Edwin P. Hoyt, a former soldier, is a distinguished historian in the field of World War II studies, and the author of Inferno, The GI's War, and Hitler's War. He lives in Tokyo, Japan.
Hoyt traces the Pacific War back to its 19th century roots, clarifying the connection between Bushido, emperor worship, and Japan's emergence as a totalitarian military state obsessed with expansion. What renders the book unusual is that events are described in large part from the Japanese point of view. Hoyt discusses wartime propaganda and news management, as well as the Japanese conception of Allied atrocities, and reveals how deeply offended the Japanese were by the disrespect to their war dead by American soldiers on the battlefield, and above all by the Allied bombing of civilians of the home islands. In effective counterbalance, Hoyt provides a detailed reminder of the way the Japanese treated Allied prisoners of war. In a final section he takes pains to dispel what he calls the one great myth of the Pacific War, that the atomic bomb caused the surrender of Japan, arguing that the Japanese considered the Bomb merely another weaponan awesome one, to be sure, but not nearly as destructive or morale-threatening as the B-29 firebombings. Photos. 25,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo; Military Book Club selection. (April 7)
Tracing the history of Japanese militarism and U.S. expansionism in the Pacific, military historian Hoyt concludes that war between the two powers was inevitable. Using the official 101-volume Japanese-language history of World War II, which has never before been mined by Western historians, Hoyt has compiled a brilliantly accurate history of the war from the Japanese standpoint. New light is shed on why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on the Bataan death march, and on the issue of whether the Japanese were defeated by the B29 or by the Hiroshima bomb. Huge in scope, superbly researched, and eminently readable, this is essential for all World War II collections. Libraries in search of a one-volume history of the Pacific War from the U.S. point of view should purchase Ronald Spector's Eagle Against the Sun (LJ 11/1/84).. Stanley Itkin, Hillside P.L., New Hyde Park, N.Y.
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