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JAPANESE MILITARISM: ITS CAUSE AND CURE. By John M. Maki. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1945. 258 pages. $3.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant John C. Reed, U. S. Naval Reserve
This book appears at a most opportune time. As the war with Japan approaches a success, it is highly important that the American people understand the nature of the enemy in order for us to consummate a lasting, sensible peace. We have seen hundreds of articles and books on Japan that have given us high lights on various phases of the organization of the Japanese nation, but this is the first book to come my way that briefly but comprehensively gives us an over-all account of the structure of the Japanese state, and a short and believable account of how it came into being.
Mr. Maki at (lie outset states the difficulty we have in understanding the Japanese, “the lack of a common frame of historical reference.” All Occidental countries, in spite of national traditions and interests, share or at least are aware of a common historical tradition. The legacy of Greece and Rome, Christianity, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, democracy—all these movements have meaning for us. Japan has never known any of them in the form that they have appeared in the Western world. Japan has adopted many Western methods, but she has adopted them, superimposed them on her own special national culture; the methods that are the natural outgrowth of our culture have taken on a strange and to us almost incomprehensible appearance in their new home.
Japan has from the earliest times been dominated by oligarchies. “The Japanese people have always been the obedient servants of the small group of men who have ruled Japan. . . . The machinery of government has been in the hands of men from a military class.” The “emperor idea,” partly religious, mainly political, runs inextricably through the Japanese national plan; until we understand the part that the “emperor idea” plays in the Japanese ideology we never will understand Japan.
Mr. Maki shows us clearly that Japan has been and is the most completely authoritarian state the world has known. The political and military doctrines of Hitler and Mussolini fitted without any trimming the pattern the Japanese had followed for centuries. Small wonder that theoretically the Axis was a perfect political combination. But the Japanese have never accepted foreigners emotionally. Their belief in the Emperor as the Son of Heaven and in the Japanese homeland as the holy home of “chosen people” precludes any wholehearted alliance with any other race. The doctrine of racial superiority does not make strange bedfellows; it makes no bedfellows at all. -
In his final chapter “The Future of Japan,” Mr. Maki points out the many difficulties that confront our statesmen. Military victory is assured; political and ethical victory is another matter.
Japanese militarism is not the Japanese Army and Navy. . . . These are only its surface manifestations. It is really a way of life and a set of attitudes held by the Japanese, not because they are born with them but because they have inherited them from centuries of Japanese historical development. . . . The crux of the problem of political reform in Japan is the political education of the Japanese people.
Mr. Maki was born in Tacoma of Japanese parents. He was brought up and finally in 1918 adopted by an American family. He has devoted his life to the study of Japanese problems. This book shows on every page the results of his brilliant work; it is recommended without reservation. Uy race and by training the author has gained the right to claim careful attention from all who care about the future of America and Asia —and what thinking man does not?
ADMIRAL DE GRASSE AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. By Charles Lee Lewis, Professor, U. S. Naval Academy. Annapolis: U. S. Naval Institute. 1945. 404 pages. $3.00.
Reviewed by Professor Allan Westcott, U. S. Naval Academy
Admiral de Grasse’s defeat of a British fleet off the Virginia Capes, September 5, 1781, though in itself no very striking or hard-fought action, has in view of its consequences a good right to be considered among the most important battles in history. Unquestionably it was the decisive factor in the Yorktown campaign, for the subsequent surrender of Cornwallis’ army of 8,000 to a concentration of 9,000 Americans and 7,000 French was a foregone conclusion. Throughout the operation the Navy, to quote a phrase used by Washington in a letter to Count de Grasse, had “the casting vote,” and though the war dragged on afterward for more than a year, the Yorktown campaign was decisive in the American struggle for independence.
