The Eagle & the Rising Sun: The Japanese-American War 1941-43: Pearl Harbor through Guadalcanal

by Alan Schom

A fresh and provocative account of the greatest naval campaign of the twentieth century. Alan Schom's histories and biographies have been celebrated for their iconoclastic approach and a dramatic focus on extraordinary personalities meeting at the crossroads of history. In this magisterial history of World War II in the Pacific, he shows how the conflict was in neither the United States's nor Japan's best interest. On one hand, the American government and people were as inadequately prepared for war as any major power has ever been; on the other hand, Schom's close reading of Japanese military and political documents reveal that their supreme command knew they could not possibly win. "From time to time, we are privileged to be given extraordinary insights into the history of our age. Alan Schom has given us a tapestry, into which he has woven figures of immense proportions, yet he has not lost sight of their humanity. He writes...in the grand tradition of Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August." ―Thomas F. Marfiak, CEO and publisher, U.S. Naval Institute; Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy, Ret. "Schom is a master of narrative technique."― Booklist 32 pages of photographs

Genres: History, World War II, American History, Military History, War

591 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2003

Reviews

[Derrick Sergeant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually enjoy reading history a lot, but my goodness, this book was a slog to get through. It was a shame too because it started out very good. The author was very thorough about the background of the main characters in the Pacific conflict, including the main players on both the American and the Japanese side. I really enjoyed the chapters that dealt with the biographies of those people. But once the actual conflict started, instead of getting more exciting, this book became, unfortunately, thorough, but boring.
The author has obviously done an enormous amount of research into the course and participants of these battles. There are names of ships, commanders, task forces, islands, water passages, sea routes, mountain passes, jungles, and on and on. Details of the different battles, especially naval battles, are meticulously presented, write down to the very minute when different torpedoes are launched from different vessels. It’s really an impressive feat of research. Too bad it is not presented in a readable way. All these details I just stacked one on top of another that they end up, blending together and not telling a compelling picture of how the battle is shaping out. Perhaps if it was accompanied by equally detailed maps of the action, that might’ve made a difference. As it is presented here, though, the battles are confusing and the reader is hard pressed to follow what’s going on. It’s like a movie that films all action scenes with shaky cam, and the viewer wants to know what is happening clearly, but is impossible to say. That’s how I felt as I was reading through some of the battles.
And about 50% of this book is battles, so, about 50% of this book was not very enjoyable. It’s a shame. I like reading about war. But this book was just not it. Come for the biographies of the commanders, but then leave after that.

[Lotus Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid read. Schom clearly has an excellent command of facts. The problem is that these facts aren't really held together in a cohesive whole. While it does cover the Japanese high command and their officers (a topic largely if not wholly neglected by a lot of historians) it really is two books. The first half contains a large number of quite detailed mini-biographies of the people involved: Hirohito, Nimitz, FDR, Spruance, MacArthur, Ernie King (who is quite a character) and a lot of detail on the UK/US alliance. Then much of this plays no further part, since the second half is detailed descriptions of the numerous naval clashes around Guadalcanal, in which the earlier players introduced play little part, since they were in overall command, far from the battle. I still enjoyed it, but it's a shame that the two halves of the book were not more closely reconciled. This will flesh out a lot of detail if you're already familiar with the time frame, but probably doesn't make a great introduction.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good beginning with interesting and little discussed pre-war history regarding Japan and US (e.g. internal Japanese intrigue and Hirohito's involvement in it). However, once book gets into actual US wartime (i.e. Pearl Harbor and after) it feels rushed with little details and facts. Instead the author's opinion rather than facts are interjected too much into the discussion. Note that is true even when I agree with the author's comments (e.g. MacArthur is a HIGHLY overrated and admired General).

Also the editing is poor with many grammatical errors, typos (including obvious date and time errors), etc., again with more of these issues occurring towards the last half of the book.

Overall, the interesting pre-war insights and worthwhile analysis of decisions, actions, etc. allow me to give this book 3 stars, but could have been much better with a more thought out and thorough discussion of the war from 12/7/1941-2/1943.

[Iago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buen libro sobre la primera parte de la Guerra del Pacífico con los antecedentes y radiografías milimétricas de los principales involucrados.
En la primera parte del libro se habla de la guerra y de los actores de una manera más amena, desde una perspectiva general y de las claves del conflicto. Especialmente gustoso resulta leer los capítulos titulados: dos almirantes y un general.
La última parte del libro se centra en la ardua batalla de Guadalcanal, una serie de ofensivas donde Japón perdió la iniciativa de la guerra. La única pega que le pongo es que la profusión de detalles se centra en el bando americano, y aunque el autor logra dar protagonismo y de una manera muy acertada al bando japonés, no es ni de lejos la del bando americano lo que desluce un poco el trabajo.
También se echa de menos un capítulo final amplio con lo que pasó después de Guadalcanal, resumido a un par de páginas al final del libro.

[Thomas Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book that tried to do too much. Perhaps with a stronger editor to keep the author centered, it could've been pulled off. Suffers from repetition and poor copy editing, which grates on me considering how many people read the manuscript before it went to print. All that said, the research is strong and thorough, and I learned much about the Navy's unreadiness, and in many cases, gross incompetence and dereliction of duty. Frustrating to read about all of our missed opportunities, which meant more losses. Passages on Hirohito were interesting. Author poses many questions about MacArthur's performance, some unfortunately left unanswered.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good brief history of the early part of WWII in the Pacific, concentrating on the US vs Japan. Of course, I wanted more maps, but the narrative flow is good and I found a new distaste for Adm King and Gen MacArthur from his treatment of those central figures in this part of the war. I really did like the additional background of some of the US and Japanese military leaders, which added to descriptive power to their actions during the events of this book.

[Harry B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Schom manages to create a narrative that is, for most parts, easy to follow. However, his description of naval battles and the actors and ships involved were somewhat straight forward to follow, but in the last 100 pages of the book, were more difficult to picture in the mind. This may have been because of the numerous naval battles that took place in Guadalcanal in mid-1942 to early 1943. Regardless, this was invaluable book to supplement my sparse knowledge on this theatre of WWII.

[Raunak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of in-depth information about the chief personalities of the Pacific war, but the book is structured poorly, with battle descriptions flowing haphazardly into character study. Ends at a strange point of the war as well.

[Damian York · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was good and i do like ww2 information and stories

[Chase Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book should read

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent book but not one I'll reread. Plenty of background information about the high commanders and an interesting subject but I struggled to get through this book

[Dave Hoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably best history of the beginning of the war with Japan and ending with the belated Victory of Guadalcanal. Authors did a good read of the various Admirals. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's incompetent and Admiral Turner's realism & savvy with the landing and supplying of the Marines to take the island while getting little to no help from others. Nimitz, Halsey, a Mitscher did their best, other Admirals, not so. Other authors have not treated Adm. Turner as well, but invasions need support and protection.

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro. Largo, pero bueno. Muy documentado, con un estilo atrapante. Con muchas mini-biografias de cada personaje que va introduciendo en la narracion.

Lo disfrute muchismo. Se aprende mucho con el. No avanza mucho la historia. Solo llega a Guadalcanal, pero con un nivel maximo de detalles

[Chris Welber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written. Short on details on some battles, but there are already so many books written in super detail about some of those events. I enjoyed the interchangeable perspectives from US to Japanese and back.

[Walter Straus · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best histories of the WWII battle in the Pacific. He covers most of the major events and participants through the battle at Guadalcanal. Excellent.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good Pacific War history. Has a lot of detail. Educational.