Japan's First Modern War

This is a study of the war which established Japan's image as a warrior nation, an image which in many ways persists today. Using extensive Japanese materials, including the letters of frontline troops and provincial newspapers, it presents the diverse experience both of soldiers and civilians, and reveals how war accelerated the modernization of Japanese society.

Included are such topics as the soldiers' impressions of duty, nation and their fellow Asians; the role of the emperor as commander-in-chief; the use of the war in schools; and the activities of small business, institutional religion and patriotic societies.