The Pacific War: The Strategy, Politics, and Players That Won the War

I've been reading World War II history for over 30 years, and I've read books on just about every battle fought in the Pacific. I thought this book did a good job of covering the basic aspects of the major battles in the Pacific. Let me preface this statement by saying that the author does not go into a great amount of detail involving each battle. Rather, he provides the reader with more of a thumbnail sketch, along with hitting the high notes of the battle. The historical accuracy is good for the most part (there are some misspellings along the way), and the maps help out, too. What I did enjoy about this book was the discussion on code-breaking as well as the Americans' decision to use the island-hopping strategy to isolate Japanese garrisons and let them "whither on the vine" instead of assaulting them directly. This strategy worked out well against such places as Rabaul and Truk, where the Japanese were simply cut off by the advancing Americans. Unable to be reinforced or re-supplied, the Japanese on these isolated islands were left to fend for themselves. The analysis of code-breaking was handled well, too. The inclusion of the Navajo code talkers and how they frustrated the Japanese was interesting to read about. The strategy used by Nimitz, MacArthur, King, Marshall, and Roosevelt is another interesting part of the book. Many times, the various battles are just discussed, but I enjoyed the way Mr. Hopkins incorporated strategy into the context of his book. There are discussions on all of the major conferences which took place during the Pacific war, from Arcadia to Potsdam. The outcomes and decisions made are explained by Mr. Hopkins as well as how these decisions ultimately affected the Pacific war. I highly recommend this book. The reader needs to remember that this book is a one-volume overview of the war in the Pacific. That being said, the content is very good, and the book does a good job of covering all aspects of the Pacific war. Don't read this book for an in-depth analysis of a certain battle; use it as a tool to get a general understanding of the Pacific war.

I suppose if you haven't read much about the Pacific War, this would be a good short book. But the treatment is rather uneven and the book can never quite decide if it wants to be a review of high-level strategy or a series of snippets of low-level fighting. A paragraph about the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for instance, may be followed by a paragraph on the adventurers of a submariner getting out of a wrecked vessel, and there's no real sense of linkage between the two events. There's some useful comparison of "what they thought then" versus "what we know now", but I didn't find much new in this book.

This book gives an extremely good bu short overview of the strategy and progress of WWII in the Pacific, particularly in explaining why there were two different drives across the Pacific, and why the US invaded the Phillippines after capturing Saipan, Tinian, and Guam, instead of going straight for Japan through Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Virtually every aspect of the war gets at least a sentence or two in the book. There is particular emphasis on Allied codebreaking, as perhaps the key to Allied victory. About the only omissions I noticed were that the carrier encounters of Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz were not specifically mentioned, though the other carrier battles were well covered. I should also point out that the author is no fan of MacArthur, to the point of perhaps even belaboring MacArthur's failings. This repeated emphasis might not sit well with readers who have strong positive feelings about MacArthur's generalship.

Hopkins has assembled a commendable work that links the most important battles of the Pacific with the US strategy, the politics, and the personalities that shaped the Pacific theater. He provides the backgrounds for each major step and takes you through the events at a level sufficient to put it into the broader perspective. You won't find content regarding technology or the tactics of specific battles. Hopkins puts a timeline to these seemingly disparate events of this theater to give the reader appreciation for the decisions of MacArthur, Nimitz, Halsey, Marshall, and Roosevelt. But he does it in a very readable way. The many maps help as well. I also enjoyed the brief descriptions of the smaller battles which haven't yet warranted their own books (which made me feel sorry for the many who perished fighting these battles without any real historical recognition). Having read individual personal recounts of individual battles or campaigns in the Pacific, I was pleased that Hopkins has delivered a very readable history that brings it all together. I'm not a historian who remembers each fact, so I can't comment on Hopkin's accuracy. But its sufficient for a reader to "get" the US Pacific strategy and timeline, and to enjoy doing so. I've avoided other books spanning the Pacific theater that are tomes with small print and too much detail, or those which seem to have the authors political slant. "Retribution" comes to mind. If you've enjoyed reading books about Tarawa, Guadacanal, Peleliu, Okinawa, Iwo, then you'll appreciate what Hopkins has accomplished.