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Retribution - The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 (2008)
Front Cover Book Details
Genre Non-Fiction
Subject World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Pacific; World War, 1939-1945 - Japan
Publication Date 3/18/2008
Format Hardcover (9.5 x 6.2 mm)
Publisher Knopf
Language English
Extras Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover
Description
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.
Personal Details
Store History Book Club
Purchase Price $13.24
Acquire Date 3/11/2010
Condition As New
Rating 0
Links Library of Congress
Product Details
LoC Classification D767 .H353 2008
Dewey 940.5425
ISBN 9780307263513
Edition Book Club Edition
Cover Price $35.00
No. of Pages 656
First Edition No
Rare No
Notes/Review
$10.00 + $3.24 shipping

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This is a good survey of the last two years of the war against Japan. It covers a fair amount of ground that hasn't been written about as much as many of the earlier battles. The book is well organized and contains many recollections of the participants on all sides of the conflict.