本書は2016年に発売した「ミリタリージャケット」の改訂版である。人類は有史以来、様々な戦争を経験し、ミリタリージャケットの世界を成長させていく。機能性を高めることを念頭に膨大な数のウエアが誕生し、枝分かれして進化を続けていった。そんな様々なミリタリージャケットの系譜や、歴史に名を残したもの、ひっそりと消えていったもの、そして着用者の歴史を刻んだものまで、奥深きミリタリージャケットとそれに纏わるプロダクツを新たに収録して、再び一冊の本としてまとめ上げた。 表紙 INTRODUCTION 目次 chapter 1 1900-1930s ［WORLD WAR Ⅰ］ chapter 2 1940s ［WORLD WAR Ⅱ］ chapter 3 1950s ［KOREAN WAR］ chapter 4 1960-2000s ［VIETNAM WAR-AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT］ chapter 5 Other Militaria Shop List

After the Meiji Restoration, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Russo-Japanese War, Japan found itself occupying a prominent position in the global arena. Komura Jutaro, whom Mutsu Munemitsu had chosen as his successor, served on the Katsu Taro cabinet and set to forging a plan for Japan’s continental development in opposition to Russia, considering the influence of the United States and Britain. Komura accurately judged that Japan had no other option than war with Russia, given his piercing insights into Russia’s intentions, and that recognition enabled the Empire of Japan to stay on the right track. All the other merits and demerits of Komura’s diplomacy are directly connected to the merits and demerits of the steps taken by the Empire of Japan that eventually led to the country’s defeat in World War II. Komura’s diplomacy thus calls into question Japan’s national strategy itself: consistently pursuing independent diplomacy instead of entrusting Japan’s fate to collaboration with the Anglo-American world and, in Asia, expanding Japan’s exclusive sphere of influence beyond the Korean Peninsula deep into the Asian continent.

Following its defeat in World War II, Japan was placed under the control of SCAP GHQ headed by General Douglas MacArthur. Initially the Occupation promoted policies of demilitarization and democratization. A new Japanese constitution which pursued pacifism was established. However, as the Cold War intensified, policies switched in the direction of economic recovery, and it was contended that Japan should take the anti-Communist pro-America path. In 1951,at the height of the Korean War, the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty were concluded as a fixed set. Winner of the 2015 Yomiuri Yoshino Sakuzo Prize for academic writing on politics, economics, and history, this book provides a wide view of the seven years of the Occupation of Japan which led to the “postwar system＂ that has continued into the twenty-first century.

Yoshida Shigeru is widely regarded as a pivotal figure in early postwar Japanese history―someone who guided the nation through those difficult years with a clear vision and a firm hand. Yet much of his success, this book argues, was mandated by circumstances, and he was more a practical politician than an ideologue wedded to any particular “ism”. Particularly lauded by Yoshida admirers are his adroit fending off of pressures to remilitarize, including during the Korean War years, and his accompanying focus on economic recovery as the nation struggled to get back on its feet. Yet the decision not to rearm had already been made in the postwar Constitution’s Article 9, and Yoshida was more affirming Occupation policy than breaking new ground. Indeed, his policy pronouncements in this area largely channeled MacArthur’s thinking throughout SCAP’s reign. Pushing that thought one step further, Ambassador Okazaki contends that the acceptance of Article 9 was part of a grand bargain with MacArthur: Japan would forsake rearmament and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East would not put the Emperor in the dock for war crimes. Taking issue with the conventional wisdom, Okazaki further maintains that many Occupation policies (e.g., women’s suffrage and agrarian reform) would have been adopted in the course of building upon prewar democratization initiatives even were there no Occupation. Significantly, these reforms, unlike zaibatsu dissolution and the purge, for example, were not rescinded once Japan regained its independence in 1952. Pulling together testimony from a wide variety of informed sources, this solidly argued treatise roundly rejects the Tokyo Trials, both their conduct and their verdicts, and paints a picture of Japan laboring under a capricious autocracy in the Occupation years. This is an insightful work that demands serious consideration by everyone interested in Japan past, present, and future.