Nichibei Kaisen Beiki Tsuini Teito o Shugeki [If War Begins Between Japan and America, Can American Planes Attack Tokyo?]
by [Watanuki, Rokusuke
- Used
- Condition
- Very good.
- Seller
-
Dobbs Ferry, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Tokyo, 1933. Very good.. [4],28,546,[1]pp. Original half blue cloth and tan cloth boards, decoratively stamped in black and gilt. In publisher's illustrated cardstock slipcase. Noticeable surface abrasions to boards, minor edge wear. Foxing and toning to terminal leaves, but overall a clean text block. Some chipping to fore-edge of slipcase. Second printing (first published on August 25, 1933, and reprinted on October 4) of this prescient look at the prospect of war between the United States and Japan, published eight years before Pearl Harbor. The author, a fifteen-year veteran of the Japanese army, lays out remarkably accurate predictions of what a war between the U.S. and Japan would look like. He begins with the conclusion that "war between Japan and the US is now a reality in the immediate future" and that "the future of war will be fought in the air."
He suggests an attack on Hawaii ("picking up Hawaii will be a piece of cake") and gives scenarios for Japanese attacks on the Philippines, Alaska, Panama, and San Francisco. He addresses the potential involvement of European powers and Russia. He considers the use of fire-bombing against Japan, noting that most houses in Tokyo are made out of paper. That so many of his ideas came to pass or were at least considered indicates that the outline of the Second World War in the Pacific was pretty obvious to trained contemporary observers. The ominous figure of a gas-masked soldier on the front cover of the work, as well as wartime scenes printed on the slipcase echo the content of the work itself.
Interestingly, this book appears on a list of propaganda subject to confiscation during the U.S. occupation of Japan (see Official Gazette English Edition, Extra for December 10, 1947, p. 22, no. 438), perhaps accounting for its scarcity. The most substantial biographical discussion of Watanuki is found in Cartographers of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950 by Gregory Pflugfelder (UC Press, 2007, p. 300-301), where his writings about homosexual encounters are discussed. OCLC reports just a single copy of any edition of this work, at the National Diet Library in Japan.
He suggests an attack on Hawaii ("picking up Hawaii will be a piece of cake") and gives scenarios for Japanese attacks on the Philippines, Alaska, Panama, and San Francisco. He addresses the potential involvement of European powers and Russia. He considers the use of fire-bombing against Japan, noting that most houses in Tokyo are made out of paper. That so many of his ideas came to pass or were at least considered indicates that the outline of the Second World War in the Pacific was pretty obvious to trained contemporary observers. The ominous figure of a gas-masked soldier on the front cover of the work, as well as wartime scenes printed on the slipcase echo the content of the work itself.
Interestingly, this book appears on a list of propaganda subject to confiscation during the U.S. occupation of Japan (see Official Gazette English Edition, Extra for December 10, 1947, p. 22, no. 438), perhaps accounting for its scarcity. The most substantial biographical discussion of Watanuki is found in Cartographers of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950 by Gregory Pflugfelder (UC Press, 2007, p. 300-301), where his writings about homosexual encounters are discussed. OCLC reports just a single copy of any edition of this work, at the National Diet Library in Japan.
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Details
- Bookseller
- McBride Rare Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 3711
- Title
- Nichibei Kaisen Beiki Tsuini Teito o Shugeki [If War Begins Between Japan and America, Can American Planes Attack Tokyo?]
- Author
- [Watanuki, Rokusuke
- Book Condition
- Used - Very good.
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Place of Publication
- Tokyo
- Date Published
- 1933
Terms of Sale
McBride Rare Books
All items are guaranteed as described. Any purchase may be returned for a full refund within 10 working days as long as it is returned in the same condition and is packed and shipped correctly. All items subject to prior sale.
About the Seller
McBride Rare Books
Biblio member since 2018
Dobbs Ferry, New York
About McBride Rare Books
We specialize in American history, focusing on unique and eclectic materials such as archives, broadsides, vernacular photography, and interesting or unusual imprints. Particular fields of interest include Western Americana and Latin America.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- Text Block
- Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....