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Just a reminder 'The Fall of Singapore' on Discovery Channel Asia, Wed 8 Feb at 20:00 JKT

A still from 'The Fall of Singapore' (Source: Discovery Channel asia)

Just a reminder that tomorrow night, Wednesday 08 Feb 2012, at 20:00hrs JKT (21:00 BGK) 'The Fall of Singapore' will premiere on Discovery Channel. The promotional video is here. I am not expecting great things from the documentary as the advertisements already seem to be full of hyperbole but I suspect that it will at least provide a good summary of the main events. I am sceptical about claims of startling new information, I suspect that they mean information that is already available but packaged into a TV documentary for the first time. I am not expecting great things but I am prepared to be amazed and hope that I will be.

Interesting article in Stars and Stripes about the WW2 Nagasaki leadership bomb shelter and the atomic bomb

 

A really interesting article from Stars and Stripes about the Tateyama air raid shelter in Nagasaki and what happened on the day that the second atomic bomb exploded in 1945. The shelter was effectively closed after World War Two and then forgotten until recently when it was opened to the public. It seems like it would be an interesting place to visit and, as the writer says, to think about what occurred in that shelter on that day in August.

Testimony from those within would later indicate that Nagano had a feeling that Nagasaki would be next, despite knowing very little about this new weapon. Some even reported that he called the meeting to discuss the evacuation of civilians from the city. If that is true, he never got the chance....Nagano finished his introduction, and at 11:02 a.m., the lights in the shelter went out.

There are accompanying photos in the article and a video, which I have also linked to above.

A paper containing three personnel reminiscences of BCOF in Japan from three experienced Japanese hands

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I recently came across this paper from 1991 on the web and wanted to share it because of who wrote it. These are three personal reminiscences of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) but from three people who later came to be close observers of Japan. The three people are:

W G Beasley, Emeritus Professor of History of the Far East, University of London

Personal Reminiscences of the Early Months of the Occupation: Yokosuka and Tokyo, September 1945 – March 1946

T B Millar, Visiting Fellow, Centre of International Studies, London School of Economics

An Australian's Experiences of BCOF: Kaitaichi and Hiroshima, 1946-6

Sir Hugh Cortazzi, GCMG, British Ambassador to Japan, 1980-4

Britain and the Occupation of Japan: A Personal Experience and Some Comments 

A paper on the Russo-Japanese War impact on Western Military Thought prior to 1914

(Source: here)

I was reading a little about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. It is one of those wars starting with the Crimean War and the US Civil War that are labelled as early industrial or modern wars. It has come to be seen as a harbinger for the wars of the 20th century with massed armies, ironclads, rapid fire artillery, etc. During my meanderings around the net I came across this paper  from 1985 for a Masters Thesis on what lessens could have been drawn from the Russo-Japanese War that may have helped senior military officers fight the First World War more effectively.

The neighbours are still worried about China's military

A read of the Channel news Asia website today showed that politicians in both Japan and Taiwan remarked about their respective concerns over China's military growth. In Japan, the new Japanese Prime Minister told the Japanese Diet of his concerns about China's military:

Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Wednesday he was concerned about China's military build-up, urging his giant neighbour to act as a "responsible member of the international community".

While on a visit to the the US the new Taiwanese opposition leader talked of her plans to strengthen Taiwan's defense posture:

Taiwan's opposition presidential candidate on Tuesday assured the United States she would not whip up tensions with China if elected but pledged to boost defense spending to counterbalance a rising Beijing.

These similar statements are probably more about the similarities in the respective politics of Taiwan and Japan rather than about any new issues with China. Both countries are concerned about China's military but there has been no recent specific trigger. The calls by themselves are not unique and were probably targeted at domestic audiences rather than China.

Samurai of the month

Last year I published a Samurai of the month post to highlight one of the woodblock prints in the samurai calendar created by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Well, I found another good one for this month, April 2011. This month the subject is Asahina Yoshihide.

