The full extent and brutality of imperial Japan's actions before and during the Second World War has not had the same cultural and political resonances as those of Nazi Germany, nor are they as well remembered. Werner Gruhl's objective is to present a fresh overview of the Asian-Pacific War and its victims, drawing particular attention to the neglected history of Japan's invasion of China and Southeast Asia. Gruhl seeks to show that the war in Asia and the Pacific is as much about Shanghai, Nanking, and Manila as about Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Hiroshima. Gruhl's narrative makes clear why...

Gruhl's narrative makes clear why Japan's World War II aggression still touches deep emotions with East Asians and Western ex-prisoners of war, and why there is justifiable sensitivity to the way modern Japan has dealt with this legacy. Knowledge of the enormity of Japan's total war is also necessary to assess the United States' and her allies' policies toward Japan, and their reactions to its actions, extending from Manchuria in 1931 to Hiroshima in 1945. Gruhl takes the view that World War II started in 1931 when Japan, crowded and poor in raw materials but with a sense of military...