As the title suggests, Fifteen Lectures on Showa Japan comprises a series of historiographic essays meant to bridge the gap between the current “fragmented and compartmentalized” state of scholarly literature and the broader “overall picture of this period called Showa” (ix). Tsutsui Kiyotada is not alone in his critique of the fractilization of academia into increasingly niche and specialized categories that end up unapproachable to both scholars in the same field and broader readership. In Anglophone circles, David Armitage and Jo Guldi made similar arguments in their controversial The History Manifesto. The lack of these “grand” narratives in scholastic work has led to the unfortunate consequence of perpetuating certain historical fallacies as historians shy away from broad stroke history. Thus, the primary aim of Fifteen Lectures is not cutting edge research, but framing many of the key historical arguments that shaped the early Showa Period. 

Each of the fifteen essays tackles what many would consider pivotal moments in the history of Showa Japan and the unfortunate escalation from limited conflicts to world war. As such, the topics are largely limited to the realm of politics and government which is unfortunate given the original intent of the work to provide a rough sketch of the grand narrative of Showa history. That being said, for those interested in the political turmoil in the highest rungs of government, Fifteen Lectures provides introductory commentary on topics generally overlooked in Western academia like the “Second Movement to Protect the Constitution” or draws attention to a more nuanced interpretation of events like ratification of the Tripartite Alliance, which was only reluctantly ratified in late 1940. 

Like most historiographical essays, each of these rely less on path-breaking research but more a summation of different interpretations of events presented by authors over time, and some commentary on their validity. Given the disparity between Anglophone and Japanese research on the Pacifc, largely due to language barriers, this type of primer works well to provide a “shortcut” to the debates that took place in Japanese academia and which foundational works from the West have had an impact in this narrative. Quite handy is the recommended readings section that accompanies each essay in an annotated bibliographical form. While most of these are Japanese sources, they would prove invaluable to a new scholar as introductions to Japanese historiographical debates. 

Overall, the collection is a fairly rare type of academic piece that targets both specialist and general historian alike. Scholars in other fields would be well served to consider similar approachable collections to help correct historical distortions caused by the perpetuation of mythical interpretations. While far from perfect, Fifteen Lectures is a fine addition to anyone interested in broadening their lens of interpretation of the Second World War.