Empires on the Pacific

This is another book covering World War II in the Pacific, but it approaches its subject somewhat differently. It does have basic information on the various battles, but it's more a behind-the-scenes political-moves type of thing.

In talking about Perry, the book notes that he was basically a religious fanatic, wanting to carry “the gospel of God to the heathen.” He also basically threatened war with Japan if they didn't do what the U.S. wanted them to. He also wanted Japan to become an industrial power to help the U.S. counter the influence of the British empire in the Far Pacific, so right from the start the U.S. putting pressure on Japan was a major political move on the part of the U.S. that wanted to establish its own empire.

The book also discusses how the Japanese government prepared the Japanese people for a war with China.

There is a discussion of the Japanese attack on Nanking, and of the various Japanese atrocities involved with that. The book holds that some 200,000 Chinese were killed during the Rape of Nanking.

Both the Rape of Nanjing and the sinking of the U.S. ship the Panay were subjects that the Japanese press avoided.

Something which I have not read elsewhere: around 1940 there were a lot of Chinese involved in boycotting Japanese goods, and enforcing the boycott by violent methods.

There is also a lot in the book about how difficult the representatives of the Chinese governments were, and how arrogant they were.

In December of 1940, there were questions raised in the U.S. military about whether or not B-17s could be used to deliver incendiary bombs on Japanese cities, something that was done much later with B-29s and to terrible effect.

Early in January, 1941, the U.S. signed the ABC agreement, stating they would attack German submarines and help bomb Axis plants. The book makes the point that the U.S. was effectively involved in World War II due to this, even without a congressional declaration of war which is supposed to be mandatory.

On July 19th, 1941, FDR made noted that if the U.S. cut off oil to Japan, it would lead to a war.

On November 14,1941, General Marshall said that the U.S. was “preparing an offensive war against Japan.”

As far as the attack on Pearl Harbor goes, this book says that FDR did not know about it in advance.

The book goes into the type of difficulties the U.S. had in getting Britain to take an active role in the Pacific Theater. It points out the very numerous problems that Chiang Kaishek gave the U.S. It seems he was highly interested in personal power, and relatively uninterested in actually helping the U.S. drive the Japanese out of his own homeland.

The book goes into the subject of colonialism, and how England, for example, hoped to restart its Empire after the war, but the countries that had been under its domination wanted their freedom. Even the U.S. is seen as a colonial power.

Considering what was actually happening behind the scenes of the war, it's sort of surprising that it didn't go on a whole lot longer than it did.

This is an eye-opening, very good book.

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