940.53-940.54: World War II in the Pacific (2023)

The following list contains books, published in the last 5 years, that discuss the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. Works in this list will feature battles, campaigns, and personal narratives set in eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania between 1941 and 1945.

Updated June 9, 2023
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1

Air Apaches : the true story of the 345th Bomb Group and its low, fast, and deadly missions in World War II
Stout, Jay A.
Paper Book
The American 345th Bomb Group--the Air Apaches--was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying...

2

Black snow : Curtis LeMay, the firebombing of Tokyo, and the road to the atomic bomb
Scott, James
Paper Book
Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more...

3

The Bomber Mafia : a dream, a temptation, and the longest night of the second World War
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paper Book
Dive into this "truly compelling" (Good Morning America) New York Times bestseller that explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war--from the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History. In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm...

4

Bridge to the sun : the secret role of the Japanese Americans who fought in the Pacific in World War II
Henderson, Bruce B.
Paper Book
One of the last, great untold stories of World War II-kept hidden for decades-even after most of the World War II records were declassified in 1972, many of the files remained untouched in various archives-a gripping true tale of courage and adventure from Bruce Henderson, master storyteller,...

5

Eve of a hundred midnights : the star-crossed love story of two WWII correspondents and their epic escape across the Pacific
Lascher, Bill
Paper Book
The unforgettable true story of two married journalists on an island-hopping run for their lives across the Pacific after the Fall of Manila during World War II--a saga of love, adventure, and danger. On New Year's Eve, 1941, just three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese...

6

Eyewitness to World War II : unforgettable stories from history's greatest conflict
Kagan, Neil
Paper Book
The unforgettable story of World War II is told through the words of those who lived it-America's greatest generation-both on the battlefield and the home front. Personal writings create a dramatic tapestry of wartime experience, and recollections of Roosevelt, Hitler, and Patton, as well as letters...

7

Facing the mountain : a true story of Japanese American heroes in World War II
Brown, Daniel James
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER One of NPR's "Books We Love" of 2021 Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography  Winner of the Christopher Award    "Masterly. An epic story of four Japanese-American families and their...

8

Fire and fortitude : the US Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943
McManus, John C.
Paper Book
John C. McManus, one of the most highly acclaimed historians of World War II, takes readers from Pearl Harbor - a rude awakening for a ragtag militia woefully unprepared for war - to Makin, a sliver of coral reef where the Army was tested against the increasingly desperate Japanese. In between were...

9

Fragile cargo : the World War II race to save the treasures of China's Forbidden City
Brookes, Adam (Journalist)
Paper Book
The gripping true story of the bold and determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China's Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond. Spring 1933: The silent courtyards and palaces of Peking's Forbidden City, for centuries the home of...

10

Implacable foes : war in the Pacific, 1944-1945
Heinrichs, Waldo H.
Paper Book
By the time of the dropping of the atom bomb in August 1945, the United States military situation in the Pacific was in disarray. As an Army staff officer stated simply, "The capitulation of Hirohito saved our necks."In 1944, a year earlier, success seemed near, but squabbling in the military...

11

Island infernos : the US Army's Pacific War odyssey, 1944
McManus, John C.
Ebook
In Fire and Fortitude--winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History--John C. McManus presented a riveting account of the US Army's fledgling fight in the Pacific following Pearl Harbor. Now, in Island Infernos, he explores the Army's dogged pursuit of Japanese forces,...

12

Killing the rising sun : how America vanquished World War II Japan
O'Reilly, Bill
Paper Book
The powerful and riveting new book in the multimillion-selling Killing series by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to...

13

Last mission to Tokyo : the extraordinary story of the Doolittle Raiders and their final fight for justice
Paradis, Michel
Paper Book
"Superb...[Paradis] writes history with ease and authority." --The Wall Street Journal "[An] engrossing procedural...Richly researched." --The New York Times Book Review A thrilling narrative that introduces a key but underreported...

14

Lucky 666 : the impossible mission
Drury, Bob
Paper Book
From the authors of the New York Times bestselling The Heart of Everything That Is and Halsey's Typhoon comes the dramatic, untold story of a daredevil bomber pilot and his misfit crew who fly their lone B-17 into the teeth of the Japanese Empire in 1943, engage in the longest...

15

The mosquito bowl : a game of life and death in World War II
Bissinger, Buzz
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller · Winner of the General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation "Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl, he is back with a true story even...

16

Operation Vengeance : the astonishing aerial ambush that changed World War II
Hampton, Dan
Ebook
"Operation Vengeance is colorful, intimate, eye-popping history, delivered at a breakneck pace. I loved it." -Lynn Vincent The New York Times bestselling author of Viper Pilot delivers an electrifying narrative account of the top-secret U.S. mission to kill Isoroku...

17

Rampage : MacArthur, Yamashita, and the battle of Manila
Scott, James
Paper Book
The definitive history of one of the most brutal campaigns of the war in the Pacific. Before World War II, Manila was a slice of America in Asia, populated with elegant neoclassical buildings, spacious parks, and home to thousands of U.S. servicemen and business executives who...

18

The storm on our shores : one island, two soldiers, and the forgotten battle of World War II
Obmascik, Mark
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Mark Obmascik has deftly rescued an important story from the margins of our history--and from our country's most forbidding frontier. Deeply researched and feelingly told, The Storm on Our Shores is a heartbreaking tale of tragedy and...

19

Tower of skulls : a history of the Asia-Pacific war, July 1937-May 1942
Frank, Richard B.
Paper Book
In 1937, the swath of the globe east from India to the Pacific Ocean encompassed half the world's population. Japan's onslaught into China that year unleashed a tidal wave of events that fundamentally transformed this region and killed about twenty-five million people. This extraordinary World...

20

Twilight of the Gods : War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945
Toll, Ian W.
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, "one of the great storytellers of War" (Evan Thomas). In June 1944, the United States launched a crushing assault on the Japanese navy in the...

21

The women with silver wings : the inspiring true story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II
Landdeck, Katherine Sharp
Ebook
"With the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, women pilots went aloft to serve their nation. . . . A soaring tale in which, at long last, these daring World War II pilots gain the credit they deserve."--Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Code...

22

World War II at sea : a global history
Symonds, Craig L.
Paper Book
Author of Lincoln and His Admirals (winner of the Lincoln Prize), The Battle of Midway (Best Book of the Year, Military History Quarterly), and Operation Neptune (winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature), Craig L. Symonds ranks among the country's finest naval historians. World...

23

World War II illustrated atlas : campaigns, battles & weapons from 1939 to 1945
Jordan, David
Paper Book
From two military experts comes an outstanding and comprehensive one-volume visual guide to the complex conflict that was the Second World War.   Covering every major battle, from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the defeat of Japan in 1945,World...

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