Historian Harry Gailey offers a fresh one-volume treatment of the vast Pacific theater in World War II, examining in detail the performance of Japanese and Allied naval, air, and land forces in every major military operation. The War in the Pacific begins with an examination of events leading up to World War II and compares the Japanese and American economies and societies, as well as the chief combatants' military doctrine, training, war plans, and equipment. The book then chronicles all significant actions - from the early Allied defeats in the Philippines, the East Indies, and New Guinea; through the gradual improvement of the Allied position in the Central and Southwest Pacific regions; to the final agonies of the Japanese people, whose leaders refused to admit defeat until the very end. Gailey gives detailed treatment to much that has been neglected or given only cursory mention in previous surveys. The reader thus gains an unparalleled overview of operations, as well as many fresh insights into the behind-the-scenes bickering between the Allies and the interservice squabbles that dogged MacArthur and Nimitz throughout the war. NOTE: This edition does not include a photo insert.

Meticulous detail and insightful analysis combine with a gripping chronological narrative to provide the essential guide to the Pacific Theater of World War II. On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes appeared from the clouds above Pearl Harbor and fundamentally changed the course of history; with this one surprise attack the previously isolationist America was irrevocably thrown into World War II. This definitive history explores each of the major battles that America would fight in the ensuing struggle against Imperial Japan, from the naval clashes at Midway and Coral Sea to the desperate, bloody fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Each chapter reveals both the horrors of the battle and the Allies' grim yet heroic determination to wrest victory from what often seemed to be certain defeat, offering a valuable guide to the long road to victory in the Pacific.

 During the first 10 months of the war in the Pacific, Japan achieved air supremacy with its carrier and land-based forces. But after major setbacks at Midway and Guadalcanal, the empire's expansion stalled, in part due to flaws in aircraft design, strategy and command. This book offers a fresh analysis of the air war in the Pacific during the early phases of World War II. Details are included from two expeditions conducted by the author that reveal the location of an American pilot missing in the Philippines since 1942 and clear up a controversial account involving famed Japanese ace Saburo Sakai and U.S. Navy pilot James "Pug" Southerland.

How the entire Asia Pacific region was transformed when Imperial Japan attacked eight major targets on the same day in 1941; Pearl Harbor was only one of them.

Offers an introduction to the Pacific War, including such topics as the opening amphibious operations and Japanese naval strategy after Midway.

The action-packed first book in the new historical series by acclaimed authors Newt Gingrich and William R.Forstchen

This fascinating volume - now available in paperback offers a vivid narrative history of the early stages of the Pacific War, as US and Allied forces desperately tried to slow the Japanese onslaught that began with the sudden attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In many popular histories of the Pacific War, the period from the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor to the US victory at Midway is often passed over because it is seen as a period of darkness. Indeed, it is easy to see the period as one of unmitigated disaster for the Allies, with the fall of the Philippines, Malaya, Burma and the Dutch East Indies, and the wholesale retreat and humiliation at the hands of Japan throughout Southeast Asia. However, there are also stories of courage and determination in the face of overwhelming odds: the stand of the Marines at Wake Island; the fighting retreat in the Philippines that forced the Japanese to take 140 days to accomplish what they had expected would take 50; the fight against the odds at Singapore and over Java; the stirring tale of the American Volunteer Group in China; and the beginnings of resistance to further Japanese expansion. In these events, there are many individual stories that have either not been told or not been told widely which are every bit as gripping as the stories associated with the turning tide after Midway. I Will Run Wild draws on extensive first-hand accounts and fascinating new analysis to tell the story of Americans, British, Dutch, Australians and New Zealanders taken by surprise from Pearl Harbor to Singapore that first Sunday of December 1941, who went on to fight with what they had at hand against a stronger and better-prepared foe, and in so doing built the basis for a reversal of fortune and an eventual victory.

Winner of the Northern California Book Award for Nonfiction "Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." —San Francisco Chronicle On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible—through a dramatic narrative relying predominantly on primary sources and eyewitness accounts of heroism and sacrifice from both navies—tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history to seize the strategic initiative.

You don't have anything like this yet! Check your collections. Never before has such a unique assembly of rare documents been available. WAR IN THE PACIFIC brings to life the story of the heroic actions of the men who fought the relentless war against Japan in World War II. Includes recorded memories, photographs, maps, and actual reproductions of 20 rare key documents and memorabilia: the dispatch to General MacArthur to abandon the Philippines, the “Pocket Guide to Australia” issued to US army and navy forces in 1942, and much more! WAR IN THE PACIFIC is being released to coincide with the much-anticipated 10-part mini-series coming from HBO in March. War In The Pacific 1941-1945 looks at the relentless war against Japan in the Pacific Islands which formed an integral part of eventual Allied victory in World War II. Setting the scene with the unprovoked Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the almost simultaneous attack on US bases on Guam and Wake Island, it then goes on to document the bloody battles fought in the jungle islands of Guadalcanal and the Philippines and the seas of the Pacific. As fortunes turned in 1942 the Allies fought hard to regain lost ground and the intensity of battle did not waver. It tells the story of the heroic actions of the men who toiled on the islands, the names of which have now become synonymous with bloodshed, hardship and unstoppable spirit which eventually resulted in victory for the Allies: Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Rabaul, Guam, Iwo Jima and finally Okinawa. This fascinating and heart-wrenching story is brought to life by the addition of 20 carefully selected facsimile pieces of memorabilia ranging from military orders to propaganda leaflets dropped by the Japanese on US troops to the personal diaries and letters home of both generals, officers and ordinary soldiers.