A World at Arms (181 page)

The role of the members of the British Commonwealth is generally neglected in books on World War II; their contributions and forces often subsumed under the term “British” with little attention to geographic origin. It is thus all too often overlooked that at the last and decisive Battle of EI Alamein, the majority of the “British” troops were not from the United Kingdom. The Commonwealth members Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and India have all issued their own official histories, and these are of great importance. The key figure in the Canadian program was Charles P. Stacey who also wrote a kind of summary:
Six Years of War: The Army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific
(Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1955), and two very interesting books which supplement the official history,
Arms, Men and Governments: The War Policies of Canada 1939–1945
(Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1970), and
Canada and the Age of Conflict,
Vol. 2:
1921–1948
,
The Mackenzie King Era
(Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1981). Summaries of Australia’s role are the excellent work of Gavin Long,
The Six Years’ War: A Concise History of Australia in the 1939–1945
War
(Canberra: Australian War Memorial and Australian Government Publishing Service, 1973), and John Robertson,
Australia at War
(Melbourne: William Heinemann, 1981). Supplementing the official history are John Robertson and John McCarthy (eds.),
Australian War Strategy, 1939–1945: A Documentar History
(St. Lucia: Univ. of Queensland Press, 1985), and David M. Horner,
High Command: Australia and Allied Strategy, 1939–1945
(Canberra: Australian War Memorial; Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1982).

The developments inside Japan and in its foreign policy which led to its decision to expand the war already being waged against China into one with Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States as well have provided the subject for some excellent books. The central figures in the Japanese leadership are the subjects of important biographies. On the man who led Japan into the war with China and to the edge of war with the Western Powers, see Yoshitake Oka,
Konoe Fumimaro: A Political Biography,
trans. by Shumpei Okamoto and Patricia Murray (Tokyo: Univ. of Tokyo Press, 1983). The general who led Japan from the fall of 1941 to the summer of 1944 is covered by Robert J.C. Butow,
Tojo and the Coming of the War
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1961), and Alvin D. Coox,
Tojo
(New York: Ballantine, 1975). A study which examines his role in the management of Japan’s strategy and war effort in some detail would be most welcome.

Helpful for an understanding of the internal development of Japan as well as its moves toward aggression are Michael A. Barnhart,
Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919–1941
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1987); Gordon M. Berger,
Parties out of Power in Japan, 1931–1941
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1977); Richard Storry,
The Double Patriots: A Study of Japanese Nationalism
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957); Stephen E. Pelz,
Race to Pearl Harbor
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1974); Gerhard Krebs,
Japans Deutschlandpolitik 1935–1941
, 2 vols. (Hamburg: MOAG, 1984); and two collections of important pieces edited by James W. Morley:
The China Quagmire: Japan’s Expansion on the Asian Continent 1933–1941
, and
The Fateful Choice: Japan’s Advance into Southeast Asia 1939–1941
(New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1983 and 1980).

The immediate antecedents of the Pearl Harbor attack are illuminated by Nobutaka Ike (ed.),
Japan’s Decision for War: Records of the 1941 Policy Conferences
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1967); Robert J.C. Butow,
The John Doe Associates: Backdoor Diplomacy for Peace, 1941
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1974); Dorothy Borg and Shumpei Okamoto,
Pearl Harbor as History: Japanese-American Relations, 1931–1941
(New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1973); and two books by Gordon Prange,
At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor,
and
Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981 and 1986). In spite of the passage of time, Herbert Feis,
The Road to Pearl Harbor
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1950), remains one of the best books on the subject.

On Japan’s armed forces in the war, there is Hayashi Saburo,
KOGUN: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War
(Quantico, Va.: Marine Corps Association, 1959); Paul S. Dull,
A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1941–1945)
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1978); and Alvin D. Coox, “The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Air Forces,”
Aerospace Historian
27, No. 2 June 1980), 74–86. The Japanese home front is covered by Thomas R.H. Havens,
Valley of Darkness: The Japanese People and World War II
(New York: Norton, 1978), and Ben-Ami Shillony,
Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981). The best account of the ending of the war remains Robert J.C. Butow,
Japan’s Decision to Surrender
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1954), though a new edition using the declassified American and Japanese documents now available would be most welcome.

