Episode 54 - The Rise of the Empire

Years before they swept over East Asia in the 30s and 40s, the Japanese... well they swept over East Asia before then too. Seeing overseas possessions as the next logical step towards making their own nation secure, Japan started going to war with the neighbors. Fortune smiled on them in these years and they humbled empires far larger than they.    Bibliography for this episode:  McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002 Jansen, Marius B The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 5: The Nineteenth Century Cambridge University Press 1989 Mason, RHP & JG Caiger A History of Japan Tuttle Publishing 1997 Paine, SCM The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War Cambridge University Press 2017   Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]