Book(s) about the war in the Pacific

[OpanaPointer]

If you want to read about how God's personal warrior angel came down to Earth to save the world: https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/Mac ... /index.htm

(Not quite that bad...)

[Dan W.]

Do you like first person accounts? If so, here are a plethora of titles to choose from:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=157916

[Carl Schwamberger]

Senshi Sosho, 104 volumes complete(2 were published in the 1980s).

Any in English?

I've been told the Australian Army historical section translated the sections directly relevant to their part of the war. I don't know if that is published for sale or publicly available. For some reason the US DoD has been uninterested in Japans version of the military operations. I recall passages cited by a few US historians, but no translations referred to.

[OpanaPointer]

https://pacificwararchive.wordpress.com ... onographs/

[cstunts]

Vols 3 (orig. publ. 1967) and 26 (1969) of BKS/Senshi Sosho have been completly translated into English via the Corts Foundation. Both deal w/the fall of the NEI in 1942, and are extremely useful. Links are available online.
I think another volume dealing w/Australian campaigns has been, too, but cannot recall those details.

Much of Paul Dull's 1978 Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Naval Inst. Press) was derived directly from BKS as well. Many good American studies of specific campaigns/battles have utilized BKS already, and may include privately translated portions.

The entire 102-volume BKS series is now available online for download, however.

[Catnip]

I've read some of the Japanese Monographs. They are pretty sketchy. Very rough and incomplete from the fact that they were written just after the war when everybody in Japan was wondering what the hell just happened. All of the books written just after the war and into the '50s need to be taken with a grain of salt as newer works have presented a more complete and accurate history. Unfortunately S.E. Morison's books fall in this category. They are absolutely required reading for covering the most important aspects of the war. Nimitz's Two Ocean War is an exception, having been written by a history maker.

The Center For Military History series are good, if academic. MacArthur's two volume report on the war, a bit self-serving though.

Toland, Hastings for a lot of detail that spanned the entire war. If you want to understand how the war came to be read Bradley's The China Mirage.

For detail read Hornfischer, Thomas, Y'blood, Toll, Prange, Lord, Cutler, Hoyt, Saur. There are so many good set-piece battle books, Eugene Sledge is a standout. Tregaskis too.

And then there is the CBI Theater which had a great bearing on the war in the Pacific... so much history, so little time.

Don't overlook biographies of King, Nimitz, Spruance, MacArthur, Leahy etc.

The four volume series, The Defenders of Taffy 3. Tells the story of Ziggy Sprague, Ernest Eveans and Robert Copeland and gang against Kurita and Yamato. The other three volumes are Japanese action reports, a Japanese naval term glossary and timelines of all activities in the battle. Very detailed with good reviews from the Navy people and historians.

Note: I am the author, so I am by definition prejudiced.

If you really have the history bug, go on over to Fold3.com and read U.S. Navy action reports. I did.