The Rise and Fall of Imperial Japan, 1894-1945

In 1868, Japan emerged from feudalism and civil conflict as a comparatively undeveloped industrial state in an age of European imperialism in East Asia. Within a generation, Japan had risen to the ranks of the foremost industrial and military powers in the Western Pacific. A generation later, Japan had become the paramount poVier in East Asia, and her naval and air forces spread Japanese power across the Pacific. The fromidable weapon built in the name of the Emperor swept across China and Manchuria; her air forces pummelled Pearl Harbor and Darwin; her armies marched to Singapore and the gates of India. Her navies seized some Aleutian islands and strafed the California coast. By 1942 the world had come to know the power of the most devastating force in the Pacific - the Japanese War Machine.The force and power of the Japanese War Machine is told here by some of the world's leading experts in guns, tanks, planes, and ships of World War II. Includes photos of weapons, uniforms, artillary, ships, planes, historical events, battles