Reviews

"... an account of how Japan came to be the leading Asian power of the early Twentieth Century....opens with four chapters that offer some background on the combatants in the years leading up to the war, discussing the origins of the conflict, and the respective military forces and plans. He then covers the events in Korea that precipitated the hostilities. There follow a series of chapters of varying length that cover the events of the war, setting them within the political developments leading up to China's defeat and the peace process. Having the benefit of the most recent research into the war, Olender often points out problems and outright errors in earlier accounts, particularly those done in the period immediately following the war, often heavily influenced by personal accounts and newspaper stories. This is a good read for anyone interested in the naval and military history of the period, or of the region."-- "The NYMAS Review"

Photos, annotations, maps, charts, tables, bibliography, index and transliteration notes season MMP's superb study. Five appendices recap participating vessels, naval artillery, torpedoes, comparative service ranks, and Japanese ship commanders. And a concluding section showcases 1:350 starboard drawings of 36 Chinese and Japanese warships... The brief, bitter Sino-Japanese naval war forged the tactical and technological foundation of Japan's victory over Russia a decade later. "China," the author observes, "practically became a quasi-colony" of European imperialists - and entered a half-century of "internal/social unrest". Likewise, Japan's expansionist ambitions only ended with its total defeat in World War II - 50 years on.-- "Cybermodeler"