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The Pacific War: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima
The Pacific War Companion' brings together the perspectives and insights of world-reno wned military historians. From the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor through the release of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the conflict in the Pacific was marked by amazing tactical innovations, such as those in amphibious warfare, and horrific battles that raged in the unforgiving climate of the island jungles. Each chapter in this book focuses on a different aspect of this conflict, from the planning of operations to the experiences of the men who were there.
346 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 12, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 12, 2019
Would have benefited from more maps.
April 16, 2014
I found "The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima" to be a fascinating look into the shifting currents of military history. From my perspective, as one who was born a few months before Pearl Harbor, World War II was a vivid part of my childhood memories. I remember long trains of flatcars making their way to Philadelphia laden with cargo such as tanks, giant ship propellers and the like, destined for the European Theater. Gasoline and tire rationing was an everyday reality, as was the expedient of retreading tires to extract more miles for less rubber. Men on leave in smartly dressed in uniforms were to be seen everywhere and commanded an almost reflexive respect.
Moreover, the very distant war in the Pacific was brought very close to my heart because of my ancestry and its consequences. I am the four-greats grandchild and namesake of Major Samuel Nicholas, who was the first and highest-ranking Continental Marine, commissioned by the Continental Congress on 28 Nov 1775 with a document signed by John Handcock, whose signature was the elegant prototype of my own childish imitation. My aunt, Florence Elizabeth Tryon, sponsored the U.S.S. Nicholas (DD 449), which was the first Fletcher class destroyer built (along with her sister ship, O'Bannon) at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Main, both launched in the spring of 1942.
The career of the Nicholas was a long and distinguished one: after her sister ship, the O'Bannon, she received the most battle stars of any ship in the U.S. Navy during WWII, and when she was retired after more than 27 years of service, even participating in the recovery of Apollo astronauts, she had earned the most battle stars of any ship in the history of the Navy and was its longest-serving destroyer.
Because of their exemplary service during the battle of Guadalcanal and other actions, Admiral Halsey ordered that the Nicholas and O'Bannon be present at the signing of the peace treaty in Tokyo Bay in Aug-Sep 1945. The Nicholas was given the honor of transporting the Japanese peace delegation to the U.S.S. Missouri, for the ceremony marking the solemn conclusion of World War II.
The "Pacific War Companion" was a very informative read for me, who had learned of the details of WWII originally through a careful reading of nearly all the captions of pictures in Henry Luce's 'LIFE' magazine (whilst designing and building an elaborate naval war game during my school years). To say that these were less than entirely accurate is an understatement, as many of the most critical elements of the war, both in the Pacific and in Europe, were tightly-held secrets. The most famous of these were the breaking of the Enigma codes of some of the German services by the British and the U.S. breaking of Japanese codes, both diplomatic and military. In addition, combatants on all sides routinely over-estimated their own successes while minimizing their losses for the benefit of their respective home fronts.
However, after the dual-edged attack on Pear Harbor, the plight of the U.S. was clearly compromised by the attack itself and by other actions by Japan that extended its influence far to the south, a drive made necessary by an endemic shortage of resources that was Japan's main weakness from the start. The first six months of the Pacific War was dominated by Japan.
Pearl Harbor was double-edged for the Japanese, because, although some aging battleships were sunk (although most were refloated and repaired), by luck or act of God, the U.S. aircraft carriers that were to prove so critical in subsequent actions were at sea. Also, because of a diplomatic foul-up, the declaration of war that was supposed to have been presented to the U.S. before the attack was delivered instead, several hours after. This turned an act of war into an act of 'infamy', which inflamed and united the American people, who had previously been largely isolationist. And, luckily for Churchill and our Western allies, the Axis powers declared war on the U.S. a couple of days later, which virtually sealed their doom from that point on.
One of the main revelations of the "Pacific War Companion" was the very ambivalent and divisive role of General Douglas MacArthur. In large part, MacArthur, who by all accounts was not only handsome, brilliant and charismatic, was also deeply involved with some Republican members of congress who were enraged with the liberal and seemingly anti-business policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt described MacArthur as 'the most dangerous man [in the U.S.]'. During the 1944 election, MacArthur, through intermediaries, apparently fed large amounts of money to key Republicans in congress in a bid to be nominated to run for vice-president, which was in violation of laws preventing those in active service from running for political office.
Perhaps more disturbingly, MacArthur's sentimental attachment to the Philippines and his conviction that Japan should be attacked from the south and from secured bases in China were both at odds with the plans of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to pursue a variation of the long-standing 'Orange' plan, developed during the 1930s during contingency planning, which called for an island-hopping campaign more or less straight across the Pacific (a plan which was actually followed). MacArthur's seniority, personality and ambition were perhaps the most serious challenge to various contending plans for achieving victory over the Japanese.
But, he was certainly not the only enemy to the unanimity of purpose that raised it's head on both sides, as both inter-service rivalries on the U.S. and sharp differences of opinion on the Japanese side between those in high command caused a certain unpredictability as to which of from two to many alternatives was to be followed.
