Customer Reviews

The Pacific War: 1941-1945

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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

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.

This book covers the Pacific war from the very beginnings until the surrender in Tokyo Bay. Areas such as the Washington and London naval conferences, which imposed warship limitations on Japan, and the China conflict, which included the sinking of the U.S.S. Panay by Japanese dive bombers, are covered. All of the major campaigns from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa are discussed in brilliant detail. This book is well-researched and contains a wealth of information about the Pacific Campaign. This is the best one-volume account of the Pacific war that I have read. I would also recommend Days of Infamy by John Costello to readers who enjoyed this book.

I just re-read this book and found it hard to put down. Costello writes well, and he obviously has some fascinating history to work with. The slow movement of the allies from sheer desperation in 1942 to overwhelming superiority in 1945 is well described. The fighting in Malaya, Burma, China, and New Guinea, often overlooked in favor of the "glamor battles" such as Midway and Coral Sea, is covered pretty thoroughly.

As others have pointed out, there are errors here. Some are apparently typographical, such as "Sidney" for "Sydney." Others are more baffling, such as the alleged appearance of Lexington during the Tarawa campaign (Lexington sank at the battle of the Coral Sea). So you may wish to check some details with other sources. Nevertheless, an excellent read.

I finished this textbook-like book recently although at several points I almost put it down due to the continual errors that I attribute to both the author and the editor. As others have mentioned, there are simply too many silly errors-- such as the refloating of the first 'Lexington' in late 1943, the reappearance of the 'Shoho' long after it was sunk, or the Hellcat divebomber (F6F Hellcats could divebomb but the plane was designated a 'fighter'). Some of these errors were so egregious that I laughed out loud. Every several pages there was a goof regarding a name, place, or equipment.

But, despite this frustrating problem, the book is a worthwhile read on the basics of the war in the Pacific during World War II.
Coming in at over 700 pages the author does a good job of covering the major events and also throws in a good number of interesting details and quotes.

Costello has written a very good one volume trreatment of the Pacific Campaign. Easily one of the most readable volumes written on this part of the war. I was disappointed near the end when I discovered glaring factual errors concerning the Battle for Okinawa. It may have been simple conclusion drawing or poor editing, but it misinforms the reader as to the reasons the Japanese chose the strategy that they did. Dispite this and undoubtably other minor errors I would highly recommend the volume.

This is a very good summary of the Pacific War. In particular the coverage of teh Southeast Asia theater and how the Allie's plans for Europe were intwined their plans for the Pacific theater are well presented. It really needs a thorough proofreading, however. It is amazing how often he says "west" when he means "east," for instance. He will also confuse people or ships in the same chapter. Two that come to mind are Kakuta/Kurita commanding the Aleutian forces during Midway, and Lexington/Hornet participating in the Doolittle strike, but htis sort of thing happens a lot. Add to this silly goofs like saying Devastators carried bombs, and you have a book that makes you roll your eyes frequently. If you are unfamiliar with the Pacific war, however, these discrepancies could really confuse you.

John Costello did a fine job of detailing the Pacific war from start to finish. At 800 pages this is not a quick read but all the major battles and actions are covered in detail. I found his writing style a bit more dry than John Toland but still eminently readable and engaging. My choice for a good trio of books on the conflict would be John Toland's 'The Rising Sun', Dan Van der Vat's 'The Pacific Campaign' and John Costello's 'The Pacific War'. These three belong on the bookshelf of anyone with a more than passing interest in that era and any one alone would be more than adequate for the amateur historian. Costello's book included a section at the end on Pearl Harbor that hints at more sinister behind-the-scenes actions. While I'm not a conspiracy buff, that section was intriguing and unique to the Costello book.

Of particular interest to history buffs but never fully explained, are the distinct reasons for the causes of WW-II in the Pacific. Costello's book provides an insight into the underlying causes by going back 100 years into the past to trace the evolution of Japanese Society vis-a-vis the western world. And in the process reveal how the militant, militaristic faction somehow took hold of Japanese Society. Another reason why this book is a good read is its attempts to place the war in focus, not as a single war but part of the larger global conflict that is tearing the world apart. The book, also, sometimes tells its story not from an American or British view point but from the Japanese, and that is fascinating because few books gives us that view.