Pacific Campaign: The U.S.-Japanese Naval War 1941-1945 [Paperback]

Dan Van der Vat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1992

Dan van der Vat's naval histories have been acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic as "definitive," "extraordinary," and "vivid and harrowing." Now he turns to the greatest naval conflict in history: the Pacific campaign of World War II. Drawing on neglected archives of firsthand accounts from both sides, van der Vat interweaves eyewitness testimony with sharp, analytical narration to provide a penetrating reappraisal of the strategic and political background of both the Japanese and American forces, as well as a major reassessment of the role of intelligence on both sides. A comprehensive evaluation of all aspects of the war in the Pacific, The Pacific Campaign promises to be the standard work on the U.S.-Japanese war for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Philadelphia Inquirer Fast-paced, meticulously reserarched...has all the elements of a spy thriller.

The New York Times Book Review Belongs on the bookshelf of every American who contemplates the meaning of the greatest sea war in history.

Stephen E. Ambrose author of Eisenhower A vivid account of the greatest naval battles ever fought and a thoughtful analysis of why war came...marked by fresh insights and new material.

The Chicago Tribune An unsparing indictment of Japan's culpability in bringing about the Second World War....It blows away the rubbish....Van Der Vat writes with clarity and understanding.

About the Author

Dan van der Vat is the author of The Atlantic Campaign, The Ship That Changed the World, Gentlemen of War, and The Grand Scuttle. He lives in London, England.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Touchstone ed edition (December 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671792172
• ISBN-13: 978-0671792176
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview, May 5, 2005

By 

C. Ryan (Winthrop, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pacific Campaign: The U.S.-Japanese Naval War 1941-1945 (Paperback)

The most interesting and useful part of this book for most people may be the first 113 pages that describe events preceding Pearl Harbor as Japan, starting with their annexation of Formosa in 1895, maneuvered for two generations toward war with the United States.

Published in 1991, author van der Vat pays no homage to "the greatest generation" who fought the war in the lower ranks but focuses on their parents' generation, men largely born before 1895, who, sometimes wisely and sometimes not, actually strategized the war and lead the U.S. to Victory (Roosevelt, King, Nimitz, Halsey, MacAuthur, et al). The profiles of significant senior Japanese officers will be new to many Americans. Also, the author makes a good case that the two pronged assault toward Japan, MacArthur through the Solomons and Philippines and Nimitz through the Marshalls, Marianas, etc., was a poor strategy that needlessly prolonged the war by dividing Allied resources.

Another interesting aspect is the fanatical, even suicidal, attitude of so many Japanese both before the war and during pitched battles. This lead the U.S. to conclude that the only way to get them to stop fighting, either on a remote atoll or on their home islands, was to apply ever greater firepower. It sounds in some ways like the philosophy and practice of the Islamic supremacists the U.S. is fighting in recent and current times.

A few interesting tidbits were new to me. For example, the famous Normandy D-Day landing was not the largest or even the second largest single-day U.S. amphibious assault of the war; the largest was on Luzon in the Philippines and the second largest was on Okinawa. The first B-29 raid of the war was against Japanese forces in Bangkok. The Japanese killed 250,000 Chinese civilians in reprisal for (very little) Chinese support of the 1942 Doolittle (Thirty Second Over Tokyo) air raid. And, things never change, a U.S. congressman blabbed in a press conference that during a "fact finding trip" to the Pacific Theater he learned that the Japanese were failing to sink U.S. submarines because they were setting their depth charges to explode at too shallow a depth; the Japanese picked this up and thereafter improved their ability to sink our subs... Finally the Japanese had a significant atomic weapons program dating from before 1942 and one of their principal development sites, captured and dismantled by the Russians, was in what is now North Korea (!?).

This 429-page book is recommended as a "refresher" for someone who is familiar with the general facts of WWII in the Pacific but is vague on the specifics or someone with no prior knowledge who wants to learn the details (units, ships, commanders) of the principal campaigns and battles.

The maps could be better and the photos are mostly well know from elsewhere.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introductory book about WW2 in Pacific, April 14, 2000

By 

Drazen Kramaric - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pacific Campaign: The U.S.-Japanese Naval War 1941-1945 (Paperback)

When I decided to purchase a single volume book about WW2 in Pacific I narrowed my choice between two titles: this one and Costello's book. Since I didn't know anything about these books nor their authors I based my decision on Amazon reviews and the fact that Van der Vat was European which I though would add to his objectivity.

Now, I am not so sure I made the right decision and I'll probably go after Costello in the future. Why? Well, as I wrote in the title, "Pacific Campaign" is good book on introductory level, but I wanted more.

To be honest, Van der Vat gives us good introduction (which I wasn't particularly interested in), he describes all the important campaigns and offers his own view about some key characters and their acts which I commend. Maps are well done and serves their purpose. Van der Vat's writing style is very good and easy to read.

Unfortunately, I already read book with similar characteristics written by Croatian author so "Pacific Campaign" didn't give me any new information. I wanted more detailed descriptions, more study about the strategies of opposing sides, more data about the battles. When I read about the battles like Midway or Philippine Sea I want to know every ship that participated down to cruiser level.

I don't criticise Van der Vat for not having all I wanted, but I unless it would be your very first work about WW2 in Pacific I suggest some other book with more detailed approach.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Navy War", May 19, 2007

By 

Nicholas E. Sarantakes (Newport, RI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pacific Campaign: The U.S.-Japanese Naval War 1941-1945 (Paperback)

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.