View source for The Japanese Empire (book)

{{Short description|2017 history book by S. C. M. Paine}}
{{Infobox book
| name              = The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War
| language          = English
| author            = [[S. C. M. Paine]]
| genre             = History
| country           = United Kingdom
| publisher         = [[Cambridge University Press]]
| published         = March 2017
| pages             = 218
| isbn              = 9781107676169
| image             = File:The Japanese Empire book cover.jpg
}}
'''''The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War''''' is a 2017 [[history]] book by [[S. C. M. Paine]] about the [[Empire of Japan]]. ''The Japanese Empire'' is the most recent publication by Paine, after 2012's ''[[The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949]]''. Unlike her previous works, this book focuses chiefly on Japan, whereas her other works had instead focused on Russia or China.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paine|first=S. C. M.|title=The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2017|pages=xi}}</ref>
== Contents ==
''The Japanese Empire'' details the [[history of Japan]], in particular, its attempts to become a [[great power]], from the beginning of the [[Meiji (era)|Meiji era]] in 1868, to the end of the [[Pacific War]] in 1945, and how this can be applied to contemporary [[American foreign policy]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Matsusaka|first=Tak|title=Matsusaka on Paine, 'The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War'|url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/reviews/1301353/matsusaka-paine-japanese-empire-grand-strategy-meiji-restoration|access-date=2021-06-05|website=[[H-Net]]}}</ref> The book focuses on Japan's [[grand strategy]], which, in Paine's description, "integrates all relevant elements of national power. It extends far beyond military power to encompass economic influence, co-ordination with allies, intelligence gathering and analysis, propaganda, institution building, international law, etc."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Miyata|first=Francis|date=2019|title=S. C. M Paine. The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War.|url=https://www.strifejournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIFE_11_11_MIYATA_132_134.pdf|journal=Strife Journal|issue=11|pages=132–134}}</ref> Paine argues in the book that the lack of a properly defined grand strategy was the cause of Japan's military failures during the 1930s and 1940s.<ref name=":0" />
The book is divided into seven chapters – the first is an introduction of Meiji-era Japan, chapters two and three deal with the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] and [[Russo-Japanese War]] respectively, chapter four is about the [[interwar period]], running from 1906 to 1931, chapters five and six detail the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|"fourteen year war"]] (1931-1945), and the final chapter serves as the book's conclusion, and places the conflicts of the Japanese Empire in a wider social and historical context.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Brecher|first=W. Puck|date=2018-09-03|title=The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War, written by S. C. M. Paine|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jaer/25/3/article-p323_323.xml|journal=Journal of American-East Asian Relations|language=en|volume=25|issue=3|pages=323–325|doi=10.1163/18765610-02503005|s2cid=240252061 |issn=1058-3947}}</ref> Each of the chapters address the underlying and [[Proximate and ultimate causation|proximate causes]] of the conflicts, the outcomes of significant battles, and the grand strategies of the nations involved.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bailey|first=Scott|date=2019|title=The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War by S.C.M. Paine, and: To Stand with the Nations of the World: Japan's Meiji Restoration in World History by Mark Ravina (review)|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/734747|journal=[[Journal of World History]]|volume=30|pages=448–452|doi=10.1353/jwh.2019.0056 |s2cid=208811674 }}</ref>
== Reception ==
[[Tonio Andrade]] of [[Emory University]] praised ''The Japanese Empire's'' "clear and vibrant prose", and called it "a vital contribution not just to the history of Japan, but to the study of global [[geopolitics]] and grand strategy".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=The Japanese Empire {{!}} East Asian history|url=https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/east-asian-history/japanese-empire-grand-strategy-meiji-restoration-pacific-war|access-date=2021-06-06|website=Cambridge University Press|language=en}}</ref> Similarly, Louis G. Perez of [[Illinois State University]] gave attention to Paine's "sophisticated and nuanced scholarship", and suggested that the book "should be required reading for any scholar of modern Japanese history".<ref name=":3" /> ''Strife Journal'' praised the focus on grand strategy, saying that it "offers readers a unique vantage point" and "presents not only a coherent, but also a compelling narrative, of how the Japanese went from the ascendant [[Meiji Restoration]] to suffering the devastation of the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]."<ref name=":1" />
In ''The Japanese Empire'', Paine argued that Imperial Japan shifted its military power from [[Maritime transport|maritime]] to continental, and that, by their nature, continental powers encourage conflict, whereas maritime powers encourage peace, which some reviewers considered overly simplistic and lacking in nuance compared to the rest of the book.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Green|first=Michael|date=2018-04-23|title=THE JAPANESE EMPIRE: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War {{!}} By S.C.M. Paine|url=https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/the-japanese-empire-grand-strategy-from-the-meiji-restoration-to-the-pacific-war-by-s-c-m-paine/|access-date=2021-06-06|website=[[University of British Columbia]]|language=en-CA}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> David Stoffey of ''Charged Affairs'' opined that "world leaders would be wise to find value in her arguments for wartime speed and objectivity. Conversely, however, her second thesis stumbles to broad, binary arguments and subsequently fails to find equal application. Continental powers can be as peaceful as maritime ones—the [[Congress of Vienna]] is excellent proof."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Stoffey|first=David|date=2017-09-18|title=On US Military Strategy: Lessons from the Meiji Era|url=https://chargedaffairs.org/us-military-strategy/|access-date=2021-06-06|website=Charged Affairs|language=en-US}}</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Japanese Empire, The}}
[[Category:2017 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books by S. C. M. Paine]]
[[Category:History books about Japan]]
[[Category:History books about Russia]]
[[Category:History books about China]]
[[Category:History books about World War II]]
[[Category:Cambridge University Press books]]