Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Most accounts of the fall of Japan follow, understandably, the progress of the US across the Pacific, culminating in the invasions of the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and finally the cataclysmic events of August 1945. Hastings paints a much broader picture, following events in Burma, where the British Empire forces were engaged in a stunningly successful but ultimately pointless, in terms of the final destruction of Japan, campaign, to Borneo where the Australians where relegated to fighting in a backwater, losing much of their stature gained in the Balkans and Western Desert in 1941-42 years before, and being hampered by in-fighting. Macarthur's arrogance - megalomania even - in the Philippines is described with the savage battle for Manila. The necessity for the battle for Iwo is seriously questioned with the normal answer "it saved allied aircrews" being doubted. Some of what he describes is well-known - the fire bombing of Japan's cities, the battle for Okinawa are covered well but less-known aspects are handled well: the China war (which had been going on for far longer that WW2), the Soviet invasion of Manchuria (Stalin's race to grab land before the war ended - the battles there continued for some days after the "official" surrender) and the choking of Japan's logistical supplies by the relatively small (compared with the U-Boats a couple of years earlier) US submarine force. Hastings makes the point that the sinking of Japan's merchant navy dwindled back in late 1944 and early 1945 for the very simple reason: there was pretty well nothing more to sink. He criticises the USAAF for not diverting more resources into the mining of the Inland Sea. When this did happen, the results almost crippled Japan's inter-island traffic. The actual nuclear attacks are briefly covered - I suspect that Hastings realised that they are just too well known - but the political build up, in Washington, Tokyo and Moscow, is covered is some detail. There are also excellent pen pictures of leading characters, and the failings of senior commanders are rigorously examined: General Douglas MacArthur, for example, was a paranoid megalomaniac obsessed with his personal mission to liberate the Philippines, and ignored any intelligence that didn't suit him.

None of the combatants fought a very clean war (if there can be such a thing). The Americans slaughtered many Japanese civilians and prisoners and their campaign seems to have been fuelled by a hatred of Japanese that they did not feel towards the Germans. However, upon reading of the many and hideous atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese - many denied or overlooked by Japan even today - the hatred of them by their opponents seems all too understandable. I must admit that what shocked me most (and impressed me also a lot) in this book, is the descriptions of the systematic Japanese brutality towards both Allied prisoners and fellow Asians. It is truly terrible to read that such a cultivated and kind people like the Japanese could do such barbaric acts against helpless women and children. Hastings is also careful to shade the coin, showing that not all Japanese were sadists. He concludes that if today Japan is guilty of a collective rejection of historical fact in denying its army's brutal and nihilistic actions, some US historians interpret the pursuit of decisive victory - unconditional surrender - as the American way of war, an outlook that `renders the country liable to chronic disappointment'. In Nemesis Hastings has covered a vast canvas with superbly realised detail, and has provided an excellent companion to Armageddon, his earlier study of the defeat of Germany.

This is not a book for those who want a detailed account of which battle took place when with what unit etc etc. This book discusses the last year of the war against Japan at a much higher level and from a more political angle. It doesn't describe the campaigns in detail.

However, it does describe the war in much detail from a political perspective. How justified was the use of the atom bombs? What went on in the minds of Japan's leaders and why did the country not surrender when it was militarily defeated after Iwo Jima and Okinawa? What was the role of Australia and why did China never manage to play an important role?

It also provides many accounts from both sides what it was like to be in the war. The fire bombing of Tokyo as well as the Birma and Philipines jungle fights are discussed at the hands of detailed accounts from those who were there.

If this book does one thing, then it is to dispel the myth that world war 2 was black and white, good against bad. It gives the war a very human face. And by doing so it gives an idea of how gruesome wars are and how especially gruesome the fight in the pacific was.

In terms of writing style, the first couple of pages may take some getting used to, but once you are, the book reads quite nicely. This will not be a page turner, the topic is too serious for that.

Like most people I would imagine, my knowledge of the Second World War is mostly confined to the Eurasian and North African theatres and is shamefully threadbare when it comes to other areas. This is a book to correct such deficiencies; I have read Keegan who is excellent on the set-piece naval battles but this gives an overview of what, for many of the servicemen involved, was the forgotten conflict.
All-encompassing, from India, the Philippines, Russia and China, it also follows the course of what is traditionally seen as primarily an American conflict as they seemed determined to keep as much of the struggle under their control as possible. Given their industrial capacity (they started the war in the Pacific with four carriers and finished with a hundred), they did most of the fighting, but this book is a timely reminder of the suffering endured across the entire region by millions.
It is also good at illuminating the feet of clay possessed by some of the leading personalities, from Mountbatten and Mao to MacArthur amongst others whose scheming and posing cost more lives than were necessary. For the British there were the creaking signs of overstretch that the war had created, the Chinese never fulfilled their potential, the Americans suffered from compartmentalised tactical thinking and interservice struggles, the Japanese reaped the grinding defeat and humiliation that their tenacity and brutality created the determination for in the Allied mindset and the Russians waited cynically in the wings determined not to endure as much loss of manpower as they had suffered in the West. The poor, poor civilians, complicit or not were the ones who suffered the most.
Very good on individual campaigns, the forgotten ones like Burma or the more well-publicised ones like Iwo Jima and highlighting the highs and lows with a wealth of reference and the personal anecdotes from all sides that bring home the completely different world that fought this struggle.