On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes appeared from the clouds
above Pearl Harbor and fundamentally changed the course of history; with
this one surprise attack, the previously isolationist America was
irrevocably thrown into the fray and World War II had begun in earnest.
This definitive history reveals each of the major battles that America
would fight in the ensuing struggle against Imperial Japan, from the
naval clashes at Midway and Coral Sea to the desperate, bloody fighting
on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Each chapter reveals both the horrors of the
battle and the Allies' grim yet heroic determination to wrest victory
from what often seemed to be certain defeat, offering a valuable guide
to the long road to victory in the Pacific. It is the definitive guide
to a unique conflict in history, documenting the rise of naval aviation,
spectacular amphibious operations, co-ordinated suicide tactics, and the
birth of the atomic age.