On Japan’s relations with Germany, a most important source, which is also very revealing about Japan itself, is John W.M. Chapman (ed.),
The Price of Admiralty: The War Diary of the German Naval Attaché in Japan, 1939–1943
, 3 vols. to date (Lewes, Sussex: Univ. of Sussex Printing Unit, 1982–84). Also useful are Bernd Martin,
Deutschland und Japan im Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Gottingen: Musterschmidt, 1969), and Johanna M. Meskill,
Hitler and Japan: The Hollow Alliance
(New York: Atherton, 1966). On other aspects of Japanese foreign policy during the war, George A. Lensen,
The Strange Neutrality: Soviet-Japanese Relations During the Second World War 1941–1945
(Tallahassee, Fla.: Diplomatic Press, 1972), and Joyce C. Lebra,
Japanese-Trained Armies in Southeast Asia: Independence and Volunteer Forces in World War II
(New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1977) are of interest.

The long war between Japan and China awaits its English-language historian. Dick Wilson,
When Tigers Fight: The Story of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1945
(New York: Penguin, 1983); F.F. Liu,
A Military History of Modern China, 1924–1949
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1956); and Hsi-sheng Ch’i,
Nationalist China at War: Military Deftats and Political Collapse, 1937–45
(Ann Arbor, Mich.: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1982) are the best surveys currently available. John H. Boyle,
China and Japan at War 1937–1945: The Politics of Collaboration
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1972); Gerald R. Bunker,
The Peace Conspiracy: Wang Ching-wei and the China War 1937–1941
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1972); and John W. Garver,
Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937–1945: The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1988), provide excellent coverage of significant subjects. There is much of interest in the
Symposium on the History of the Republic of China,
vol. 4:
War and Resistance against Japan
(Taipei: China Cultural Service, 1981).

For the Pacific War, by far the best introduction is Louis Morton’s volume
The War in the Pacific, Strategy and Command: The First Two Years
(Washington: GPO, 1962) in the U.S. Army’s official history. A major resource is the now published manuscript of Grace P. Hayes,
The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in World War II: The War against Japan
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1982). There are two extremely good volumes covering the first seven months of the Pacific War by H.P. Willmott,
Empires in the Balance: Japanese and Allied Strategies to April 1942
, and
The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies, February to June 1942 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1982 and 1983). A different perspective is provided by John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
(New York: Pantheon, 1986).

Of special interest on Japanese naval leadership is the translation of large portions of the diary of a key figure in the Imperial Japanese navy, Ugaki Matome,
Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki
(Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1991). The best works on Douglas MacArthur are D. Clayton James,
The Years of MacArthur,
Vol. 2: 1941–1945 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975), and Carol M. Petillo,
Douglas MacArthur: The Philippine Years
(Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Univ. Press, 1981). There are useful tactical details, even if a lot of political nonsense, in Ohmae Toshikazu, “Die strategischen Konzeptionen der Japanischen Marine im Zweiten Weltkrieg,”
Marine-Rundschau
53 (1956), 179–203. On submarines, the best introductions are Carl Boyd, “The Japanese Submarine Force and the Legacy of Strategic and Operational Doctrine Developed between the World Wars,” in
Larry Addington
et al.
(eds.),
Selected Papers from The Citadel Conference on War and Diplomacy
1978 (Charleston, S.C.: The Citadel Development Foundation, 1979), and Wilfred J. Holmes,
Undersea Viaory: The Influence of Submarine Operations on the War in the Pacific
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966).

