Atrocities of World War II in the Pacific
Explore harrowing accounts of WWII Pacific atrocities with our curated list of books. Uncover the untold stories, war crimes, and historical tragedies from the Pacific Theater.
Book
The Rape of Nanking
by Iris Chang
Attempts to analyze the degree to which the Japanese imperial government and its militaristic culture fostered in the Japanese soldier a total disregard for human life.
Book
My Hitch in Hell
by Lester I. Tenney
Tenney's searing wartime experiences and a subsequent close friendship with a Japanese exchange student bring a unique perspective to the current debates over Japan's wartime culpability, the morality of the atomic bombings, and relations today between Japanese and Americans. My Hitch in Hell is a first-person account of one of the twentieth century's great tragedies and a prisoner survival epic that contains inspiring lessons for everyone.
Book
The Rising Sun
by John Toland
“[The Rising Sun] is quite possibly the most readable, yet informative account of the Pacific war.”—Chicago Sun-Times This Pulitzer Prize–winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, “a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened—muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox.” In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history. In his Foreword, Toland says that if we are to draw any conclusion from The Rising Sun, it is “that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.” “Unbelievably rich . . . readable and exciting . . .The best parts of [Toland’s] book are not the battle scenes but the intimate view he gives of the highest reaches of Tokyo politics.”—Newsweek
