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Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
by: Max Hastings

List Price: $35.00

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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5425
EAN: 9780307263513
ISBN: 0307263517
Label: Knopf
Manufacturer: Knopf
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 656
Publication Date: March 18, 2008
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date: March 18, 2008
Studio: Knopf
Sales Rank: 2742

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Editorial Review:

Product 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.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Truly a Downfall
I would defnitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the historical truth about the end of WW II in the Pacific Theater. Mr. Hastings does an excellent job of covering the entirety of the Japanese conflict with the Allied forces. Further, his concentration on the 1944/45 time frame allows one to gain real perspective on the immense stupidity and fantasies the Japanese leaders held about their opponents, their own capabilities, and their hopeless position compared with their opponents.

It is notable that the author includes description from all of the battlefronts, and treats the experiences of most of the peoples involved in the Pacific War: Burma, China(s), Vietnam, Manchura, the Philipines, Australia, etc. Nowhere to my knowledge has such a wide view of the conflict ... Read More

Rating:

- Fascinating - superlative effort
This is my first Pacific Theatre (in keeping with the author's heritage) non-fiction book and I was totally taken in by Max Hastings' effort. Realizing that this is just a single year of history, the breath covered was remarkable. It was fascinating reading with very little wasted on superfluous wording. Hastings knows the material and was meticulous in his delivery; mixing history and personal sagas throughout each chapter.

I cannot say if there is anything new here for the real WWII Pacific buffs, but for anyone in my situation, this is definitely a sensational start to learning about the Far Eastern War effort. Additionally, there were a couple of chapters on China that helped me to learn about the setup for the Chinese Revolution that comes just after the war.

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Rating:

- Somewhat disappointing
This book is the product of meticulous research and sourcing. Clearly reflects a significant amount of historical data that is collected across a vareity of sources. Kudos for his scholarly efforts. But I am deeply disappointed he could not find a better - and less offensive - example of a 'foxhole question' to illustrate relations between soldiers from the north and south. Incredibly disappointng for a book of this potential and a very low reach by the author that colors his treatment of race throughout the book.

Rating:

- ONE OF THE BETTER CURRENT WORKS IN THIS AREA.
This was quite a read and I must say that it has been sometime now that I read a work in which I gleaned so much information from. Like another reviewer here, I am getting a bit long in the tooth, and when I first picked this book up I was a bit discouraged at the weight, length, fine print, etc. But, like the other reviewer, once I read the first few pages, I was hooked.

Retribution, The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings is the study of and chronology of the last year of the war in the Pacific. As with Hasting's companion work, Armageddon, the author has given us a sweeping overview of who, what, where, when and, most importantly, why, events were the way they were, and has done it quite well. While certainly addressing the overall "big picture," this writer/historian ... Read More

Rating:

- A Fascinating Book!
Max Hastings, Retribution; the Battle for Japan, 1944-45

The author describes the last year of the war against Japan, which had started on 18th, September 1931, when Japanese troops attacked Manchuria. However, this was just the beginning of their conquests, which up to December 1941 included large portions of China, and the whole Korean Peninsula. To stop the Japanese expansion, which was accompanied with so far unheard of atrocities against the captured soldiers as well as toward the occupied populations, the USA imposed progressively tighter embargoes on industrial goods and raw materials exported to Japan. Since this might actually stop the Japanese war machine and prevent their further conquests, the Japanese committed a fateful move by attacking Pearl Harbor.

The ... Read More

Books : Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45