From Mahan to Pearl Harbor

Asada, a Japanese historian, studies how the Imperial Japanese Navy absorbed Mahan's ideas and how its leaders came to see the United States as the inevitable enemy. He examines the naval arms limitation treaties of the 1920s and 1930s, the split between treaty and fleet factions, and the internal politics that pushed Japan toward war.

Drawing on Japanese sources, the book shows how doctrine, bureaucratic rivalry and personal ambition combined to produce strategic disaster. It is a key text for understanding the road to Pearl Harbor from the Japanese side.