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Books : Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
Rating: 
- Superb counterpart to Armegeddon
For those of you who thought the Pacific War was largely limited to the island hopping campaign then dropping two atomic bombs to finish the war - this book explodes the myths in a superbly readable style.
I;m not sure I can justice to a 700 page volume in a short review but there are some highlights
Japanese brutality in China and Manchuria
The mindset that permitted kamakasi attacks
The explanation of what McArthur was like - but how he came into his own after the war ended
The huge destruction wrought by the US air force on Japan - made Bomber Harris look a bit ineffectual (and thats not the atomic bombs either..)
The Germans U-boats may have tried to blockade the UK - the US boats did it for Japan
The inter ally rivalries - Stalin in particular and how the US were determined that they would be pereived to have finished off Japan
The refusal of the Japanese to acknowledge what they had done to the civilan populations
The credit given to General Slim for the campaign to recapture Burma
emminently readable and well worth it
Rating: - Long but keeps the attention very well for a non expert reader
I am not a fan of military histories really but this one kept my full attention. It interweaves brilliantly the political context of the Far East War with first hand accounts from those on the front line. The whole thing is cleverly brought to life. The big strategic picture is built up little by little, so that, by the end, I felt I really understood this. It's a long read but worth getting through.
Max Hastings is quick to give some pretty forthright opinions (e.g. about General MacArthur, the morals of the Japanese, and whether it was right to drop the atom bomb) but they seem well evidenced and argued. Even so, it leaves me wanting to find other opinions to compare.
Rating: - Hastings' Masterpiece
Nemesis will be, I think, regarded as a classic of the Pacific War. I live in the states and decided to bypass the six month waiting period for Knopf to publish it in favor of the UK edition.
I'm glad I did. I've read countless books on the Pacific, including Ron Spector's classic "Eagle Against the Sun," and I say with no uncertainty that this book will likely be regarded as one of the five most important books ever published on that particular war.
Whereas most historians approach the subject with a certain agenda, Hastings does not do so here. He portrays the ENTIRE Pacific campaign, from all views. The Yanks and of course, the Japanese are represented, but it's his inclusion of Slim's magnificent 14th Army, the Chinese (both Nationalist and Communist) the Soviets, the Aussies...In fact, there are so many viewpoints it's hard to see what he doesn't include.
As with his previous works, Hastings does dole out his critiques. The Japanese; their lack of strategic vision in preparing their nation for a global war, their disdain for the enemy and accordingly appaling treatment of Allied prisoners. But he also praises their courage and will to resist beyond all reason. MacArthur is seen as a megalomaniac (for which he definitely was) and while noting the massive suffering of the Chinese, he takes Chang Kai-shek to task for his corrupt Kuomintang forces and their lack of will to resist the Japanese advance.
He praises (quite rightly too) Bill Slim even though the struggle for Burma contributed almost nothing towards Japan's defeat, the US Navy is praised (especially the Submarine Arm), but he does note the difference of living quality between officers and enlisted men, Curtis Lemay's ruthless aerial campaign and of course, the Marines.
Exhaustively researched, magnificently written and brilliantly argued, this book might well be viewed as the definitive portrait of the last two years of the Pacific War. 5 Stars!
Rating:
- An Excellent Overview
Max Hastings describes how and why Japan was finally brought low in 1945 - the politics and the military grand strategy - and what it was like for the ordinary people swept up by these events. And in his descriptions of action on the ground in China, Burma, the Philippines and across the Pacific, he succeeds in conveying the horror of total warfare by allowing participants to speak for themselves. The book does not, however, provide a detailed operational analysis of the campaigns involved, and the absence of a bibliography which is dismissed as an author's `peacock display', is therefore a disappointment. A good bibliography is a resource and the literature of this subject is little better known than its detail, so the absence of one, or at least of a bibliographic essay, is a pity - hence only 4 stars. This is all the more apparent given Hastings's clear exposition of Japanese as well as American strategic imperatives; he shows why this war degenerated into a slugfest.
