John Prados relates the growing intelligence knowledge on both sides to the progress and outcome of naval actions. Along the way he offers a wealth of revelations that include data on how the United States caught the superbattleship Yamato and the impact of intelligence on the initial campaigns in the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies and the escape of American codebreakers from Corregidor. He also provides colorful vignettes of personalities who shaped the secret intelligence war. This ambitious work is not simply a rundown of code-breaking successes, but an astonishing demonstration of how the day-to-day accumulation of knowledge can produce extraordinary results. Its accounting of Japanese intelligence is unprecedented in detail. Its reassessment of battles and campaigns is presented not just in terms of troops or ships but in how the secret war actually played out. Lauded as a major new study when published in hardcover in 1995, the book remains the most comprehensive study written. For sheer drama and gut-level operational practicality, it ranks with the very best.
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Book Description
Written in the style of a thriller but solidly based on an array of sources, this study reinterprets the entire sea campaign in the Pacific, using intelligence as the missing key to the Allied success. It examines every aspect of the secret war of intelligence -- from radio dispatches and espionage to vital information from prisoners and document translation -- showing how U.S. intelligence outsmarted Japan nearly every step of the way. The resulting assessment is a virtual rewriting of history that challenges previous conceptions about the Pacific conflict.
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
The most authoritative and revealing examination yet of the way intelligence--of all kinds--was instrumental in defeating Japan. Prados gives a new picture of the war in the Pacific, one which will challenge many previous conceptions about that conflict, and one which will be irresistible to those readers who find histories of that period fascinating. 16 pages of photos.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
John Prados is a historian of national security affairs and director of the Vietnam Documentation Project of the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. He is the author of ten books, four of which are on intelligence, including Presidents' Secret Wars and The Soviet Estimate.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The detail in examining all aspects of intelligence in the Japanese and American navies during WWII -- from fleet recognition, to traffic analysis, to wartime production information, to the role of Ultra and decryption -- make Prados' book an excellent study. Those familiar with WWII issues will find lots of fresh material.
Prados is wise enough to limit the topic to just naval intelligence issues, but still fills 735 pages with detail and skill. The pleasant surprise is that it's so well-written, building each issue to its climax in the wartime theater. And, with 50+ years of perspective, you can feel the tide of the war shift after Guadalcanal.
The art of intelligence-gathering increased dramatically during this war because of radio intercepts, so Prados covers the topic chronologically. He has an excellent analysis of Japanese Naval strategy at Pearl Harbor, during the Pacific conquest period, and the shift to a "defensive" strategy of the homelands.
Prados does an excellent job comparing the structure of Japanese and American intelligence-gathering; also in indicating both opportunities and limitations of intelligence in war-time. The reader also sees the dramatic impact that war-time propaganda has in mis-leading military leaders.
Surprisingly low-tech intelligence issues are important at various points during the war: such as the absence of photo-reconnaissance early in the war for Americans. For the Japanese navy, poor ship-recognition skills by Japanese pilots and skippers leads to assumptions that American carriers present no threat because they've been reported as sunk -- or that destroyers were cruisers or even battleships.
The book is closed by an excellent post-war period which does two things: follows the careers of major intelligence participants and discusses social aspects of military training.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Combined Fleet Decoded taught me more new material regarding the Japanese navy and the U.S. Intelligence surveying that Japanese navy than I had learned in the past 15 years of reading Second World War books and watching documentary-type DVDs such as the History Channel. That is not a crack at other books, DVDs and the History Channel. Instead, it is support for the depth which Prados examines the conflict - from its genesis twenty years before Pearl Harbor right up through the hostilities.
The conflict is examined in detail. For example, Prados notes that Pearl Harbor strategist Genda's inspiration for a massed carrier attack on Pearl Harbor came from watching an American newsreel in Tokyo. Quantitative support is offered throughout. He writes that Japanese Captain Tomioka's estimate based on experience in China was that a 3-to-1 ratio was necessary to ensure success against the American aircraft in the Philippines in 1941.
