Hawaii Under the Rising Sun; Japan's Plans for Conquest After Pearl Harbor

Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1984. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. 24 cm. xii, 228 pages. Maps. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. Some wear, tears and soiling to DJ. At the time he wrote that book, Dr Stephan was Professor of Modern Japanese History at the University of Hawaii. Professor Stephan speaks and reads Japanese fluently, and he has lectured at the National Defence College at Tokyo and major Japanese universities. Based upon extensive research and documentation, including the combing of Japanese archives and discussions with Japanese military historians, Professor Stephan claims that the aims of Japan's Midway Operation were not limited to destruction of the US Pacific Fleet and the capture of Midway Atoll as an end in itself. He claims that the capture of Midway Atoll was intended to be the first stage of a more ambitious plan that would culminate in a major Japanese attack on Hawaii. The next step would be the occupation of America's Johnston Island (710 miles south-west of Pearl Harbor), and then establishing bases on Hawaii, the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. Having established air and naval bases on Hawaii, Stephan claims that the Japanese intended to launch air and naval attacks on Oahu from those bases. Professor Stephan claims that the planned operations against Johnston Island and Hawaii were aspects of what was known collectively at the highest levels of Japan's Combined Fleet as Eastern Operation, and that Eastern Operation was predicated on the destruction of the carriers of the US Pacific Fleet at Midway. As Admiral Yamamoto saw it, the placing of a Japanese noose around Oahu, and relentlessly tightening it, offered the best prospect of drawing the United States into peace talks.