Pacific Campaign: World War II--The U.S.-Japanese Naval War 1941-1945

by Dan van der Vat

Book Overview

Uses documents from the Naval Historical Center to reassess the war in the Pacific and reveal the long history of conflict between Japanese imperialism and American manifest destiny.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671738992
• ISBN13: 9780671738990
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 430 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

"A Navy War"

In the movie "In Harm's Way" Kirk Douglas's character Commander Paul Eddington tells John Wayne's Captain Rockwell Torrey: "Old Rock of Ages, we've got ourselves another war. A gut bustin', mother-lovin' Navy war." This book is the literary equivalent. A British military/naval affairs journalist who grew up in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, van der Vat brings experience and knowledge to the telling of this story. This book is significantly different from Ronald H. Spector's "Eagle Against the Sun" in that van der Vat focuses exclusively on the naval aspects of the war. As a result, he ignores air force air power, the use of ground power, and developments on the continent of Asia. Spector was much more "purple" or "joint" in that he looked at air, land, and sea power. Unlike Spector, who focused just on the American side of the conflict, van der Vat does a much better job of exploring the allied and the Japanese perspectives. Australians provided significant manpower against Japan in 1942 and 1943. With those points made, what van der Vat knows, he knows very well. A couple of examples: he offers a very different take on the Battle of Savo Island. A major Japanese naval victory during the Guadalcanal campaign, van der Vat convincingly argues that the defeated Americans performed their mission despite losing more ships than the Japanese because they forced their enemy to retreat. He also has harsh words for Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. At the strategic level, Yamamoto's brilliant opening moves had turned into a number of inept decisions that worked against Japanese interests. The Americans might have been mistaken in killing Yamamoto, given how many mistakes he was making. Van der Vat's heroes are the American naval commanders. He does skimp on looking at the actions of junior officers and the lower ranks, but the focus of his book tends to favor the high ranking. There are shortcomings. He offers more maps than Spector, but their quality leaves a lot to be desired. Van der Vat is primarily a specialist in European history and he makes a number of references back to the campaigns with which he is more familiar and his understanding of the events that brought the U.S.-Japan to war are rather thin. Finally, he skips through the ending of the war rather quickly. Still, this is an informative book and makes for interesting reading.

Rich in detail and easy on the eyes.

Dan van der Vat's account of the Pacific theater of operations of the Second World War is a master piece of millitary history. Well written, it is both rich in detail and easy on the eyes. This book grabbed me in the first paragraph, something that is a must with a work of this scope. I didn't want to put this book down and was sorry the story was over when I was through; I wanted more. I came to know the leaders of both sides of the conflict. One must respect the cunningness of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku and the strategy of Vice Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo while admiring the dertermination and indomitable spirit of Admirals Nimitz and Spruance. The graphic depictions of eyewitness accounts made this book haunting and unforgettable. Anyone with the slightest interest in the greatest naval war in history should read this book.

Very enjoyable overview

I'm not really a military history buff, but I got curious to know more about the war in the Pacific than I remembered from high school. This was a good book and an easy, enjoyable read, which was exactly what I was looking for. Some minor criticisms (which others may disagree with entirely) : I could have done with less exacting details of some of the military specifics, but serious military historians would want far more I'm sure (which is what books on individual battles are for). There were some excerpts from first hand accounts that I greatly appreciated, and I would have enjoyed the book even more if there had been more.He definitely is a strong critic of MacArthur, but I didn't feel like it hurt his account of the war (although it does make me curious to go read someone else's opposing view, just to see how things would be assessed differently).

Good with a few minor reservations

I thought Van der Vat did a good job outlining the Pacific war- with a few criticisms. He was occasionally a bit heavy handed and moralistic in his assesments, rather than letting the facts speak for themselves. I thought he was overly critical of MacArthur (for example: referring to him striding ashore in the Philippines as 'an old ham'). For a single volume history of the Pacific John Toland's "The Rising Sun" is still the standard I gauge all others by. Having said that, Van der Vat did a fine job of assembling and outlining the salient points of the Pacific war and had some worthwhile comments. His writing style was good and the book read well. While not agreeing with all of his criticisms of MacArthur and the American effort I don't believe he was unfair in his assesments and they are worth considering. I do highly recommend it for any armchair historian interested in the Pacific war.

Striaghtforward analysis of Pacific Campagin w/o pretenses

Good analysis of Pacific campagin with detail to back up explanations which current historians have not addressed or were scared to write. The failure of Japanese military to see their situation as it was may have contributed the most to the American victory. His 2 chapters on the underlying causes of the Pacific conflict and the perspective of Japan removes the sterro typed Japanese aggressor. He clearly faults military leadership for the complete embracure of Bushido to the great harm and destuction of the military command ability. Corrects and disputes with Smauel E. Morrison, author of The US Navy in WWII is especially interesting and caused me to go back to Morrisons books on the Pacific for review. This is a superb book with detail for the Professoral type interested in a new and clear view of the Pacfic war