Reddit reviews Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45

Fantastic recommendation, I got to read Junger's memoir last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Absolutely horrifying and enlightening.

One of my favorite WWI books is A World Undone, by G. J. Meyer. Which is ironic since I don't think I've ever posted a single anecdote from it (an error I need to severely correct).

It's super dense, but probably one of the best overviews of the war, encapsulating a deep amount of academic research, primary sources from soldiers, civilians, leaders- all the while providing important historical context and background for the many many actors/nations involved, their motives, and goals.

I recommend this book to ANYONE interested in WWI besides a passing understanding. At 816 pages it can be daunting to most readers, but if you have the interest, absolutely check out this book.

Another great book is Max Hastings's Inferno, which is one of the best "social histories" of the war IMO. The wide-range of intimate, tragic, surprising, and sometimes funny testimonies collected in the book, along with Hastings's excellent prose, is one of the most "human" retellings of WWII, I've ever read and is a must for anyone who is interested in the war beyond just the military and political aspects.

Edit: I also want to include Hastings's Retribution which covers the Pacific campaign (1944-45) in equally masterful prose and heartwrenching testimony. Learned not only a lot about the Japanese perspective but also of people's lives under Japanese occupation.

Also Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy, which is a fantastic (American POV) of the war and incredibly well written.

Sure! I recommend:

I Saw Tokyo Burning by Robert Guillain, a Frenchman who lived in Japan throughout the war.

War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War, another one by John Dower.

Retribution by Max Hastings

Japan at War: an Oral History by Haruko and Theodore Cook

There is one big factor at play as to why the Japanese did it: It was the only chance they had for an "honorable" ending to the war. Early on, Roosevelt had insisted, over the early objections of Churchill, on demanding nothing less than unconditional surrender from both Germany and Japan. The result of this was that the US effectively told Japan that no matter the circumstances, if they surrendered they were to become a subject people.

This had the massive problem of leaving the Japanese without an honorable "out." Thus they saw that their only option, starting in 1944 when it became resolutely clear that there was no way to win or even fight America to a draw, was to make the price of unconditional surrender so steep that the Americans would change their mind. This is why sacrificing a few barely trained pilots and poorly made planes to sink even one American warship became a beneficial trade-off.

Therefore in reality, all the talk about Bushido and the honor of Seppuku was merely a ploy by the top Japanese generals to convince the soldiers into fighting to the absolute and bitter end.

If you would like to know more, my best suggestion is the book Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings. He interviewed many soldiers and witnesses to the events of that time including Japanese soldiers.

Read this and you guys can answer all your own questions about the end of the war: https://www.amazon.com/Retribution-Battle-1944-45-Max-Hastings/dp/0307275361/ref=pd_sim_14_3/132-6370175-6170745?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0307275361&pd_rd_r=a8ce1a4b-ba8b-11e8-a904-6bfe9a9fef2d&pd_rd_w=BUzyi&pd_rd_wg=TDVrt&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=6XVV33RTYCH490BRYHBZ&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=6XVV33RTYCH490BRYHBZ

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Taken from this.

Also, Manchukuo was in existance until the unconditional surrender of Japan.

The fact that some of their gains had been taken during the war doesn't mean that Japan had no intention to argue for them during peace negotiations. The notion of a settled peace agreement to the Japanese did not include peace on the Allies' terms.

This help?

You proabbly won't get a good one on the entire war. for the german history, I highly recommend the Richard J. Evans Trilogy, for the pacific conflict, I would recommend Retribution. The Evan's work was simply amazing, the best work since Shirer. Your best histories of the American, British, Japanese and Russian perspectives are going to probably come in the form of Biographies of key players, I just haven't found a singular work with quite the depth of the two I mentioned above. The history channel actually did a series just recently that didn't completely suck, and had quite a lot of amazing footage, that was well edited together: WWII in HD