Retribution: the battle for Japan, 1944-45

"By the summer of 1944 it was clear that Japan's defeat was inevitable, but how the drive to victory would be achieved remained to be seen. The ensuing drama - that ended in Japan's utter devastation - was acted out across the vast stage of Asia, with massive clashes of naval and air forces, fighting through jungles, and barbarities by an apparently incomprehensible foe. In recounting the saga of this time and place, Hastings gives us incisive portraits of the theater's key figures - MacArthur, Nimitz, Mountbatten, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. But he is equally adept in his portrayals of the ordinary soldiers and sailors - American, British, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese - caught in some of the war's bloodiest campaigns." "Hastings discusses Japan's war against China, now all but forgotten in the West, MacArthur's follies in the Philippines, the Marines at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Soviet blitzkrieg in Manchuria. He analyzes the decision-making process that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - which, he convincingly argues, ultimately saved lives. Finally, he delves into the Japanese wartime mind-set, which caused an otherwise civilized society to carry out atrocities that haunt the nation to this day."--Jacket.

Dilemmas and decisions -- Japan: defying gravity -- The British in Burma -- Titans at sea -- America's return to the Philippines -- "Flowers of death" : Leyte Gulf -- Ashore: battle for the mountains -- China: dragon by the tail -- MacArthur on Luzon -- Bloody miniature: Iwo Jima -- Blockade: war underwater -- Burning a nation: Lemay -- The road past Mandalay -- Australians: "Bludging" and "Mopping up" -- Captivity and slavery -- Okinawa -- Mao's war -- Eclipse of empires -- The bombs -- Fantasy in Tokyo -- Reality at Hiroshima -- Manchuria: the Bear's claws -- The last act -- Legacies.