RETRIBUTION: THE BATTLE FOR JAPAN, 1944-45 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Sir Max Hastings | 615 pages | 10 Mar 2009 | Random House USA Inc | 9780307275363 | English | New York, United States Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 PDF Book One is the honest and detailed description of Japanese brutality. It invaded colonial outposts which Westerners had dominated for generations, taking absolutely for granted their racial and cultural superiority over their Asian subjects. The book greatly improved my limited knowledge of many of the key figures of the war in the Far East , particularly Macarthur, Chiang Kai Shek and one of the great forgotten British heroes, Bill Slim. The book is amazingly detailed in regards to the battles and the detail and clarity of each element brings into sharp focus the depth of human suffering and courage that so many people went through in this area. He gives one of the best accounts of the Soviet campaign in China and the Kuriles that I have found - given that it is only a section of the book and not a book in and of itself. The US were very reluctant for the Colonial Powers to take up their former territories after the War, to the extent that they refused to help the French in Indo-China, while Britain and Australia for differing reasons were critical of the US efforts to sideline their input to Japan's defeat. It was wildly fanciful to suppose that the consequences of military failure might be mitigated through diplomatic parley. He has presented historical documentaries for television, including series on the Korean War and on Churchill and his generals. He received the Japanese ambassador in Berlin twice after Pearl Harbor, then not for a year. He has published two memoirs, Going To The Wars about his experiences as a war correspondent, and Editor about his time running newspapers. Its treatment of Allied prisoners, its brutality in Manila, and its insistence on fighting to the death at all times meant there was little support for treating them as worthy of dignified surrender terms. Winston Churchill was tormented by a desire to redeem the defeat in February of some 70, combat troops under British command by a force of 35, Japanese. By then, the moment had passed at which such an intervention might have altered history. Let us resolve to outlaw them. While countries like germany and austria have paid reparations for their war conduct and have remained apologetic and even ashamed of what was done, Japan has preferred to altogether ignore the entire catastrophe, has remained unapologetic and is probably the only country whose leaders chose to honor the war criminals through their visits to the yakasuni shrine. That in itself makes this book unique. It is easy for us, decades later, so sit around and moralize about whether it was right or wrong, but given the constraints that Truman and his advisers were under, it is had to believe that they could have come to any other decision. To ask other readers questions about Retribution , please sign up. The only important people who sought to conduct the eastern and western conflicts as a unified enterprise were Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and their respective chiefs of staff. Thereafter, Americans were united in determination to avenge themselves on the treacherous Asians who had assaulted a peace-loving people. Just as in the first volume, Hastings emphasizes the utter brutality and waste of war as well as providing frank criticism of the failures of leadership. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Most U. Hastings discusses at length the ludicrousness of this approach when the Americans had made public the Potsdam Declaration at the end of July to end the war. This is why the British refused to get on board with attempts to assassinate Hitler. This pales into absolute insignificance beside the scale of their mistreatment of Asians. As an example, he identifies the use of P Mustangs as escorts for Bs as a mistake. Hastings writes that after Pearl Harbor American command knew from the beginning that Japanese cities would be directly attacked. For 16 years, he was successively editor-in-chief of the British Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard , from which he retired in He argues for the true historian's creed, to judge the past based only on what those of the past were presented with, not with what we think they should have done, then proceeds to disgrace this creed by making judgments on some of the most controversial aspects of the American defeat of Japan, the fire-bombing of civilians on a mass scale, th Hastings has much excellent research to present, though too much of it went into the writing and not enough of it into thinking about humanity in general. Rating details. Hastings is a military historian in the grand tradition, belonging on the shelf alongside John Keegan, Alistair Horne and Rick Atkinson. And the topics covered here are excellent. This was a powerful way to end up my recent study on the pacific front World War II. Militarists twisted the ancient samurai code of Bushido into a sick cult of death. George Marshall, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, resisted the demands of Admiral Ernest King, the U. The U. Such an assertion does not immediately render the detonations of the atomic bombs acceptable acts. I sure did. But the best parts of the book are the lesser known entities of the Pacific theater. He was incapable of admitting a mistake, and over time his mental state started to be called into question. Japan had been behaving barbarously since the invasion of Manchuria in , and its atrocities had become widely know. MacArthur's closest aides, who could see what anyone who isn't sycophantic to power could see: the American air raids on Japan was "one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings of non-combatants in all history. Another flimsy argument I can remember readily was the authors somewhat halting certainty that the bombs would have been dropped on Germany if they had persisted in resisting defeat as the Japanese did. All in all a very good book with solid sources, information, insight and stories. Published by Knopf first published October 1st He even details accounts of Kamikaze attacks against Soviet ships and tanks in the last weeks of hostilities. It culminates, of course, in one of the most destructive events ever perpetrated by man: the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Read more User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 Writer Read more By the summer of the Allies were not looking forward to an invasion of Japan. I read that this book would present a convincing case for why the bomb had to be dropped. As for the military, "in those days the conduct of its leaders was extraordinary. They were able to spend a good two to three weeks — and probably much longer — getting rid of what had to have been incriminating evidence. The Nationalist warlords seemed to vie with one another to see who could be the most corrupt and incompetent, even to the point of selling food and equipment to the Japanese. Community Reviews. Here, Hastings colors the tactical and technical details of troop movements and battles that covered a third of the globe with an impressive array of commentary from belligerents from all sides. Max Hastings is an iconoclast. Sep 07, Mark rated it it was amazing. We can only hope we have more individuals of influence involved in the military and civilian nexus such as Brig. There is little discussion about the reasons for the war, no analysis of Dutch oil, co-prosperity spheres, or missed warnings. As promised, when it was torpedoed in September , the Japanese guards machine-gunned the prisoners trying to abandon ship. By weaving together a mosaic of personal recollections, accounts of key events and descriptions of prominent personalities he somehow manages to present a surprisingly complete, but perhaps even m Let me start by pointing out that this is not a book dedicated to a detailed study of offensives, battles and orders of battles. He has published two memoirs, Going To The Wars about his experiences as a war correspondent, and Editor about his time running newspapers. In December Japan gambled on a short war, swift victory, and acceptance of terms by the vanquished. The only obvious manifestation of shared interest was that Japanese planning was rooted in an assumption of German victory. Mao too knew that his real fight would come after the Japanese had left. Basically, I have to wonder how effectively FDR was able to function as Commander in Chief, especially since he Roosevelt was fixated on the election. All of this is chronicled in a very coherent and engaging narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed Retribution as I found it well researched, well written, and very readable despite its scope. Winston Churchill was tormented by a desire to redeem the defeat in February of some 70, combat troops under British command by a force of 35, Japanese. Then the victim walked into town. The suffering was appalling. On the other hand, it is clear that there were too many big egos involved and that these egos sometimes cost the war effort. Most U. The consequence of so-called Japanese fanaticism on the battlefield, of which much more later, was that Allied commanders favoured the use of extreme methods to defeat them. I finished this book with an understanding of the Eastern campaigns that I never had before.