Journal of Military History
Article Abstracts
Vol. 69, No. 1
January 2005

Articles:

Kenneth M. Swope, "Crouching Tigers, Secret Weapons: Military Technology Employed During the Sino-Japanese-Korean War, 1592-1598," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 11-42.

The Japanese invasion of Korea (1592-98) has recently been called Asia's first "regional world war." It marked the first time in Asian history that massive armies equipped with modern weaponry faced one another on the field of battle. The Japanese armies commanded by the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi were arguably the most skilled in the world at the time, yet in the end the Japanese were defeated by a Sino Korean alliance in tandem with Korean guerrillas. Looking at the primary documents of the war, it seems apparent that military technology was the single most important, but not the only, factor that shaped the direction and determined the outcome of the war. This article presents an overview of some of the major military technologies utilized by the belligerents and challenges conventional interpretations of the conflict, passed down through the centuries, that claim Japan's defeat was due to superior allied numbers and Hideyoshi's death.

 

Yuval Noah Harari, "Martial Illusions: War and Disillusionment in Twentieth-Century and Renaissance Military Memoirs," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 43-72.

The twentieth century has witnessed a revolution in the image of war and of soldiers. The age old romantic image of war has been discredited; war has increasingly been interpreted as a disillusioning experience; and the soldier has been at least partly transformed from hero to victim. This article examines the roots of this revolution, by comparing twentieth century and Renaissance military memoirs. It argues that this revolution did not result from twentieth century military or technological changes in the nature of war, but rather from cultural and mental changes in soldiers' self perception and in their expectations of life, that occurred between 1600 and 1900.

 

Merrill L. Bartlett, "Ben Hebard Fuller and the Genesis of a Modern United States Marine Corps, 1891-1934," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 73-92.

Historians of the smaller of the United States naval services have tended to dismiss or denigrate the career of the fifteenth Commandant of the Marine Corps, usually describing him as an avuncular and uninspiring sinecure holder. An examination of Fuller's tenure at the helm of the Corps at the time of the retrenchment imposed during the Herbert C. Hoover administration and the stimulus for naval growth that followed under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration reveals an officer far more adroit than usually depicted.

 

Thomas E. Rodgers, "Billy Yank and G.I. Joe: An Exploratory Essay on the Sociopolitical Dimensions of Soldier Motivation," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 93-122.

This article provides an explanation of how Union soldiers could fight so effectively in the Civil War with so little training by comparing their prewar socialization experiences with those of infantrymen in World War II. Billy Yank's society inculcated concepts of masculinity, patriotism, and citizenship that were major factors in his ability to function under fire. G.I. Joe's society instilled different concepts of masculinity, patriotism, and citizenship that could not provide him with the same ability as Billy Yank to function on the battlefield. Extensive training and unit cohesion were necessary to compensate for what socialization did not provide G.I. Joe.

 

James A. Wood, "Captive Historians, Captivated Audience: The German Military History Program, 1945-1961," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 123-148.

From 1945 to 1961, former German officers, working first as prisoners of war and then as civilian employees of the U.S. government, produced roughly two hundred thousand pages of manuscript histories dealing with nearly every aspect of the Nazi war effort. This essay provides a general historiographical outline of their work and comments on the motivations, aims, and opinions of the authors. Taken together, these manuscripts provide telling insight into the experiences of German officers, both during and after World War II. Motivated by a desire to protect the reputation of the Wehrmacht, their cooperation with U.S. historical efforts produced a significant, influential, and arguably self serving view of the war.

 

Roger B. Jeans, "Victims or Victimizers? Museums, Textbooks, and the War debate in Contemporary Japan," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 149-196.

This essay addresses a widespread misperception in mainstream thinking about Japanese views of their World War II record. Popular works, such as Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking, tend to speak of a monolithic Japanese view of the war today. This article, through an analysis of the exhibits and descriptive literature of Japanese "war" and "peace" museums as well as recent struggles over how to depict Japan's wartime record in school textbooks, disagrees. Rather than a unified "Japanese" view of the war, the reality is a struggle in which conservatives and right wingers duel with moderates and leftists over the "correct history" of the war.

 

Review Essays:

Rose Mary Sheldon, "The Military History of Ancient Israel," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 197-204.

The Military History of Ancient Israel. By Richard A. Gabriel. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003. ISBN 0 275 97798 6. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. Pp. xv, 334. $79.95.

 

Geoffrey Parker, "The 'Military Revolution,' 1955-2005: From Balfast to Barcelona and The Hague," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 205-210.

Michael Roberts launched his celebrated "Military Revolution" idea in a lecture delivered at the Queen's University, Belfast, fifty years ago. To commemorate this event, and to reflect its continuing impact, Geoffrey Parker-himself a participant in the debate-reviews recent "special issues" of two journals, one published in Catalonia and the other in the Netherlands, devoted to the military history of early modern Europe.

 

Alex, Danchev, "War Stories," The Journal of Military History 69 (January 2005): 211-215.

Photo Nomad. By David Douglas Duncan. New York: Norton, 2003. ISBN 0 393 05861 1. Photographs. Pp. 464. $29.95/£19.95.

 

Don McCullin. Essay by Susan Sontag. Introduction by Harold Evans. London: Cape, 2003. ISBN 0 224 07118 1. Pp. 320. $32.00/£17.50.

 

The Eye of War. Edited by Phillip Knightley, Sarah Jackson, and Annabel Merullo. Washington: Smithsonian Institution/London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003. ISBN 1 5883 4165 8/0 297 84311 7. Pp. 288. $39.95/£30.00.

 

Regarding the Pain of Others. By Susan Sontag. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux/London: Hamish Hamilton, 2003. ISBN 0 3742 4858 3/0 241 14207 5. Pp. 132. $20.00/£12.99.