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<p> Scholars have long debated whether wartime Japan experienced fascism. Janis Mimura persuades us that elite bureaucrats were at the center of the widespread Japanese embrace of European-style fascist policies. Although we often talk of 'technocracy, ' this is the first account to analyze also the role of scientific and technological knowledge among the bureaucrats who developed authoritarian governance. Their innovations went beyond economic policy to shape a rather fantastic wartime mentality. This is the story of how Japanese experts convinced themselves that mobilization of the nation would by itself overcome resource constraints and defeat the mighty United States and its allies. -Sheldon Garon, Princeton University

<p> Planning for Empire offers a powerful new understanding of the core ideas and policies of the wartime Japanese state. Janis Mimura argues that a wartime ideology of technocracy, of a fascist character, drew support from a wide range of elite actors and propelled Japan to war. She offers a finely drawn portrait of the ideas and the political strivings of reform bureaucrats who carried the torch of technocracy first in Manchuria and then back in Tokyo, making clear both the extent and the limits of their achievements. This book should draw wide attention, spark some controversy, and shift the terms of debate of a critical episode in the twentieth-century history of Japan and the world. Andrew Gordon, Harvard University, author of A Modern History of Japan

<p> Mimura writes, moreover, with great economy, pinpoint clarity, and without embellishment or hint of hyperbole. If Planning for Empire does not, thus, aspire to 'best in show' honors for recent analyses of the Japanese empire, it deserves accolades as likely the most influential of the lot for its measured yet powerful confirmation of several critical trends in the study of early twentieth-century Japanese empire and war . . . it is a must read for all serious students of modern Japanese history. Frederick Dickinson, Journal of Japanese Studies (Summer 2012)

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Janis Mimura is AssociateProfessor of History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

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