The Pacific Campaign in World War II: From Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal

"This is new account of the Pacific war, using archival materials and the recollections of several participants as well as published sources in English and Japanese, explores a number of topics not commonly considered together, and from them offers a number of new perspectives." "First, the author chronicles the complex and often tense relationship between Japan and the US in the four decades before Pearl Harbor, showing how each nation repeatedly misgauged not only the other's intentions and capabilities but even its cultural values and national psyche. An exposition of the several failed diplomatic initiatives in the weeks prior to 7 December 1941, culminating in various miscues in the hours and minutes before the attack, is followed by a primer on how military strategy is actually invoked, as Johnson delineates the process by which Admiral Ernest J. King obtained approval from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to commit the US Marine Corps to significant early ground action in the South Pacific, despite the President's earlier promise not to engage Japan until Germany was defeated. In the process of effecting this crucial change in American strategy, King also managed to outmaneuver General Douglas MacArthur for leadership in the Pacific theatre." "Shifting from strategic to tactical concerns, the author explains how the Marines on Guadalcanal, despite inadequate logistical support and horrendous living conditions, managed to prevail in the Americans' first ground campaign of World War II, an achievement of such magnitude as to make Japan's ultimate defeat in the war inevitable."--BOOK JACKET.