Rating: 
Summary: Nice Touch
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Not one of the negative reviewers could point out that Schrom was wrong about any of his criticisms of the key players especially MacArthur. MacArthur has got a free ride for too long. So does the Japanese imperial familay for its part in the horrendous war crimes they committed. If you read a lot of miltary history and want something that adds new information, this book has it.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Touch
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Not one of the negative reviewers could point out that Schrom was wrong about any of his criticisms of the key players especially MacArthur. MacArthur has got a free ride for too long. So does the Japanese imperial familay for its part in the horrendous war crimes they committed. If you read a lot of miltary history and want something that adds new information, this book has it.
Rating: 
Summary: the eagle and the rising sun
Review: The author may have an ax to grind....but thats not the real problem , what we have here "is a faliure to communicate" this is a totally CONVOLUTED effort !!!
Rating: 
Summary: The Early Battles of the Pacific War
Review: This book describes the period from Pearl Harbor through Guadalcanal, while also providing information on the Japanese invasion of China, as well as the various arms confernces of the 1920s and 30s.
During this early phase of the Pacific war, the Japanese achieved victory after victory, while the United States and her Allies struggled to stop the rising tide of Japanese victories. From Wake to the Java Sea, the Japanese Army and Navy ruled supreme while the Allies lost countless numbers of men, planes, and ships.
For six months, the Japanese never lost, but in June, 1942, at the Battle of Midway, the Japanese advance was stopped. Four Japanese carriers were sunk, and many planes and men were lost which coluld not be replaced. Japan would never regain the offensive again.
This book has both its high points and low points. Among the high points is the very informative narration about the Japanese invasion of mainland China in the early 1930s. This is where the Japanese "Bushido" code was developed. Unfortunately for the Allied POWs, they found out first-hand how this horrible code worked. The background information about each principal player in the Pacific War was also helpful. From Yamamoto to Nimitz, Author Alan Schom provides good background information to help the reader understand these personalities and how they fought.
There are also some poor points in the book, too. For example, the heroic struggle for Wake Island in the days following the Pearl Harbor raid is barely mentioned. These heroic civilians and marines were the first true heroes of the Pacific war. They deserve more attention than they received from Schom. The battles of the Coral Sea and Midway are given just thumbnail sketches as well. More detail could have been given in these areas as well. However, the author does a god job describing the battle of Guadalcanal.
I do think this is a worthwhile read. The background information on the Japanese invasion of China is very good, as is the information on the Japanese and Allied commanders. However, I wish the author would have given due recognition and more information on some of the crucial battles of this period of the Pacific war.
Rating:
Summary: Early War in the Pacific
Review: This book gives a good overview of the Pacific theater of operations in WWII from Pearl Hargor through the battles of Guadalcanal. Intersperced with the main line are many mini-biographies of major players in the action. While the work is, as a whole, fairly well-written, some of the detail becomes mindnumbing, causing the eyes of the reader to glaze over. The author takes many of the Navy and Army leaders to task for their failings, particularly Douglas MacArthur, who appears to be the chief villain in the piece. According to the author, if MacArthur had done some things differently, there might have been quite different outcomes. Hindsight is always 20-20, as we well know, but it's always interesting to see that our national heroes have their own failings also. This is by no means a "perfect" book, but it's worth reading to get the overview of the time period and the action that took place within it.
Rating:
Summary: A Truly Awful work
Review: When I first read about this book coming out, I was tremendously excited and couldn't WAIT to get it. I was wrong. This book (in my opinion) is a total waste of time and money - NOT because the author doesn't have some good things to say... he does, particularly about MacArthur's failings, Hirohito's guilt, and a couple of other "human" aspects.... but because of all the factual errors in the book, far too numerous to list here. How anyone can claim to write a history of the first year of the war and not even list Eric Bergerud's Land Touched with Fire, or Fire in the Sky, and Russell B. Frank's Guadalcanal in the bibliography is beyond me. Schom (as one other reviewer says) thinks Adm. Turner walked on water, but never says WHY. He totally neglects the fundamental role of starvation and disease in destroying the Japanese Army on the 'Canal. This book is a total waste because if you already know enough to see the factual errors in it, you know enough to not need it or be interested in it -- and if you DON'T catch the errors (the "Faruna" and her 16 14" guns(!), Tanaka fleeing with his 6 DD's while 7 are named, Gatch and Lee being responsible for sinking both the Hiei AND Kirishima, why Vandergrift didn't try to capture Mt. Austen immediately, the "Gifu sector" NOT being the same thing as Mt. Austen, Kenney and his skip-bombing that did (or didn't) start in Octorber 1942, etc), then the book will fill you with "facts that ain't so", and hamper any quest to truly understand what went on. I have never rated a book this low before --- and hope I never have to again. My Bottom Line to anyone reading this review: For now, stick with some of the basics: Spector's Eagle against the Sun, for example, or the Bergerud books cited above, or the Frank work, etc.
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