The Pacific War: 1941-1945 Review

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(More customer reviews)This book advertises itself as a comprehensive history of the causes and conduct of the war. It accomlishes this goal very well.
Bright spots in the book where is compares favorably to other one-volume histories are the causes of the war going back to the opening of Japan, the Burma/India theater, the strategic wrangling between the Allies, and the wonderful maps.
Someone looking for blow-by-blow accounts of the battles will be disappointed, as Costello's refreshing perspective is to look primarily at the strategic implications of the battles. This is thoroughly appropriate for a one-volume history. Costello successfully resists the temptation to delve into exciting, but page-consuming, battle narrative. His intent seems rather to give you a framework with which you can fit together your other Pacific War books that have narrower settings.
Lastly, the photo pages in this book are the best I have ever seen. The selection of photographs, very few of which are trite, together with the masterful captions are in themselves a thumbnail of the plot of the book, not just eye candy or filler. Especially effective is how a inset of an important participant often appears in a photo of an event. Extremely impressive!

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Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan Review

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(More customer reviews)Good books devoting themselves to the overall scope and breadth of Pacific campaign against the Japanese during World War Two are hard to find, but this book solves the reader's problem nicely. It is a comprehensive, entertaining, and fair-minded book that careful details both Japanese and Allied perspectives before, during, and at the conclusion of the war. This book is truly a carefully constructed, exhaustively researched and quite well documented one-volume history that everyone should love. I first discovered it on the syllabus of a graduate-level Harvard history course, and have had it on my shelf ever since. Written in a very accessible style that allows the reader to stream through as though one is reading a novel, and it is filled with interesting anecdotes and new insights that keep the reader entertained and interested throughout the nearly 600 pages of the book. My own personal favorite was an actual complaint filed immediately after the attack at Pearl Harbor by a Hawaiian resident of a dog who was allegedly barking in Morse code to the Japanese ships offshore. It is also offers a number of new thought provoking and intriguing ideas about aspects of the war against Japan for the reader.
The author engages in an active reinterpretation of the war based on declassified intelligence files, archival material, Japanese documents and an impressive collection of interviews with principals involved in the almost five year struggle to defeat the Japanese after the events at Pearl Harbor. It is interesting to learn that the U.S. planned to wage a wide-ranging campaign of submarine attacks against enemy shipping even before the start of the war, and also indicates that MacArthur was lucky not to be unceremoniously dumped after his bad bungling of the defense of the Philippines and also because of his active disregard for a number of important intercepts of Japanese messages that could have saved literally thousands of American and other lives. Spector also reveals that U.S. decisions were often more influenced by the nature of our stormy relationship with our British allies and our own inter-service rivalries than by strategic concerns.
The author vividly conjures up accurate and spell-binding accounts of the major battles of the war, and provides a number of intriguing descriptions of lesser known aspects of the Pacific campaign, as well. He takes the reader on a fascinating whirlwind tour of the war, leaping from details of critical meetings between war planners in the Pentagon to social, economic, and political aspects of the engagement to excellent on-the-scene coverage of the battlegrounds. He shows us how the war against the Japanese was different from that being waged in Europe, and how this intensely naval type of conflict was in a number of ways much more risky and innovative on our part than its European counterpart. I was particularly fascinated by his interesting argument that the most critical Japanese mistake of the war was in allowing itself to be drawn into fighting the war of attrition we had always preferred to wage based on its defeat at Midway. This is an important, magisterial, and comprehensive book that is undoubtedly the single best one-volume treatment of the war against Japan and it belongs on every serious World War Two student's bookshelf. Enjoy!

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Pacific War: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima (Companion) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book provides a number of different strategic perspectives on the Pacific War in World War II. It is made up of a number of articles written by leading thinkers in the field of military history. Most are professors at universities. As mentioned in one review, one article has inaccurately identified that the US used Avengers for torpedo bombers at Midway when they used Devastators. However, the rest of the articles are accurate in the basics, and some of the strategic perspectives are interesting. Here are a couple for you. (1) Although the US used a Europe first strategy, the most powerful naval units fought in the Pacific, and the number of army divisions provided to MacArthur were still significant (when the divisions in Europe were below necessary), and the most advanced bomber (B-29) was provided to the Pacific War in mid 1944 when the bomber offensive in Europe would have needed them. Obviously, all along, the US had decided to fight a major two front war, and expected to win in Europe with Russian and British help of course. (2) The Japanese expected the US to back off because they expected the US not to be willing to fight a war with significant casualties. Consequently, Japan was not prepared for a long war and essentially fought the war with the same resources at the beginning as at the end: the same fighter planes, the same carriers, the same infantry weapons, etc., while the US technology increased. So, by the end of the war, Japan was outclassed. These are just some of the interesting perspectives of the book. I especially liked the chapter on Central Pacific campaign and the debate that went on between Nimitz and MacArthur to conduct that. However, I didn't give the book 4 stars because some of the articles are weak including the one on Midway that wrongly highlights the use of the Avenger. In spite of this, I do recommend this book especially for anyone interested in WWII.

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Wake Island (1942) Review

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(More customer reviews)For those who haven't seen this film, the above line is spoken by William Bendix and refers to the constant Japanese naval and air bombardment of Wake Island that the U.S. Marines and civilians endured on the base. I have always been fascinated with "famous last stands" in American military history, and the story of Wake Island is one of the most famous.
This classic war movie, while over 60 years old, is still very meaningful and entertaining today. Yes, some of the historical details are missing, but the brave determination of the Wake Island garrison is wonderfully captured. Brian Donlevy, who was usually stuck in supporting roles, gets top billing this time and does a great job. And William Bendix, one of my favorite actors from this period, steals every scene he's in with his typical tough-guy-without-a-brain role!
Many will view the movie's portrayel of the Japanese as unfair and racist, but remember this movie was released only months after the attack on Pearl harbor. The special effects are obviously dated, but they are quite possibly the best from any 1940s war movie I've seen. The director did a good job of using authentic combat footage, except for the footage showing bi-planes(?!?).
Of course, with a war movie this old the usual cliches are present, but this movie was aimed at an America that cried for revenge. There are many scenes showing Americans dying, yet the eventual American defeat and especially the surrender of Wake Island are downplayed (the surrender isn't even included in the film). If you want to know the full story of Wake Island, there are several great books available. And if you love classic b & w war films, add this gem to your collection!

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Doomed marines hold off a japanese invasion for as long as they can december 1941.Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca)Release Date: 05/25/2004Starring: Robert Preston Don CastleRun time: 87 minutesRating: NrDirector: John Farrow

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