A SUDDEN RAMPAGE: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941-1945, by Nicholas Tarling. London: Hurst & Company, 2001, 286 pp., $36 (paper)

As a rule, there are few positive accounts in Western literature of Japan's occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II, and this book by Nicholas Tarling is no exception.

In "A Sudden Rampage," the New Zealand history professor describes the origins, methods and results of the occupation, focusing on the failure of Japan's policymaking efforts.

Tarling examines the occupation in the context of Japan's relationship with the outside world over the longer term, beginning with the Meiji Restoration (1868) through to the outbreak of the Pacific War. He provides a short account of the conflict and attempts that were made to make peace. Over the course of the book we are given a sense of the ideology of the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere as it came to be shaped by the many contributing parties -- politicians, administrators, diplomats and soldiers. Tarling outlines in turn the political and economic activities of the Japanese in occupied Southeast Asia country by country.