Handbook on Japanese Military Forces

📖 The Scoop

"''Handbook on Japanese Military Forces' still represents the best single reference source on the wartime Japanese military available in the English language,' writes David C. Isby, in his introduction to the new edition of the invaluable guide. The handbook was first published by the US Army in 1942, but this new edition is taken from the vastly revised and expanded 1944 edition. By this time the USA had had time to assess its enemy and was coming to understand him; the vast knowledge that had now been acquired was distilled into the handbook. The handbook details the Japanese military system, field organisation, tactics, weapons and equipment, and the strengths and weaknesses that resulted from them. The strengths had been apparent from Pearl Harbor on, but by 1944 the weaknesses too were emerging, and both are detailed in the handbook. Issued to officers for briefings, and periodically updated, its purpose was to assist in the winning of the war and thus to be absolutely reliable for its users in combat. It contains sections on the Japanese special forces, on the military police, on uniforms and insignia and on conventional signs and abbreviations. As well as the Army, it covers the Japanese Air service, its tactics and organisation. 'Handbook of Japanese Military' was compiled by a team of US military officers integrating the research of others, each responsible for different sections; it contains input from the Marines and from British and Australian intelligence. 'Accuracy', writers David Isby, 'was more than a scholarly goal. It was literally a matter of life and death on the battlefield.' Impartial and packed with information, this handbook is as invaluable for the military student today as it was to the officers who depended upon it in World War II."--Front flap of book jacket.

Genre: History / Asia / Japan (fancy, right?)