Customer Reviews

Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941- 1945

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Paul Dull's Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1941-1945 is one of those books that is a hidden gem. Few know about it, and it sheds considerable light on topics covered only in musty archives in Washington and Tokyo.

The naval war in the Pacific has been covered by every major historian ad nauseum. Dull, drawing on his knowledge of Japanese and Japanese culture, has drawn his information primarily from the official records of the IJN. This book is a treasure trove of information about Japanese fleet movements, little known battles, and methods of ship to ship combat that both sides used that are glossed over or completely neglected in large histories. Dull is not afraid to criticize Japanese commanders, and assesses Yamamoto, long considered to the be Japan's finest naval officer, to be hesitant, battleship centric, and slow to seek out battle.

This is a phenomenal stand alone work, and serves as a must read for anyone reading about Nimitz or Halsey or the US Navy in WWII. Great appendix with information regarding the names, classes, and fates of all major Japanese surface combatants during the war. Though I am sure there is something we all wish he had addressed(for me the construction and design history of their battlefleet), Dull does exactly what he set out to do. Tell a focused story with new information that has not seen the light of day. For a book published in 1978, it is remarkably fresh and relevant, and was an extremely enjoyable read.

This is THE book that validates Morison and makes his work truly useable. It is well known that Morison is full of errors, and how could it not be, since it used so few Japanese sources? Still, too many people rely on Morison, even big-shots like John Keegan who totally ruins his description of Midway in Price of Admiralty by ignoring readily-available Japanese sources. This book pulls those sources together with much more obscure ones into a history of the battles of the IJN. The author is fluent in Japanese and also a professional historian.

It is well-written enough, if too concise in parts. Be mindful of its limited scope. Do not look for biography, politics, etc. In fact, the scope may be too limited, as many battles are left out or abridged that deserve better treatment. The Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse, and the neutralization of Truk are three truly seminal battles that fail his criteria of ship-vs-ship and thus get glossed over. There is also next to nothing about the submarine war, which was certainly ship-to-ship. This is the only quibble and is not enough to bring it down to 4 stars. How could this important a book not get 5 stars?

"A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy" will make a fine and intellectually stimulating addition to a military history collection. A veritable compendium of surface naval engagements that have been revisited by Mr. Dull using Japanese-language sources, it is not, however, the most comprehensive source of information and insight about the role of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War. Other sources, for instance, that greatly complement this book include "Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941" and Prange's seminal books on Pearl Harbor and Midway.

The book has some noticeable quirks too for the non-initiated. For instance, was there ever a pink-painted Japanese cruiser? The book does not dwell on the minutiae of the warships involved, so it is rather surprising to encounter an odd little detail such as the cruiser Haguro's paint scheme.

What makes the book especially valuable to me is the subtext: the Japanese Navy had in essence intensely prepared for the wrong war to fight. Deeply absorbed in the Mahan doctrine of the decisive naval battle--a principle that emphasized destroying an enemy fleet in a grand engagement that effectively ends the conflict--Nihon Teikoku Kaigun was, by the outbreak of the Second World War, ready to confront the US fleet within the context of a short yet decisive campaign. Then, after helping Japan secure access to the mineral resources of Southeast Asia, the navy would have been instrumental in safeguarding the perimeter of the newly-won oceanic empire.

It didn't quite turn out that way. As Dull's book elucidates in meticulous detail, the Japanese Navy was forced to fight practically to the last ship. Having lost the initiative midway through the conflict, a once-powerful armada that helped subdue one-third of the globe was to all intents and purposes wiped out by the end of the war.

This is an EXTREMELY comprehensive and detailed book, written from the IJN perspective. It gives excellent details of Japanese planning, tactics, training and ship losses (in an appendix). My only problem(s) with it are that it basically 'ends' about mid-1943, and from reading the book, you really wonder how did the Japanese LOSE if they had such great ships, men, tactics, etc?? When you read only about successes, you lose out on the lessons that can (or should) be learned from failures. The Americans learned from their mistakes early in World war II --- Dull doesn't cover how, or if, the IJN learned from theirs.

I am glad to see this aging warhorse in print. It is still the only really comprehensive source on the IJN based largely on Japanese-language sources. Way too much fo the Pacific War literature is based on partisan or hagiographic readings of the conflict, almost exclusively from the American perspective (although Spector, Gailey, and Costello try to be balanced). The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force has produced a monumental 100+ volume history of the war, but almost none of it has been translated into English. Until we have some historians who can either read the originals and use them to fill in gaps, or translate some key chunks and publish them as a "greatest hits" collection with commentary and comparisons to the US semi-official Morison history, Dull will have to do for understanding "the other side of the hill."

Paul Dull was the first historian to write about the Japanese side of the Second World war, from the perspective of the Imperial Japanese Navy. He did so with skill, using the Japanese records to their fullest, and managed to write a book which encompasses the campaigns of the IJN and illustrates them perfectly with track charts, orders of battle, and some of the finest prose I have yet read. With his work, Dull set the stage for more fine books, but his will remain the measure of all later accounts

Extremely detailed and factual. An excellent complement to Gordon Prange's historical overview of the before and after issues. Excellent maps regarding various Japanese battles including the day before Pearl. For the true Pearl Harbor buff. A must for your WWII collection. JJR,M.A. Phoenix AZ.