 Asahina Yoshihide in Armor (from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

 

 

Two Japanese tanks

I recently visited the Tank Museum of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps. It has a good collection of armoured vehicles associated with Australia as well as a few foreign vehicles. The full list of vehicles is here. I was particularly interested in the two Japanese armoured vehicles on display, a Type 97 Te-Ke Tankette and a Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank Shinhoto. Both tanks are of the same era in production and represent a decision to increase the speed of armoured vehicles in Japanese service. Although both performed well in China, as the war progressed and they faced improved allied tanks it became clear that they were obsolete. That said both types of tanks continued on in service after the war with the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. 

The Type 97 Chi-Ha Shinhoto is on the left and the Type 97 Te-Ke Tankette is on the right.

Katana vs Longsword

Disclaimer: I am not trolling for comments with this post, as I can see from the comments on Youtube that this is an emotional subject for some reason. I am not sure why although at least some commenters did refer to sources if readers wanted more information.

I was originally looking at a copy of the National Geographic special on The Medieval Fight Book (note, this is part 3 of 4), written by Hans Talhoffer. A fascinating special in itself and it also had Bettany Hughes as one of the commentators; beauty and a planet sized brain, the ultimate...sorry, minor digression. While looking at the videos I noticed that there were other postings about katanas versus longswords and knights versus samurai. They piqued my interest.

Learning or not learning from the enemy

There is the old saying that necessity is the mother of invention and it is true that the necessity engendered by war has led to a number of inventions as well. Sometimes the operating environment faced by both sides has led to innovation, sometimes with different approaches. The trench stalemate of the Western Front in WW1 was a good example. The British built tanks to overcome the environment while the Germans focused on further developing stormtrooper units. These different approaches are caused by a combination of industrial capability, cultural attitudes, received wisdom, etc. Sometimes a superior capability of the enemy also leads to invention, such as can be seen by Confederate American responses to the blockade by the USA of southern ports that inspired the CSS Virginia and the CSS Hunley. Of course this is not always true. Sometimes a superior capability from the enemy does not see change in the opposing side. It took a long time for the French to counter the English longbow despite defeats at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt. Two other examples that jump to mind came from the Imjin War of 1592-98 in Korea. The Turtle Ship or Kobukson of Admiral Yi caused many problems for the Japanese but was not taken up by China or Japan. Likewise, the Japanese castles built in southern Korea withstood sieges and attacks but were not copied by either the Chinese or Koreans in their later defensive works. This post will look at these two examples and offer perhaps some explanation as to why they did not inspire imitation.

Book review: The Ninja - Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan

Hardcover: 208 pages

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

ISBN-10: 0804839271

Dr Zoughari's book on the Ninja is certainly well footnoted and he has gone to a lot of effort to track down sources but at the end of the book I still felt like I did not know what a ninja was. The author showed that the ninja was not the assassin of the popular imagination but that a ninja was a good guard against another ninja who may have been tasked to carry out an atypical assassination mission. I just felt that the book gave me a lot of facts but that it did not not provide the big picture. He did have coherent themes running through the book and he did discuss the possible origins of the ninja, including foreign connections, as well as how their role changed from military intelligence gatherers to something akin to a secret police during the Tokugawa Shogunate but to me the history of the ninjas did not come through.

Book Review: Shinobi Soldiers

Paperback: 164 pages

Publisher: Wordclay

ISBN-10: 1604816740

According to the author's notes this book was based on a series of articles that the author wrote for Combat Magazine and the book never seemed to get beyond that genesis. While the book is 164 pages long there is a lot of space filler and I read this book in a few hours with not much trouble. By way of illustrating that point, the section on ninja clothes followed the pattern of a picture with text underneath; and not much text.

Samurai of the month

I have the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Samurai Calendar for 2010. This month the picture is below (taken from this site). Not a bad picture. It is titled Shinouren Sajima no kami Masataka.

 

Some comments on Imperial Cruise

Opening disclaimer - I have not read the book, this post is based on reviews and a podcast.

