Asian Armageddon, 1944-1945

 

Asian Armageddon, 1944 – 1945 by Peter Harmsen

The final installment of the very satisfying trilogy of the Japanese conflict during World War II.  Each of these three books are a bit shorter than your average history / war book and they probably could be combined into one larger volume. I think, though, that the author decided to release each installment as it was written, so a future compendium of all three might one day occur. Although these volumes are short, they’re not TOO short. In fact, many would probably prefer the 250-page or so length.

The brevity has advantages.  This book, like its two predecessors is very easy to comprehend and never allows itself to get too bogged down in the weeds. Even though the book covers two whole years of the war, it moves quickly. The author does a very nice job of covering all the bases. The main focus here are the actual battles that were fought, Peter Harmesen keeps it high level and wisely includes plenty of maps so the reader can stay focused with the many unfamiliar locations.

Although the United States of America was Japan’s main adversary during the conflict, this book also includes the many conflicts with neighboring China as well as Japan’s colonization of the many nations in Southeast Asia.  Entire books could (and have) been written on the majority of “events” in this book, so if the reader is wanting more than author Harmsen’s somewhat brief chapters, it’s comforting to know that one’s knowledge doesn't need to be limited to only what is here.

There are many postwar reflections included; mostly from former U.S. and Japanese soldiers, so it’s nice to have a lot of firsthand reflections of the tragedies. There were portions of the book that were hard to stomach. We must never forget that Japan was an incredibly cruel adversary, and whereas war is always “hell”, this was an unbelievably demonic nation in how it treated its enemies.  The reflections on how the Japanese military treated its neighboring China during its initial conquest and how American POWs were treated makes one ponder how the U.S. could be so magnanimous once the war finally ended and the U.S. “took over” the nation of Japan.  It’s definitely one of highlights of the history of the United States.  Most other nations would not be nearly as forgiving.

Such atrocities make the dropping of the atom bomb(s) much more acceptable. True, such an event should never be looked at with glee, but based on the psyche of the Japanese enemy, there really wasn’t much choice.  The Japanese people didn’t comprehend the term “surrender” and were literally prepared to fight until the last man, woman, and child was killed.  So as horrible as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, one feels as though just as many lives, if not more, would have been lost had this been a conventional war that potentially could last several more years.  We must also remember that many of those fatalities would have been the numerous young U.S. soldiers who should have been back home hanging around the malt shop as opposed to fighting in the treacherous jungles of Southeast Asia.

I must reiterate, everything here is the “Cliffs Notes” version of the actual events which is Harmsen’s intention.  He covers an awful lot, but keeps his reflections manageable. I would conclude by saying if you’re unfamiliar with most of the details of World War II and are looking for a good primer to introduce you to conflict in the Japan theater, this book and the two before it would make an excellent start.