Book Description

In observance of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Air Force History and Museums Program sponsored a symposium on the War in the Pacific held at the Bethesda, MD, Naval Officers' Club. The gathering offered a unique opportunity for its guest panelists -- participants in that war or historians of it -- to reflect on a variety of subjects: Japanese objectives; American military preparedness and grand strategy; the interaction between U.S. Army, Air, and Navy leaders; combined operations; political and diplomatic intrigue; the challenges of ground, air, and sea warfare within differing Pacific theaters; military science and technology; the essential role of intelligence; the proposed Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands; and the use of the atomic bombs. For the United States, World War II began and ended in the Pacific, from Japan's aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, to its surrender in Tokyo Bay, on September 2, 1945. For all but 5 months of those years, Americans and their Allies were compelled to hold the line in Asia, doggedly opposing imperialist Japan while a "Europe First" policy against Nazi Germany and fascist Italy prevailed in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The United States operated over huge distances, from China, Burma, and India, to countless Pacific islands. Sixty-five photographs are included.