Revisionist theories about Roosevelt knowing about the impending attack on Peal Harbor and doing nothing to prevent it are laid to rest. Also, the fanatical resistance of the Japanese (based on part of their believe that since their Emperor was a god that they could not possibly lose) and other factors are brought forward to justify the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a 'least worst' alternative that saved lives on both sides over a conventional, amphibious landing—that would have dwarfed the action at Normandy—followed by a long war of attrition leading to an inevitable Japanese defeat.
After the Battle of Guadalcanal, my mother and aunt together presented the original commission of Major Samuel Nicholas, which had been in my family for generations, to General Vandergrift, USMC, to honor the many Marines who carried the fighting to the Japanese in countless amphibious assaults. The most famous of these was Iwo Jima, the only battle in which more Marines than Japanese were lost, and whose victorious conclusion is memorialized by the statue of Marines in Arlington National Cemetery, raising the Stars and Stripes over Mt. Suribatchi to signal the U.S. victory.
Moreover, the very distant war in the Pacific was brought very close to my heart because of my ancestry and its consequences. I am the four-greats grandchild and namesake of Major Samuel Nicholas, who was the first and highest-ranking Continental Marine, commissioned by the Continental Congress on 28 Nov 1775 with a document signed by John Handcock, whose signature was the elegant prototype of my own childish imitation. My aunt, Florence Elizabeth Tryon, sponsored the U.S.S. Nicholas (DD 449), which was the first Fletcher class destroyer built (along with her sister ship, O'Bannon) at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Main, both launched in the spring of 1942.
The career of the Nicholas was a long and distinguished one: after her sister ship, the O'Bannon, she received the most battle stars of any ship in the U.S. Navy during WWII, and when she was retired after more than 27 years of service, even participating in the recovery of Apollo astronauts, she had earned the most battle stars of any ship in the history of the Navy and was its longest-serving destroyer.
Because of their exemplary service during the battle of Guadalcanal and other actions, Admiral Halsey ordered that the Nicholas and O'Bannon be present at the signing of the peace treaty in Tokyo Bay in Aug-Sep 1945. The Nicholas was given the honor of transporting the Japanese peace delegation to the U.S.S. Missouri, for the ceremony marking the solemn conclusion of World War II.
The "Pacific War Companion" was a very informative read for me, who had learned of the details of WWII originally through a careful reading of nearly all the captions of pictures in Henry Luce's 'LIFE' magazine (whilst designing and building an elaborate naval war game during my school years). To say that these were less than entirely accurate is an understatement, as many of the most critical elements of the war, both in the Pacific and in Europe, were tightly-held secrets. The most famous of these were the breaking of the Enigma codes of some of the German services by the British and the U.S. breaking of Japanese codes, both diplomatic and military. In addition, combatants on all sides routinely over-estimated their own successes while minimizing their losses for the benefit of their respective home fronts.
However, after the dual-edged attack on Pear Harbor, the plight of the U.S. was clearly compromised by the attack itself and by other actions by Japan that extended its influence far to the south, a drive made necessary by an endemic shortage of resources that was Japan's main weakness from the start. The first six months of the Pacific War was dominated by Japan.
Pearl Harbor was double-edged for the Japanese, because, although some aging battleships were sunk (although most were refloated and repaired), by luck or act of God, the U.S. aircraft carriers that were to prove so critical in subsequent actions were at sea. Also, because of a diplomatic foul-up, the declaration of war that was supposed to have been presented to the U.S. before the attack was delivered instead, several hours after. This turned an act of war into an act of 'infamy', which inflamed and united the American people, who had previously been largely isolationist. And, luckily for Churchill and our Western allies, the Axis powers declared war on the U.S. a couple of days later, which virtually sealed their doom from that point on.
One of the main revelations of the "Pacific War Companion" was the very ambivalent and divisive role of General Douglas MacArthur. In large part, MacArthur, who by all accounts was not only handsome, brilliant and charismatic, was also deeply involved with some Republican members of congress who were enraged with the liberal and seemingly anti-business policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt described MacArthur as 'the most dangerous man [in the U.S.]'. During the 1944 election, MacArthur, through intermediaries, apparently fed large amounts of money to key Republicans in congress in a bid to be nominated to run for vice-president, which was in violation of laws preventing those in active service from running for political office.
Perhaps more disturbingly, MacArthur's sentimental attachment to the Philippines and his conviction that Japan should be attacked from the south and from secured bases in China were both at odds with the plans of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to pursue a variation of the long-standing 'Orange' plan, developed during the 1930s during contingency planning, which called for an island-hopping campaign more or less straight across the Pacific (a plan which was actually followed). MacArthur's seniority, personality and ambition were perhaps the most serious challenge to various contending plans for achieving victory over the Japanese.
But, he was certainly not the only enemy to the unanimity of purpose that raised it's head on both sides, as both inter-service rivalries on the U.S. and sharp differences of opinion on the Japanese side between those in high command caused a certain unpredictability as to which of from two to many alternatives was to be followed.
