The final confrontation

This fifth and final volume of selected translations from Taiheiyo senso e no michi, available for the first time in English as Japan's Road to the Pacific War, covers the final negotiations between Japan and the United States which led to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Initiated over thirty years ago under the direction of Kamikawa Hikomatsu for the Japan Association on International Relations, Taiheiyo senso e no michi offered the most richly documented account available of the events which catapulted Japan into World War II. The original Japanese authors were given access to a wide range of primary materials, including not only those of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, but also a number of previously unavailable documents from the former imperial army and navy, the Justice Ministry, and the Foreign Ministry. Also consulted were the private papers of Prime Ministers Konoe Fumimaro and Okada Keisuke, General Ugaki Kazushige, and Colonel Ishiwara Kanji. Key political and military leaders were interviewed as well.