Customer Reviews

Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism (Twentieth Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power)

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This book is essential reading for any serious student of the Japanese Empire, as well as anyone interested in the history of colonialism or Chinese-Japanese relations. Young shows that Japan's occupation of Manchuria and the subsequent transformation into Manchukuo may have been initially driven by the Imperial Army, but became an effort supported by various other political and economic agencies. She also describes how a perceived Japanese mission of improving fellow Asian nations may have been sincere, but was ultimately destructive. TOTAL EMPIRE is best read in conjunction with THE ABACUS AND THE SWORD, about Japan's colonial relationship with Korea. Military historians will find Young's book weak on details of the military administration, but that doesn't seriously detract from the social and cultural historical value of the work.

This book seems to lack a strong focus. I don't know whether the author wanted to talk political maneuvering, culture, imperialism, patriotism, etc. However, there's some decent stuff to be found within its pages on the specific Japanese experience of Manchukuo and how it was justified in its era and thought about after the war, which makes it a sight better than the other, incomprehensible recent study Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern.

This was a very strange book. The subject matter is overwhelmingly focused on Japan, not on Manchukuo at all, which is what I hoped for, but was nonetheless very interesting, parts of it much more so than others. The writing was not exceptional, although the author clearly has unparalleled knowledge of the subject matter. Some chapters in the early and later parts of the book were much more interesting than a great deal of the middle, but there was something in every section of note. I really don't feel like the themes and subject matter can be seriously summarized at all here; I would simply suggest reading it if you are interesting in imperialism, fascism, or Japanese history.