Eagle Against the Sun : The American War With Japan

Rating:
Summary: Excellent One Volume History of Pacific War
Review: A very readable, interesting history of the Pacific theater in World War II. Despite being a single volume Spector does a masterful job of covering all the key aspects of the Pacific war and does so in a very complete manner. The earlier reviewers comments about the lack of maps is true; you might want to have an atlas handy while reading this book. Definitely worth your investment several times over in both time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Rousing Fight, Good Read
Review: An extremely worthwhile survey of the war in the Pacific. Spector argues that America won the conflict against Japan using its industrial strength in a war of attrition. Spector notes that for the two years following the Battle of Midway the United States had no engagements with any major-sized Japanese fleet or field army. During this two year period, though, the Japanese were for all practical purposes defeated.

Spector observes that Pear Harbor and the use of the atomic bombs are the only two major aspects of the war in the Pacific theater that garnered much historical attention. His major area of focus is on the period in between these two events. He explains "that many other aspects of the war are worth close examination, even reexamination." Such topics include the leadership of Douglas MacArthur, the often ignored topic of supply and logistics, the command relationship in the Pacific, and the ultimate factors that brought about victory.

The most glaring problem with this excellent study are Spector's repeated errors of minor facts. For example, he describes the Emperor's uncle, Prince Higashikuni as the monarch's brother. These type of stupid, little mistakes happen over and over again throughout this book. The lack of detailed maps is frustrating, but that more than likely is the publisher's doing, or not doing. These shortcomings, however, are minor irritants in a book that anyone with an interest in this conflict should read.

Rating:
Summary: The classic story of the Pacific War
Review: As a history of the Pacific War, Eagle Against the Sun is rivalled only by Samuel Eliot Morison's 15 volume classic. Ironically, however, Spector packs far more detail into this classic one volume narrative than Morison managed to include in 15. Where Morison slighted organization, logistics, and sociological issues in favor of action, Spector gives such issues the attention they deserve. The Pacific War was a war of logistics--moving massive volumes of men and material across thousands of miles of ocean. The Pacific War was also a fascinating study in race and gender relations, with early and problematic evolution towards the modern integrated force. Spector addresses all these issues, while still telling an exciting story of action and heroism.

Spector is eminently well-qualified to write such a history. A Marine Corps veteran (Viet Nam), Spector is also a professional historian. He understands combat as few historians do. Spector is also a talented writer, whose prose flows quickly and powerfully.

Spector's careful analysis of the controversial decision to use atomic weapons against Japan is especially well-done. He acknowledges that there are legitimate arguments--both moral and military--against their use. He notes that critics of the decision included not only left-leaning academics, but also army and navy leaders resisting air force officers who believed that SAC rendered the other branches obsolete. Yet, he persuasively argues that tha atomic bombs, coupled with Russia's invasion of Manchuria, were the exogenous shocks that finally destabilized Japan's militarist regime.

In sum, very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: SImply The Best Single-Volume Book About Japan's War!
Review: Good books devoting themselves to the overall scope and breadth of Pacific campaign against the Japanese during World War Two are hard to find, but this book solves the reader's problem nicely. It is a comprehensive, entertaining, and fair-minded book that careful details both Japanese and Allied perspectives before, during, and at the conclusion of the war. This book is truly a carefully constructed, exhaustively researched and quite well documented one-volume history that everyone should love. I first discovered it on the syllabus of a graduate-level Harvard history course, and have had it on my shelf ever since. Written in a very accessible style that allows the reader to stream through as though one is reading a novel, and it is filled with interesting anecdotes and new insights that keep the reader entertained and interested throughout the nearly 600 pages of the book. My own personal favorite was an actual complaint filed immediately after the attack at Pearl Harbor by a Hawaiian resident of a dog who was allegedly barking in Morse code to the Japanese ships offshore. It is also offers a number of new thought provoking and intriguing ideas about aspects of the war against Japan for the reader.

The author engages in an active reinterpretation of the war based on declassified intelligence files, archival material, Japanese documents and an impressive collection of interviews with principals involved in the almost five year struggle to defeat the Japanese after the events at Pearl Harbor. It is interesting to learn that the U.S. planned to wage a wide-ranging campaign of submarine attacks against enemy shipping even before the start of the war, and also indicates that MacArthur was lucky not to be unceremoniously dumped after his bad bungling of the defense of the Philippines and also because of his active disregard for a number of important intercepts of Japanese messages that could have saved literally thousands of American and other lives. Spector also reveals that U.S. decisions were often more influenced by the nature of our stormy relationship with our British allies and our own inter-service rivalries than by strategic concerns.

