Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942

The Pacific War Trilogy #1

by Ian W. Toll

“Both a serious work of history . . . and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative.”—San Francisco Chronicle

On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.

This dramatic narrative, relying predominantly on eyewitness accounts and primary sources, is laced with riveting details of heroism and sacrifice on the stricken ships and planes of both navies. At the war’s outset, Japan’s pilots and planes enjoyed a clear-cut superiority to their American counterparts, but there was a price to be paid. Japanese pilots endured a lengthy and grueling training in which they were disciplined with baseball bats, often suffering broken bones; and the production line of the Zero— Japan’s superbly maneuverable fighter plane—ended not at a highway or railhead but at a rice paddy, through which the planes were then hauled on ox carts. Combat losses, of either pilots or planes, could not be replaced in time to match the fully mobilized American war machine.

Pacific Crucible also spotlights recent scholarship that revises our understanding of the conflict, including the Japanese decision to provoke a war that few in their highest circles thought they could win. Those doubters included the flamboyantly brilliant Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto, architect of the raid on Pearl and the Midway offensive.

Once again, Ian W. Toll proves himself to be a simply magnificent writer. The result here is a page-turning history that does justice to the breadth and depth of a tremendous subject.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Military History, War, Military Fiction, American History

659 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 14, 2011

About the author

Ian W. Toll, is the author of Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 and Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy, winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award and the William E. Colby Award. He lives in San Francisco and New York.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

“For the inhabitants of Oahu, there was nothing unusual in being jerked out of sleep by guns and bombs and low-flying aircraft. The island was crowded with military bases, and live-firing drills were commonplace. In early 1941, as the danger of war had seemed to grow, the services took to conducting ‘simulated combat exercises’ – mock battles pitting the army against the navy, the navy against the marines, the marines against the army. On these days, a colossal amount of ammunition was thrown up into the air, and the island’s lightly build wood-frame houses would shake and rattle as if an earthquake had struck. So when the familiar racket started up, at a little before eight in the morning on that first Sunday in December 1941, most of the residents pulled a pillow over their heads, or turned back to their coffee and comic strips and radio programs, and tried to ignore the deep concussive thuds of distant bombs, the heavy booming of antiaircraft batteries, and the faint rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns. But it was soon clear that these were no ordinary exercises…”
- Ian Toll, Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942

If you are reading this, I assume it’s because you are my wife, a friend, or a coworker who I have incessantly badgered you want to know my opinion about this book. To that end, I generally try to avoid side-discussions about what other people think. After all, one’s response to a book is highly subjective and personal. Getting into endless arguments about what other reviewers think about a literary work is exactly what the internet was intended for a waste of time.

That said, let me break my rule.

I came across Ian W. Toll’s Pacific Crucible in a New York Times review by the author/historian Michael Beschloss. While never outright critical, Beschloss damned Toll’s work with faint praise. Specifically, he noted that Toll didn’t uncover any new facts or bring forth a new interpretation; and also that Toll’s abilities as a writer did not rise to the level of, say, Shelby Foote (Beschloss’ actual example). Essentially, Beschloss was of the opinion that Toll’s book had no reason for existing.

Such a review would normally give me pause. More precisely, it would normally lead me to simply move along, since there are more than enough books about World War II floating about. Why waste my time with a book that Michael Beschloss assures me is not written by Shelby Foote and does not reveal that the Knights Templar actually invaded Poland in 1939?

For whatever reason, I went ahead and read this book anyway. I make mention of all this because if you are interested in World War II, you should too. This is an excellent book. One of the better volumes I’ve read on the war. It justifies its existence by being awesome, despite what Beschloss would have you believe.

Moving forward.

Pacific Crucible sets out to tell the tale of the Pacific War from 1941 to 1942. It is admirable in its focus. By which I mean, it is focused. It starts in 1941 (with the bombing of Pearl Harbor) and ends in 1942 (with the seismic momentum-shift at Midway). And when it says it’s about the “war at sea,” it means it’s about the “war at sea.” Land-based actions, such as Douglas MacArthur’s monumentally botched defense of the Philippines is mentioned only briefly. Toll is very particular about the ground he is going to cover. He covers it very well.

