Why the Samurai Lost Japan

A Study in Miscalculation and Folly

Non-Fiction - Military
328 Pages
Reviewed on 05/23/2021
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Lois Henderson for Readers' Favorite

Why the Samurai Lost Japan: A Study in Miscalculation and Folly, co-authored by John D. Beatty and Lee A. Rochwerger, tells the history of the samurai class and fighting spirit from the 1100s to the end of the Second World War, with particular focus on the role that it played in the development of Japan during the first half of the last century. The importance of the class and its high moral ethics, as pivotal to the evolution of Japanese thought over the centuries, is explored at length, while being contextualized within the broader ambit of Japanese society. Both its weaknesses and strengths are discussed in depth, culminating in three primary reasons for the samurai having lost Japan by the end of the Second World War: the innate poverty of the Japanese nation at the time (characterized by the lack of much-needed resources and effective logistics), the leaders’ “military myopia” (the misguided belief that “tactical battles would win a strategic war” by intimidating their opponents into negotiations and their stressing the importance of promoting a spiritually righteous, militaristic spirit over material and technological progress), and the failure to assimilate samurai traditions within a nation bent on becoming westernized.

John D. Beatty and Lee A. Rochwerger’s Why the Samurai Lost Japan is impressive in terms of the extent of the research done for the purpose of the comprehensiveness of the text. Based in part on their earlier work, What Were They Thinking: A Fresh Look at Japan at War, 1941-1945, the current volume has expanded far beyond the confines of the Second World War to a much broader history of the role of the samurai within the nation as a whole. Extensive use is made of illustrations, including multiple black-and-white photographs, diagrams, and maps, with a great deal of highly relevant documentation being included in the copious appendices. Whether your interest lies in the development of the Japanese nation as a whole, or with the military aspects of the text, you are likely to find Why the Samurai Lost Japan both highly informative and thought-provoking.

Don Bayes

Another fine example the authors work. Well worth the time to read.