In this informative edition, author Barbara A. Summervill chronicles the history of militarism in Japan. Readers will learn about the emergence of the samurai and shoguns in the feudal era, the formation of a national military force, and the rise of Japanese imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The volume also analyzes the reasons that led Japan to embark on military campaigns that would lead to conflicts with China, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States, and the ultimate destruction of the Japanese army and navy.