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Krug, Hans-Joachim, et al. Reluctant Allies: German-Japanese Naval Relations in World War II. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2001. 456pp. $38.95
With the exception of Carl Boyd, John Chapman, Gerhard Krebbs, and Bernd Martin, historians have largely ignored German-Japanese relations in general and naval relations in particular. (A further exception would be Werner Rahn; see his "Japan and Germany, 1941-1943: No Common Objective, No Common Plans, No Basis of Trust," in the Summer 1993 issue of this journal.) That gap in the literature has now been filled by this collection of essays by four eminent German and Japanese naval officers and historians: Hans-Joachim Krug, Y6ichi Hirama, Berthold J. Sander-Nagashima, and Axel Niestle. Each contributes from his research specialty, and the product is a welcome reexamination of a "missed opportunity" based on sources in British, German, Japanese, and U.S. archives.
Part I consists of a historical overview and analysis of German-Japanese naval cooperation by Captain Krug, German Navy, and Admiral Hirama, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. Their message is straightforward-there never existed real cooperation between Berlin and Tokyo, as each side was intent merely to use the other to further its own power-- political agenda. This is as true for the Anti-Comintern Pact of November 1936 as it is for the...