World War II in Asia & the Pacific

(see also Japan:Military Regime & Hiroshima & Nagasaki)

On the Web • In the Library • CD & Audio • Film & Video

Search

Basics

On the Web: Specialized Sites

Cook, Haruko Taya. "Turning women Into weapons": Japan's women, the Battle of Saipan, & the 'nature of the Pacific War'," in N.A. Dombrowski (ed.) Women & War in the 20th C.: Enlisted With or Without Consent (NY: Garland, 1999).

Maechling, Charles. "Pearl Harbor: the first energy war," History Today (12/00):41-47. US oil embargo against Japan the direct cause of attack on Pearl Harbor.

In the Library: Non-Fiction Books

Alexander, Irvin. Surviving Bataan & Beyond: Col. Irvin Alexander's Odyssey as a Japanese Prisoner of War (?: Stackpole, 1999).

Anderson, C. LeRoy; Joanne R. Anderson & Yunosuke Ohkura (eds.) No Longer Silent: World-Wide Memories of the Children of World War II (Missoula MT: Pictorial Histories, 1995).

Astor, Gerald. Operation Iceberg: The Invasion & Conquest of Okinawa in World War II (NY: Dell, 1996).

__________. Crisis in the Pacific: The Battles for the Philippine Islands by the Men Who Fought Them (NY: Dell, 2002).

Bayly, Christopher & Tim Harper. Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945 (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 200?).

Bix, Herbert. Hirohito & the Making of Modern Japan (NY: HarperCollins, 2000).

Boling, David. Mass Rape, Enforced Prostitution, & the Japanese Imperial Army: Japan Eschews International Legal Responsibility? (Baltimore: U. Maryland School of Law, 1995).

Bradley, James with Ron Powers. Flags of Our Fathers (NY: Bantam, 2001). History & memory of the Battle for Iwo Jima, in which 22,000 Japanese & 26,000 American soldiers died.

Burchett, Wilfred G. Shadows of Hiroshima (London: Verso, 1983).

Cave, Dorothy. Beyond Courage: One Regiment Against Japan, 1941-1945 (Las Cruces NM: Yucca Tree, 1992).

Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking (NY: Penguin, 1997). Controversial study of the brutal occupation of Nanjing during seven weeks in late 1937 & early 1938, flawed by stereotyping of Japanese soldiers. But compare with the no less harsh judgement of Katsuichi Honda (below).

Choi, Chungmoo (ed.) The Comfort Women: Colonialism, War, & Sex (Durham NC: Duke, 1997).

Clarke, Thurston. Pearl Harbor Ghosts: The Legacy of December 7, 1941 (NY: Ballantine, 2001).

Coast, John. Railroad of Death (London: Commodore, 1946). POW's memoir of forced labor on Thai-Burma railway.

Dingman, Roger. Ghost of War: The Sinking of the Awa Maru & Japanese-American Relations, 1945-1995 (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute, 1997). Japanese ship sunk by US submarine in April, 1945, after having been given guarantee of safe passage by US government, with loss of 2,000 civilian passengers.

Dower, John W. Empire & Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru & the Japanese Experience, 1878-1954 (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 1979).

__________. War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War (NY: Pantheon, 1987). Study of harshly stereotypical representations of the enemy in both Japanese & American wartime propaganda.

__________. Japan in War & Peace: Selected Essays (NY: New Press, 1993).

Ebbett, Eve. When the Boys Were Away: New Zealand Women in World War II (Wellington: Reed, 1984).

Feifer, George. The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood & the Bomb (Guilford CT: Lyons, 2001).

Finney, Patrick (ed.) The Origins of the Second World War (NY: Oxford, 1997).

Flanagan, E.M. Corregidor: The Rock Fort Assault, 1945 (Novato CA: Presidio, 1988).

Gibney, Frank B. (ed.) Senso: The Japanese Remember the Pacific War. Letters to the Editor of Asahi Shimbun (trans. Beth Cary; Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1995).

Gilmore, Allison B. You Can't Fight Tanks with Bayonets: Psychological Warfare Against the Japanese Army in the Southwest Pacific (Linconn: U. Nebraska, 1998).

Gordon, Richard M. Horyo: Memoirs of an American POW (St. Paul MN: Paragon House, 1999).

Hardisty, Sue (ed.) Thanks Girls & Goodbye! The Story of the Australian Women's Land Army, 1942-1945 (NY: Viking Penguin, 1990).

Harris, Sheldon H. Factories of Death: Japanese Secret Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, & the American Cover-Up [1994] (rev. ed.; NY: Routledge, 2001).

Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. Racing the enemy: Stalin, Truman, & the Surrender of Japan (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 2005).

Henson, Maria Rosa. Comfort Woman: A Filipina's Story of Prostitution & Slavery under the Japanese Military (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).

Hicks, George. The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War (NY: W.W. Norton, 1995). First study in English of widespread mobilization of women in conquered areas into sexual slavery.

Honda, Katsuichi. The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame (Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999).

Hoyt, Edwin P. The Battle of Leyte Gulf: Death Knell of the Japanese Fleet (NY: Weybright & Talley, 1972).

__________. Closing the Circle: War in the Pacific, 1945 (NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982).

Ienaga, Saburo. The Pacific War: World War II & the Japanese, 1931-1945 (NY: Pantheon, 1978).

Igarashi, Yoshikuni. Bodies of Memory

Kim-Gibson, Dai Sil. Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women (Parkersburg IA: Mid-Prairie, 1999).

Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women: Testimonies (NY: Cassell, 1995).

Kurzman, Dan. Fatal Voyage: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis (NY: Broadway Trade, 2001).

Maechling, Charles. "Pearl harbor: the first energy war," History Today (12/00):41-47.

