Retribution : the battle for Japan, 1944-45 / Max Hastings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hastings, Max.

Contributor:

Hastings, Max.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Pacific Area.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Japan.

Physical Description:

xxv, 615 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates: illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Summary:

A chronicle of the horrific final year of the Pacific war. By the summer of 1944 it was clear that Japan's defeat was inevitable, but how the victory would be achieved remained to be seen. Hastings gives us incisive portraits of the 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. 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.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Dilemmas and decisions

Japan: defying gravity

The British in Burma

Titans at sea

America's return to the Philippines

"Flowers of death" : Leyte Gulf

Ashore: battle for the mountains

China: dragon by the tail

MacArthur on Luzon

Bloody miniature: Iwo Jima

Blockade: war underwater

Burning a nation: Lemay

The road past Mandalay

Australians: "Bludging" and "Mopping up"

Captivity and slavery

Okinawa

Mao's war

Eclipse of empires

The bombs

Fantasy in Tokyo

Reality at Hiroshima

Manchuria: the Bear's claws

The last act

Legacies.

Notes:

"Originally published in Great Britain as Nemesis: the battle for Japan, 1944-45 by HarperPress, ... London in 2007"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 559-586) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Miller fund bookplate.

Related Work:

Hastings, Max. Nemesis.

ISBN:

9780307263513

0307263517

OCLC:

165479216

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description