Evans, David C., and Mark R. Peattie. Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1997. The author David C. Evans is a lieutenant served in the United States Navy and a historian professor at the University of Virginia; Mark R. Peattie is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston specialized in modern Japanese military. In the book, the authors examine the evolving interrelationship between the strategy, tactics, and technology of the Imperial Japanese Navy(IJN). They analyze the synthesis of foreign and indigenous influences in shaping the battle engagement tactics of IJN and how the navy acquired its technology. They argue that the most critical strategic failing of the Japanese navy was its obsession on the concept of “decisive battle” — the single surface naval engagement that decides the fate of the war. Therefore, IJN was only prepared for a “battle” instead of a modern war. …show more content…
“Western Military Models in Ottoman Turkey and Meiji Japan.” In The Sources of Military Change: Culture, Politics, Technology, 41-67. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002. The author Emily O. Goldman is an associate professor of political science from University of California, Davis. In the chapter, she argues that external pressures imposed by superior Wester military power, and the desire to be accepted as a “full and equal member of Western-dominated international society” are the main driving forces of the military transformation in Meiji Japan. She asserts that the emulation of Western models in Japanese army and navy, especially the reform of conscription was not a response to external threat, but to an internal desire for power and recognition.
Kobayashi, Ushisburo. Military industries of Japan. New York: Oxford University Press,