Marling, Karal Ann & John Wetenhall. Iwo Jima: Monuments, Memories & the American Hero (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 1991). Study of the staging & subsequent history of the classic photograph, & monument in Washington, of six marines hoisting the flag on Mt. Suribachi.

Marshall, Jonathan. To Have & Have Not: Southeast Asian Raw Materials & the Origins of the Pacific War (Berkeley: U. California, 1995). How US, like Japan, had come by 1941 to view the region's rubber & minerals as essential to its national security.

Miller, Nathan. War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II (NY: Oxford, 1995).

Morris, Eric. Corregidor: The American Alamo of World War II (NY: Cooper Squaqre, 2000).

Murakami, Hyoe. Japan: The Years of lTrial, 1919-1952 (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1982). Part memoir; former Japanese soldier explores background to & fighting of World War II.

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers (Chicago: U. of Chicago, 2006). Drawn from pilots' letters & diaries.

Osborne, Elizabeth. Torres Strait Islander Women & the Pacific War (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies, 1997).

Parker, A.C. The Second World War: A Short History (NY: Oxford, 2002).

Prange, Gordon. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (NY: McGraw-Hill, 1981).

__________. Miracle at Midway (NY: Viking, 1983).

Roehrs, Mark & William A. Renzi. World War II in the Pacific (Armonk NY: ME Sharpe, 2003). Rev. ed. of Never Look Back.

Scott, Jean. Girls with Grit: Memories of the Australian Women's Land Army (Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986).

Sides, Hampton. Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission (NY: Doubleday, 2001). Effort to rescue 500 US & British POWs from Japanese camps in the Philippines in January, 1945.

Sledge, Eugene B. With the Old Breed at Pelelieu & Okinawa (NY: Oxford, 1990). Memoir praised for its unvarnished, unglamorized depiction of the horrors of battle.

Smith, Jim & Malcolm McConnell. The Last Mission: The Secret History of World War II's Final Battle (NY: Broadway, 2002). Last bombing mission of the war.

Smith, Michael. The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers (NY: Penguin, 2000).

Stanton, Doug. In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis & the Extraordinary Story of its Survivors (NY: Henry Holt, 2001).

Tanaka, Yuki. Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II (Boulder: Westview, 1998). Focuses on six little-known atrocities, most against prisoners of war, & a compelling explanation of such behavior.

__________. Japan's Comfort Women. Sexual Slavery & Prostitution during World War II & the US Occupation (NY: Routledge, 2001).

Tenney, Lester I. My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March (Washington: Brassey's, 1995). Memoir of US prisoner of war captured by Japanese at the beginning of the war in the Philippines.

Terkel, Studs. "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II (NY: Pantheon, 1984).

Torgovnik, Marianna. The War Complex: World War II in Our Time (Chicago: U. of Chicago, 2005).

Tregaskis, Richard. Guadalcanal Diary [1943] (NY: Modern Library, 2000). Classic account, downplaying the blood & gore.

Victoria, Brian (Daizen) A. Zen at War (NY: Weatherhill, 1997).

Wadatsumi Society. Listen to the Voices from the Sea [1949] (Scranton PA: U. of Scranton, 2000). Letters & diaries of students mobilized & killed late in war. Foundational text for the Japanese peace movement.

Warner, Lavinia & John Sandilands. Women Beyond the Wire: A Story of Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945 (London: M. Joseph, 1982).

Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (NY: Cambridge, 2005).

__________. Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders (NY: Cambridge, 2005).

Yahara, Hiromichi. The Battle for Okinawa [1973] (NY: John Wiley, 1995). Memoir of colonel charged with planning Japanese defense of island, revealing internal disagreements over ideology & tactics, & gradual disintegration of the defending forces. Most officers committed suicide; Yahara captured by Americans.

Yoshimi, Yoshiaki. Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery & the Japanese Military in World War II (NY: Colombia, 2001).

In the Library: Fiction

Deford, Frank. Love & Infamy (NY: Viking, 1993).

Jones, James. The Thin Red Line [1962] (NY: Bantam, 1998). Men of C-Company before, during & after the battle for Guadalcanal.

Kojima, Nobuo. "Stars," in Van C. Gessel & Tomone Matsumoto (eds.) The Showa Anthology (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1985). Short story about a Nisei drafted into the Japanese Army while visiting family before the war, with biting critique of its hierarchies.

Lee, Chang-Rae. A Gesture Life (NY: Riverhead, 1999).

Mailer, Norman. The Naked & the Dead [1948] (NY: Henry Holt, 1998).

Oe, Kenzaburo. "Prize stock," in his Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness: Four Short Novels (NY: Grove, 1977). Capture of an African American flyer during the war, as seen through the eyes of a child.

Senoh, Kappa. A Boy Called H (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2000). Very popular semi-autobiographical account of life in Japan during the war, as experienced by a child.

Takeyama, Michio. Harp of Burma (Rutland VT: Tuttle, 1966).

In the Library: For Young Readers

In the Library: Poetry

In the Library: Drama

In the Library: Photography

CD & Audio

Film & Video

"The Bridge on the River Kwai" [1957], dir. David Lean, 161m. In video stores.

"Fires on the Plain" [1959], dir. Kon Ichikawa, 105m. Japanese soldiers struggling to survive in last days of the war in the Philippines, sobering antiwar message.

"Harp of Burma" [1956], dir. Kon Ichikawa, 116m.

"The Naked and the Dead" [1958], dir. Raoul Walsh. In video stores. Comfortable base life & cruel realities of war for US Army in the Pacific.

"Senso Daughters: Daughters of War" [1990], dir. Noriko Sekiguchi, 54m.

"Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women" [1998], dir. Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, 88m. From NAATA Distribution.

"The Thin Red Line" [1964]

"The Thin Red Line" [1998]