I’m a huge fan of history. And I’m not just saying that so that you think I’m cool. I read about it and write about it and watch it and visit the sites and take a lot of pictures and I am constantly talking about it to anyone who will listen or to anyone who is not fast enough to get away.

As a history nut, I am always on the lookout for the grail in history-writing: that book which is both learned and readable. Usually, these two virtues are mutually exclusive. You can read a scholarly book, which is well-sourced, incredibly thought-out, and as much fun to read as the warning label on a bottle of NyQuill; or, you can read a super breezy account from a popular writer that goes down as smooth as a cold glass of lemonade on an August day but has all the depth of a cold glass of lemonade on an August day (after I drank it already).

Toll’s Pacific Crucible delivers on both fronts. It is impeccably researched, dutifully sourced, and thoroughly modernized. No, it doesn’t break new ground. But why would you expect that? World War II ended almost 70 years ago. I’m not looking for the reinvention of the wheel. All I ask is that you have checked all available archives and have incorporated that into your book. Toll does that. He is a clear-eyed historian, eschewing hagiography and easy glorification while still acknowledging the heroism and valor of the war’s participants.

Toll’s narrative moves smoothly up and down the chain of command. You get the admirals’ point of view and the sailors’ point of view. You also get the Japanese point of view, which bears mentioning when a book originates in America. (The equableness of Toll’s book is authentic). Toll does a really good job of balancing viewpoints. Indeed, his portrait of Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese architect of Pearl Harbor, is as indelible as any other portrait he presents. A wonderfully complex man (fit for a great novel), Yamamoto studied at Harvard, was opposed to war with America, but decided that if war were to come, he should be the one to plan and execute the killing blow. Yamamoto was in love with a famous geisha, and was well known as a gambler. This trait – the gambler – bled over into every aspect of his life, from his personal choices to the fate of his men and his nation.

The chief joy of this book is Toll’s ability to put you there. His prose is not the stuff of legend. But he does a superb job of integrating his research: everything he has learned is expertly woven into a story. You get strategic analysis, tactical analysis, precise biographical sketches, technical specifications (how fast a plan flies, how much tonnage a ship displaces) and the human dimension (the holy s**t I’m being bombed aspect) in one smooth presentation. I’ve read a lot of history books, and I’m attuned to the oft-jarring segues that accompany many tomes; Toll manages to sand away all those rough edges. The result is a damned good story.

For instance, a thumbnail of Halsey:

Halsey had not yet tasted fame, and possibly did not yet realize that he would become the public face of the U.S. Navy, but in pointed contrast to King or Nimitz he was willing to play the part of the salt-stained sea gladiator. Samuel Eliot Morison would observe that the press “expected admirals to pound the table and bellow as in the movies.” Halsey pounded and bellowed. He had just the right look for the role. His square face was battered by wind, sun, and salt; his thinning hair was combed straight back from his spacious forehead; his wide-set eyes were crowned by a regal pair of undomesticated Scottish eyebrows. When he smiled, he seemed to leer…He was a sailor’s sailor, and popular on the lower deck. “As a general rule,” he avowed, “I never trust a sailorman who doesn’t smoke or drink.”*

*Me neither.

Or, a glimpse of manmade hell, courtesy of the Battle of Midway:

The first group of Dauntlesses descended on [the Kaga’s] port quarter, and her captain, Jisaku Okada, ordered hard astarboard to send the big carrier into a clockwise turn. But the Kaga was slow to respond to her helm, and the SBDs made the needed corrections to keep the flight deck in their sights. The Japanese crew watched in dismay as the bombs separated from the bellies of the diving planes and fell directly toward them. The first three missed narrowly, throwing huge towers of water up on either side of the ship. But the next four hit in quick succession, two amidships and two forward. The results were cataclysmic. The carrier’s small superstructure was almost completely destroyed, killing most of the ranking officers, including Captain Okada. The island’s windows were blown out, its outers kin was stripped off, and its interior spaces were flooded with so much smoke that the survivors were driven out on deck. The forward elevator took a direct hit and was smashed downward, never to operate again. A bomb pierced the flight deck amidships and exploded in the crew’s quarters adjacent to the hangar, killing unknown scores…Fuel tanks and munitions detonated on the hangar deck. Ensign Maeda sought cover under the flight deck near the stern. As the bombs struck, he shouted to some of his fellow pilots in their staterooms – “It is dangerous here, get the hell out!” As he climbed the ladders, he noticed the ship was taking on a dangerous list; then an explosion flung him to the deck and pierced his leg with shrapnel…