Of the four major navies in the twentieth century (Royal, U.S., Imperial German/Kriegsmarine, and the Imperial Japanese), the Imperial Japanese Navy is the least known of outside its own country. Paul S. Dull, a former Japanese-language officer in the Marine Corps turned academic, wrote this book in 1977, and it is a testimony to its importance and the small number of studies on the IJN that it is still in print. Dull based his account on official unit records and ship logs that the United States government seized during the occupation of Japan and the official Japanese histories of World War II.

Dull has produced a useful book that offers important insights and helps balance the English-language historical record of this conflict. He revisits a number of smaller battles that many people pay little attention to (most Americans know Pearl Harbor, the fall of the Philippines, Coral Sea, Midway, and then jump forward to Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the bombing of Japan). Dull has done some impressive work balancing the various American and Japanese accounts of these engagements. He gives his readers exceptionally useful maps that carefully show American and Japanese positions--the maps of each navy vary significantly for the same battle. His insights on Kurita's decision at Leyte Gulf to retreat, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory makes a lot of sense and is very compelling. He essentially argues that there was no great impending victory, that the IJN had shot its load and was played out. In fact, this explanation is so convincing, it is surprising that authors since 1977 have not accepted it in total.

The only problem with this book is that it seems rather "bloodless." There is no passion. There is no discussion of the personalities of the figures involved. Indeed, the lack of human agency in this account is rather surprising. In the end, the book is as dry and matter of fact as the source material that Dull used in writing this account. If readers are aware of these limitations, they will find this book highly informative, but not that entertaining.

Paul S. Dull, a Japanese language expert and former Marine Corps officer in WWII, wrote this history in order to document the battles of the Pacific naval war from the perspective of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). In doing so, he used two main Japanese language sources, theretofore neglected. The first was the Japanese Defense Agency's official history of the war, which at the time of Dull's research exceeded ninety volumes. The second was a set of more than two hundred reels of microfilmed material consisting of IJN fleet records, records of ships' movements and action reports.

Scant attention is paid to the history of Japan or the IJN before 1941. In a few terse pages Dull sums up the history of Japan, the IJN and attitude of Japanese people leading up to the outbreak of war. Thematic topics, such as doctrine, weapons, strategy and tactics are treated wherever they arise in the chronology of events. For readers looking for information on the history of the IJN from its creation up to the outbreak of WWII, consult Kaigun, by Evans and Peattie.

In Sections One and Two, the battle narrative, naturally enough, starts in December 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the move toward the Philippines, Malay Peninsula, Burma and East Indies. More than one hundred pages are devoted to this initial Japanese expansion, during which Nagumo's carriers roam with impunity from Pearl Harbor to Trincomalee in the Indian Ocean.

Section Three treats Coral Sea, Midway and the Aleutians in around sixty pages. It is here that we see Dull's characterization of Yamamoto as an ineffectual strategist, given his acquiescence in the grand-strategic decision to split forces and go after Port Moresby while planning Midway, and to split forces even further in his persistence in the Aleutians sideshow.

Section Four is entitled "Overextension of the Defense Perimeter" and details the continued Japanese expansion, now onto the Papuan Peninsula and lower Solomon Islands. The main focus here is on Guadalcanal, and the grinding war of attrition that resulted in the eventual abandonment of that island by the Japanese.

The final section, Section Five, is entitled "Defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy" and covers from the loss of Guadalcanal to the end of the war, in less than one hundred pages. This may seem too brief, but after the loss of the Solomons in November 1943, Dull explains, Japanese strategic planning began to "lose sight of reality" and became obsessed with seeking the elusive decisive battle, or simply seeking death in battle. The slim treatment given to favorite American topics like the Marianas Turkey Shoot, or Battle of Leyte Gulf might disappoint some readers, but it is understandable in a history told from the IJN perspective. These actions are merely displays of overwhelming American industrial, logistical and technological might crushing an irrational and already defeated enemy. Dull goes so far as to describe Operation SHO, the attempt to thwart the landings at Leyte in October 1944, as, "an exercise in utter stupidity."

As far as I know, this book is alone in its category of being an English language history of the Pacific War, written from the IJN perspective and based on extensive Japanese sources. Therefore, as a Pacific War enthusiast, I can't just say I "highly recommend" this book, but that Dull's history is an absolute necessity for my library. It is true, as some reviewers have noted, that the narrative lacks personal dramatic perspectives and is therefore dry. This is due to the sources being official histories and records and not personal memoirs, diaries and letters. Maybe someday a writer who combines S. E. Morison and Shelby Foote, and who is also a Japanese language specialist, will take up the challenge. Until then, Dull's book will do just fine.

This book is history personified on the Japanese Navy in WWII. Not only does Mr. Dull explain every battle in the war with detail, in one of the appendixe's he has the fate of each warship. a great piece of work, in my opinion.