Japanese Military Strategy in the Pacific War Was Defeat Inevitable?

by Wood, James B.

• ISBN13: 9780742553392
• ISBN10: 0742553396
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-08-02
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

In this provocative history, James B. Wood challenges the received wisdom that Japan's defeat in the Pacific was historically inevitable. He argues instead that it was only when the Japanese military abandoned their original strategic plan to secure resources and establish a viable defensible perimeter that the Allies were able to regain the initiative and lock Japanese forces into a war of attrition they were not prepared to fight. The book persuasively shows how the Japanese army and navy had both the opportunity and the capability to have fought a different and more successful war. If Japan had traveled that alternate military road the outcome of the Pacific War could have been far different from the ending we know so well-and perhaps a little too complacently accept.

Author Biography

James B. Wood is Charles Keller Professor of History at Williams College.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction: Pacific War Redux	p. 1
Going to War	p. 7
Losing the War	p. 23
Winning the War	p. 37
Missing Ships	p. 45
Sunk	p. 59
A Fleet in Being	p. 71
The Battle for the Skies	p. 87
The Japanese Army in the Pacific	p. 103
Conclusion: The Road Not Taken	p. 119
Bibliography	p. 127
Index	p. 135
About the Author	p. 141
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