This is not the first time I’ve ventured into this subject matter. I’ve read enough books about Pearl Harbor and Midway to worry the people who care about me. Even though I’m familiar with this story, I found Toll’s telling of it to be masterful. His characterizations (especially Joseph Rochefort) are compelling and evocative. I burned through this relatively-large volume (close to 500 pages) quite quickly.

It should be mentioned, however, that Toll’s book is extremely accessible. If you – unlike me – have managed to live a fulfilling life without devoting large chunks of it to World War II, you will still find this an engaging read. Heck, it might even be the book that lights the fire that eventually causes you to start living entirely in the past (this life has its rewards…).

World War II is about as grand a topic as you can conjure. It will be written about forever. That is a given. The interesting thing will be to see how it is written. As we pass from living memory into pure history, there undoubtedly will be changes into how we perceive this earth-shattering event.

I don’t make any such claims about Toll’s Pacific Crucible. But I will say this. It’s a great read. I think it offers something to both expert and beginner. It is perceptive and alive and begging – at least I am begging – for a follow-up.

(Edit: It has been followed up, and followed up well).

[Rick Riordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love history, and this is one of those books that is so good it reads like a novel. Toll brings to life the major players of the Pacific War on both sides of the conflict, drawing on Japanese primary sources as well as Allied. I have read a lot about the Second World War, but I still learned a great deal about this part of the conflict, which takes us through the rise of Imperial Japan, to Pearl Harbor, and on to the Battle of Midway. I am now reading the second in Toll's projected trilogy, The Conquering Tide, and loving it just as much. If you like accessible, highly readable history, this is a great choice.

[Lizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 was my first exposure to the Pacific War. I love history books, even better when it’s so well written that it almost reads like a novel. Ian W. Toll brings to life the first years of the war in the Pacific from the rise of Imperial Japan through Pear Harbor, closing with the miracle of Midway. The reader is gifted with an analysis on of the major players of the Pacific War on both sides of the conflict.

Its examination of American and Japanese politics is particularly interesting. So we read how the two countries reacted to the conflict, a direct result of each nation's information policy.

“The Japanese people were rapidly succumbing to what would later be called shoribyo, or “victory disease”—a faith that Japan was invincible, and could afford to treat its enemies with contempt. Its symptoms were overconfidence, a failure to weigh risks properly, and a basic misunderstanding of the enemy.”

We read about the main strategy makers on both sides, (with biography sketches on Nimitz, King and Yamamoto) and Toll ties up his analysis with an excellent critical study of the main operations from Pear Harbor to Midway. It relies on plenty of Allied and Japanese primary sources. He tells how important the effort of the code breakers in Hawaii (not free of internal conflict with Washington!) was to the success of American strategy, one of the only major advantages that the Allied had over the Japanese at the start of the war.

"The success of the American codebreaking campaign was so complete that it consolidated the field of communications intelligence within the U.S. Navy. By making believers out of the key decision makers in the upper ranks, who had entered naval services when radio technology was in its infancy, the victory of Midway ensured that communications would never again suffer for funding, manpower, or respect."

Toll ends with a very interesting analysis of the opponents, giving us a glimpse of what was to come in the next years of war:

“Here, neatly encapsulated… were the two combatants’ strategic paradigm for the remaining war. Japan’s transcendent ‘fighting spirit’ was to be pitted against America’s overwhelming industrial-military might…

For all its industrial-military power, the Japanese military calmly asserted, the United States lacked the required intangible spiritual qualities to prevail over Japan. A mongrel people, hopelessly individualistic and democratic, pitted against one another in bitter capitalist competition, the Americans would soon tire of the fight and go home…

The American conception of ‘fighting spirit’ was very different from the Japanese, but once fully aroused it was sufficient to the task, and sufficiently resilient.”

