Books
Interview
South
Pacific Theater / Guadalcanal
- Fire in the Sky - By Eric M. Bergerud
-
Highly recommanded - This 680-page tome goes into
great detail about the area, strategic importance of air bases, the
aircraft and men, air tactics and strategies, and the history involved.
Highly recommanded for those wanting info on the air battle portion of
the war in the South Pacific (comment by KevinRohrer)
- The Solomons Campaigns 1942-1943 From Guadalcanal
to Bouganville Pacific War Turning Point - by William L. McGee
- The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval
Fighter Combat from August to November 1942 - by John B. Lundstrom
- Alone on Guadalcanal: A Coastwatcher's Story-
by Martin Clemens
- Challenge for the Pacific: The Bloody Six-Month
Battle of Guadalcanal - by Robert Leckie
- Green Hell: The Battle for Guadalcanal (Hellgate
Memories Series) - by William J. Owens
- South Pacific Destroyer: The Battle for the
Solomons from Savo Island to Vella Gulf - by Russell Sydnor
Crenshaw
- Naval Battle of Guadalcanal: Night Action, 13
November 1942 - by James W. Grace
- Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea: The Naval Battle of
Guadalcanal, Nov. 13-15, 1942 - by Eric M. Hammel
- Carrier Strike: The Battle of the Santa Cruz
Islands, October 1942 - by Eric M. Hammel
- Battle of Cape Esperance Encounter at Guadalcanal
- by Charles O. Cook
- Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark
Battle- by Richard B. Frank -
This is a
well researched and detailed study of the entire campaign (comment
by John Gorski)
- Guadalcanal: World War II's fiercest Naval Campaign
- by Adrian
Stewart - For those who like small, concise books, this one is an excellent read. It wont tell
you anything in its 190 pages that's not contained in the larger volumes
but it gives a nice analysis of all the major land/air/sea clashes at
Guadalcanal in '42. A good overview of what happened and why to both
sides. (comment by Drongo)
Pacific War
World War II
US Navy & US Airforce
Imperial Japanese Navy & Japanese Airforce
Great Air/Land/Naval Battles
Special Japan
- Japan in War and Peace: Selected Essays - by
John W. Dow
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
- by John W. Dower
- Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the
Japanese Experience, 1878-1954 - by John W. Dower
- The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the
Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 - by John Toland
- The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of
World War II - by Iris Chang, William C. Kirby - Chang tells
the story of what happened to the citizens of Nanking when it fell to
the Japanese in 1937. Although it is not a part of the American
experience, it does give an excellent insight into the mind of the
Japanese soldier. (review by Rick Porter)
- The Fall of Japan - by William Craig - It delves
into great depth the Japanese view of the war and in doing so, strongly
refutes the history reconstructists who claim that Japan was ready to
surrender and the atomic bombs weren't needed. For example, after the
bombs were dropped and the Emperor was planning to surrender a group of
young military officers attempted a coup so that Japan would continue
the war. Another aspect of the war that the book brought to light was
the infighting amongst the Jap armed forces. E.g., The navy would try
to sabotage manufacting at Army-related and Air force facilities and
these armed services did the same to each other and the navy
(comment by dtx)
- Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire -by
Richard B. Frank
-
Frank concentrates not only on
what was happening, but on what Magic intercepts Truman was seeing -- in
other words, what he knew of the situation. There is a long discussion
of casualty estimates, how they were arrived at, and how they were
"spun" (Marshall seems to have purposely underestimated the numbers for
some reason). Frank is also aware of the difference between "casualty"
and "killed.". The book generally concludes that Japan had collapsed by
August 1945 and was facing widespread starvation (as witnessed by the
massive amounts of food that had to be shipped to Japan after the
surrender). However (and this is an important point that some people
can't seem to comprehend), "collapse" is not the same as "surrender."
The reaction of the Japanese military to Hiroshima was basically "so
what?" - An excellent read (review by Chrisp)
- Empires on the Pacific: World War II and the Struggle
for the Mastery of Asia- by Robert Smith Thompson
-
The book starts
with 1793 and the first foreign mission from Britain to Imperial China
and advances to post-WW2. Sometimes the charge that the allies were
just defending themselves has to be looked at in a long view of tens if
not hundreds of years. Europe's imperial actions and the USA's the
past century can help us understand Japan's politics and actions
(comment by Brisd)
Miscelleanous
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