The Eagle and the Rising Sun: The Japanese-American War 1941-1943: Pearl Harbor through Guadalcanal

A fresh and provocative account of the greatest naval campaign of the twentieth century. ALAN SCHOM'S HISTORIES and biographies have been celebrated for their iconoclastic approach and a dramatic focus on extraordinary personalities meeting at the crossroads of history. In this magisterial history of World War II in the Pacific, he shows how the conflict was in neither the United States's nor Japan's best interest. On one hand, the American government and people were as inadequately prepared for war as any major power has ever been; on the other hand, Schom's close reading of Japanese military and political documents reveal that their supreme command knew they could not possibly win.