Tell me about Japan's military prowess, and give me a site if possible. I know very little on their strength or their tactics, or weapons even! All I know is that they fought bitterly over the islands, rarely ever surrendering.

Well, their Constitution does not allow them to have a military ... so they don't have one. The USA fills in that void for them.

They're concept of "never surrender" and suicide rather than be captured ... was a very limitting aspect to things. It made the deathtoll on the Japanese side ridiculously disproportional to the American side, and did not really benefit them in most circumstances. The had a very strong military. They beat the crap out of the Russians in the 1905 war. Their tank in WW2 was a joke, but otherwise they had very good equipment. What else do you want to know?

japans military prowess was at its height during 1931-1945

go to this link. it literately has what you are looking for as far as everything japanese and military

http://www.warbirdforum.com/japan.htm

To understand what drove a japanese soldier, first understand bushido. a concise explanation can be found here:

http://www.shotokai.cl/filosofia/06_ee_.html

What was beautiful can be turned to your advantage. the Japanese took this code, and applied it militarily to it goals. Go to this link for an explanation.

http://www.warbirdforum.com/bushido.htm

This three links are nothing but a starting point. hope they help.

Mark, for some reason the first link you posted doesn't want to go anywhere.

I did some searching around prior to my own reply. The question seemed to be directed towards WW2 mostly, but unfortunately there is very few sites that will give a good Japanese perspective of things, at least none that I could find. All I can guess is that the better sites are in Japanese, but I don't know Japanese of course ...

IMO, its pointless studying the Japanese military for any time period without it being from their perspective. Anyone got any good sources that they've found for WW2 for this?

They do have a military. Its called the Japanese Defence Force, if im not mistaken.

okay...the link is fixed (too many h's in the http im affraid). i tested it, and it works. try this one now...and be prepared to get you mind blown away...

Nice links!

Japan does have a military, labeled 'Self-defense forces.' It's barely enough to defend the country. If Japan does commit forces to any international effort, its usually just medical staff and the like. If you notice, a big stink was raised in Japan a while back about the fact that it was sending peacekeepers to Iraq.

Japan (in terms of the people who vote for the people who run it) has effectively neutered themselves in the military arena, what I think of as a side effect of the combined shock of the atomic bombs and the Emperor's surrender.

It was also a side affect of the treaty they signed on the Missouri, and the US occupation for the 4 years following WW2.

Yeah, can't forget about that. I left it as a given. Even if the world is willing to let Japan rearm, not that there's much holding them up, there wouldn't be much of a move by the citizenry to jump up in joy about it. That's what I meant by neutering.