This collection depicts the soldiers of Imperial Japan — the army and navy the United States fought across the Pacific from 1941 to 1945. From the Emperor in whose name they fought to the infantryman in a jungle foxhole, these hand-painted 1/30 scale metal figures are presented as history: the uniforms, weapons and men of a militarist empire, and the hard, often terrible war it waged.

At the top stands the Emperor Hirohito, the god-sovereign whose exact role in the war historians still debate, and the Command Group of General Homma — conqueror of the Philippines, and later a convicted war criminal. Below them are the officers and NCOs who drove the army forward, the officer with binoculars and the sergeant with his sword.

Set them against the Americans who defeated them — the two commanders of the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz. Built into a jungle-island diorama, with both sides closing on one another, they bring the Pacific war vividly — and honestly — to life.