Of course, Prados' great advantage is time. Written in 1995 (I believe), he was able to research the combined memoirs of people like Edwin Layton and Japser Holmes a decade after each had written their memoirs and after they had passed away. After comparing notes, he makes some of the most perceptive analysis of the Pacific War. For example he provides the detail to support the notion that Macarthur had as much reason to be dismissed after the disastrous events of December 7, 1941 as Husband Kimmel. Yet Kimmel was relieved and Macarthur remained. Additionally, the Japanese trained for the "Decisive Naval Battle" instead of preparing for a prolonged naval engagement and were never really to turn the tide of battle. And for that, we are thankful.
The conflict is examined in detail. For example, Prados notes that Pearl Harbor strategist Genda's inspiration for a massed carrier attack on Pearl Harbor came from watching an American newsreel in Tokyo. Quantitative support is offered throughout. He writes that Japanese Captain Tomioka's estimate based on experience in China was that a 3-to-1 ratio was necessary to ensure success against the American aircraft in the Philippines in 1941.
Of course, Prados' great advantage is time. Written in 1995 (I believe), he was able to research the combined memoirs of people like Edwin Layton and Japser Holmes a decade after each had written their memoirs and after they had passed away. After comparing notes, he makes some of the most perceptive analysis of the Pacific War. For example he provides the detail to support the notion that Macarthur had as much reason to be dismissed after the disastrous events of December 7, 1941 as Husband Kimmel. Yet Kimmel was relieved and Macarthur remained. Additionally, the Japanese trained for the "Decisive Naval Battle" instead of preparing for a prolonged naval engagement and were never really to turn the tide of battle. And for that, we are thankful.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Other reviewers have commented on the breadth of information and the contribution this book makes to our understanding of intelligence in the Pacific war. I also want to note the wonderful way it is written. Personalities, on both sides of the conflict, are fleshed out. Battles, as large as Leyte Gulf and as small as individual submarines attacks, are vividly described. The reader is made to feel the emotions of the participants. Buy the book for the information, read the book for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Detailed History of the Intelligence Battles of the Pacific War
800 pages, 62 of which are notes, sources, bibliography - that's a lot of history and detail. You know that also when you begin reading of the US-Japanese intelligence operations... Read more
Published 3 months ago by cpt matt
Decoding Combined Fleet Decoded
Written long enough after the War to assure hindsight with clarity, declassification of war secrets and the participation of the Japanese, Combined Fleet Decoded is the most... Read more
Published 14 months ago by John E. Nevola
Pacific war narrative viewed through the prism of intelligence
In Combined Fleet Decoded, author John Prados presents us with a history of the gathering and use of intelligence by both sides in the Pacific war. Read more
Published 16 months ago by William S. Grass
A tedious read
Much interesting information but often getting bogged down in minutia such as aircraft type counts, number and type of personnel in certain offices, etc. Read more
Published on April 21, 2006 by Harold L. Fritsche
Pacific Odyssey and the Brith of Mondern Intel
(Reviewed by Patrick L. Moore in American Bar Association National Security Law Report Fall-Winter 1998.) It is surprisingly difficult to write a review of a classic. Read more
Published on August 20, 2005 by Patrick L. Moore
masterwork
An exhaustive review of the subject and well-written.
But it is evident the author is a scholar, not a sailor.
The slips in nautical terms can be irritating. Read more
But it is evident the author is a scholar, not a sailor.
The slips in nautical terms can be irritating. Read more
Published on July 21, 2003 by D. Donohugh
Misleading title
This book starts off describing both sides' codebreaking efforts prior to WWII, something not available elsewhere, certainly not in such stunning detail. Read more
Published on March 28, 2002 by Dr. Heiko Martin
BEST PACIFIC WAR BOOK
The december 2001 edition was worth the 3 month wait.
From an inteligence and operations viewpoint this is the standard
for the WW2 pacific conflict. Read more
From an inteligence and operations viewpoint this is the standard
for the WW2 pacific conflict. Read more
Published on January 4, 2002
Professionally written and a fluid read
One of my professors utilized this as a textbook, and I found it to be invaluable due to it's comprehensive and exhaustive referencing, the authors firm understanding of the... Read more
Published on April 19, 2000
Epic primer of Intelligence with a capital "I"
This work should become the basic textbook on Intelligence training, organization, gathering and analysis. Read more
Published on May 2, 1998
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