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 enlarge | Author: Max Hastings
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $14.20
You Save: $20.80 (59%)
New (41) Used (27) Collectible (1) from $12.22
Avg. Customer Rating:  59 reviews
Sales Rank: 9154
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 656
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 0307263517
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5425
EAN: 9780307263513
ASIN: 0307263517
Publication Date: March 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Terrific Book October 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the best books I've ever read about the Pacific War. It is extremely well-written. In addition, it provides unique insights into the nature of MacArthur's command, as well as the roles of the British in Burma and the Russians in Manchuria. Another interesting aspect of Hastings' book is the stress he places on Japanese sources.
In sum, this is a terrific book.
 Review of Retribution by Max Hastings October 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Excellent book. Hastings provides a good sense of proportion in describing the opposing forces, the casualties, and the importance of specific actions. Battle coverage is a little uneven; For example covers Burma thoroughly, but omits Saipan entirely. Good evaluation of the commanders on both sides. I endorse his judgement that the atomic bombs were necessary and a casualty saver for both the U.S. and Japan (but I may be biased since I was scheduled to participate in Coronet, the invasion of Honshu.)
A wonderful book. I loved it. September 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Every page of this book was fascinating. All my previous knowledge of WWII was limited to the European arena. This book was a complete education on the Japan side of the war. I do a lot of business in Japan. With this book, I was able to gain insights into the Japanese perception of victory and honor which might influence their business behavior as well. This was a great book.
a somewhat Anglocentric view of the Pacific War September 16, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
First off, let me say that having Kai Bird review a book about the Pacific War is akin to having George Soros give a considered judgment on a book about the Bush administration. What was the Washington Post thinking? Kai Bird is not a historian of the atomic bomb; he is an impassioned critic of anything and everyone connected with its development and use. For my part, I find Mr Hastings's view of the a-bomb deployment to be one of the more valuable features of this history. He deserves great praise for not buying into the second-guessing of Harry Truman's decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima.
I do have two complaints about the book. First, though he resists the temptation to condemn the United States for using the atomic bomb, he does follow the usual academic and media ritual of equating Allied war crimes with Japanese, even to the extent of blaming MacArthur for the Japanese rape of Manila. (MacArthur should have bypassed Manila? Really? Why not bypass Berlin or Tokyo while we were at it?) Second, like Hastings's otherwise magnificent histories of the Normandy invasion and the fall of Germany, this one is absurdly Anglocentric. The British sideshow in Burma gets 36 pages; the infitely more significant US submarine campaign merits only 15. Similarly, Hastings is relentlessly critical of the American fighting man and of American military leaders like MacArthur and Chennault. (Calling Chennault "this considerable charlatan" is about the stupidest assessment of a WW2 figure I have ever read.)
Overall, I would recommend Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire as the better history of war's end in the Pacific. Still, Max Hastings has a formidable gift for discovering, interviewing, and quoting the men and women who were caught up in these events, and his book is worth reading on that account alone. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford
Best End of the Asian War Book September 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Retribution is every bit as good as Max Hasting's previous book, Armageddon. Also, a person gets the story that in 1944 the issue of the war against Japan was still somewhat in doubt. Hastings breaks the book down into three main themes. First, there is the two part American offensive against Japan by both the Army and Navy. Second, there is the British action against the Japanese in Southwestern Asia. Third, the last theme is about several different subjects.
As in the allied book Armageddon, Retribution can get to be a little ghastly. The reader is given a small paragraph on the horror of war on about every fifty page. Strangely, both the Americans and Japanese are just as barbaric towards one another as the Germans and Soviets were to one another in the Eastern front of the European war. One British commander tells a soldier driving a jeep to remove a skull from it. The reason is not empathy with Japan but the fact the British lost thousands in the great retreats in early '42 and the worry was it would be a British soldier's skull decorating the jeep.
Retribution does a fair job of explaining the scope of the US Navy's win during the "Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot". In the intensive aerial combat during the Battle of Britain, perhaps 65 aircraft were shot down on both sides per day. The US Navy destroyed well over 450 aircraft during the Battle of the Phillippines sea in just one day. In the space of a few days Japan's carriers were made impotent by American air power. With the exception of the debacle with Taffy 3, the US Naval operations are textbook .
The book pretty much follows this formula of British War, American War, and allied subjects. The individual subjects covered in the book range from the poor Chinese military leadership, the basic ineffectiveness of the 14th Air Force (formerly the AVG), how Australian went from being on the front lines against Japan to an inglorious end to the war, the British Navy's setting in the sun, the very overdone US Navy's build up during the war, and dozens of other Pacific war related subjects.
What makes this book important is it shows that most historians fail to understand is it was the B-29 SYSTEM that lead to the nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities. The atomic bombs were not the end all or be all of weapons. The atomic bombs were merely a part of an arsenal of weapons to attack Japan. These weapons ranged from plain bombs to fire bombs to very complex anti-ship mines. The American taxpayer had put billions of dollars (1940 era) into the ultimate bomber system. Max Hastings makes it very clear the B-29 was both an expensive weapons system and it was somewhat ineffective. B-17 and B-24 bombers operating from Iwo Jima and Okinawa could have done the same job as the B-29 and at a fraction of the cost. This fact is lost on the anti-nuclear weapons critics. It was not the building of the bombs that demanded their use in war. It was the making of the most expensive bomber system in the world that forced the B-29 owners to use any weapon to justify the extremely high cost of the program.
If a reader gets anything from the book it should be the understanding that it was the B-29 that begat the nuclear age. So much money was spent on the B-29 program that the US Army Air Force had to use nearly any weapon to justify the huge cost of the project.
This book also explained why Russia and China relationships soured by 1973. When the Soviets invaded Manchuria in August of 1945 their soldiers acted as barbarically to the local Chinese as they had to the Germans in '44 to '45. The seeds of the Chinese/American pacts of 1973 were sown by raping and pillaging Soviet solders in 1945.
That is the biggest difference between Armageddon and Retribution: Armageddon is the end of the story; the Great European war of 1914 to 1945 was over. Retribution is actually the beginning of an era; the advent of an independent South East Asia. From India to Vietnam, from China to the Philippines, all these nations can count WWII as the milestone on their road to independence or self determination.
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