This is a rich and broadranging account of the Asia-Pacific campaigns of WWII. Drawing on recently released documents in US and British archives, Douglas Ford explores why the belligerents in the Pacific war fought the way that they did. This book focuses not only on the battlefield level, but also provides a perspective from the military high command, government, and non-combatant citizens. How did Japan emerge as a Great Power following the breakdown of the Washington Treaty system of 1921-22? What factors propelled Japan's aggressive expansion on the Asian continent during the 1930s? After Pearl Harbor, Japan rapidly conquered Southeast Asia and the western Pacific but the tide of the war shifted in the Allies' favour at Midway and Guadalcanal. This book concludes with the reasons why the Pacific War ended with Japan's unconditional surrender, and the consequences of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Dr Douglas Ford is Lecturer in Military History in the School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Salford. His research interests include intelligence and modern warfare, and his most recent book is Britain's Secret War against Japan (2006)