Japanese War

After the Meiji reforms (1868), Japan quickly embarked not only on a path of modernization but also on a path of territorial expansion, focusing primarily on the territories of Korea and China. After the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, it stood between the world powers and its position was further consolidated during World War I, when a power vacuum was created in the Far East. Then, on the threshold of the 1930s, the leaders of the Empire of the Rising Sun decided to assert their interests and claims on the continent by force. The result was the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, which marked the beginning of the Japanese war in the Far East and then in the Pacific. Its second phase began with the attack on China proper in 1937, culminating in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and Japan's entry into the war with the Allies. The aim of the book is to provide a comprehensive view of Japan's domestic and foreign policy during this period and to present the reader with a complete and, if possible, compelling picture of the rise and fall of the Empire of the Rising Sun until the bitter end in August and September 1945, when the country surrendered unconditionally.