Japanese reference?

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Having just finished watching Pacific for the second time I'm more than a bit disappointed in the lack of time given top the Japanese. I really enjoyed the series - especially the second time but it jarred that the Japanese were treated as a faceless yellow horde yet again.

I guess it was always going to be a gung-ho American-centric viewpoint but even so the Japs barely got a look in unless they were being slauhgtered in a suicidal banzai charge.

This has really got me interested in finding more out about the Japanese army - an army that had such a huge influence on the war yet gets very little coverage at all.

Pretty much every magazine/book I have gives almost total coverage to the US Marines/Army and if you're very lucky the Commonwealth troops but the Japanese don't get a mention.

Anyone know of any good links, books or other references - I'd love to find out more about them especially as some of my favourite toys as a kid were the Japanese 1/32nd scale Japanese from Airfix...

Cheers,

Paul

[Cubster]

I remember reading an account of Kohima and the view of the men on the ground fighting the Japanese was that they were extremely brave (suicidal indeed), aggressive and tenacious, yet tactically naive. Whilst some senior officers were extremely capable, ingenious even, for the most part the focus was for junior officers to carry out orders to the letter and without question, rather than to use their judgement or adapt to changing circumstances. Hence the suicidal charges and defences to the last man which seem rather hard to believe now, yet did actually happen. The life of the individual soldier was less important than service to the Emperor, often to that soldier himself. It didn't help that their equipment was not really updated throughout the war and was rather swiftly rendered obsolete by Allied kit that wouldn't have lasted five minutes in other theatres.

The collapse of the British and Commonwealth forces in the Far East resulted in a backlash, where the Japanese infantryman was derided and mocked before met in battle, he was afterwards transformed into a superhuman jungle fighter. The truth seems to be that he was simply an enemy who approached war in a different manner than expected, in a rather simplistic and logical way. It was both their great strength, in early encounters, and then later their greatest weakness. Their predictability and courage were often used against them to channel them into fire zones or lure them onto strongpoints.

This is not to say that the Japanese soldier was stupid, rather that the rigid adherence to obedience appears to have robbed him of that most valuable of solider qualities - the ability to react to a fluid battlefield and adapt standing orders intelligently.

[Helen]

Hi Paul,As a painter, collector and gamer for the Japanese I can provide some suggestions to you.Firstly, I concentrate around the South West Pacific for most of my research, but I do have some other books that cover other operational areas.The Path of Infinite Sorrow - The Japanese on the Kokoda Track by Craig Collie & Hajime Marutani;Japanese Army Operations in the South Pacific Area - New Britain and Papua campaigns, 1942-43, Translator Steven Bullard. Available as a free download if you don't wish for a hard copy.The other books covering the above theatre of operations including the Solomons, Bougainville etc I've an even though they are from American authors they do give a good account from the Japanese side. If you wish for these titles, happy to provide.The Japanese Defense of the Islands Hold the Marianas by D. Colt Denfeld.I can also say that when I was in the army I was deployed to Bougainville as Part of the Peace Monitoring Force an I was privelage to see a number of Japanese relics an areas of operations.Helen

[Lupus Augustus]

The Australian war memorial site has some great links too - they have a collection search, so you can find photos etc: http://www.awm.gov.au/search/collections/

The AWI shop also sells books etc that are worth while.

This site is also worth the look, as it has a lot of history and articles from the Japanese side of things: http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/

Book wise - there is the Japanese army Handbook: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780750916882/Japanese-Army-Handbook-1939-1945

or

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780807120132/Handbook-on-Japanese-Military-Forces

A non fiction book from the Japanese side that is a great read: http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781405038362/the-bone-man-of-kokoda

The 'Bone man' is an amazing person, as you will find if you read the book.

I am gaming the Pacific in 20mm, and have a large collection of links for the period and scale saved.

I also have the bonus in that my Mrs. is Japanese, so she can help me with research and or translations.

[Lupus Augustus]

I forgot to add - there is a whole lot of footage on youtube that is worth a look

[pbeccas]

Hey Paul

Two brilliant books from the Japanese side which are must reads are :

“The Path of Infinate Sorrow : The Japanese on the Kokoda Track” by Craig Collie & Hajime Marutani (as suggested by Helen)

http://www.amazon.com/Path-Infinite-Sorrow-Japanese-Kokoda/dp/1741758394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281852656&sr=1-1-spell

&

“Tales by Japanese Soldiers” by KazuoTamayama. This one is the story of Japanese fighting the British in Burma & India.

http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Soldiers-Cassell-Military-Paperbacks/dp/0304359785/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281852723&sr=1-1

The best doco DVD from the Japanese perspective DVD is “Kokoda”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QID0vSqeKFg

And another one is “Beyond Kokoda”. Trailer below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc1G2pEzLl8&feature=channel

[Paul@BAM]

Letters from Iwo Jima I thought was a great watch and I thought caught the atmosphere of the Japanese army really well.

[Cubster]

Must catch that film, I keep missing it somehow.

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Thanks for the recommendations.

Any for the Chindits/Gurkhas/West Africans too? Easy to find plenty for the USMC so not worried about them.

Cheers,

Paul