disdain; yet the ruthless skill and efficiency of their performance in December 1941 and the months that followed won them a new reputation as a breed of oriental superman. This book explores the world of the Imperial Japanese Naval airman, from the zenith of his wartime career until the turning of the tide, when the skill and experience of the average Japanese airman declined. Cultural and social background, recruitment, training, daily life and combat experience are all covered.