Review by Choice Review
Levine believes that most of the previous histories of the Pacific War have been "badly flawed." He is particularly critical of Ronald Spector (Eagle Against the Sun, CH, Mar'85), John Toland The Rising Sun, CH, Mar'71), Edwin Hoyt (Japan's War, 1986), John Dower (War Without Mercy, CH, Nov'86), and Christopher Thorne (Allies of a Kind, CH, Sep'78). Arguing that the Pacific War was "a particular war waged by a particular Japanese regime, against both the West and the rest of Asia [and that] The regime responsible for that was not characteristic of modern Japan ..., " Levine reaches many controversial conclusions. For instance, he is generally favorable in his assessment of Douglas MacArthur and believes that the general did not err by allowing his B-17s to get caught on the ground in the Philippines. Instead, MacArthur's mistake was "his failure to draw the right conclusions from the defeat." On the other hand, he is quite critical of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and believes that his death in 1943 was no great loss to the Japanese. Levine also contends that Dower and Thorne are incorrect in asserting that the Pacific war was a "race war." This book should be read as a provocative, revisionist work. Unfortunately, it is too lacking in detail, scholarship, and documentation to be entirely convincing. C. J. Weeks; Southern College of Technology
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
