The Way of the Heavenly Sword: The Japanese Army in the 1920's - Hardcover

by Leonard A. Humphreys (Author)

The story of the bitter political struggles within a factionalized military elite, released in the 1920's from the constraints of the informal but unified system of Imperial leadership which had characterized the military in the Meiji era.

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Amazingly, this incisive and well-written work is the first book-length account in English of the Japanese army in a crucial period before World War II. Based on an extraordinary number of Japanese sources and on interviews with participants in the events he describes, Humphreys's book will be important for scholars both of modern Japan and of military organizations in general. His perspective as a longtime U.S. army officer adds to the quality of his analysis and the depth of his scholarship.--Richard Smethurst, University of Pittsburgh
"The 1920s is always presented as a low point of military influence in Japan, a kind of anomalous pause before the dive into total war. Humphreys seeks to bridge that gap, and in doing so, he succeeds admirably in showing that the army continued to evolve even as it receded from center stage."--History