I take it you don't, either? It appears to be a set with idealizing the young officers, i.e., mutinous assassins/terrorists. He's a smart, knowledgeable historian--including 2.26--but he loses me on this (but not in other areas, e.g., 教養主義、軍部大臣現役武官制). I'll have to read the Hirayama essay.
Wow, wish I'd had this when I was writing about the Japanese Pavilion at the New York World's Fair! www.historyofjapaneseinny.org/exhibiting-j...
Incidentally, this page includes a link to a brief historiographical essay by Tsutsui related to court-martial records (plus the catalog of the records).
j-dac.jp/MJPH/MJPH_ka...
I'm sorry if I cause a misunderstanding. Those comments are directed at the Wikipedia entry alone, and not at all at you. It's fine to share Wikipedia entries. It's good that you read the Japanese ones because, in areas such as this, they tend to be better (though not without problems).
Yonai then served as navy minister in the Koiso and Suzuki cabinets, but not as navy chief of staff (another error in the entry). In fact, Shimada being both navy minister and chief of staff, mirroring Tojo doing similarly in the army, was another problem that crystallized the opposition to Tojo.
What Yonai did was refuse Tojo's entreaties to join the cabinet as a state minister, insisting he'd only serve as navy minister, which Tojo didn't desire. Yonai, along with retired admiral and former premier Okada Keisuke, led the navy's role in getting Tojo to resign.
If you'll indulge me, I'll wag my finger at Wikipedia, whose account of Shimada's resignation is wrong in presenting it as simply Tojo forcing him out at Hirohito's request, when it resulted from an intra-elite strategy to force Tojo to resign. And Shimada was replaced by Nomura Naokuni, not Yonai.
You're most welcome; glad to be useful.
You should write something. There's plenty of room for a new look at that coup attempt, and other incidents, particularly in English. I go into some detail on aspects of the Ketsumeidan and 15 May Incidents (mostly the former) in my book manuscript.
The only one on 2.26 is a taidan with Tsutsui Kiyotada and Takasugi Yohei, which is so-so (Tsutsui is pushing his "populism" view, which doesn't do much for me). The one with Furukawa Takahisa & Kurosawa Fumitaka on the Tsuboshima & Hyakutake diaries is more worthwhile. I've yet to read the others.
No, it's not Yonai. I'd say that's Navy Minister Shimada Shigetaro, who was widely disliked in the navy for being Tojo's yes-man; Yonai helped force Shimada out of office as part of maneuvers to bring down Tojo's cabinet in July 1944.
I was recently looking at an NHK page with links to videos and interviews, including with Suzuki Taka, who witnessed the severe wounding of her husband Grand Chamberlain Suzuki Kantaro, and with enlisted men who were caught up in the coup attempt.
www2.nhk.or.jp/archives/art...
I recently received “The Bomber Mafia” as a birthday gift (heh). It was bad, so bad that I believe it cannot be read as a reliable account of strategic bombing in World War II. In so many ways, it demonstrates the worst tendencies of the “pop history” genre. My review (and latest)⬇️
For those with an interest in Japan’s decision to surrender who also read Japanese, here is a link to an interesting new review essay by Nakatani Tadashi (Teikyo University).
roles.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/uploads/publ...
Those interested in Emperor Hirohito and the war may find the March edition of Chuo Koron worthwhile.
chuokoron.jp/chuokoron/la...
Poster and abstract for Atsuko Shigesawa (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies) presentation in the MIT History Asia in Dialogue seminar series on 2/19/2026 at 5pm in E51-285: "Reframing the Japanese Mind on the Atomic Bomb: The US Strategic Bombing Survey and its Counterfactual Conclusion." Abstract: "In July 1946, the US Strategic Bombing Survey—a group of analysts led by a civilian board of directors appointed by the Secretary of War—concluded that: “…Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated” (hereinafter, “counterfactual conclusion”). Since then, it has been cited by critics of the US administration’s decision to use the new weapon. In 1995, two historians challenged this conclusion by scrutinizing evidence: interrogations of Japanese leaders. Examining the counterfactual narrative only within the framework of the interrogations, however, misses the significance of the Survey’s studies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Five of its 15 study divisions devoted substantial time and resources to studying the effects of the atomic bomb. How do the results of these studies intertwine with the conclusion? Did they contribute in any way to its formation? This presentation scrutinizes the transition of the Morale Division's manuscripts and final report in an attempt to answer these questions."
***Next Week at MIT!***
Atsuko Shigesawa (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies) in the MIT History Asia in Dialogue seminar series on 2/19/2026 at 5pm in E51-285: "Reframing the Japanese Mind on the Atomic Bomb: The US Strategic Bombing Survey and its Counterfactual Conclusion."
I've likely heard it since then, too, but it's very much associated with those years, particularly when paired with that album cover (my brother probably still has it along with all our other ones). Thanks for jogging the memory.
Haven't heard that in a really long time, perhaps since the '70s. I remember that 3D album cover.
Cool.
Interesting book; the author presented at our kenkyukai last October, along with Murai Ryota, who discussed his recent book on the parties and "normal constitutional government" (『「憲政常道」の近代日本ー戦前の民主化を問う』NHKブックス2025年).
MJHA is delighted to announce that the 2026 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize has been awarded to Simon Partner (Duke University) for "Koume's World: The Life and Work of a Samurai Woman Before and After the Meiji Restoration" (Columbia University Press, 2024)!
Ok here it is, with enough of the weekend left for people to read it. Kill the Corps V: The Battle of the Potomac.
bafriedman.substack.com/p/kill-the-c...
Here's footage of Alex Pretti honoring a veteran after they pass away at the ICU
THIS is who our own government has branded a domestic terrorist. This is the patriot on whose grave Pete Hegseth has already pissed.
Makes my blood fucking boil
www.reddit.com/r/law/commen...
An interesting new paper from Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research suggesting that Japan's WWII death toll has been underestimated
Incorporating population records from colonies, it raises the toll from 3.1 million to 3,764,549
ipss.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000...
“The collapse of the AI bubble is going to be ugly…AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector & tech monopolists run amok.“
Read this article by @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy. Whether you agree with it all or not, it’s important.
American officers know what Trump is planning, and their minds will rebel at directives to take everything they’ve prepared to do for years and apply it backwards, against the allies they have trained to work with and protect.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
私の勤務先の愛知県立大学日本文化学部は日本古代・中世史の専任教員（任期なし）を1名募集しております。採用時期は2027年4月1日です。応募締切は2026年3月27日（金）です。詳しくは以下ご覧ください。
jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekJor...
#AcademicSky
What was best, worst, and why? What was over-or-under-rated, and why? What was missed?! Check out the launch panel on the top 10 best & worst decisions in US foreign policy history🗃️ (Council on Foreign Relations survey, rated by members of @shafrhistorians.bsky.social) youtu.be/rQB4dZgDdlg?...
Sheldon Garon's review of Richard Overy's Rain of Ruin (open access).
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Danish and Greenland ministers just left the White House. It did not go well.
I have a long discussion here of Trump's attempt to get Greenland and why it could lead to World War III.
(Gifted.)
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
