Origins of the Pacific War and the Importance of 'Magic'

by Komatsu, Keiichiro

• ISBN13: 9780312173852
• ISBN10: 0312173857
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-20
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

'Magic' was the name given to the American decoding of the secret Japanese codes used in diplomatic communications before and during the Pacific War of 1941-45. This important new work, presenting a Japanese perspective, argues for the first time that in the final phase of the eight months of US-Japan talks leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor, serious mistranslations in Magic were a significant factor in the cumulative effect of mutual misunderstandings which grew between the two sides over a longer period. In spite of the number of historians who take the opposite point of view, the author argues that the efforts made by the participants on both sides to achieve a successful outcome and avert military conflict, or at least delay the outbreak of the war until the following March (1942), might have been much closer to achieving success than generally believed. The mistranslations of Magic which led to the crisis in 1941 were influenced by misunderstanding and misperception, and the persistence of stereotypes and 'images' among the parties involved.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(8)
Introduction	xvii
Part I: The Historical Legacy	1	(125)
Chapter 1 Historical Background to US-Japan Relations	1	(13)
Chapter 2 The Russo-Japanese War and the Open Door	14	(14)
Chapter 3 The First World War and its Aftermath	28	(14)
Chapter 4 Disarmament and the Manchurian Incident	42	(33)
Chapter 5 The China Incident	75	(51)
Part II: Turning Points in the Negotiations I	126	(121)
Chapter 6 Policy-Making and Decision-Making: Japan and the United States	126	(58)
Chapter 7 The Draft Understanding Proposal: November 1940-October 1941	184	(63)
Part III: `Magic' as a Cause of US-Japan Misunderstanding	247	(42)
Chapter 8 Technical Problems of Coding and Decoding	247	(30)
Chapter 9 Linguistic Factors and Problems of Translation	277	(12)
Part IV: Turning Points in the Negotiations II	289	(55)
Chapter 10 Proposal B and the Hull Note: October 1941-December 1941	289	(55)
Conclusion	344	(4)
Appendix	348
Historiographic Developments	348	(27)
Q&A Section	375	(10)
Bibliography	385	(20)
List of Important `Magic' Mistranslations	405	(3)
Telegrams and Drafts	408	(60)
Index	468