Implacable Foes

This is simply one of the finest books to be written on the final critical two years of the Pacific War, with extensive detail on the Japanese side of the conflict and plenty of new insights into the better-known American story. It is a big book, but this was a large conflict both in terms of space, time, and the resources deployed. It was also chiefly a story of amphibious naval warfare, an original and significant development in modern warfare that too often gets understated. By the end of the conflict, the American armed forces had created the shape that… show more.

While written in a more scholarly style than Atkinson, Heinrichs and Galliccio’s account is an essential companion volume. Atkinson focuses on the US military in its first major offensive. Heinrichs and Galliccio assess how it had evolved by the last year of the Pacific War. Throughout, their book expertly integrates military, diplomatic, and political history—three often-overlooked subjects in contemporary scholarly history—showing how American politicians and strategists, officers and fighting men managed to bring the war to a successful conclusion, while retaining overwhelming public support.