About the Author

Harry A. Gailey was a professor emeritus of military history at San Jose State University. He authored 20 books, including MacArthur Strikes Back, The War in the Pacific, and The Liberation of Guam. He died in 2004.

Reviews

In this comprehensive one-volume history, Gailey attempts to chronicle the entire Pacific conflict, starting with an examination of the events leading up to World War II and a comparison of Japanese and American societies, economies, military doctrines, and planning. This discussion is crucial to an understanding of the events that follow. The book covers all the significant actions of the Pacific theater, from the early Allied defeats to the last Japanese death throes, candidly discussing the behind-the-scenes Allied bickering and backbiting as well as the Japanese emperor's refusal to involve himself in daily governmental decisions, thereby needlessly prolonging the war. Also discussed here are the relative merits and shortcomings of the training and equipment of all sides. Numerous multivolume works exist on this subject, but as a single-volume work this ranks with John Costellos's The Pacific War (LJ 12/1/81). Recommended for all collections.‘David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L.

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor climaxed half a century of rivalry with the U.S. in the Far East. Early in this impressive history of the Pacific theater, Gailey (``Howlin' Mad'' vs. the Army) thoroughly examines the roots of the conflict, the buildup of the U.S. armory during a period of isolationism and complacency and the more methodical Japanese military preparations. In the unfolding narrative of the 1941-45 conflict itself, Gailey addresses operational areas often neglected by historians, such as the central and northern Solomons campaigns and the bloody confrontation at Peleliu. He offers a fresh interpretation of the great naval battle of Midway, a turning point of the war, the use of Australian troops in New Guinea‘a campaign he calls ``an unnecessary offensive that did little more than showcase the valor and determination of the Australian soldier''‘and the U.S. Army/Marine Corps dispute on Saipan. Finally, he describes preparations for the dreaded invasion of the Japanese home islands, during which the planners simultaneously tried to create strategies to make it unnecessary. Gailey has written a solid account of the Pacific war. Illustrations. (Apr.)