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Second World War: Pacific
Books - Second World War - Pacific - General Works
 The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Imperial Naval Air Service, Peter J. Edwards. An unusual book, containing some fascinating material on the early development of Japanese naval aviation, its increasing efficiency during the 1930s and the dramatic early victories and eventual costly defeat of the Naval Air Service during the Second World War. Written very much from the Japanese point of view, and in a rather breathless style [read full review] |
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 Rising Sun, John Toland. A well researched and compelling history of the Second World War in the Pacific, mainly told from the Japanese point of view. As a result we learn more about the Japanese strategy for the war, the reasons for each decision, and the political background in Japan. [read full review] |
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 Children of the Camps: Japan's Last Forgotten Victims, Mark Felton. A study of the fate of the children taken into internment camps by the Japanese after their rapid conquests in the Far East in 1941 and 1942. Covers a wide geographical area, from China through Malaya and Singapore to the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. [read full review] |
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 The Pacific: Hell was an Ocean Away, Hugh Ambrose. Closely linked to the HBO TV series, this sizable book follows the experiences of five US servicemen (four Marines and a Navy aviator) during the four years of the Pacific War, tracing their experiences from the Japanese invasion of the Philippines to the preparations for the invasion of Japan, through the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal and the long island hopping campaign that followed. [read full review] |
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 Pacific: Hell on Earth (DVD). Eight documentaries looking at different battles of the Pacific War, from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa, with a bonus disc containing a biography of Eugene B. Sledge, author of 'With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa'. A good mix of interviews with surviving veterans, contemporary film and a nice use of wartime aerial reconnaissance photos overlaid onto a 3D map of the battlefields [read full review] |
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The Real Tenko, Mark Felton. A grim account of the ordeals suffered by female prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War, starting with a series of atrocities that took place during the initial conquests, and continuing throughout the war in the huge network on internment camps established across the new Japanese empire. [read full review]
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 The Cabanatuan Prison Raid, The Philippines 1945, Gordon L. Rottman. An engaging account of one of the most successful raids of the Second World War - the rescue of over 500 POWs from the Japanese camp at Cabanatuan on the Philippines by a force made up of US Rangers, Alamo Scouts and local guerrillas. [read full review] |
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Darkness before the Dawn, Sgt. J.N. Farrow. This is the wartime diary of Sgt. J.N. Farrow, a prisoner of war in Changi for four years from the fall of Singapore to the end of the war. The book in provides an invaluable insight into the life of a P.O.W. in the Far East. [see more] |
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 World War Two: U.S. Military Plans for the Invasion of Japan, Thomas Fensch (Editor) This is a very useful collection of official American documents relating to Operation Downfall, the plan for the invasion of Japan. The invasion never needed to be carried out, but the plans had reached a very advanced stage by the time the two Atomic bombs ended the war. [see more] |
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 World War II Jungle Warfare Tactics, Stephen Bull, Osprey Elite. The subject of jungle warfare tactics has fascinated many people and contains many myths. This book tries to cover a large subject in 64 pages, a mammoth task but one which it does remarkably well. The content is clear and very interesting de-bunking various myths such as Japanese superiority in jungle warfare but without throwing the baby out with the bath water and does highlight some of the Japanese strengths in this area. The book is an excellent introduction to the subject. |
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| Eagle Against The Sun, Spector, Ronald, Cassell Military, London, 2001. |
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| Sledge, E B. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1996 (Reprint). |
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| Iwo Jima and Okinawa , Black, Wallace B. , Prentice Hall, London, 1993 |
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| McMillan, George. The Old Breed: A History of the First Marine Division in World War II, Infantry Journal Press, Washington DC, 1949 (Battery Press Reprint available). |
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The Pacific Campaign , Vat, Dan van der, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1991.
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| Alexander, Joseph H. Storm Landings, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1997. A detailed account of the major amphibious assaults of the Pacific War. |
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| Wheeler, Richard. A Special Valor: The US Marines and the Pacific War, Harper & Row, 1983, New York. |
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Biographies
Lost Souls of the River Kwai, Bill Reed with Mitch Peeke. An often harrowing account of the suffering inflicted on British Prisoners of War who were forced to build the Burma Railway for the Japanese. Reed's vivid memories of these events tell a tale that needs to be remembered [read full review]
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The Quiet Admiral, A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Thomas B. Buell. This is widely considered to be the best biography of Spruance, currently available in this reissued edition. Buell nicely contrasts Spruance with Halsey, his co-commander of the combined third and fifth fleets from 1944, as well as looking at his handling of Midway, the battle that made his name. |
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In Bitter Tempest: The Biography of Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, Stephen D. Regan. A much needed biography of one of the most important American admirals in the year after Pearl Harbor. Regan had rare access to Fletcher's papers, as well as to a wide range of interviews given before his death, and has produced a very valuable work on a neglected figure. |
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Battle of the Coral Sea
 The Coral Sea 1942: The First Carrier Battle, Mark Stille, Campaign 214. A useful account of the battle of the Coral Sea and the thinking and events that led up to it, supported by some effective '3D' diagrams showing the series of aerial attacks on enemy carriers that were the most important aspect of the fighting. [read full review] |
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