South Pacific Air War, volume 1: The Fall of Rabaul, December 1941 - March 1942

[Michael Louey]

Home again,

The Bibliography does quote s number of what appear Japanese primary sources. Not being a specialist in Japanese sources - the following at least appear to be wartime records rather than secondary books -

BBKS Kan-49. NAII "Translation of Japanese Navy Messages" (There's a bunch of these which I expect are Allied intelligence intercepts).

There's also Chitose Kokutai Kodochoso. References to Japanese Monographs in the US Library of Congress.

Diary of Warrant Officer Nemoto Kumesako IJN Kiyokawa Maru.

The 1st paragraph mentions there are a large set of information are in the authors archives and he references in the bibliography can't include every individual reference. This is not one of those academic histories with footnotes on every action however it does go through the unfolding events in this area of action for the time covered in a bit of detail looking at the actions from both sides. There may be Japanese accounts with a more academic slant but I am not sure they will be accessible to non Japanese speakers nor would they match the impressions and operational units from the Allied side.

I have a large collection of histories of the air war for this area and this period from the Allied side but they don't cover all the actions covered here and certainly don't identify Japanese units and personnel to this (or any extent).

As I mentioned, Michael Claringbould writes monthly articles in Flightpath and you can see from these articles he's investigated the Japanese units/personnel as comprehensively as the Allied side.

Final word, is to make the judgement yourself - It's not a massively expensive book.

Cheers

Michael