There are excellent pen pictures of leading characters, and the failings of senior commanders are rigorously examined: General Douglas MacArthur, for example, was a paranoid megalomaniac obsessed with his personal mission to liberate the Philippines, and ignored any intelligence that didn't suit him. In describing systematic Japanese brutality towards both Allied prisoners and fellow Asians, Hastings is also careful to shade the coin, showing that not all Japanese were sadists. But if today some Japanese suggest such inhumanity was no worse than Allied bombing, he notes that having started the war, they `waged it with such savagery towards the innocent and impotent that it is easy to understand the rage which filled Allied hearts in 1945'.
The horror of the atomic bombs is put in context by the description of the fire bomb raid on Tokyo of 9 March 1945, in which as many as 100,000 people died, and the strategic significance of aerial bombardment is itself put in context with the submarine campaign that effectively crippled Japan's economy. Subsequently Hastings doesn't dwell on the horrible effects of the bombs themselves, but describes the Tolstoyan inevitability of their use in balanced terms. He concludes that if today Japan is guilty of a collective rejection of historical fact in denying its army's brutal and nihilistic actions, some US historians interpret the pursuit of decisive victory - unconditional surrender - as the American way of war, an outlook that `renders the country liable to chronic disappointment'. In Nemesis Hastings has covered a vast canvas with superbly realised detail, and has provided an excellent companion to Armageddon, his earlier study of the defeat of Germany.
Rating: - The military master strikes again!
Wow, yet another superb book from the talented pen of Mr Hastings. Nemesis certainly goes someway to confirming Max Hastings as the authority on World War Two. The scope, political analysis and expert strategy are mixed with personal stories that illuminate the suffering of all - be they Allied POWs, Japanese bombed out civilians or disease ridden squaddies. Truly, this is an outstanding book - full of Mr Hastings trademark humanity and appreciation of the sacrifice that people made in the 1940s.
An author at the top of his powers.
- Superb counterpart to ArmegeddonFor those of you who thought the Pacific War was largely limited to the island hopping campaign then dropping two atomic bombs to finish the war - this book explodes the myths in a superbly readable style.
I;m not sure I can justice to a 700 page volume in a short review but there are some highlights
Japanese brutality in China and Manchuria
The mindset that permitted kamakasi attacks
The explanation of what McArthur was like - but how he came into his own after the war ended
The huge destruction wrought by the US air force on Japan - made Bomber Harris look a bit ineffectual (and thats not the atomic bombs either..)
The Germans U-boats may have tried to blockade the UK - the US boats did it for Japan
The inter ally rivalries - Stalin in particular and how the US were determined that they would be pereived to have finished off Japan
The refusal of the Japanese to acknowledge what they had done to the civilan populations
The credit given to General Slim for the campaign to recapture Burma
emminently readable and well worth it
Rating:
- Long but keeps the attention very well for a non expert readerI am not a fan of military histories really but this one kept my full attention. It interweaves brilliantly the political context of the Far East War with first hand accounts from those on the front line. The whole thing is cleverly brought to life. The big strategic picture is built up little by little, so that, by the end, I felt I really understood this. It's a long read but worth getting through.
Max Hastings is quick to give some pretty forthright opinions (e.g. about General MacArthur, the morals of the Japanese, and whether it was right to drop the atom bomb) but they seem well evidenced and argued. Even so, it leaves me wanting to find other opinions to compare.
Rating:
- Hastings' MasterpieceNemesis will be, I think, regarded as a classic of the Pacific War. I live in the states and decided to bypass the six month waiting period for Knopf to publish it in favor of the UK edition.
I'm glad I did. I've read countless books on the Pacific, including Ron Spector's classic "Eagle Against the Sun," and I say with no uncertainty that this book will likely be regarded as one of the five most important books ever published on that particular war.
