The Second World War in the Far East

Fought across unprecedented distances, Japan's war against the Allied powers triggered the greatest naval battles in history.

Both sides had fleets of mighty battleships but these were eclipsed by aircraft and the aircraft carrier became the new 'capital ship'. Naval actions took place in which the naval warships never made visual contact. Submarines demonstrated their true potential as the US Navy succeeded in strangling the Japanese economy by the end of the war. The conflict was terminated with the most revolutionary technical development in military history: the atomic bomb.

Dr H. P. Willmott, author of Pearl Harbor, charts the course of the war from the Japanese pre-war plans to the decisive battles and the 'island hopping' campaign that brought US bombers within reach of the Japanese homeland.