Reviews
He shifts easily from cabinet rooms to battlefields, and gives us profiles of many persons, high and low, who played interesting roles in these events. A very good work about a very neglected subject., It is to be hoped that this book might provide a wake up call to modern readers about the dangers of military dictators. They cannot be trusted., Storm Clouds Over the Pacific is an excellent primer about World War II in Asia prior to the involvement of the United States, . . . an excellent resource for understanding the relationship between China and Japan, past and present., The author describes the process very well although his book is too small to cover some of the very interesting but more minor Japanese preparations. For example in Micronesia starting in the early 1920s. It is to be hoped that this book might provide a wake up call to modern readers about the dangers of military dictators. They cannot be trusted., Harmsen's highly compressed, readable, narrative of the cascade to conflict is highly recommended reading for contemporary world citizens., Also gratifying, "Storm Clouds Over the Pacific" tackles via a smooth, easy-to-digest narrative the generations of animosities that drove the immensely destructive war in the Pacific, costing the lives of millions of people, soldiers and civilians alike.", Harmsen has managed to craft into a single accessible narrative the complex military history of the early years of the Chinese-Japanese conflict. The great strength of the book is the equal attention given to both Japanese and Chinese sides in terms of military strategies and outcomes on the battlefield., Exceptionally well written for both academia and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in World War II history..., Other Vietnam histories provide dates and events or trace personal experience alone. Followers of Vietnam War history would do well to consult Autopsy of an Unwinnable War above most others: its ability to synthesize the extent of political, social, military, and personal experience for a clearer, bigger picture of why Vietnam was an impossible conflict all along makes it a winning, engrossing study that should be on the shelves of any definitive Vietnam War collection., Peter Harmsen uses a reporter's lean prose and sharp eye for detail to expertly tell the story of Japan's war with China before Pearl Harbor. Among the highlights of this valuable book is Harmsen's ability to effortlessly place Asian political and military developments in a global setting. The result is a masterful narrative account of the traumatic decade before Japan's war in Asia merged into World War II., Beginning with the second chapter, Harmsen provides the reader with a readable and reliable narrative of this war before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor....he effortlessly shifts his focus from high politics and strategy in China and Japan to individual stories of foreign witnesses as well as ordinary Chinese and Japanese., Also gratifying, "Storm Clouds Over the Pacific" tackles via a smooth, easy-to-digest narrative the generations of animosities that drove the immensely destructive war in the Pacific, costing the lives of millions of people, soldiers and civilians alike. Using his renowned ability to weave together complicated, thorny events into revealing facets of the war previously neglected or unexplored, i.e., the subarctic conditions on the Aleutians; the mass starvations in China, India and Indochina, that cost the lives of millions; the range of perspective reflecting what war was like from the Oval Office to the burning, bullet-riddled sands of Iwo Jima, etc. is yet another reward., The author studies the origins of World War II in the Pacific through the vast war fought between China and Japan. It is a balanced book providing the perspectives of both sides and explains the motives and goals of each. The narrative is clear and engaging, and the level of detail is impressive.
Synopsis
War in the Far East is a trilogy of books comprising a general history of the war against Japan; unlike other histories it expands the narrative beginning long before Pearl Harbor and encompasses a much wider group of actors to produce the most complete narrative yet written and the first truly international treatment of the epic conflict. Peter Harmsen uses his renowned ability to weave together complex events into an entertaining and revealing narrative, including facets of the war that may be unknown to many readers of WWII history, such as the war in Subarctic conditions on the Aleutians, or the mass starvations that cost the lives of millions in China, Indochina, and India, and offering a range of perspectives to reflect what war was like both at the top and at the bottom, from the Oval Office to the blistering sands of Peleliu. Storm Clouds Over the Pacific begins the story long before Pearl Harbor, showing how the war can only be understood if ancient hatreds and long-standing geopolitics are taken into account. Peter Harmsen demonstrates how Japan and China's ancient enmity grew in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries leading to increased tensions in the 1930s which exploded into conflict in 1937. The battles of Shanghai and Nanjing were followed by the battle of Taierzhuang in 1938, China's only major victory. A war of attrition continued up to 1941, the year when Japan made the momentous decision for all-out war; the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into the war, and the Japanese also overran British and Dutch territories throughout the western Pacific., First in a trilogy of books comprising a general history of war in the Asia Pacific, from the origins of enmity between Japan and China, through Japan's ascendancy in the early years of World War II.
