Customer Reviews

Handbook on Japanese Military Forces

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Although its not widely known, the October 1944 edition of the Handbook on Japanese Military Forces was completely revised, updated and lengthened in September of 1945 with more accurate information after the war ended.

This reprint of a restricted 1944 War Department Publication is a companion to the Handbook on German Military Forces, but necessarily smaller as much less was known about the forces of the Empire at that time. It is an admirable work nonetheless, containing everything of possible use to an Army officer facing the enemy: organization, tactics, weapons and equipment, uniforms and insignia, extensively illustrated and with a glossary of military terms and map signs. An essential resource for WWII buffs, writers and readers of military history, collectors, and modellers.

While not as comprehensive as its companion volume on the German military forces, it is still the most complete work on the Japanese military you can find in the West. Although prepared by the US War Dept., it is not at all the dry treatise one expects from government printing offices, but a highly readable work encompassing every little detail like tactics, uniform, training, equipment (lots of it) and everything you could possibly want to know. The book, though, could have used an index.

I was a bit disapointed with this book conpared with the German forces book by the same author. The German book had more information where as the Japanese had less.

This is a good reprint that fills a void of Japanese militaria. After the war, MacArthur decreed that all Japanese military related materials be destroyed, with few exceptions. With Japanese veterans (who survived) dying like US vets, anything related is vital. (If you are in or travel to Japan, befriend a veteran. Get his/her story. The world needs to know their side of the horrors).
I would recommend that reenactors also purchase a copy. If it is ever republished, I recommend that it be bound in the same format as the original.
Buy.

This is a reproduction of the manual compiled and issued describing every known aspect of Japanese military forces in WWII. Quite detailed. Quite good. Those reading this will have access to the information available to those who fought against these forces.

I bought this book as a companion volume to the HANDBOOK ON GERMAN MILITARY FORCES. My interest in the Pacific theater of World War Two was rekindled after seeing FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. As such I added this reference book to my collection. In re-reading other books in my collection about the Pacific War I used the HANDBOOK to reference the various weapon systems and equipment mentioned in the books. What I found was something that I already suspected about the Imperial Japanese Army: It was sadly out of date and with the exception of small arms very little was of a standardized nature. Even the artillery pieces looked like something more appropriate for the Boer War than for the Second World War.

The Japanese air force faired a little better at the outset of the war, but was very quickly outclassed in every field. In the end it was the individual Japanese soldier's stubborn defense of seemingly worthless atolls, meaningless jungles, and other surrounded and largely written off islands that slowed the Allied effort to a crawl.

In paging through this book you have to keep in mind that it is a reprint of a US Army manual. Army manuals, to include field manuals issued through the 1980s, were not printed on high quality paper and the photographs were rarely first generation images. Many of the photos are often touched up to provide additional definition. With the exception of a color insert regarding Japanese uniforms and rank, the bulk of the manual looks like what you would expect from early 1940s bulk publishing.

Despite the research on Japanese military organization, the manual hardly described the true state of Japanese combat techniques that late in the war. The Japanese soldier essentially dug in and fought until he had nothing left to fight with. Realize too that this manual was first assembled and published after the capture of the first Pacific islands in the island hopping campaign and therefore the editors had no material to forecast the subsequent hard fought battles in jungles, on beaches, and on volcanic wasteland.

By late 1943, and certainly 1944 and 1945, the majority of Japanese heavy guns were dug in as were most of the remaining tanks. The Japanese soldier little resembled the fully uniformed and equipped model appearing in the manual. With tattered uniform, rifle and shovel the war entered a new phase.

Still it is interesting to read about evaluations of captured Japanese materiel and early assessments of Japanese beach defenses and palm log bunkers.