Admiral de Grasse’s own contribution to the success of these operations was very real. It was his wise decision which left immense French convoys stranded for months in the West Indies while he brought northward his entire fleet of 28 ships of the line, giving him a decisive superiority on the American coast. His action on September 5 and days following forced the British back to New York. And throughout the campaign the impulsive, warmhearted Provencal admiral gave what he sometimes considered almost “the impossible” in assistance to the land forces with transports, blockships, artillery, and men. It is very fitting that in Professor Lewis’s scholarly and definitive biography this French leader at last receives the American recognition that is his due.
Since the events of the Admiral’s private life (1722-88) are of relatively slight and remote consequence, the biography centers chiefly on his naval career, extending through the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years’ War, and the War of American Independence. From Mahan and other writers the Franco-British naval conflicts of these wars have received a wealth of study, and their interest has waned with the passing of time and the revolutionary changes in naval war. But Professor Lewis brings to his account of them the most painstaking scholarship, and his full use of French sources serves to correct a past overemphasis on the British point of view. As a result of his study, Admiral de Grasse himself will hereafter take a somewhat higher place among French commanders at sea.
WOODROW WILSON AND THE GREAT BETRAYAL. By Thomas A. Bailey. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1945. 429 pages. $3.50.
Reviewed by Lieutenant George B.
Rodman, U. S. Naval Reserve
This work is a critical account of “the Great Betrayal which occurred when the United States turned its back on Wilson’s pledges and failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and join the League of Nations.” Prof. Bailey shows that the forces responsible for the “Great Betrayal” were many and diverse: the traditional isolationism of the American people and their distrust of former allies; the German-Americans who hated Wilson, and the Irish-Americans who bitterly opposed any kind of a league with Britain; some influential liberals, who considered the treaty loo severe; certain big- business interests, out to “get” Wilson by opposing the league; and the preoccupation of the American people with domestic problems. But most of this book is devoted to the tragic story of the way in which rivalry between political parties, between the executive and legislative branches of our government, and between personalities led to the retreat of the United States into isolationism. It is a story which Prof. Bailey tells with narrative skill, with keen insight into human factors of the situation, and with enlivening attention to public opinion, whose flavor he has preserved by including numerous quotations and cartoons.
The author believes that partisan politics, rather than anything inherent in the League, caused it to be supported by the Democrats and opposed by the Republicans. In his view, the Republican leaders feared that the Senate’s acceptance of the League without Republican reservations would give the Democrats enough prestige to win in 1920. He thinks that Senator Lodge himself was lukewarm about his own reservations, but obtained their adoption in order to make the treaty unacceptable to Wilson, who had already gone back to Paris once “at the behest of senatorial and other critics” and had secured safeguarding amendments.
Perhaps the most significant feature of this book is its contention that “in the final analysis the treaty was slain in the house of its friends.” Professor Bailey blames Wilson tor not having been more willing to compromise, but the President believed that an aroused public opinion would force the Senate to ratify the treaty without sweeping reservations.
The criticisms of Wilson’s decisions which run throughout this work occasionally make the reader feel that the author is too obviously glorying in the wisdom of hindsight. However, Professor Bailey is willing to run the risk of creating this impression because he strongly believes that we must understand the mistakes of 1919 and 1920 if we arc to avoid making similar mistakes in 1945. Ilis Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal is an informative and exciting contribution toward such an understanding.
MEN UNDER STRESS. By Lieutenant Colonel Roy R. Grinker (M.C.), and Major John P. Spiegal (M.C.), Army Air Forces. Philadelphia: Blakiston Co. 1945.484 pages. $5.00.
Reviewed uy Captain J. B. Pollakd (M.C.), U. S. Navy (Retired)
Men Under Stress is an outstanding contribution in the study of the relationship between the somatic and emotional processes of men exposed to the trying and difficult situations common to modern warfare. Since the authors are U. S. Army Flight Surgeons, the greater part of their observations and experiments has been conducted among flying personnel, including both officers and men and the cases cited are taken almost exclusively from this class.