Excellent! Highly recommended.
________________
June 22, 2016
I learned about Ian W. Toll's Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 through the excellent review of a GR friend, Matt Kraemer. Thanks Matt, it was my introduction to the Second War's Pacific theater and it couldn't be better!

Full review to come.

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magistral insight as much as it is magnificent in its history. 👏

[Stefania Dzhanamova · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the later years of the war, the USA was victorious because of its capability to out-produce and out-invent its enemies. Only two years after Pearl Harbor, it was producing approximately 90 000 aircrafts a year, much more than Germany and Britain combined. It built twice as many tanks as the Germans in 1943, and completed over five times as many warships as Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union together.

While studying these figures, it is easy to forget or overlook the fact that the United States fought the first year of the war against Japan with inferior number of men, battleships, and planes – and often also with inferior equipment and technology. Because of the need to keep substantial forces in the Atlantic, the U.S Pacific Fleet was barely a match for the Japanese navy even before the disaster at Pearl Harbor, which put most of the fleet's warships out of action.

Ian W. Toll's "Pacific Crucible" narrates the first 6 months of the Japanese-American war, begining with the Pearl Harbor raid and ending with the American victory at the Battle of Midway in June, 1942. After their shocking success at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies; they sank the only two British battleships in East Asia and bombed Britain's bases in Shri Lanka, sinking over 100 000 tons of shipping.

The first chapter of the book covers the attacks on Hawaii very graphically, with all the uncomfortable scenes of the aftermath. Toll describes the reaction in Washington, highlighting the confusion there, and continues with a vivid depiction of the attacks on the Philippines and General MacArthur's "paralyzed" staff reactions.

The next two chapters provide detailed background of Japan's history and culture; several pages are dedicated to Yamamoto's background and personality – he was educated, well-traveled, and didn't hold the Japanese army in high esteem. Toll examines the transition of Japan's population from emulating the West in the mid-20s to mistrustful of it in the 30s as well as the evolution of Japanese Army and Navy air forces, covering in some detail the aircrafts, training, and strategies.

On December 22, 1941, Winston Churchill arrived in Hampton Roads and remained in the White House for nearly a month. Ian W. Toll devotes quite a few pages to this important visit and the discussions and activities that outlined the plan for the "Two Front" war.

From this point on, the book covers how the Allies and the USA reacted to the realities of the situation – initially, not well. The story of the U.S warfare during the period is characterized by dangerous gambles, folly, and last-minute improvisations. Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo is an especially dramatic example: penetrating the Japanese-dominated western Pacific to launch B-25s cumbered with fuel and a ton of munitions from the short deck of an aircrafts had never before been attempted.

Toll has drawn upon a large number of diaries, memoirs, and oral histories by Marines to create a vivid, captivating story told as much from the perspective of the participants as from that of the military leaders and strategists. Additionally, the author emphasizes the Navy's ability to rapidly adapt to the unfamiliar environment of modern war at sea. Such examples as the guns facing the wrong way in Singapore and the easy sinking of the British capital ships by the Japanese prove that the Marines were fast learners who took charge, but a price was still paid. The close friendship between Churchill and Roosevelt, the brilliance of Admiral Nimitz, and the hard path of the code breakers at Pearl Harbor, who overcame outright slander to present their findings to Nimitz, are all compellingly narrated. The cupminating battle in the Coral Sea in May 1942 and the subsequent Battle of Midway in June are both also very well presented.

In summary, "Pacific Crucible" is a highly engaging and insightful account of a critical period in the story of WWII, which provides an understanding of the war's background and of how close the winners came to losing.

[Boudewijn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers the period from 7 Dec 1941 to 8 June 1942 (Pearl Harbor to Midway), but it starts off with a chapter about Alfred Mahan who, with his book The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire fathered modern naval thought in both the United States and Japan.

It serves as a good introduction to this Pacific War as his theories still were regarded as the main doctrine in the navies at that time, even up to the attack on Pearl Harbour. It soon became clear that this war would be fought (and won) by the flat-tops instead, although Japanese doctrine still was emphasized by the ever need to lure the Americans into a 'decisive battle' which would be fought by battleships instead of carriers.

