Early Japan

Following the disastrous Java Sea campaign, the Allies went on the offensive in the Pacific in a desperate attempt to halt the Japanese forces that were rampaging across the region. With the conquest of Australia a very real possibility, the stakes were high. Their target: the Japanese-held Soloman Islands, in particular the southern island of Guadalcanal. Hamstrung by arcane pre-war thinking and a bureaucratic mind-set, the US Navy had to adapt on the fly in order to compete with the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy, whose ingenuity had fostered the creation of its Pacific empire.

China is growing increasingly bellicose. From massive practice runs for an invasion of Taiwan, to deadly encroachments on the sovereign territorial waters of the Philippines, to reckless encounters at sea and in the air aimed to intimidate American and Japanese forces operating in international waters and air space, it seems war might erupt at any moment. For decades China has been "hiding its strength and biding its time" as former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping counseled. No longer. Under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People's Republic of China has engaged in a massive naval, air...

The Sino-Japanese Wars: The History and Legacy of the Early 20th Century Conflicts That Made Japan the Dominant Power in Asia examines what brought about the wars, the most notorious events, and the important aftermath.