The material has been divided into a discussion of war neuroses appearing in men overseas and combat veterans returning home for relief from flying, or for rehabilitation. Their studies go deeply into the various emotional disorders in relation to combat environment as well as the elements that enter into motivation for combat, or so-called morale. It is conclusively shown by specific cases that combat units having pride in their equipment, faith and confidence in their ground crew and particularly in their Commanding Officers, give the best account of themselves under all conditions and, furthermore, are the ones most likely to survive. In other words, it is clearly shown that the morale of the American fighting man is, in a large measure, due to an inherent confidence in himself and the excellent relationship between him and his immediate leaders. It also deals in an entirely rational manner in the selection of aviation material, going deeply into the psychological background of the individual, with the resultant elimination of a great many of the emotionally unstable.
'Phe context begins with The Men: Their
Background and Selection and follows through with The Environment of Combat, The Combat Units, The Motivation for Combat and Reactions to Combat based on previous emotional disorders. This is followed in a more or less natural sequence by the Neurotic Reactions to Combat Stress, Psychodynamics, Treatment and Results.
this book is beautifully written and gives a most interesting insight by skilled observers of the effect upon different personalities in those exposed to the physical and emotional strain of modern battle. It is most timely and applicable to civilians as well as the fighting man.
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE ARMED SERVICES. Edited by Edwin G. Boring. Washington: The Infantry Journal. 1945. 533 pages, illustrated. $3.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant William E.
Wilson, U. S. Naval Reserve
Although they have employed a somewhat formidable title and format, the committee of the National Research Council which was assigned the task of preparing Psychology for the Armed Services under the chairmanship of Professor Edwin G. Boring of Harvard have produced a book that should be of great value to Army and Navy officers of all ranks. By converting the sometimes ponderous jargon of psychology into the everyday language of common sense, they have written with vivid insight into the problems of men in uniform.
Beginning in an elementary fashion with the physiology of sensation, the authors explain the structure of the eye and the ear and, from that point, discuss the training of those organs and the deceptive illusions they are capable of. They analyze at length the nature of efficiency and fatigue and explain the effects of sleep, boredom, temperature, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and drugs in an objective manner. They take up the problems of personal adjustment at great length, and here the careful and clear descriptions of the turns that may be taken by defense and escape mechanisms in various types of men should be a help to the officer who wishes to understand yhy those in his command do what they do.
Later in the volume, the emotions of fear and anger are analyzed, and the authors propose methods of converting these emotions into assets in war. They treat the sexual need in man and the fighting man’s sexual problems sensibly and frankly; and, at the end of this part of the book, which is devoted to the problems of the individual, they have written several excellent chapters on leadership and the qualities of a good officer.
1 he last five chapters of Psychology for the Armed Services, which deal with mass problems rather than those of the individual and are consequently broader in scope, contain interesting information about rumor and its control, the causes of panic and the best methods of stopping it, the uses of propaganda and countermeasures that may be employed against it, and the overcoming of national and racial prejudices among strange peoples.
CLOUDS, WEATHER AND FLIGHT. By
Lieutenant Commander Thomas C.
Gillmer, U. S. Naval Reserve, and H.
Erich Nietsch, Aeronautical Engineer.
New York: D. Van Nostrand Co. 1944.
$3.75.
Reviewed by Commander P. V. H Weems, U. S. Navy (Retired)
This book on Meteorology is written in simple, direct language which both the flyer and amateur meteorologist will find easy to understand. It does not pretend to be a formal text -on the subject but rather to present to the reader selected parts of meteorological science from which he may derive an understanding of weather. However, the material covered is sufficient to give the flyer all the necessary knowledge of weather interpretation to safely conduct a flight.
The text is presented in three parts. Part I deals with the physics of weather, winds, air masses, the clouds and fronts. Part II covers weather maps, forecasting and weather hazards in flight. Part III gives a complete analysis of flight without power. Sample weather maps, code tables, data on meteorological instruments and other useful material are given in an appendix.
Throughout the book the study of weather is presented not only as viewed from the surface of the earth but from aloft as well.
