The Routledge Handbook of the Second World War in the Pacific

Part I: Origins, Structures, and Approaches

Introduction to Part I
Evan Wilson

1. The Underlying and Proximate Causes of the Pacific War
S.C.M. Paine

2. The Political Economic Backdrop
Anand Toprani

3. The Political Backdrop
Janice Mimura and Andrew Preston

4. The Course of the War (1931–45)
Craig L. Symonds

5. China’s Unchanging and Japan’s Oft-Changing Military Strategies
Tzu-chin Huang

6. The Second Sino-Japanese War
Motohiro Fujii

7. The Structures of Decision Making: Civil-Military Institutions
Sheng-hsiung Su and Iwatani Nobu

8. Mobilizing and Integrating the Instruments of National Power
James Lacey

9. International Law and Arms Limitation Negotiations
Tamara Enomoto and Hitoshi Nasu

10. Internationalism and Empire
Andrew Levidis

11. Doctrinal Development and Training
Jikichiro Matsubara and Nathan Packard

12. Planning and Preparation for War: War Gaming
Peter A. Pellegrino and Matthew A. Tattar

Part II: Strategic Concepts Go to War

Introduction to Part II
Sam J. Tangredi

13. Deterrence by Japan, Great Britian, the United States, and the Soviet Union
Evan Mawdsley

14. The Effects of Culture on Strategy: Gekokujō and Kokutai in Japan and Shame in China
Grace Huang and M. G. Sheftall

15. Mahan’s Influence on Strategic Culture and War Planning
James Lacey and Carlos R. Rivera

16. The Access and Anti-Access Campaigns
Sam J. Tangredi

17. The Failure of Japan’s Anti-Access Strategy
Keizo Kitagawa

18. Cumulative vs. Sequential Operations
Yoji Koda and John M. Sheehan

19. Joint and Combined Operations
Karl Zingheim

20. Strategic and Operational Intelligence
Ryan Wadle

21. Technology, Innovation, and Operations
Vincent P. O’Hara

22. The Supremacy of Logistics
Brian E. Walter

23. Fog, Friction, and Chance
Trent Hone

24. Japan’s Strategy for Surrender
Yukiko Koshiro

25. Pre-War and Post-War Assessments
Douglas A. Chamberlain and Peter Mauch

Part III: Turning Points: Leaders and Decisions

Introduction to Part III
Matthew A. Tattar

26. The Axis Alliance
Fabio De Ninno

27. Government in the Transition to Wartime Economies
Mayli Lin, Yasuo Mori, and John M. Sheehan

28. Franklin Roosevelt’s Preparation for War
David Kaiser

29. Carl Vinson and the Two-Ocean Navy
Nicholas Evan Sarantakes

30. Japan’s Initial Thrust from Pearl Harbor to Singapore
Tomoyuki Ishizu

31. Malaya
Geoffrey Till

32. Midway
Tomohisa Takei and Rob Dahlin

33. Guadalcanal
Richard B. Frank and Paul A. Povlock

34. Leyte Gulf
Douglas N. Hime

35. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Michael Sturma

36. Bombing from Theory to Practice
Jürgen Paul Melzer and Larry A. Weaver

37. Race for the Bomb
Michael Aaron Dennis

Part IV: Societies Transformed by War

Introduction to Part IV
John M. Sheehan

38. Life in the Inner Empire
Michael Shiyung Liu

39. Life in the Outer Empire
Gregg Huff and Gillian Huff

40. French Indochina
Claudine L. Ferrell

41. The Dutch East Indies
Didi Kwartanada, William Bradley Horton, and Nino Oktorino

42. Resistance in Malaya and the Philippines
Ricardo Trota Jose

43. Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army
Sugata Bose

44. Australia
Thomas J. Rogers

45. Nationalist China
Weichen Yang

46. The Communist Victory in China
Chen-cheng Wang

Part V: Legacies of the War

Introduction to Part V
J. Ross Dancy and Stuart D. Furner

47. The Chinese Communist Story of Transformation
Hans van de Ven

48. The Myths of Pearl Harbor
Malcolm H. Murfett

49. Operational and Doctrinal Legacies
Thomas C. Hone

50. The Transformation of the Laws and Ethics of War
Emily Crawford

51. Veterans
J. Ross Dancy and Joshua Fan

52 Japanese Domestic Legacies
Junichiro Shoji

53. Teaching the War
John T. Kuehn and Yukiko Koshiro

54. The Pacific War Goes to the Movies
Richard J. Norton and S.C.M. Paine

Biography

S. C. M. Paine is William S. Sims University Professor of History and Grand Strategy Emerita of the US Naval War College, where she taught strategy from 2000 to 2025.

John M. Sheehan is Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy of the US Naval War College in the NWC program at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. He is a retired Commander, US Navy, who served as a naval aviator and aircraft carrier-based attack pilot, and as naval and joint strategist.

Sam J. Tangredi holds the Leidos Chair of Future Warfare Studies at the US Naval War College, where he is Professor of National, Naval and Maritime Strategy. He is a retired Captain, US Navy, who served as head of the USN Strategy and Concepts Branch and command at sea.

Stuart D. Furner is a professor and deputy chair of the Joint Military Operations Department at the US Naval War College. A retired US Army Colonel, he was an infantry and staff officer with operational deployments in Asia, Africa, and South America.

Matthew A. Tattar is Professor in the Wargaming Department of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the US Naval War College.

Evan Wilson is Associate Professor in the John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research at the US Naval War College.

J. Ross Dancy is the Associate Provost for Research at the US Naval War College. As a US Marine infantryman, he served in both Afghanistan and Iraq.