On specific engagements in the Pacific, it is still wise to start with the official histories. In addition, Brian Garfield,
The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969), provides an excellent survey of that campaign; John J. Stephan,
Hawaii under the Rising Sun: Japan’s Plan for Conquest after Pearl Harbor
(Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1984), is essential reading on the early part of the Pacific War; Bert Webber,
Silent Siege: Japanese Attacks against North America in World War II
(Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1983), provides the most comprehensive coverage of the Japanese effort to burn down the western portions of the United States and Canada; and three of the critical battles are brilliantly handled in the books of Harry A. Gailey:
Bougainville, 1943–1945: The Forgotten Campaign
(Lexington, Ky.: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1991),
Howlin’ Mad versus the Army: Conflict in Command, Saipan 1944
(Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1986), and
Peleliu,
1944 (Annapolis, Md.: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Co. of America, 1983).

On the war in South and Southeast Asia, once again the official histories are most useful. On India in the war, there are Milan Hauner,
India in Axis Strategy: Germany, Japan and Indian Nationalists in World War II
(Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981), and Johannes H. Voigt,
Indien im Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1978). Of the vast literature on the campaign in Malaya and the fall of Singapore, I have found Louis Allen,
Singapore 1941–1942
(London: Davis-Poynter, 1977), most helpful; certainly his
Burma: The Longest War 1941–1945
(London: Dent, 1984) is the most comprehensive and thoughtful account of that campaign. The theater is also covered by the official American army histories of Charles Romanus and Riley Sutherland; focusing on the central American figure is the very readable book by Barbara Tuchman,
Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911–1945
(New York: Bantam, 1972, and other eds.). The final land campaign in Asia is most effectively handled by David M. Glantz,
August Storm: The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria
(Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute, 1983).

As records pertaining to intelligence operations and weaponry have been declassified in recent years, there has been a substantial literature of a serious type slowly, but far too slowly, replacing the fanciful inventions of earlier publications. On intelligence activities, see Christopher Andrew and David Dilks (eds.), The
Missing Dimension: Governments and Intelligence Communities in the Twentieth Century
(London: Macmillan, 1984); Horst Boog, “German Air Intelligence in the Second World War,”
Intelligence and National Security
5 (1990), 350–424; John W.M. Chapman, “German Signals Intelligence and the Pacific War,”
Proceedings of the British Association for Japanese Studies (History and International Relations)
4 (1979), 131–49; Aileen Clayton,
The Enemy is Listening
(London: Hutchinson, 1980), a marvellous memoir of a “Y” service officer; Michael L. Handel (ed.),
Strategic and Operational Deception in the Second World War
(London: Frank Cass, 1987); Walter T. Hitchcock (ed.),
The Intelligence Revolution: A Historical Perspective
(Washington: GPO, 1991); Wilfred J. Holmes,
Double-Edged Secrets: U.S. Naval Intelligence Operations in the Pacific during World War II
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1979); Reginald V. Jones,
Most
Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence, 1939–1945
(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978); three books by David Kahn:
The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing
(New York: Macmillan, 1967),
Hitler’s Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II
(New York: Macmillan, 1978), and
Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939–1943
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991); two books by Ronald Lewin,
Ultra Goes to War
(New York: Mc Graw-Hill, 1978), and
The American Magic: Codes, Cyphers and the Defeat of Japan
(New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982); Wladyslaw Kozaczuk,
Enigma: How the German Machine Cypher Was Broken, and How it Was Read by the Allies in World War II,
ed. and trans. by Christopher Kasparek (Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1984); Richard Langhorne (ed.),
Diplomacy and Intelligence during the Second World War
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985); Jürgen Rohwer and Eberhard Jäckel (eds.),
Die Funkaujklärung und ihre Rolle im
2.
Weltkrieg
(Stuttgart: Motorbuch, 1979); and Nigel West [pseud. of Rupert Allason?],
The SIGINT Secrets: The Signals Intelligence War,
1900
to Today: Including the Persecution of Gordon Welchman
(New York: Morrow, 1988).