J. Charles Schencking

There are several virtues to this monograph. One is that Schencking does a good job of tracing the evolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy from the embryonic stage to its zenith as a factor in the world strategic balance. Two, Schencking demonstrates how the admirals learned to manipulate Japanese politics, which also illustrates the willing participation of the party politicians in participating in an alliance. Three, Schencking uses this work to shine further light on how organizational conflict within and between the Japanese armed services contributed to political instability; though never without being in alliance with some civilian political faction.

About the only factor that I care to mark the author down on is that there are times when he's a bit sloppy in terms of getting the names and types of ships correct. For example, not once are the "Kongo" class battlecruisers described as being such. This is something that any likely reader of this book is going to pick up on.… (lisätietoja)

J. Charles Schencking's MAKING WAVES is an attempt to explore the rise of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1868-1922. During Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912), Japan began its modernization and rose to great power status. Commensurate with this status as a world power was the growth of Japan's navy. This growth process was long and torturous for Japan, given that prior to the 1890s, Japan could certainly not be considered a naval power, and it was only after 1900 that the navy became more than a junior military service subordinated to the army. Other historians have suggested that it was Japanese naval triumphs over China and Russia that secured the tremendous growth of the Japanese navy. Schencking's research, though, demonstrates that it was skillful political manipulation by the navy, beginning in the 1870s, that secured the funding, ships, and trained personnel it needed to achieve military victories over its rivals and come to prominence in the twentieth century. In making this intervention, Schencking provides a complete and thorough description of the process by which the navy manipulated the Japanese body politic to become a dominant institution in Japan. Though it did so originally to serve only its own parochial ends, the navy helped strengthen Japan's parliamentary democracy, demonstrated the effectiveness of mass propaganda, and fostered Japan's nationalism and imperialistic worldview. In other words, by doing so well for itself, the Imperial Japanese Navy played an integral role in the creation of the modern, industrializing Japanese state.

In the 1860s and early 1870s, Japan's navy found itself in an extremely primitive and weakened state and navy leadership lacked the political clout to push for an increased level of funding. It was not until the late 1870s that the navy allied itself with the increasingly influential Satsuma clan and was finally able to achieve greater influence within government and expand its forces and manpower. Japan's dreams of empire also fueled this rise, as the navy shamelessly promoted itself as the best way to achieve empire in East Asia. Japanese naval leaders became extremely adept in manipulating parliament and securing increasing levels of funding. This experience with political influence came to serve the navy extremely well over time. When parliamentary support lagged, the navy often went directly to the public for support, becoming experts at using propaganda and pageantry to promote the ideas of national pride and the economic and industrial benefits of naval expansion.

The story of the Japanese Imperial Navy in this period is not one of complete success, however. Schencking spends a great deal of time discussing the army-navy rivalry that occurred as the navy expanded and had to compete with the army for funding. Initially, the navy had been very much the junior service, but by the mid-1890s, naval funding had reached parity with the army, and thereafter began to climb past the army. The navy's early successes antagonized army leadership and created powerful enemies who blocked naval expansion in the mid-1910s. As the navy consumed a larger piece of the budgetary pie and sought greater operational autonomy from the army (particularly during the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars), competition intensified significantly. Unfortunately, Schencking only describes these inter-service rivalries from the navy's perspective. Providing an army point-of-view might have enhanced the discussion and provided alternative views and a better developed context for the navy's actions.

Schencking demands a fair amount of familiarity with Japanese domestic politics and history from his readers. The Meiji period in Japanese history (and to a lesser extent, the Taisho period that followed it) are complex and filled with turmoil. The names of even the most influential actors, clans, and organizations are unfamiliar to most Western readers, as are their relationships with each other, and Schencking does not always provide context. He also has a tendency to discuss Japanese legislative affairs at great length, even when they do not directly relate to naval affairs.

So many histories treat nations as unitary actors - sometimes going so far as to treat states as "black boxes" - when it comes to describing national policies and military developments, but Schencking provides an excellent example of the richness that can be uncovered when historians delve into the myriad bureaucratic, institutional, and other actors that help shape national policies. Ironically, though, Schencking generally treats the Imperial Navy as a unitary entity, never discussing rival schools of thought or intra-service conflict. He generally only allows a single voice to speak for the navy (usually a senior admiral or navy minister like Yamamoto).

Methodologically, Schencking's approach is in some ways reminiscent of Mary Habeck in her STORM OF STEEL: while naval vessels are obviously of critically important to Schencking's history, he does not detail their precise characteristics or capabilities. As with Habeck's discussion of tanks, ships, as such, are of considerably less importance than naval procurement and legislative politicking to Schencking. As contrasted with Habeck, though, Schencking does not rely on comparative analysis; he examines only Japan, including very little discussion of its rival nations' efforts.

Schencking's study adds considerably to the body of literature exploring the relationships between naval development, parliamentary democracy, and modern society. MAKING WAVES is certainly a worthy addition to the literature on the rise of Japan as an imperial power, providing new explanations for how Japan rose to such prominence in the early twentieth century. His history is also somewhat of a cautionary tale of how military organizations can manipulate public sentiment and domestic politics to drive expansionist foreign and military policies.

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers… (lisätietoja)