Recommended reading for essay..

[LittleJoe]

Hello all, its been a while since I've posted here reguarlly but I thought I'd come crawling back for some advice from this great center of knowledge. [;)]

I am currently doing my A levels and for a personal study I have chosen to do a question on the Pacific war. The question is...

To what extent was the Japanese campaign in the Pacific doomed from the outset?


So I need at least 6 different sources of erm..sources, I'm already using John Tolland's 'The Decline and fall of the Japanese Empire', Niall Ferguson's 'The War of the World'. But I need some more suggestions.

Basically strategic level books, that can really give some great sources on the industrial disparity beteewn the U.S and Japan, the unlikeliness of the planned quick victory for Japan and perhaps how their dated docterines may have hampered them further, for example building the Yamato despite effectively ending the age of the Battleship on December 7th.

And some more personal accounts sort of like 'Requiem for battleship Yamato' but obviously set earlier in the war, with rank and file soldiers, officiers and generals realising the impossibility of victory.

I've already penciled in Eagles against the sun and Pacific War 1931-45 by Saburo Ienaga.

Thanks in advance!

[witpqs]

It's been a while since I read it but Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy might help (covers overall, not just versus Japan). Possibly Yammamoto's biography The Reluctant Admiral by Hiroyuki Agawa.

[Mike Scholl]

Willmott's EMPIRES IN THE BALANCE and THE BARRIER AND THE JAVELIN cover the opening moves very well, and have some good data on just how big a stretch Japan's grab for Empire was...., as well as examining the strategies and alternatives.

[Ian R]

Brute Force by John Ellis, &
 
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy.
 
both of which demonstrate amply how, on a relative economic basis, the Japanese never had a chance against the US and the only hope of victory was if the US tanked it after 6 months.
 
For detail, find yourself a copy of either a straight fact book - like Conway's or Janes - or a book detailing the Navy acts passed by Congress in the years 1938 - 41 (ie before the war) - to show that the ships the USN fought the war with were in many instances planned before the war, as part of the two ocean navy expansion, and in a  number of instances even "laid down"  before the war.
 
EG, no BB was started after 7/12/41 that was finished.
 
The first Essex class carriers were started before 7/12/41.
 
While at one point (middish-late 42) the US did divert more resorvces than it intended to the Pacific, in general terms 30% of the effort went there. which was still 3 times the size of the Japanese peacetime economy. And unlike the US, the Japanese war economy was not an expanding one - Japan already had civilian food rationing in 1941 due to embargoes and the shipping shortage.
 
In fact there is an argument that the allied submarine war alone would have brought Japan to starvation, and all the rest was surplus, albeit this was not an adequate solution politically in the 1940s - but probably would be now.

[TOMLABEL]

There is also another book entitled 'The Pacific War 1941 - 1945' by John Costello and 'Marching Orders' by Bruce Lee that might be of use.

TOMLABEL

[Pascal_slith]

Try also

A World at Arms by Gerhard Weinberg (2nd edition is 2005).

Definitely check the bibliography in Brute Force...

[Herrbear]

ORIGINAL: LittleJoe

Hello all, its been a while since I've posted here reguarlly but I thought I'd come crawling back for some advice from this great center of knowledge. [;)]

I am currently doing my A levels and for a personal study I have chosen to do a question on the Pacific war. The question is...

To what extent was the Japanese campaign in the Pacific doomed from the outset?


So I need at least 6 different sources of erm..sources, I'm already using John Tolland's 'The Decline and fall of the Japanese Empire', Niall Ferguson's 'The War of the World'. But I need some more suggestions.

Basically strategic level books, that can really give some great sources on the industrial disparity beteewn the U.S and Japan, the unlikeliness of the planned quick victory for Japan and perhaps how their dated docterines may have hampered them further, for example building the Yamato despite effectively ending the age of the Battleship on December 7th.

And some more personal accounts sort of like 'Requiem for battleship Yamato' but obviously set earlier in the war, with rank and file soldiers, officiers and generals realising the impossibility of victory.

I've already penciled in Eagles against the sun and Pacific War 1931-45 by Saburo Ienaga.

Thanks in advance!

I would recommend The Japanese Merchant Marine in World War II by Mark P. Parillo.

[LittleJoe]

Thankyou guys! All very much appreciated and will help me loads in my work!

[Fishbed]

In this view, Shattered Sword, while being only focused on the Midway operation and marginally on the Aleutians showdown, gives an interesting view of how the Navy High Command was functioning, and how it lead to the festival of blunders people know under the name of "Battle of Midway". Japanese war effort was doomed from the start because of multiple economical factors, but I must admit that the way the IJN was planning its war didn't help much...
If you're interested in the so-called "doctrines" of the IJN, indeed I think you'll find Shattered Sword quite worth its price. [:)]

Basically strategic level books, that can really give some great sources on the industrial disparity beteewn the U.S and Japan, the unlikeliness of the planned quick victory for Japan and perhaps how their dated docterines may have hampered them further, for example building the Yamato despite effectively ending the age of the Battleship on December 7th.

In my opinion there is a lot of misunderstanding around the real state of mind of the IJN. We have to admit that even Yamamoto still had not digested the carrier ops idea by June 1942, while the USN did, mainly because carriers were everything they had left to fight. So the Yamato indeed may have seemed outdated after PH, but that's our post-war opinion, looking back at everything the carriers achieved since then. For the IJN and Yamamoto at that time, battleships were to remain the main weapon on the naval battlefield, despite the assessed might of the naval air arm...