An unusually large number of excellent diagrams, sketches and photographs are used throughout the book to illustrate the text, those on clouds being especially excellent.
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Straight Talk for Disabled Veterans. By Edna Yost, Public Affairs Committee, Inc. Pamphlet No. 6 (30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York). 1945. 31 pages. 10 cents.
This brief practical discussion gives some assurance that a veteran’s earning capacity and social status need not be impaired by even serious disability, though it is admitted that the disabled man faces a hard gruelling task, that success will come only to those who work for it, and that cooperation is essential. The discussion is simple and direct, and will be invaluable to any man who faces such a problem.
The Russian Naval Records. Published by the Association of Former Russian Naval Officers in America, Inc. 3604 Broadway, New York.
The Association of Former Russian Naval Officers, founded in this country some twenty years ago, has for the past two years published a quarterly, The Russian Naval Records. A translation of the table of contents is given with each issue, and from this one may gather that the contributions are of much historical interest and some of them worthy of translation into English, especially for their bearing on Russian naval history. Typical titles are “Materials for the History of the Russian Navy during the Civil War, 1917-1920,” “The Siege of Port Arthur,” “The Beginning of the War with Japan,” “Comments on the Peace Conference in 1905.”
Boundary-Making. A Handbook for Statesmen, Treaty Editors and Boundary Commissioners. By Stephen B. Jones, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Hawaii. New York: Columbia University Press. 1945. 268 pages. $3.00. •
This is a timely technical treatise covering the whole subject of international boundaries. The first part deals with certain general considerations involved in boundaries, such as military defense, language, nationality, trade barriers, mineral, water, and fishing rights. The second part deals with types of boundaries, such as rivers, mountains, and geometrical lines; and a third deals with methods of demarcation.
Important Professional Books
Balleiscn, Charles E. Principles of Firearms. New York: Wiley. 1945. $2.50.
Hadel, Walter. Celestial Navigation. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1944. $3.25.
Hawley, Gessner G. Seeing the Invisible. New York: Knopf. 1945. $2.50.
Icks, Robert J. Tanks and Armored Vehicles. New York: Ducll, Sloan & Pearce. 1945. $4.75.
The development of tanks and all varieties of armored vehicles from the war car of Leonardo da Vinci to the latest weapons of the present war. Institute of Pacific Relations. Security in the Pacific. New York: The Institute. 1945. $2.50. A preliminary report of the Ninth Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations.
Logan, Ilerschel C. Hand Cannon to Automatic. Huntington, West Virginia: Standard Publishers, Inc. 1944. $5.00.
Illustrating the development of hand arms down through the centuries.
McCormick, Thomas C. T., editor. Problems of the Post-war World. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1945. $3.75.
A symposium of twenty papers each written by a specialist on domestic, governmental, and international problems.
Monaghan, Jay. Diplomat in Carpet Slippers. Cincinnati: Bobbs-Merrill. 1945. $4.00.
The first full account of our foreign policy during the Civil War years with Lincoln the real guiding hand of the State Department. Montross, Lynn. War Through the Ages. New York: Harper. $5.00.
Military and naval strategy, tactics, weapons, sanitation, medicine, and propaganda through the ages.
l’endray, Edward G. The Coming Age of Rocket Power. New York: Harper. 1945. $3.50. Richter, Werner. Re-educating Germany. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. 1945. $3.50.
Rosinger, Lawrence K. China’s Wartime Politics, 1937-1944. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press. 1944. $2.00.
The powerful currents operating in Chinese political life.
Rural, Beardsley. Tomorrow’s Business. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. 1945. $2.50. Business management, national fiscal policies, tariffs, cartels, labor unions, and public works. St. John, Lieut. Joseph, U.S.A. Leyte Calling. New York: Vanguard Press. 1945. $2.00.
This book lifts the blackout on the fall of the Philippines from the fall of Corregidor to the landing of our forces on Leyte.
Sawyer, Robert Thomas. Modern Gas Turbine. New York: Prentice-Hall. 1945. $4.00.