The author vividly conjures up accurate and spell-binding accounts of the major battles of the war, and provides a number of intriguing descriptions of lesser known aspects of the Pacific campaign, as well. He takes the reader on a fascinating whirlwind tour of the war, leaping from details of critical meetings between war planners in the Pentagon to social, economic, and political aspects of the engagement to excellent on-the-scene coverage of the battlegrounds. He shows us how the war against the Japanese was different from that being waged in Europe, and how this intensely naval type of conflict was in a number of ways much more risky and innovative on our part than its European counterpart. I was particularly fascinated by his interesting argument that the most critical Japanese mistake of the war was in allowing itself to be drawn into fighting the war of attrition we had always preferred to wage based on its defeat at Midway. This is an important, magisterial, and comprehensive book that is undoubtedly the single best one-volume treatment of the war against Japan and it belongs on every serious World War Two student's bookshelf. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book But Lacking Maps Big Time!
Review: I enjoyed flipping thru this book. Was required reading for my World War II-Pacific War class at George Mason University. But I must agree with the other reviewer, this book clearly doesnt have enough (or any for that matter) maps. How can you have a book on the Pacific War with little or no maps? If it had more maps it would be a 5 star selection. Other than the map deficiency this is an excellent book and well written.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent One Volume History of Pacific War
Review: I recommend Spector's book to anyone looking for an overview of the entire Asia-Pacific campaigns during World War II. The book examines not only fighting in the South Pacific at places like Guadalcanal, but also the China-India-Burma theater. However, don't expect a book in the Stephen Ambrose vein, with plenty of quotes from ordinary solders on the front lines. This is very much a traditional military history, focusing primarily on generals and admirals, more than privates and sergeants. It's definitely "history from the top down," as they say. Spector does, however, throw in a quote from a "grunt" on occasion. The book actually gets off to a slow start with what is essentially a bureaucratic history of the U.S. military in the interwar period; but its pace picks up dramatically with the attack on Pearl Harbor and keeps up its momentum for the remainder of the text. As others have noted, Spector's work could have benefitted from more detailed maps. and quite often I found the litany of various admirals, generals, carrier groups, squadrons, corps, etc., to be confusing; but I believe war itself breeds confusion and as such the book merely reflects this reality. Overall, a solid work of exhaustive research by an author ideally suited to pen such an excellent history.

Rating:
Summary: Well Executed Summary of the Entire Asia-Pacific War
Review: I recommend Spector's book to anyone looking for an overview of the entire Asia-Pacific campaigns during World War II. The book examines not only fighting in the South Pacific at places like Guadalcanal, but also the China-India-Burma theater. However, don't expect a book in the Stephen Ambrose vein, with plenty of quotes from ordinary solders on the front lines. This is very much a traditional military history, focusing primarily on generals and admirals, more than privates and sergeants. It's definitely "history from the top down," as they say. Spector does, however, throw in a quote from a "grunt" on occasion. The book actually gets off to a slow start with what is essentially a bureaucratic history of the U.S. military in the interwar period; but its pace picks up dramatically with the attack on Pearl Harbor and keeps up its momentum for the remainder of the text. As others have noted, Spector's work could have benefitted from more detailed maps. and quite often I found the litany of various admirals, generals, carrier groups, squadrons, corps, etc., to be confusing; but I believe war itself breeds confusion and as such the book merely reflects this reality. Overall, a solid work of exhaustive research by an author ideally suited to pen such an excellent history.

Rating:
Summary: Maps! Maps! Maps!
Review: If you've read some of the other reviews this will come as no surprise - - this is a terrific book, but one that is completely lacking in maps to explain the strategic and tactical elements of the various Pacific campaigns that are exhaustively and effectively summarized and described throughout the book. Putting together a narrative that describes and explains the entire Pacific war in about 600 pages is no small task, but this book does the trick. And it's an entertaining read as well. It is a terrific overview of the entire Pacific war that covers every major offensive with appropriate emphasis on the problems of logistics, in-fighting among the allies and among service branches and competition among the various theatres for precious supplies, equipment, arms and manpower. However, the lack of any campaign maps was frustrating and irritating. About halfway through the book, I happened to find the West Point Atlas for the Pacific War at Borders (an absolutely fantastic collection of campaign maps) and scooped it up specifically to use with this book. With the atlas at the ready, Eagle Against The Sun became a much better read. Even if you're fully familiar with the imense geography of the Pacific war, you'll be driven batty by the lack of maps in Eagle Against The Sun. However, the lack of maps is really the book's only material flaw and, in the end, it was easily fixed by pulling out the atlas.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, no maps
Review: This is a very good one-volume history of World War II in the Pacific. It is fast-paced, easy reading, and balanced. The author covers all aspects of the war with roughly the emphasis they deserve, shifting back and forth from the high councils of strategy to homely events on the front lines of this brutal, bitter conflict.

"Eagle against the Sun" won't get my highest rating, however, because of its lack of maps. The inside cover has a general map of the Pacific -- and that's all folks. How can a publisher put out a book that contains hundreds of obscure place names and descriptions of complex military maneuvers without at least a dozen detailed maps to illustrate the text? The lack of maps diminishes what would otherwise be an outstanding book.

Rating:
Summary: Good overview
Review: This is a very well written and informative book, and it gives a good high level overview of the war in the Pacific. There is probably nothing new or particularly interesting in it for the expert, but for the interested layman it is a good read. There seem to be some inexplicable omissions here and there, such as the real risk of Halsey's sojourn at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, my biggest complaint is the lack of any maps in the book. There was a single, high-level map of the whole theater on the inside cover, and that was it!! How can you write a military history of WWII without a single map to depict the major battles?? This is a pet peeve of mine with many history books, but this book was especially egregious.