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by: Max Hastings  List Price: $35.00 Amazon.com's Price: $23.10 You Save: $11.90 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: HardcoverDewey 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 Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A must have for any World War II enthusiastMax Hastings has presented the perfect companion for his previous book "Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45". Of the 300+ books on World War II in my personal library, there are few that stand out as distinctly as "Retribution". One would ordinarily think that a comprehensive view of the final year of the Pacific theatre would be a tedious, multi-volume effort to read, but Hastings has provided a wonderful alternative. Chock full of details and personal accounts, Hastings takes ... Read More Rating:  - Professional historian here, though must admit that Hastings writes, thinks, and analyzes far better than most PhD's. I'm appalled that the Washington Post review was posted as Amazon's only assessment of the book. The reviewer was a exceptionally vicious partisan in the museum factional disputes over the bomb, trading off his Pulitzer as status symbol but not as a qualification to render judgment. But that does not excuse him from examining counter-evidence, candidly characterizing the debate, or indeed acknowledging ... Read More Rating: - Very well doneHastings has done a fine job with this one. Our battles with Japan were vicious and costly. History will long remember Adms. Nimitz, Halsey and Gen. Lemay. I also loved Arvy Geurin's Walking Through Fire, An Iwo Jima Survivor's Remembrance Rating: - Rich in anecdotes, fairly good analysisIf you are looking for a book that gives you a real-life picture of what combat was like in the WWII Pacific theater, this book is a real find. It shows the perspective from multiple sides: British and Amercian, Japanese, Chinese, and a range of others. The book's strength is based on its interviews with many people who were there, and not just the noteworthy names familiar to us all; the common foot soldier and his counterpart in the navy and air forces, is well-represented. The author persuasively ... Read More Rating: - well writtenthis book was worth the purchase written well gave many interesting facts 
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