War in the Pacific - From Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay

Informationen zum Autor Harry A. Gailey was a professor emeritus of military history at San Jose State University. He authored 20 books, including MacArthur Strikes Back , The War in the Pacific , and The Liberation of Guam . He died in 2004. Klappentext 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. Chapter 1   Roots of Conflict   THE ATTACK ON Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was the climax of nearly a half century of rivalry between Japan and the United States in the Far East. This competition, not always clearly recognized by the U.S. government, nevertheless existed even in the most quiescent periods and was clearly understood by a succession of Japanese civilian and military leaders, particularly after World War I. This differential attitude toward domination of the vast land areas of Asia was one factor that predetermined the first years of the conflict during World War II. America’s isolationism, general ignorance of the situation in the Far East, arrogance, and—in the late 1930s—concern with developments in Europe all contributed to its woeful lack of preparation to meet the well-planned and executed simultaneous attacks against preselected targets by the Japanese military.   Japanese and American planners in the first part of the twentieth century viewed the Pacific region as an adjunct to the main area of concern. It was obvious to Japanese military planners that at some future date the United States might interfere militarily and endanger Japanese goals on the Asian mainland. In such an eventuality it would be necessary for the Japanese navy to intercept and destroy any American Pacific fleet units near Japanese home waters. American plans regarding the Pacific were never as clear. Most of the United States’s Far Eastern and Pacific military and diplomatic activities could be called mere posturing. The earliest example of this was the dispatch of the Great White Fleet on its around the world cruise in 1907, a blatant announcement that the United States had become a major power. Certainly one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s goals was to overawe Japan, the new Asian military power. Although not as obvious, much of the American government’s activity in the Pacific in the following years was confused, and the amorphous goals enunciated from time to time were not backed by a military presence that could assure their realization if opposed by another major power.   Much of the antipathy between the United States and Japan prior to Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931 was synthetic. There were no areas where Japanese interests in Asia and the Pacific, either economic or military, conflicted directly with those of the United States. Despite this, feelings of distrust and suspicion continued to grow after the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905. Japanese...

Product details

• Authors: Harry Gailey, Harry A. Gailey
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 17.12.1996
• EAN: 9780891416166
• ISBN: 978-0-89141-616-6
• No. of pages: 560
• Dimensions: 139 mm x 216 mm x 29 mm
• Subject: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous