Retribution The Battle For Japan - 1591 Words

Retribution: The Battle for Japan 1944-1945 written by former British journalist and military historian, Max Hastings tells a story about one of the most brutal and horrifying wars in history, the Pacific War between United States of America and Japan. Through a very detailed style of writing, Hastings was able to clearly narrate the happenings in the last stages of World War II, especially the fall of Japan at the hands of America. Through some stories and interviews from the people who were directly involved, Hastings was able to chronologically relate the experiences and convey the thoughts of the military and civilians. Hastings also gave his thoughts and understanding about the rights and wrongs of America’s strategies to outlast†¦show more content†¦His purpose for the book is to give readers a glimpse of the horror experienced by the people who were part of the Pacific war. He focused on how and why the Americans and the Japanese did their actions during that w ar and their purpose for doing it (Kort, 2010). He also gave his opinions about the behavior of the people, especially the leaders, in making the decisions that led to a lot of unnecessary casualties and deaths during the war (Schilken, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze Retribution: The Battle for Japan 1944-1945 and the way Max Hastings wrote it. The additional sources gave the writer of this paper a better understanding about the book’s flow and content in general and the opinions of other critics helped shape his point of view of the as well. Retribution tells the story of the American and Japanese brutality; how the ideals of their methods and strategies doomed tens of thousands of lives during the final stretch of World War II. The book exposed the cruel fate suffered by the prisoners during the two nations’ year-long encounter. Both countries were determined to win, but were extremely inconsiderate of the lives of their prisoners during th e war. Hastings wrote that when the United States prioritized the destruction of Japanese ships over the lives of POWs (Prisoners of War), the latter did the same (Thomas, 2008). As Hastings wrote, â€Å"Most of the