Completing the Circle around Rabaul: The Seizure of the Admiralties, February to May 1944.

This study examines the operational history of the First Cavalry Divisions conquest of the Admiralty Islands during World War Two as the final phase of Operation Cartwheel. Cartwheel called a two pronged attack; one prong in New Guinea, by-passing large Japanese garrisons and the other in the northern Solomon Islands with the goal the isolation of the strong point at Rabaul. The material is drawn primarily from U.S. Army records held by the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, records from the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama and other reports. The study concludes that the conquest of the Admiralty Islands allowed the by-pass of Rabaul and Wewak, New Guinea. The Admiralty Islands served as a base for future operations carried out against the Japanese

Impact of Extreme Weather Events in the Wartime Okinawa

Global publics have been noticing the intensity of droughts, wildfires, melting poles, rising sea levels, and typhoons in their daily lives. Policy communities are scrutinizing the nature of the climate change, its human-induced causes and environmental effects. But the effect of climate change does not end with an account of environmental impacts. Climate change has had social and security effects too, as recent arguments on migration pressures (Dalby), resource scarcity (Homer-Dixon), access to rural land (Baechler), and intensification of conflicts (Kelley) emphasize. This article looks back in time and argues that extreme climate and weather phenomena have influenced conflicts not only in recent decades, but relate to the past occurrences too, including the WWII. As narratives of past events tend towards anthropocentric explanations, the presence of weather and climate are often minimalized or bracketed out in favour of intentionality and human agency. Yet wars are complex phenomena, and no human agency can fully account for them. The argument here is that extreme weather events, such as heavy rains, had contributed significantly to the transformation of the battlefield in Okinawa, and to the atrocities committed on the local noncombatant population. It provides a more climate-prone explanation for the final stages of the Pacific War

Strategic technology management in Japan : commercial-military comparisons

"This is a modified version of a paper ... under contract to the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment for inclusion in ... Holding the edge : maintaining the defense technology base"--P. [3].Includes bibliographical references.Michael W. Chinworth

Waging War: Japan\u27s Constitutional Constraints

Both electoral results and public opinion polls have long revealed what most observers have viewed as a paradox if not a contradiction. By significant majorities, the Japanese people appear to oppose any revision of article 9, but support the SDF and their deployment with legislative sanction. The seemingly antithetical aspects of these views can be reconciled if one accepts the proposition that the public is willing to allow an armed force but only within parameters that are still ill-defined. So long as article 9 remains, the government is constrained by the need for legislative approval and at least potential judicial objection. Thus, by gradual evolution, a consensus seems to have emerged allowing the maintenance of armed forces, but limiting their use to noncombat roles that also have explicit legislative approval

Japanese Maritime Thought: If Not Mahan, Who?

The late Colonel John Boyd, who knew a thing or two about strategic thought, was fond of declaring that excellence in warfare and other human endeavors depended on people, ideas, and hardware—in that order.1 We postulate that Japan has lost sight of this commonsense axiom, allowing strategic thought to atrophy

UMA ANÁLISE COMPARATIVA DO IMBRÓGLIO DO JAPÃO IMPERIAL NA CHINA E DO IMPASSE NORTE-AMERICANO NO IRAQUE PÓS-SADDAM: SIMILARIDADES, LIÇÕES E IMPLICAÇÕES

This study will first present a series of striking similarities between the imperial Japanese predicament in China and the contemporary U.S. quagmire in post-Saddam Iraq. Second, the study will provide a theoretical perspective on why the two cases share such commonalities. Third, the study will explore the implications of the perspective to international politics, with a focus on the future of the U.S. hegemony. The study is based on the basic understanding that the developing world across regions today has continued to suffer the ongoing single macro-historical process consequent upon the breakdowns of empires as the once-predominant organizational mode of human societies. The analysis argues for the central importance of a stable national identity for modernization and development as well as freedom and democracy.Este estudo apresentará, em primeiro lugar, uma série de notáveis similaridades entre o imbróglio do Japão Imperial na China e o impasse contemporâneo dos EUA no Iraque pós-Saddam. Em segundo lugar, fornecerá uma perspectiva teórica do porquê tais casos compartilham tais similaridades. Em terceiro lugar, o estudo explorará as implicações desta perspectiva para a política internacional, focando-se no futuro da hegemonia dos EUA. O estudo baseia-se no entendimento básico de que o mundo em desenvolvimento ao longo de regiões continua a sofrer o mesmo e contínuo processo macro-histórico consequente do desmantelamento dos impérios como o modo organizacional antes predominante das sociedades humanas. A análise defende a importância central de uma identidade nacional estável para a modernização e o desenvolvimento, assim como para a liberdade e a democracia

How to succeed without really flying--the Japanese aircraft industry and Japan's technology ideology

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-65).Partial support from the National Science Foundation and the Fulbright Commission.David B. Friedman, Richard J. Samuels

Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan and Procedural and Substantive Heuristics for Consensus

Japan is considering changes to its constitution, including Article 9, which prohibits it from maintaining a military force. If amendments are made, it would mark the first time the Japanese constitution has been amended since its establishment in 1947. Professor Chinen examines the debates on Article 9 using scholarship on constitutions as providing heuristics for decision-making. Constitutions help overcome the problems of emotion and time-inconsistency. They also enable societies of different deliberative groups to avoid the pitfalls of deliberation by requiring groups to interact with one another and by providing opportunities for compromise through what Cass Sunstein refers to as incompletely theorized agreement. Drawing on work from J.M. Balkin, Professor Chinen argues such strategies and concepts share features common to all heuristic devices: they are cumulative, multi-functional, recursive, and lead to unintended results. This theory jibes well with the process and substance of the Japanese debates. The debates on Article 9 are taking place within and among deliberative groups in Japan. The formal constitutional requirements for amendment combine with features in Japanese society to require the various groups to interact with one another. The cumulative, multi-functional, and recursive nature of heuristics emerge in the themes in the debate. These features make agreement hard because the deliberative groups are familiar with the arguments being made for and against amending Article 9. Yet, the same concepts could enable incompletely theorized agreement on key issues. Finally, the net effect of these tools is that possible solutions to the amendment debate will solve some issues now raised by Article 9, but will create others