Book Review: Eagle Against the Sun by Ronald Spector

Topic & Content

Published in 1985, this is a single-volume history of the Asia-Pacific War. The book is organized as follows: (descriptions added in parentheses)

1. States of Mind: American (The state of the U.S. military and Naval Academy before the war.)
2. States of Mind: Japanese (The state of the Japanese military and structure of Imperial General HQ before the war.)
3. Orange (The U.S. Rainbow War Plans, American and Japanese responses to WWII starting in Europe.)
4. Some Last Minute Changes (General MacArthur and the state of the Philippines, Japanese plans for the southern advance, Pearl Harbor, and post-Pearl Harbor attack analysis.)
5. The Issue Is in Doubt (The Japanese invasion of Wake, Guam, and the Philippines.)
6. The Short, Unhappy Life of ABDACOM (The Fall of Malaya and Hong Kong, Battle of Balikpapan, Battle of Java Sea, and The Fall of Corregidor.)
7. “The Vital Flank” (Dividing the Pacific in theater commands, comparing Adm. Nimitz and Gen. MacArthur, early U.S. carrier raids, Japanese Indian Ocean Raid, planning for Midway, Doolittle Raid, Battle of the Coral Sea.)
8. From Midway to Massacre Valley (Battle of Midway, Battle of Komandorski Islands, Aleutian Islands Campaign.)
9. Route to Rabaul (Operation Watchtower, planning for the invasion of Rabaul, the Kokoda Trail, Battle of Savo Island, Battle of the Eastern Solomons, Battle of Cape Esperance.)
10. Jungle Victories (Fighting and logistical issues on Guadalcanal, Battle of Santa Cruz, Naval Battles at Guadalcanal & Tassafaronga, securing Papua New Guinea.)
11. CARTWHEEL (Operation Cartwheel, Battle of the Bismarck Sea, Operation Vengeance, amphibious forces, Battle of Vella Gulf & Vella Lavella, American advance towards Lae, Operation RO, Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, carrier raids on Rabaul, Battle of Cape Gloucester.)
12. The Dodging Tide (Strategy in the Central Pacific, creation of the 5th Fleet, Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign, Truk and Eniwetok.)
13. “They Are Waiting for Me There” (Central vs. SW Pacific campaigns)
14. To the Marianas (Logistics across the Pacific, Battle of Saipan, Battle of the Philippine Sea, Battle of Tinian, Battle of Guam.)
15. “A Hell of a Beating” (The romantic vs. actual situation in China, Gen. Stilwell, getting supplies to China and Burma, political situation in India, Chiang Kai-shek’s demands for China, Claire Chennault’s air campaign, Operation Anakim and British plans to retake Burma.)
16. The Road to Myitkyina (The Burma Campaign, Merrill’s Marauders, Battle for Imphal and Kohima.)
17. Ichigo (Japanese Operation Ichigo in China, retaking Burma, attempts to shape up the Chinese Nationalist Army, Chinese Communists, post-war push for SE Asian independence.)
18. Strangers in Strange Lands (% of servicemen in combat and casualty rates, minorities in the service, POWs of the Japanese, the impact of U.S. servicemen in other countries, American feelings toward Japan.)
19. Where Is Task Force 34? (Debate on whether to invade Formosa or Luzon, Battle of Peleliu, IJN’s Sho plans, Third Fleet raids Philippines, Formosa, and Okinawa; Invasion of Leyte, Battle of Leyte Gulf, introduction of kamikazes.)
20. Behind the Lines (Intelligence, cryptanalysis, traffic analysis, and codebreaking in the Pacific Theater, submarine espionage, Joint Intelligence Center, Allied interpreters, William Donovan and the OSS; SACO and Chinese intelligence, Japan’s attempts at courting anti-Imperialist movements in Asia.)
21. The War of Attrition (Submarine warfare in the Pacific, B-29s and firebombings; Battle of Iwo Jima.)
22. From Leyte to Luzon (Allies retake Philippines after Leyte Gulf.)
23. “I Am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds” (Battle of Okinawa, Operation Ten-Go and kamikazes at Okinawa; planning for Operation Downfall, Potsdam Declaration, Manhattan Project, Japanese feelings on surrender, Soviet Union’s entry into the Pacific War, atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japanese surrender and last minute attempts of fanatics at a coup, views of dropping the bombs, and the legacy of the Pacific War.)

