The Pacific War: 1941-1945 [Paperback]

John Costello (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1982

John Costello's The Pacific War has now established itself as the standard one-volume account of World War II in the Pacific. Never before have the separate stories of fighting in China, Malaya, Burma, the East Indies, the Phillipines, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Aleutians been so brilliantly woven together to provide a clear account of one of the most massive movements of men and arms in history. The complex social, political, and economic causes that underlay the war are here carefully analyzed, impelling the reader to see it as the inevitable conclusion to a series of historical events. And the bloody fighting that indelibly recorded names like Midway and Iwo Jima in the annals of human conflict is described in detail, through its ominous conclusion in the mushroom clouds of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Clearly the best one-volume treatment of the subject now in print.” (Library Journal )

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (December 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688016200
• ISBN-13: 978-0688016203
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #246,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-done, truly comprehensive one-volume history, December 21, 2000

By 

Joe Childers (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pacific War: 1941-1945 (Paperback)

This book advertises itself as a comprehensive history of the causes and conduct of the war. It accomlishes this goal very well.

Bright spots in the book where is compares favorably to other one-volume histories are the causes of the war going back to the opening of Japan, the Burma/India theater, the strategic wrangling between the Allies, and the wonderful maps.

Someone looking for blow-by-blow accounts of the battles will be disappointed, as Costello's refreshing perspective is to look primarily at the strategic implications of the battles. This is thoroughly appropriate for a one-volume history. Costello successfully resists the temptation to delve into exciting, but page-consuming, battle narrative. His intent seems rather to give you a framework with which you can fit together your other Pacific War books that have narrower settings.

Lastly, the photo pages in this book are the best I have ever seen. The selection of photographs, very few of which are trite, together with the masterful captions are in themselves a thumbnail of the plot of the book, not just eye candy or filler. Especially effective is how a inset of an important participant often appears in a photo of an event. Extremely impressive!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars complete and readable history of the pacific campaign, June 27, 2000

By 

David A. Bouras (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pacific War: 1941-1945 (Paperback)

John Costello covers all aspects of the pacific war in a very readable style. It provides good perspective on the causes and strategies as well.

It is not a "I was there" book like "the Bloody Battle for Suribachi" by Wheeler, nor is it written in the heavy scholary style of "Barbarossa" by Alan Clark. There are more complete presentations on various battles published elsewhere such as Guadalcanal by Frank or Okinawa by Leckie. However no book puts it all together as well as this one.

I recommend this book highly. David Bouras

69 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Replete With Errors, January 4, 2005

By 

Arnulf the Wise "History Lover" (Towson, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pacific War: 1941-1945 (Paperback)

I am currently reading a 1st Edition of this book. After reading only the first 150 pages I have found numerous errors in the spelling of proper names as well as several utterly stupid historical errors. For example: the author has "Ashai Sinbun" instead of Asahi Shinbun; "Simonoseki" instead of Shimonoseki; "Matsungaga" instead of Matsunaga. More important are the historical mistakes. During his description of the Pearl Harbor attack he refers to information being sent back to Admiral Yamamoto who, according to Costello, was 5000 miles away ABOARD THE AKAGI!!!. He doesn't even know that the Akagi was one of the 6 [Japanese] carriers involved in the strike on Pearl. Actually, Yamamoto was aboard his flagship the Yamato at the time. Later he discusses the Jap attack on Clark Field in the Philippines and says that our planes "retreated to Luzon"! Well duh. Clark Field is on Luzon. At one point he erroneously substitutes the name Nagumo (the admiral commanding the Pearl Harbor strike force) for Admiral Nagano, the Navy Minister. Later, when describing the [Japanese] occupation of the Isle of Batan north of Luzon in early December 1941 he mistakenly calls it "Bataan", which of course was the peninsula to which the Americans retreated after the [Japanese] landed on Luzon. And all these errors are in the first 150 pages! I could go on, but why bother. Perhaps later editions of the book have corrected these ridiculous mistakes. If not, I can only wonder at Amazon's claiming that this book is considered the best single volume history of the Pacific War available.

Read with extreme caution.