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Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
by: Max Hastings

List Price: £25.00

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780007219827
ISBN: 0007219822
Label: HarperPress
Manufacturer: HarperPress
Number Of Pages: 704
Publication Date: October 01, 2007
Publisher: HarperPress
Studio: HarperPress
Sales Rank: 1002

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today
"When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today," is inscribed on the War Memorial at Kohima. It commemorates a forgotten battle fought by forgotten soldiers of a forgotten army of a forgotten empire for a forgotten cause against a forgotten foe - I exaggerate only slightly, for what school child in any of the great democracies (assisted only at its dénouement by the dreadful Soviet dictatorship of 'Uncle' Joe Stalin) that eventually triumphed over a monstrous and militarist enemy can tell today of Kohima, of Imphal, of Leyte Gulf, of Iwo Jima, of Okinawa? Not many, I guess. I am deeply regretful that so few of our young know anything of the above. Max Hastings has performed a first-class service for those who ... Read More:

Rating:

- Not history, but rather slapdash journalism
If you like your history personalised and trivialised, enjoy 'knocking copy' but are not much interested in facts nor concerned with accuracy, this is your book. Do not be bluffed by its bulk and the plethora of end-notes; it lacks a bibliography, making it impossible to decide which howlers stem from ignorance of sources and which from misusing them.
I bought 'Nemesis' because I learned that Hastings quotes from my uncle's book 'War Bush: 81 (West African) Division in Burma 1943-1945' by J.A.L.Hamilton (Norwich: Michael Russell, 2001) in his first chapter on the war in Burma. He quotes from it with acknowledgement four times, each time with one or more errors, and uses it in six more without acknowledgement. My uncle's book closes with the ... Read More:

Rating:

- A Very Good Lucid Overview of the Subject
This book gives a good overview of the campaign against Japan during the years 1944 to 1945. Hastings' fluid style and excellent layout of the book make the somewhat daunting 600 page narrative a reasonably easy read. Many interviews have been conducted with combatants of all the nations involved in the campaign and these add an insight into what some of the terrible battles were actually like for the participants. The experiences of the occupied and imprisoned are also included. Hastings is excellent at drawing character sketches of all the leading figures, military and civilian, who played a part and these add much to the interest of the story. The familiar actions in Burma, the US naval war, the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa are covered. A ... Read More:

Rating:

- A masterpiece
There can be few, even knowledgeable, students of the Second World War who will not learn much from this really impressive book. Max Hastings has already contributed some masterly WW2 histories but this must be his finest. It is one of the best histories of the War that I have ever read.

What impresses most is the scope and breadth of this book. All the major campaigns are covered and their relative importance made clear. The British campaign in Burma was never much more than a side-show, no matter how that fact must pain the dogged combatants under Bill Slim who drove the Japanese out. The relatively little known but hugely successful American submarine war against Japan's shipping is given its proper due.

None of the ... Read More:

Rating:

- Superb counterpart to Armegeddon
For those of you who thought the Pacific War was largely limited to the island hopping campaign then dropping two atomic bombs to finish the war - this book explodes the myths in a superbly readable style.

I;m not sure I can justice to a 700 page volume in a short review but there are some highlights

Japanese brutality in China and Manchuria
The mindset that permitted kamakasi attacks
The explanation of what McArthur was like - but how he came into his own after the war ended
The huge destruction wrought by the US air force on Japan - made Bomber Harris look a bit ineffectual (and thats not the atomic bombs either..)
The Germans U-boats may have tried to blockade the UK - the US boats did it for ... Read More:

Books : Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45