The , also called the , is the official military history of

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

's involvement in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

from 1937 to 1945. The task of compiling the official account of the Japanese involvement in World War II began in October 1955 with the opening of the War History Office (the present Military History Department of the “National Institute for Defense Studies”, or NIDS, of Japan's

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

). Its main function was to serve as educational research material for the Self-Defense Forces. The office was led by Colonel Nishiura Susumu, a senior official in the War Ministry during the war. The publisher was Asagumo Shimbunsha. The history, comprising 102 volumes, the first of which was published in 1966 and the final one in 1980, was compiled from

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

, other Japanese government records, and personal diaries and records which survived Japan's defeat in the war. Many of the records were initially confiscated by

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

governments, mainly the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, but were returned to Japan in 1958. The 102 numbered volumes of the series include 37 volumes on the Imperial Headquarters, 34 volumes on army campaigns, 21 volumes on navy campaigns, nine volumes about air services campaigns, and one volume of chronology.The Corts Foundation In 1985 and 1986 two supplemental unnumbered volumes were published.

English translations

The work provides information and details on Japanese organization and operations in the whole Pacific Theater of Operations. Currently, only a limited number of volumes were translated, making it difficult for Western historians who do not read Japanese to make use of the information in western studies of the Pacific War.

By the Corts Foundation

Two volumes (Vol. 3 ''"Occupation of Dutch East Indies"'' and Vol. 26 ''"The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal"'') have been translated into English by The Corts Foundation. The Foundation is currently translating one additional volume (Vol. 34 ''"Army Air Drive to the Southern Pacific"'') into English. These translations focuses specifically on the volumes relevant to the study of the Japanese attack on and the subsequent occupation of the former

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

in the period of 1941 to 1945.

By Australian War Memorial

There is another translation by The Australian War Memorial, ''"Japanese army operations in the South Pacific Area: New Britain and Papua campaigns, 1942–43"''. This book is a translation of portions of volumes 14 (''"Army Operations in the South Pacific: Port Moresby to the First Phase of Guadalcanal, pt. 1"'') and 28 (''"Army Operations in the South Pacific: Guadalcanal - Buna Operations, pt. 2"'') of the Senshi sôsho, covering the invasion of Rabaul, the battles along the Kokoda Trail and at Milne Bay, and the destruction of the Japanese forces at Buna, Gona and Giruwa in northern Papua.

Digital Japanese edition

In December 2018, all updated and corrected volumes became available online at NIDS Library & Historical records Search System.NIDS Library & Historical records Search System
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Notes

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Senshi Sosho Empire of Japan Military history of Japan during World War II Japanese non-fiction literature Books about military history Series of history books about World War II Official military history books