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Books > History > Australasian & Pacific history
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Implacable Foes - War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R742
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Implacable Foes - War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 (Hardcover)
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On 8 May 1945, Victory in Europe Day-shortened to "V.E.
Day"-brought with it the demise of Nazi Germany. But for the
Allies, the war was only half-won. Exhausted but exuberant American
soldiers, ready to return home, were sent to join the fighting in
the Pacific, which by the spring and summer of 1945 had turned into
a gruelling campaign of bloody attrition against an enemy
determined to fight to the last man. Germany had surrendered
unconditionally. The Japanese would clearly make the conditions of
victory extraordinarily high. In the United States, Americans
clamored for their troops to come home and for a return to a
peacetime economy. Politics intruded upon military policy while a
new and untested president struggled to strategize among a military
command that was often mired in rivalry. The task of defeating the
Japanese seemed nearly unsurmountable, even while plans to invade
the home islands were being drawn. Army Chief of Staff General
George C. Marshall warned of the toll that "the agony of enduring
battle" would likely take. General Douglas MacArthur clashed with
Marshall and Admiral Nimitz over the most effective way to defeat
the increasingly resilient Japanese combatants. In the midst of
this division, the Army began a program of partial demobilization
of troops in Europe, which depleted units at a time when they most
needed experienced soldiers. In this context of military emergency,
the fearsome projections of the human cost of invading the Japanese
homeland, and weakening social and political will, victory was
salvaged by means of a horrific new weapon. As one Army staff
officer admitted, "The capitulation of Hirohito saved our necks."
In Implacable Foes, award-winning historians Waldo Heinrichs (a
veteran of both theatres of war in World War II) and Marc
Gallicchio bring to life the final year of World War II in the
Pacific right up to the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, evoking not only Japanese policies of desperate
defense, but the sometimes rancorous debates on the home front.
They deliver a gripping and provocative narrative that challenges
the decision-making of U.S. leaders and delineates the consequences
of prioritizing the European front. The result is a masterly work
of military history that evaluates the nearly insurmountable trials
associated with waging global war and the sacrifices necessary to
succeed.
General
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