Whereas most historians approach the subject with a certain agenda, Hastings does not do so here. He portrays the ENTIRE Pacific campaign, from all views. The Yanks and of course, the Japanese are represented, but it's his inclusion of Slim's magnificent 14th Army, the Chinese (both Nationalist and Communist) the Soviets, the Aussies...In fact, there are so many viewpoints it's hard to see what he doesn't include.
As with his previous works, Hastings does dole out his critiques. The Japanese; their lack of strategic vision in preparing their nation for a global war, their disdain for the enemy and accordingly appaling treatment of Allied prisoners. But he also praises their courage and will to resist beyond all reason. MacArthur is seen as a megalomaniac (for which he definitely was) and while noting the massive suffering of the Chinese, he takes Chang Kai-shek to task for his corrupt Kuomintang forces and their lack of will to resist the Japanese advance.
He praises (quite rightly too) Bill Slim even though the struggle for Burma contributed almost nothing towards Japan's defeat, the US Navy is praised (especially the Submarine Arm), but he does note the difference of living quality between officers and enlisted men, Curtis Lemay's ruthless aerial campaign and of course, the Marines.
Exhaustively researched, magnificently written and brilliantly argued, this book might well be viewed as the definitive portrait of the last two years of the Pacific War. 5 Stars!
Rating:
- An Excellent Overview Max Hastings describes how and why Japan was finally brought low in 1945 - the politics and the military grand strategy - and what it was like for the ordinary people swept up by these events. And in his descriptions of action on the ground in China, Burma, the Philippines and across the Pacific, he succeeds in conveying the horror of total warfare by allowing participants to speak for themselves. The book does not, however, provide a detailed operational analysis of the campaigns involved, and the absence of a bibliography which is dismissed as an author's `peacock display', is therefore a disappointment. A good bibliography is a resource and the literature of this subject is little better known than its detail, so the absence of one, or at least of a bibliographic essay, is a pity - hence only 4 stars. This is all the more apparent given Hastings's clear exposition of Japanese as well as American strategic imperatives; he shows why this war degenerated into a slugfest.
There are excellent pen pictures of leading characters, and the failings of senior commanders are rigorously examined: General Douglas MacArthur, for example, was a paranoid megalomaniac obsessed with his personal mission to liberate the Philippines, and ignored any intelligence that didn't suit him. In describing systematic Japanese brutality towards both Allied prisoners and fellow Asians, Hastings is also careful to shade the coin, showing that not all Japanese were sadists. But if today some Japanese suggest such inhumanity was no worse than Allied bombing, he notes that having started the war, they `waged it with such savagery towards the innocent and impotent that it is easy to understand the rage which filled Allied hearts in 1945'.
The horror of the atomic bombs is put in context by the description of the fire bomb raid on Tokyo of 9 March 1945, in which as many as 100,000 people died, and the strategic significance of aerial bombardment is itself put in context with the submarine campaign that effectively crippled Japan's economy. Subsequently Hastings doesn't dwell on the horrible effects of the bombs themselves, but describes the Tolstoyan inevitability of their use in balanced terms. He concludes that if today Japan is guilty of a collective rejection of historical fact in denying its army's brutal and nihilistic actions, some US historians interpret the pursuit of decisive victory - unconditional surrender - as the American way of war, an outlook that `renders the country liable to chronic disappointment'. In Nemesis Hastings has covered a vast canvas with superbly realised detail, and has provided an excellent companion to Armageddon, his earlier study of the defeat of Germany.
Rating:
- The military master strikes again!Wow, yet another superb book from the talented pen of Mr Hastings. Nemesis certainly goes someway to confirming Max Hastings as the authority on World War Two. The scope, political analysis and expert strategy are mixed with personal stories that illuminate the suffering of all - be they Allied POWs, Japanese bombed out civilians or disease ridden squaddies. Truly, this is an outstanding book - full of Mr Hastings trademark humanity and appreciation of the sacrifice that people made in the 1940s.
An author at the top of his powers.