To the End of the Earth

December 1, 2022

Following Fire and Fortitude, winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History, and the multi-starred Island Infernos, military historian McManus wraps up his trilogy on the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II. (Not the U.S. Navy, which has received more coverage.) He also limns the ambitions of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the complications he faced during the U.S. occupation of Japan.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 13, 2023
Historian McManus (Island Infernos) concludes his trilogy on the U.S. Army in the Pacific theater of WWII with a dramatic account of the period from the recapture of the Philippines through the invasion of Okinawa and Japan’s surrender. As McManus makes clear throughout, the Army faced fierce resistance in the war’s final months: nearly 300,000 Japanese troops took to the hills and mountains of the Philippines island of Luzon to “fight to the death” in hopes of slowing the American advance. In Burma, U.S. military engineers, with the help of Chinese, Burmese, and Indian laborers, opened a supply route between India and China to provide a lifeline to American troops and their Nationalist allies fighting in western China. According to one Army historian, the amount of soil moved to construct the road was enough “to build a continuous six-foot-high wall from New York to San Francisco.” The campaign across the Pacific culminated in the bitter, monthslong fight for Okinawa, where an entire field hospital was devoted to caring for combat fatigue cases. Throughout, McManus seesaws between command-level decision-making and the frontline experiences of American and Japanese soldiers, and shines a light on the suffering, fortitude, and resilience of those whose homelands were invaded. Wide-ranging yet granular, it’s a fitting capstone to the series. Agent: Michael Congdon, Don Congdon Assoc.

Starred review from April 21, 2023

By 1945, the U.S. Army had retaken large swaths of territory formally occupied by the Japanese. In the third and final installment (after Island Infernos) of his "World War II in the Pacific" series, historian McManus (Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology) brings into sharp relief these final, bloody battles against the Japanese. While American victory seemed certain, the Japanese vowed to make it as bloody and time-consuming as possible. The Japanese offered little resistance to U.S. amphibious landings, and then they attacked from fortified caves, tunnels, and gun emplacements. That resulted in a high toll to clear out the tenacious defenders, while Kamikaze planes attempted to strike the fleets at sea. These tactics led to horrific and costly fights to liberate Manila, Corregidor, and Luzon. Japan's defense of Okinawa, long considered Japanese home territory, saw some of the most intense and horrific scenes of the Pacific. McManus masterfully integrates a wide array of primary sources and weaves together accounts from generals to those fighting in the mud. VERDICT Readers interested in World War II and other aspects of U.S. military history will find much to enjoy.--Chad E. Statler

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.