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TENSIONS OF EMPIRE: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Colonial and Postcolonial World. By Ken'ichi Goto, edited and with an introduction by Paul H. Kratoska. Athens (Ohio): Ohio University Press. 2003. xxiv, 349 pp. (Tables.) US$17.95, paper. ISBN 0-89680-231-0.
This book is a collection of 12 of the author's articles on Japan's role in Southeast Asian modern history. Seven of these chapters are revised versions of previously published articles. Not intended to be a comprehensive account, the book suffers from thematic fragmentation and repetition. What the book lacks in terms of unity, however, it makes up for in terms of insight.
Chapters 1 and 2, amongst other things, note the Japanese strategic dilemma in the 1930s-whether China, as promoted by the army, or Southeast Asia, as advocated by the navy, should be the priority. A compromise, arrived at during the Five Ministers Conference of 7 August 1936, endorsed both aims. Japanese documents reveal that in the autumn of 1940, sections of the army moved behind the southern line (p....