20th Century American History - Relations - General & Miscellaneous, Japan - Diplomatic Relations, Asia, Australasia & Oceania - Diplomatic Relations with the U.S., World War II - General & Miscellaneous, World War II - Resolution & Aftermath

Between Incompetence and Culpability

Name: Between Incompetence and Culpability
Author: Seishiro Sugihara
ISBN: 9780761807780

by Seishiro Sugihara

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Overview

This intriguing study provides some of the most piercing insights into the Japanese Foreign Ministry and how it has failed to deal with significant incidents between the US and Japan. First, it definitively exposes who delayed Japan's notice of war to the United States, a serious blunder which stigmatized Japan for launching a "sneak attack" at Pearl Harbor. Second, it challenges the view shown in Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking (Basic Books, 1997) with a fully documented study of the Nanking Incident, including field surveys and estimates devised shortly after the event by American members of the International Safety Zone.

Sugihara's aim is to reevaluate just how costly these errors by the Foreign Ministry were to Japan, and to show how their mishandling and subsequent cover-up have distorted postwar Japan and its diplomacy.

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Editorials

Asian Studies Centre - University Of Queensland

This is a book for the specialist or postgraduate student seeking a new angle on the Pacific War.

Masayasu Hosaka

Sugihara brings further historical clarity to the war between Japan and the United States...Sugihara has built a solid foundation upon which future scholars may build, and for the penetrating insights to be found in this book we should be truly grateful.

Hideo Miki

This is a very important book in the field of World Military History.

Theodore McNelly

...presents a uniquely Japanese perspective on [the attack on] Pearl Harbor...analyzes a critically important, but too frequently neglected aspect of the Pacific War...should be read by serious students of Japan's wartime and postwar diplomacy.

Edward G. Griffin

A nuanced perspective on many aspects of Japan's war resposibility with a distinctive emphasis on the Ministry of Foreign Affars' role, and its interplay with Roosevelt's. Extensively documented from Japanese sources...accessible and authentic.

Booknews

A study of the need to overhaul Japanese diplomacy and how diplomacy in general should be conducted. Discusses what it means to conduct diplomacy that is just, and asserts that postwar Japanese diplomacy's handling of the meaning of World War II has rendered fair and open debate of issues impossible. Of particular curiosity is the chapter on how President Roosevelt disingenuously lured Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.