Ian W. Toll takes us into the planning, the strategy, the sacrifices and heroics - on both sides - illuminating the personal side of the battles. Relying predominantly on eyewitness accounts and primary sources, Pacific Crucible also spotlights the politics behind the war. Main characters receive small biographies that help you to understand their reasons and personalities. Coupled with the eye-witness accounts from people 'on the ground' this book gives you an in-depth review of the epic battle.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great history of the first year of naval operations in WWII's Pacific theatre.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a wargamer, World War II is one of my four main eras of interest, and while I love me some Eastern Front tank action (PanzerBlitz!), the Pacific theater of war is something I had less knowledge of until now, except in broad strokes.

This non-fiction book reads like a novel. Pacific Crucible only covers the Pacific War from 1941 until 1942, beginning with Pearl Harbor and ending at Midway, and making the author's second volume, The Conquering Tide, something I dove into with the eagerness of an eagerly awaited sequel, the first book I've ever preordered on Audible.

Ian W. Toll's thick, detailed, but never-boring account of the first couple of years of America's entry into the war covers it from all angles — the political factors leading up to Japan's decision to go to war, the cultural issues that made them commit to a course of action that many of their leaders knew even at the time was almost certainly doomed to failure. The courting of FDR by Churchill, who desperately wanted (needed) the US to join the war against the Axis, and regarded Pearl Harbor as the salvation of Britain. But these high-level politics, including an assessment of Emperor Hirohito and his participation in the planning for the war, then take a backseat to the story of the fighting men on both sides.

Toll gives brief biographical sketches of all the major admirals and generals, both the famous and some of the less well-known. Yamamoto, Nagumo, Kimmel, Nimitz, King, and many lower-ranking commanders are all here. The Navy is the star of the show, at least in the early war; General MacArthur makes little more than a cameo, as an occasional political foil for Admiral King, and few of the IJA generals are mentioned by name.

Everyone with any knowledge of World War II knows about Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of Pearl Harbor.



A revered war hero even after the war (which he did not survive), and respected even by his enemies, Yamamoto is described in detail from second-hand and documented accounts by Toll as an ethical, not unflawed man who had great perceptiveness and played the political game well (several times forcing the rest of the Japanese high command to let him have his way by threatening to resign), but made some critical mistakes which even some of his subordinate officers commented on. Yamamoto was an early opponent of going to war against the US. He had been to America and seen what its industrial and manpower potential was. He knew there was no hope of Japan winning a prolonged war against the United States. Yet when war was declared, he served the Emperor.

On the American side, Admiral Chester Nimitz earned the most fame as the Commander of the Pacific Fleet, replacing the hapless Admiral Kimmel, who watched his command (and his career) burn outside his window at Pearl Harbor. But Admiral Ernest King, as Toll points out, has somehow remained almost a non-entity in the post-war historical account, despite being Nimitz's boss, the Commander in Chief of the entire US Navy.



Like his counterpart, Admiral Yamamoto, King was a gruff and authoritarian commander with probably more humanity and sense of humor than most of his peers gave him credit for. Like Yamamoto, King was also apparently fond of extra-marital dalliances (Congress was at one point annoyed that the COMINCH was allegedly using his personal yacht as a place for trysts). King was an old-school officer who was not easily persuaded of the value of new developments like communications intelligence and cryptography, unlike Nimitz, who made great use of the work of Naval cryptographers like Captain Joseph Rochefort, in command of Station Hypo which cracked many of Japan's codes.



Rochefort was very poorly treated by the Washington establishment, which took credit for his work, and actively lied about his accomplishments and fitness, because he had angered some of his superiors by being right when they were wrong.

There are so many stories here, beyond the lists of ships and battles. For example, inter-service rivalry was a severe problem that plagued both the US and Japan. You would think that during an all-out war, the Army and the Navy would be able to confine their rivalry to the annual football game, but in fact, combined operations were the exception rather than the rule. Army airmen and navy pilots came to blows after battles, over recriminations and blame-taking and credit-stealing. Press reports after the battle of Midway, for example, credited Army bombers with destroying the Japanese aircraft carriers, because it was the Army flyboys who made it back to the States first to regale reporters with their exploits. In fact, the Army planes didn't hit a single Japanese ship - it was all the Navy.