Revisionist theories about Roosevelt knowing about the impending attack on Peal Harbor and doing nothing to prevent it are laid to rest. Also, the fanatical resistance of the Japanese (based on part of their believe that since their Emperor was a god that they could not possibly lose) and other factors are brought forward to justify the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a 'least worst' alternative that saved lives on both sides over a conventional, amphibious landing—that would have dwarfed the action at Normandy—followed by a long war of attrition leading to an inevitable Japanese defeat.
After the Battle of Guadalcanal, my mother and aunt together presented the original commission of Major Samuel Nicholas, which had been in my family for generations, to General Vandergrift, USMC, to honor the many Marines who carried the fighting to the Japanese in countless amphibious assaults. The most famous of these was Iwo Jima, the only battle in which more Marines than Japanese were lost, and whose victorious conclusion is memorialized by the statue of Marines in Arlington National Cemetery, raising the Stars and Stripes over Mt. Suribatchi to signal the U.S. victory.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2014
There must be better histories of World War II in the Pacific - even better anthologies of essays on the Pacific War - than this uneven collection. Some of the chapters are good, including chapter 3, on the Japanese invasions of Pacific islands; chapter 10, on the logistical challenges facing Japan; and chapter 12, on the tactics of battles on rocky, volcanic islands. But others are terrible: chapter 5 is relentlessly contemptuous of Japanese military leadership; and chapter 8, on the contributions of Australia and New Zealand, is painfully parochial in tone.
July 11, 2017
too much of a screed against MacArthur
April 1, 2020
Everything in this book has a purpose and reason. Not a word wasted.
March 19, 2022
Great book, series of essays written by different authors, very informative.
March 19, 2015
A scholarly look at the Pacific Theater
I enjoy the first person books about the War, any war, really. Hearing from those who experienced it I find very moving, but then my dad was an engineer in many major operations in WW II, and I can't talk to him now. I thought this was another example, but it's a thoughtful analysis of the war in the Pacific, the reasons decisions were made and the progression. There is something great chapter on why the use, and not just the demonstration, of the atomic bomb was necessary. The authors bring out many interesting details, for example MacArthur had his strong points but perhaps was not the general he thought he was. The only reason he remained after his mismanagement of the Philippines' defense was political clout in Washington.
So a worthwhile read, some good stories and well written, although you discover little of the individual personalities. Well, nothing's perfect......
I enjoy the first person books about the War, any war, really. Hearing from those who experienced it I find very moving, but then my dad was an engineer in many major operations in WW II, and I can't talk to him now. I thought this was another example, but it's a thoughtful analysis of the war in the Pacific, the reasons decisions were made and the progression. There is something great chapter on why the use, and not just the demonstration, of the atomic bomb was necessary. The authors bring out many interesting details, for example MacArthur had his strong points but perhaps was not the general he thought he was. The only reason he remained after his mismanagement of the Philippines' defense was political clout in Washington.
So a worthwhile read, some good stories and well written, although you discover little of the individual personalities. Well, nothing's perfect......
February 8, 2013
This is a very good book composed of 13 different essays by noted WWII scholars. A few of the essays are somewhat superficial, but this is more than compensated for by "Coping with Disaster: Allied strategy and command in the Pacific 1941-42" and "After Midway: Japanese naval strategy 1942-45". There is also an outstanding essay on the central Pacific campaign and another outstanding essay on amphibious warfare; the author explores both American and Japanese developments in amphibious warfare and the operational challenges which had to be overcome. These essays provide a very good strategic-operational overview of the war in the Pacific, and will provide a solid foundation for further reading on the tactical-operational level.
August 17, 2011
Very good book for a general insight on the Pacific War. Of course it doesnt go very much into details but it provides interesting explanations on all sorts of key elements. What i liked most is that the authors really tried to put their finger on the essential questions and strived to answer them : why the atomic bombings were seen as necessary by many, for instance.
I really recommend it to all people interested in this war.
I really recommend it to all people interested in this war.
July 23, 2014
A collection of essays about the Pacific theater in WWII. Not as engaging as Rise and Fall of the Third Reich because having many different authors leads to changes in style which are a little jarring. Looking past that it was avery informative read and I learned bunches. The take away message is don't start a war with another country with a larger navy and industrial base because you will eventually lose.
February 3, 2016
Very interesting book about world war two.
The author did a great job in gathering so much data and presenting in such a clear fashion. This book is about history and it reads very clear about personalities, and the suffering behind the headlines. I highly recommend this book.
The author did a great job in gathering so much data and presenting in such a clear fashion. This book is about history and it reads very clear about personalities, and the suffering behind the headlines. I highly recommend this book.
January 4, 2009
Excellent book for WW2 buffs.
May 19, 2012
Excellent broad history of the Pacific theater of the Second World War. Incorporates some very new research.
August 4, 2017
A rather basic overview of the War in the Pacific with an emphasis on photographs. OK, not great.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews