Walter E. Grunden

This is a readable monograph examining the failures of the Japanese state to maximize its scientific assests during the Second World War; a mixture of limited resources, interservice rivalry, bureaucratic ineptitude, and what can be only described as a lack of imagination. This is with the possible exception of the biological warfare developments of the notorious Unit 731 in Manchuria.

Of particular use is that this monograph also manages to be comparative in terms of the experiences of "Big Science" experienced by the major powers, and there is some consideration about how Japan's wartime technological adventures contributed to the post-war technological boom.… (mehr)