Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 | Max Hastings | Comprehensive picture of the Pacific war

Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 | Max Hastings | A Brilliant Account of the Final Year of the Pacific War

books:

Retribution: The B...

	Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 Max Hastings Knopf, 2008 - 656 pages average customer review:based on 40 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Hailed in Britain as ?Spectacular . . . Searingly powerful? (Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Telegraph), a riveting, impeccably informed chronicle of the final year of the Pacific war. In his critically acclaimed Armageddon, Hastings detailed the last twelve months of the struggle for Germany. Here, in what can be considered a companion volume, he covers the horrific story of the war against Japan.

By the summer of 1944 it was clear that Japan?s defeat was inevitable, but how the drive to victory would be achieved remained to be seen. The ensuing drama?that ended in Japan?s utter devastation?was acted out across the vast stage of Asia, with massive clashes of naval and air forces, fighting through jungles, and barbarities by an apparently incomprehensible foe. In recounting the saga of this time and place, Max Hastings gives us incisive portraits of the theater?s key figures?MacArthur, Nimitz, Mountbatten, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. But he is equally adept in his portrayals of the ordinary soldiers and sailors?American, British, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese?caught in some of the war?s bloodiest campaigns.

With unprecedented insight, Hastings discusses Japan?s war against China, now all but forgotten in the West, MacArthur?s follies in the Philippines, the Marines at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Soviet blitzkrieg in Manchuria. He analyzes the decision-making process that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?which, he convincingly argues, ultimately saved lives. Finally, he delves into the Japanese wartime mind-set, which caused an otherwise civilized society to carry out atrocities that haunt the nation to this day.

Retribution is a brilliant telling of an epic conflict from a master military historian at the height of his powers.

for more information click here

Comprehensive picture of the Pacific war

This excellent book provides an education on the war in the Pacific. The British in Burma, miseries of jungle warfare; Japan's Chinese conquests; warships in the Pacific, battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines; the battle of Leyte Gulf; the national image of MacArthur through efforts of his public relations operations (for a more splendid account of this read David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter"; return to the Philippines; Iwo Jima; Allied POW's: 27% died in Japanese prison camps as opposed to 4% in German camps; Okinawa; Mao and Chiang Kai-shek and the fruits of our great investment in supporting Chiang; loss of European empires; Curtis LeMay and the Air Force bombing Japan: dropping incendiaries on Tokyo, events leading to the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Russian invasion of Manchuria; and most significantly during the last year of the war, the Japanese bushido attitude of suicidal annihilation, and the agonies of surrender, particularly bringing the war to its conclusion. POW slave labor; the human cost of victory. Japanese denial of guilt. You will think twice before buying a Honda, Toyota and especially a Mitsubishi automobile. This is a worthwhile effort by Hastings to provide a comprehensive overview of the Pacific war in a writing style that is sometimes uneven, but always lively and interesting.

for more information click here

A Brilliant Account of the Final Year of the Pacific War

For those of us who fought in the Pacific during World War II, one wonders what more can be said that has not been previously written about by dozens of authors, from grand overall strategic reviews to those of individuals. The British journalist-historian Max Hastings, who has written extensively on war and in particular the Second World War, has succeeded in brilliant fashion to examine the last year of the Pacific war, combining battle accounts flavored by interviews with participants, to produce a riveting analysis of the strategic decisions and tactics used, and from this to produce sharp judgments about these decisions and those in charge.

In Hastings' account there are fascinating details little covered by others writers. These include the important role played by U.S. subs in sinking Japanese shipping, so vital to Japan's war-making powers. The shadow war in China where Mao and his cohorts in Yenan's caves did little to attack Japanese forces, waiting till the war's end to renew their battle with the Chinese Nationalists. Hastings' view of Chiang Kai-shek and his largely toothless armies is likewise largely negative. He is also critical, unfairly in my view, of the State Department Foreign Service officers in China whose reports to policymakers on the relative strength and popularity of the Chinese Communists compared to those of the Nationalist government were more favorable to Mao's guerrilla forces. He has pages about the non-military nonchalance of Naval aviators, to the concern of their superior officers, but also praise for their contributions in defeating Japan's naval power and its carrier air wing. Other interesting sidelights include the Soviet Union's invasion of Manchuria, the forgotten campaign of British General Slim--who Hastings' admires--in recapturing Burma, and the non-use of Australian forces in the last years of the war.

Hastings is critical of both leaders and tactics. He has little use for the showmanship and sometimes deceit of General Douglas MacArthur. Nor does he much good to say about Lord Louis Mountbatten. The author suggest, a bit unconvincely, that the entire Philippines campaign was more about MacArthur's own retribution for his failures after Pearl Harbor in defending Manila. In contrast, he has great admiration for Admiral Chester Nimitz and his leadership of the U.S. Navy. He believes, as others have, that the long and costly battle the Marines fought for Peleliu was not needed in that the importance of the island for Japanese aircraft to attack the Philippines had disappeared by the time the invasion took place. He also suggests that Iwo Jima may not have been necessary either, though many a B-29 crewmen who landed there, as did I on three occasions, would disagree. Although he is critical of the human suffering in Japan caused by the B-29 air campaign against urban target, he also believes that Japan would not have surrendered without the twin blows of the B-29 bombing attacks, ending with the dropping of the atomic bombs. He therefore allies himself with Richard Frank and other historians as to the necessity of the bombing, and has scant regard for revisionist historians who believe Japan would have surrendered without the bombing campaign, climaxed by the dropping of the A-bombs. Anyone who was in the Pacific either engaged against Japan or transferring from the European theater to be part of the invasion force held the opposite view--an immense sense of relief and joy when the overwhelming blows from the air, in addition to the virtual elimination of Japan's naval forces, caused Japan at last to accept unconditional surrender. As one who was interviewed by Max Hastings for this book, it is an honor to be cited in this candid and highly informative analysis of the final tragic months of the Pacific war.

for more information click here

An unusually well written history of the end of WWII in Japan

Well written, told through the eyes of the many soldiers, sailors, airmen, and commanders of all the armies involved. The author has a strong point of view about the strategic decisions taken to end the war, and whether you agree with him or not, it is worth reading if you are interested in the war or in Japanese or American or British military history and culture.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

products you might be interested in