Closing the Circle: War in the Pacific, 1945

by Edwin P. Hoyt

Chronicles the last sixty days of World War II and explores the political and military climate prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb

Genres: World War II, History

240 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1982

About the author

Edwin P. Hoyt was a prolific American writer who specialized in military history. He was born in Portland, Oregon to the publisher Edwin Palmer Hoyt (1897–1979) and his wife, the former Cecile DeVore (1901–1970). A younger brother, Charles Richard, was born in 1928. Hoyt attended the University of Oregon from 1940 to 1943.

In 1943, Hoyt's father, then the editor and publisher of The Oregonian, was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as the director of the Domestic Branch, Office of War Information. The younger Hoyt served with the Office of War Information during World War II, from 1943 to 1945. In 1945 and 1946, he served as a foreign correspondent for The Denver Post (of which his father became editor and publisher in 1946) and the United Press, reporting from locations in China, Thailand, Burma, India, the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and Korea.

Edwin Hoyt subsequently worked as an ABC broadcaster, covering the 1948 revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Arab-Israeli conflict. From 1949 to 1951, he was the editor of the editorial page at The Denver Post. He was the editor and publisher of the Colorado Springs Free Press from 1951 to 1955, and an associate editor of Collier's Weekly in New York from 1955 to 1956. In 1957 he was a television producer and writer-director at CBS, and in 1958 he was an assistant publisher of American Heritage magazine in New York.

Starting in 1958, Hoyt became a writer full-time, and for a few years (1976 to 1980) served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Hawaii. In the 40 years since his first publication in 1960, he produced nearly 200 published works.

While Hoyt wrote about 20 novels (many published under pseudonyms Christopher Martin and Cabot L. Forbes) the vast majority of his works are biographies and other forms of non-fiction, with a heavy emphasis on World War II military history.

Hoyt died in Tokyo, Japan on July 29, 2005, after a prolonged illness. He was survived by his wife Hiroko, of Tokyo, and three children, Diana, Helga, and Christopher, all residing in the U.S.

Reviews

[Hans · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author does a great job describing the final year of the war in the Pacific. It does so by covering not only the military side, but also the political part of it. The latter however in such a way that it does not distract from the military drama that was going on.

Next to the many difficult decisions that needed to be made, dropping 'the bomb' being one of them, it also shows what operational difficulties the Americans ran into. Fleets became larger and larger, the number of men that needed to be landed on islands increased, and in the air more and more aircraft 'cluttered' the radars. The scope of this theater of war is hard to imagine, so it is hardly surprising that things can go seriously wrong. The sinking of the Indianapolis being a tragic example of this.

On the Japanese side the cracks were increasing in size in the military ruling. The military did their best to hide the truth from the public, but with more and more aircraft flying over Japan, including the big B-29's, it was hard to keep stating that things were going well. It also increased the rivalry between the navy, army and air forces of Japan. Next to this there was the struggle between the military rulers and the civilian government. All of this is well described in this book.

Obviously the entry of Russia in the Pacific war and the dropping of the bomb see coverage. Both had a political side to them, which is well explained. It also goes into the details of what might have happened if Japan had not surrendered and the war would have to been continued on Japanese soil.

In my opinion a nice book that will give the reader a good overview of what has happened during 1945 and which invites the reader to delve some more into this.

[Bill V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this title more than the other work I've read by the author, Blue Skies and Blood. There are a number of minor facts I was not aware of and the book provides a perspective of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria that I was not aware of. There are a couple of trivial errors in the book.
The book covers more of the behind the scenes activities than I generally prefer, such as the internal Japanese political struggle on whether or not to accept surrender as well as the infighting among the allies and the Soviets on how to deal with post war Japan and Asia.
Overall this is a satisfactory book on the closing weeks of the Pacific War and World War II.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief history of World War II in the Pacific during its final year. The United States was getting ready to invade the Japanese mainland and the atomic bomb was nearing completion. The American president has died and a new president is in office.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

very good military history of the pacific area 1945, well written and easy to follow.