Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan became formidable upon the 1980 publication of his The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783. Instantly he was hailed by Theodore Roosevelt, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the British Admiralty, and the Japanese Naval Ministry, which took Mahan's instructions especially to heart. Asada (history emeritus, Doshisha U.) describes how Mahan's book led the Japanese Naval Ministry to understand itself as the natural enemy of the US, then draws from archival records never before used to describe how naval conferences held in Washington in 1921-22, Geneva in 1927 and London in 1930 indicated the Japanese were an unenviable position. They were losing ground technologically, failing to justify increased armaments, and yet persisting in believing Mahon. Eventually the Japanese proved they were not able to filter the facts about relative battle strength and intention of themselves and the US through the pages of Mahon's 50-year-old book. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)