The Pacific War

Although this work does have a few minor factual errors,it provides a solid overview of the Pacific War. The main strength of this work is that it is clearly written and it discusses complex battles and campaigns in a simple straightforward manner. Highly recommended for general audiences and history buffs alike.

This book advertises itself as a comprehensive history of the causes and conduct of the war. It accomlishes this goal very well.Bright spots in the book where is compares favorably to other one-volume histories are the causes of the war going back to the opening of Japan, the Burma/India theater, the strategic wrangling between the Allies, and the wonderful maps. Someone looking for blow-by-blow accounts of the battles will be disappointed, as Costello's refreshing perspective is to look primarily at the strategic implications of the battles. This is thoroughly appropriate for a one-volume history. Costello successfully resists the temptation to delve into exciting, but page-consuming, battle narrative. His intent seems rather to give you a framework with which you can fit together your other Pacific War books that have narrower settings.Lastly, the photo pages in this book are the best I have ever seen. The selection of photographs, very few of which are trite, together with the masterful captions are in themselves a thumbnail of the plot of the book, not just eye candy or filler. Especially effective is how a inset of an important participant often appears in a photo of an event. Extremely impressive!

This book covers the Pacific war from the very beginnings until the surrender in Tokyo Bay. Areas such as the Washington and London naval conferences, which imposed warship limitations on Japan, and the China conflict, which included the sinking of the U.S.S. Panay by Japanese dive bombers, are covered. All of the major campaigns from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa are discussed in brilliant detail. This book is well-researched and contains a wealth of information about the Pacific Campaign. This is the best one-volume account of the Pacific war that I have read. I would also recommend Days of Infamy by John Costello to readers who enjoyed this book.

Of particular interest to history buffs but never fully explained, are the distinct reasons for the causes of WW-II in the Pacific. Costello's book provides an insight into the underlying causes by going back 100 years into the past to trace the evolution of Japanese Society vis-a-vis the western world. And in the process reveal how the militant, militaristic faction somehow took hold of Japanese Society. Another reason why this book is a good read is its attempts to place the war in focus, not as a single war but part of the larger global conflict that is tearing the world apart. The book, also, sometimes tells its story not from an American or British view point but from the Japanese, and that is fascinating because few books gives us that view.

John Costello did a fine job of detailing the Pacific war from start to finish. At 800 pages this is not a quick read but all the major battles and actions are covered in detail. I found his writing style a bit more dry than John Toland but still eminently readable and engaging. My choice for a good trio of books on the conflict would be John Toland's 'The Rising Sun', Dan Van der Vat's 'The Pacific Campaign' and John Costello's 'The Pacific War'. These three belong on the bookshelf of anyone with a more than passing interest in that era and any one alone would be more than adequate for the amateur historian. Costello's book included a section at the end on Pearl Harbor that hints at more sinister behind-the-scenes actions. While I'm not a conspiracy buff, that section was intriguing and unique to the Costello book.