Osprey Essential Histories 18 : The Second World War (1) : The Pacific

The War in the Pacific began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941 and ended with the atomic bombs on Hirsoshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 and the surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. It covered a large part of the Earth's surface, from Hawaii in the east to Burma in the west, and from the Coral Sea in the south to the Aleutian Islands in the north. This book explores the many facets of this complicated conflict. It covers Japan's astonishing advances during the first six months, the key struggles around the perimeter of the so-called Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, and the Allied counter-offensives. It was a war of great naval battles such as those in the Coral Sea, at Midway and at Leyte. It was also a war of grim jungle battles such as in Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and Burma. There were daring and bloody amphibious landings, large scale land operations (as in the Philippines) savage guerilla wars, clandestine operations, desperate bombing attacks, and a cruel submarine campaign. The book also explains how the war reshaped Asia, splintering the invincibility of European colonial power and leading to the independence of the former European colonies. An understanding of the War in the Pacific is still crucial if one is to appreciate the problems faced by the dynamic area now known as the Asia-Pacific. Text by David Horner.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Background to War : The Expansion of Imperial Japan 1891-1941
• Warring Sides : Powerful Japan Faced Certain Defeat
• Outbreak : The Slide Towards Inevitable War
• The Fighting : The Course of the Pacific War
• Portrait of a Soldier : Thomas Currie Derrick, An Australian soldier
• The World around War : A Clash of Cultures and Races
• Portrait of a Civilian : Gwen Harold Terasaki, An American in Japan
• How the War Ended : Not Necessarily to Japan's Advantage
• Conclusion and Consequences : How the War Transformed the Asia-Pacific