Table of Contents

Introduction: The Reckoning
1. Gaining Momentum
2. Moving Ahead on New Guinea, April-July 1944
3. The Marianas Campaign, June-August 1944
4. Accelerating the Advance, August-October 1944
5. Leyte to Manila, October 1944-March 1945
6. Iwo Jima, February-March 1945
7. Recovering Luzon, February-June 1945
8. Beyond Human Endurance: Taking All of the Philippines, February-June 1945
9. Okinawa
10. Two Down and One to Go: The Home Front, March-June 1945
10. Potsdam, July-August 1945
11. Surrender at Last, August 1945
Conclusion

About the Author

Waldo Heinrichs is Dwight E. Stanford Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University. He is the author of American Ambassador: Joseph C. Grew and the Development of the United States Diplomatic Tradition, which won the Allan Nevins Prize. Heinrichs served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army's 86th Division, one of the last two divisions to be deployed to Europe in World War II and the first to be redeployed to the Pacific in preparation
for the invasion of Japan. He and his wife live in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Marc Gallicchio is a Professor of History at Villanova University and was a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in Japan, 1998 - 1999 and 2004 - 2005. He is the author of The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895 - 1945, which won the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Robert H. Ferrell book prize.

Reviews

"Two great historians have produced this stellar and extremely important book, adding critical new layers to the decision-making process of American leaders approaching the controversial end of the Asia-Pacific War. This is a thoroughly researched, judicious, and very sobering reminder of the complexity and uncertainty of events surrounding the final acts of World War II." - Richard Frank, author of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire and
Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle
"A masterful history destined to be the definitive account of the final two years of America's war with Japan. The authors' comprehensive, original, and highly readable narrative sets new standards for understanding the political, military, and social pressures on U.S. leaders as they simultaneously fought a determined foe, demobilized American armed forces, and prepared for the complex transition to America's postwar domestic economy." - Edward Drea, author of
Japan's Imperial Army
"Implacable Foes is a superbly researched work of both original scholarship and synthesis on the last two years of the Pacific War by two eminent and award-winning historians. Their detailed analysis and conclusions will challenge some long-held beliefs about U.S. strategic planning and operations in this conflict while reinforcing others." - Mark A. Stoler, Editor, George C. Marshall Papers, Professor Emeritus of History University of Vermont
"In their detailed and insightful analysis of the last year of the Pacific War, Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio tie military operations closely with the political, strategic, logistical, and even cultural context to provide a thorough assessment of the war, and they do so without losing any of the inherent drama of events." - Craig Symonds, author of Midway and Operation Neptune: The D-Day Landings and the Allied Invasion of Europe
"A valuable and revealing study...For readers familiar with the military campaigns, the book is essential reading for its lucid treatment of the pressures that imperiled critical operations in a truly global war...the contribution of this vital book is its portrait of history as lived desperately in the moment; of the varied troubles that beset planners and commanders in the war's horrific last year; and of the mettle and vision of an American president whom
history should underrate no longer. "Implacable Foes" shows war operations as a human ordeal even at the highest level, fueled by the exhaustible human spirit." - Wall Street Journal
"This book is a superb piece of military and naval history. It blends the particular and the general, the battlefront and the homefront, the broader political and international and the militarily particular into an eminently readable narrative. It should be indispensable reading for anyone interested in the history of the Second World War." - Journal of Military History
"This book brings to life those final years of World War II right up to the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, evoking not only Japanese policies of desperate defence, but the sometimes spiteful debates on the home-front. Heinrichs and Gallicchio deliver a gripping and provocative narrative that challenges the decision--making of US leaders and explains the consequences of prioritising the European front." - The Wavell Room:
Contemporary British Military Thought