Japanese Admirals 1926-1945. By Richard Fuller. Schiffer Military History Publishing, Atglen, Pennsylvania USA, 2011, ISBN 978-0-7643-3952-3.
Reviewed by Mark L. Bailey, PhD
This is a book unusual to the point of being extraordinary. Certainly, the information it contains on 1,480 Japanese flag officers has never been so available. It now is in this volume and its companion: Japanese Generals 1926-1945. The author, Richard Fuller, is a civil engineer with a lifelong interest in investigating and collecting Japanese swords.
He has written the English-language reference works on aspects of the subject and definitive reference works on Japanese military swords. These two books are an outgrowth of this longer research effort.
Schiffer is also an unusual publisher. From 1973 it developed gradually from a local antiquarian business. Schiffer is currently developing their military history and their catalogue (https://schifferbooks.com/pages/catalogs ) reflects this, having a focus on weapons systems. On the naval side this reflects individual ships and classes. Schiffer’s future development of their military catalogue deserves attention, keep an eye on their military catalogue as it develops.
While Japanese Admirals is reviewed here, both companion volumes were purchased, and these comments apply to both. The books are of excellent physical quality, crisply and clearly printed on high quality stock. They are well bound with the hardcover’s illustration mirroring the dust jacket, which I found unusual. Reflecting their status as reference works, the inside of the cover and facing page are marbled like some 19th century books, again a very nice touch. The book has only three chapters, an eight-page introductory chapter giving a brief contextualisation of the IJN’s structure, ranks, overall history, fleet structure and yes, their swords. Chapter 2 is a 10-page description of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) command and internal structure during WWII. This is very useful in allowing the careers of individual Admirals to be placed within the fabric of the IJN. It was an opaque service to western eyes and differed significantly from Commonwealth Navies, having its own fleet air arm and land-based air force, with submarines as a separate fleet.
Chapter 3 forms the bulk of the book, being an alphabetical compendium of all known IJN flag officers from 1926 to 1945 when the service ceased to exist. Names are of course listed in the Japanese style of surname first and this is capitalised to accentuate the style, as it may be unfamiliar to some western readers. Most of the biographical data originates in Japanese sources, and in particular Hiroshi Nishida’s ‘Materials of IJN’ data, now at http://admiral31.world.coocan.jp/e/index.htm rather than the address mentioned in the bibliography. While apparently not much updated since 2013 it is a rich source of good information.
This is a reference work, it is not designed as a book to sit down and read through. Both are purpose-designed reference books and have already proved to be very useful to me when conducting research. As with all reference books they have an appeal to those interested in or researching a specific field. Anyone interested in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and especially its campaigns in the South Pacific during WWII will find this book (and its companion) invaluable. Japanese Admirals is very reasonably priced for a reference work of this quality. It (and the companion Japanese Generals) is available through direct order from Schiffer for US$79.99 plus shipping. Regrettably, shipping costs are high post-covid as surface mail no longer seems to be available. The Australian representative for Schiffer is Peribo in Mount Kuring-Gai, it is to be hoped that a way can be organised to reduce shipping costs.
Overall, these are remarkable reference works containing unique information which is otherwise unavailable. They provide what is now unattainable and permit what was impossible, such as a way to start partially reconstructing some of the professional networks of the IJN. Anyone interested in the Pacific War will find these a crucial addition to their reference library.
