Japan

Britain’s loss of Singapore in February 1942 was a terrible blow. But Japan failed to make the most of its prize, says Malcolm Murfett.

Some commentators predict that the 21st century will be the ‘Asian century’, marking a significant shift in power from West to East. If so, it will not be so different from the global order of the 19th century, says Thomas DuBois.

Peter Mandler explains how the anthropologist Margaret Mead, author of best-selling studies of ‘primitive’ peoples, became a major influence on US military thinking during the Second World War.

J.D. Hargreaves reviews the delicate truce that existed between Britain and Japan in the early years of the twentieth century.

David Woodward recounts how, after a voyage from the Baltic of 11,000 miles, the Russian Second Pacific Fleet was dramatically destroyed off the coast of Korea by the Japanese.

Roger Hudson expands on an image of Russian ships destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur, 1904.

Japan flexed its muscles and launched a full-scale invasion of China following an incident on July 7th, 1937.

Nagasaki is often immediately associated with the American atomic attack on August 9th, 1945. However, it was also, for over two centuries, the only place in Japan open to foreigners. How were Europeans received there?

The historical roots of the dispute between China and Japan over control of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands reveal a great deal about the two countries’ current global standing, says Joyman Lee.

The American soldiers who fought their way through the islands of the Pacific during the Second World War encountered fierce Japanese resistance but few local people. That all changed with the invasion of the Mariana Islands, says Matthew Hughes.

An introduction to a special feature on the history of Japan from the 16th to 20th centuries.

The head of Japan's Second World War government was executed on Dec 23, 1948