Thesis

Ronald Spector writes that the war against Japan fundamentally altered the geopolitics of both Japan and China. The war put an end to Western political dominance in Asia and provided the former colonial possessions with training and independence that would allow them to develop their own nationalism. Unlike John Toland’s The Rising Sun and John Costello’s The Pacific War, which examine the conflict from the Japanese and British perspectives, respectively, Spector writes that this book is specifically from the American viewpoint of the war.

Author’s Background

Ronald Spector is an American military historian and professor at George Washington University. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Spector served in Vietnam. He was also a Senior Fulbright Scholar in India from 1977 to 1978. He has taught at the National War College and U.S. Army War College. Additionally, he was the first civilian to become Director of Naval History and the head of the Naval Historical Center. He has also been a visiting professor at Louisiana State University, the University of Alabama, and Princeton University. Spector holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Critical Observations

Positives

Generally, this is a very good single-volume history that moves chronologically through the Pacific War. Spector covers all of the major battles and campaigns, as well as the major personalities and some analysis of their decision-making processes. There are many other interesting tidbits and details to find on these pages, so you may learn something new.

Spector is a decent writer, and while I wouldn’t call his writing Shakespeare, the narrative is easy enough to follow and goes into enough detail to satisfy those who are new to the subject, but looking for something more in-depth than your average bargain bin military history. In this regard, the book is well-researched and Spector is good enough to include endnotes for his sources (which are interestingly placed at the end of each chapter, rather than at the end of the book.)

Negatives

My biggest issue with the book is that Spector’s thesis is poorly supported, at least in my opinion. He attempts to argue that the Asia-Pacific War served to fuel the nationalism and independence movements of the Asian and Pacific Island nations that it touched, but very little of the book is devoted to the budding nationalist movements or sentiments. There’s of course mention of the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists, as well as the Indian Independence Movement, but not much else. At the very least, Spector avoids attributing the independence of these nations to the Japanese occupations. (Edward Drea’s Japan’s Imperial Army similarly quashes any suggestions that the Japanese, and their brutality, were the originators of such independence movements.) However, Spector does note that the Japanese attempted (somewhat unsuccessfully) to sway the Asian nations over to their point of view. Overall, Spector’s thesis is very loosely related to the content of the book. It’s mostly a straightforward military history from the American perspective.

Regarding other criticisms, this book has too few maps given the large strategic viewpoint the book has and the scope that it covers. The only maps are the overall theater map on the first few pages. Furthermore, while the book moves chronologically, there are a few chapters that jump back and forth in the timeline which might make it confusing for readers. For example, chapter eight nominally talks about the Battle of Midway in mid-1942, but also covers the entire Aleutian Islands campaign and the U.S. retaking of them; the latter of which didn’t occur until mid-1943, a whole year later. In another example, the chapters covering events in China and Burma are scattered throughout the book and often jump back and forth chronologically speaking. Another chapter deals with minorities in the war and how U.S. servicemen were perceived when on leave in other countries. This chapter isn’t bad, but it just feels a bit out of place and more well-suited for a social history than a military history book.

Evaluation (Does the content support the thesis?)

As many others have noted, this book is a detailed and well-written single-volume history of the Asia-Pacific War in World War II. That said, I didn’t find the thesis to be particularly impactful or well-supported with evidence in the narrative. Still, Ronald Spector’s writing is solid, well-researched, and has many good details to provide a solid picture of the course of the war in this half of the world. If you’re new to the Asia-Pacific Theater and want a good book to get you started, then you can’t go wrong here.