I listened to the author James Bradley discuss his latest book Imperial Cruise at the Pritzker Military Library. You can listen to the presentation here or through Itunes. The Pritzker Military Library's presentations are one of my favourite podcasts and it is always worth a listen. I suspect that James Bradley's presentation will generate a bit of debate. Mr Bradley stated several times that he as not saying that President Teddy Roosevelt's deal with the Japanese in 1905 caused Pearl Harbour, he used the term 'slow fuse,' arguing that Roosevelt's willingness to support Japan opened the door for Japan's militarily aggressive expansion. I do not think that he made a strong case for his argument, with much of his 'new information' not being that new in my opinion. I am still lost on the central argument that the secret deal between Roosevelt and Japan led to the Pacific War. Was he referring to the Taft-Katsura Agreement, that he briefly mentioned in an answer to an audience member? If so then I do not think that is so secret, especially to anybody who has read something about modern Korean history.

Winning and losing at Singapore

I read a review essay of the January 2009 Journal of Military History about the fall of Singapore in 1942 and I was struck how the literature reviewed was about the British losing not the Japanese winning. I suppose it is a nuanced complaint but it seemed to me that the German victory in 1940, when it defeated France and chased Britain off continental Europe, was generally portrayed as a German victory not a British loss. It is a question of perspective. There is probably a good debating point about whether the British forces could have won, or what level of forces would have been required to defeat the Japanese. I think that we need to view the Malayan Campaign as not just a British loss but as a Japanese victory. I suspect that the Japanese were at the height of their power, especially with two of their divisions being combat veterans of China, compared with a largely untested British force. I think that there is an argument that the Japanese 'won' the campaign and would have won even if the British had sent more fighter planes and Task Forces Z's aircraft carrier had made it to Singapore.

Samurai Exhibit at the Asian Art Museum

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I have been a little busy. Here is a quick link to the webpage for a Samurai Exhibition, Lords of the Samurai, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition closes on 20 September but hopefully the web site will stay a bit longer. The selected items of art are nice and I also like that they had a list of samurai movies and avoided mentioning 'The Last Samurai.'

Historic Samurai photos

The Asian Offbeat Blog has a selection of historic Samurai photos up. I have seen them before and I have also found some of them on pp146-47 of Stephen Turnbull's The Book of the Samurai. I think that the photos were taken after the demise of the Samurai class but the subjects were actual samurais or at least knew what they were doing. A fascinating set of photos from a time past.

Mikasa Visual Podcast at History According to Bob

Professor Bob of the History According to Bob Podcast has posted a visual podcast on his website here about the Japanese pre-Dreadnought battleship Mikasa. The Mikasa was Admiral Togo's flagship during the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War. It is not a video podcast but is an enhanced podcast with picture slides. He also provideda commentary based on the book about the Mikasa Battleship by the Mikasa Preservation Society. The visual podcast won't be up for long so please download it if you are interested.

Japanese Guns of World War Two documentary

Military Photos Net had a recent posting about a documentary on Japanese Guns of World War Two split over five parts on YouTube. Although please note that there are five parts to the History Channel documentary, not three as listed in the post. I have not had a look at the documentary yet but it seems to combine modern tests with archival footage. It does look interesting and I will be watching it soon. The parts are:

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhpCemV0-jo&feature=channel_page

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGq1ofO_yCs&feature=channel_page

Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH0i6DW7fQc&feature=channel_page

Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrJV4ptGJh4&feature=channel_page

Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlpfwfhI8uY&feature=channel_page

The poster's channel, Nguyen5055, is worth a visit as there are a number of military related documentaries there.

An interesting article about an attempted Korean mutiny in the Japanese Army

Japan Focus in its current issue has an article written by Kiriyama Keiichi about the experiences of Cheon Sanghwa during World War Two and afterwards. Cheon was a Korean who was forced into the service of the Japanese Army during the Second World war. He was also a supporter of Korean independence who did not take his new position quietly. He became part of a small group of Korean forcible recruits who were planning to poison their Japanese 'comrades' and then take over the Japanese units in Korea. The plot was discovered setting Cheon on a torturous path. The article can be read at http://japanfocus.org/-Kiriyama-Keiichi/3151.