This book is an excellent introduction to the tactics, structure and organisation of the Imperial Japanese Army in the early stages of the war in the Pacific. I purchased this book expecting that it would contain little more than order of battle information and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it also contained well informed and succinct summaries of the IJA's doctrine, tactics and weaponry which go a long way towards justifiying the relatively high cost of this thin (96 pages) book.

The core of the book is a detailed description of the organisation of the Japanese expeditionary forces involved in the conquest of the Philippines, Dutch East Indies and New Guinea in 1941-42. While there is almost no coverage of the Japanese forces involved in the Hong Kong, Malayan and Burmese campaigns I believe that they will be covered in a subsequent volume in this series. As well as outlining the structure of the Japanese forces involved in these campaigns (typically down to company level) Rottman also provides useful summaries of the campaigns amply illustrated by clear and well selected maps. In addition to covering the major Japanese campaigns, Rottman also provides detailed orders of battle and campaign summaries for minor campaigns such as the Japanese conquest of the eastern Netherlands East Indies and the Australian possessions in and around New Guinea. All up, his coverage of the string of Japanese campaigns in 1941-42 is admirably comprehensive and this book is completely successful as a resource on the organisation of the Japanese Army during this period.

While the content of the book is first rate, the same cannot, unfortunately, be said for its production standards. In particular, it would seem that either Mr Rottman's editor or publisher dropped the ball as the book has gone to print containing typos and a few minor, but obvious, errors. Perhaps more seriously (though the existence of typos in a relatively expensive book is disappointing) I have doubts about the value of including both organisational charts and textual orders of battle for many formations - as the information contained in the charts and text is identical surely one or the other should have been selected, freeing up space in the process. While these glitches are annoying they are, however, generally of a minor nature and don't detract greatly from the overall value of the book.

In summary, this book is an excellent resource for anyone with an interest in the Pacific Theatre of WW2 and I'm looking forward to the subsequent books in the series. However, I do hope that Mr Rottman and his editor ensure that they are free of the glitches contained in this volume.