On the Japanese side, it was even worse - the IJN admirals and IJA generals were like old-fashioned daimyo in command of rival clans. The army regarded the navy as nothing more than a troop delivery system. The navy regarded the army as unsophisticated grunts trying to steal their glory and curry favor with the Emperor.

Of course, the lesson both sides would learn, and learn hard, was the ascent of air power as the determining factor in naval warfare. This is one of the most interesting strategic and technological factors explained here.

Toll observes that a sailor at the beginning of the 20th century would have found it easier to serve on a ship from centuries earlier than on the ships he'd see at the end of his career. The admirals in command of the war had entered the navy when radio was still a new-fangled invention, and they were all inculcated with the naval doctrines of Alfred Thayer Mahan, who wrote what was to be the Bible of naval strategy for every seagoing nation from its publication in 1890 right up to World War II. American and Japanese naval officers alike had learned Mahan's doctrines by heart, and his principles of sea power advocated, among other things, the preeminence of battleships - massive firepower concentrated into large, unsinkable floating fortresses.

As the fate of the Battleship Yamato would demonstrate, this would prove to be utterly wrong in the age of aircraft carriers.



Pacific Crucible covers the early Pacific War, during which Japan seemed unbeatable. They were prepared, they had more ships and planes, they had a highly dedicated and highly trained military — and one whose competence they had very deliberately hidden from the Western powers, allowing the arrogant British and Americans to believe their racist assumptions about the pathetic abilities of Japanese pilots and soldiers. When the Japanese pulled off a brilliantly executed attack on Pearl Harbor, followed by operations across the Pacific that virtually kicked the British and Dutch right out of the South Seas and soon threatened Australia, Hawaii, and Alaska, it came as a nasty shock. In particular, Western airmen had never encountered the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.



These things terrorized the skies - lacking features that most fighter planes had, like armor and larger engines and self-sealing fuel tanks, they were pure maneuverability, and no Western plane was a match for them in the air until American pilots started devising tactics for taking them on.

Despite Japan's many early successes, though, the clock was running from the moment they attacked Pearl Harbor. They had limited resources, and (as Yamamoto and others had predicted) they badly underestimated American resolve and military power. Midway, that great battle in which, armed with superior intelligence, Admiral Nimitz committed the US fleet and sank four of Japan's prize carriers, is historically seen as the turning point in the war.



The reality is that even if the US had lost the Battle of Midway, it would probably only have prolonged the war, but not changed the outcome.

Pacific Crucible tells the story of the men, the ships, the planes, and the battles in that crucial early period when the outcome really did seem uncertain to both sides, and it's both deep and broad, being not just a series of battle reports, and much more than a history of events, but including all of these things in a well-woven narrative that kept me listening for many hours and not wanting to get out of my car, because I wanted to hear what happened next, even though of course I knew because it was history.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in World War II, and have immediately begun the second book, covering 1942 until the end of the war. Apparently Ian Toll is actually going to write a trilogy covering the Pacific War.

ETA: The third book has finally been released!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 caught the U.S. Navy by surprise in more ways than one. For not only did Japan succeed in disabling a major portion of the Pacific Fleet, the attack by waves of bomb- and torpedo-carrying planes inaugurated a new style of naval warfare for which the United States was unprepared. The learning curve that the U.S. was forced to undertake serves as a key theme of Ian Toll's book, which chronicles the first six months of the war in the Pacific. During these months the Japanese enjoyed virtually free reign in the Pacific, as their planes and ships swept aside what opposition the Western powers could throw together on short notice. The result was a succession of victories won at a pace that astonished even the Japanese themselves.

Yet as Toll demonstrates, the United States was quick to absorb the lessons of the new style of warfare. Here he focuses on the carrier operations that formed the initial response to the Japanese onslaught. While the famous Doolittle raid gets its due here, Toll rightly highlights the often overlooked strikes on Japanese bases in the Marshall and Gilbert island chains Not only did these strikes give the U.S. Navy valuable experience, but they were central to Admiral Yamamoto's decision to stage an invasion of Midway Island in an effort to draw the remaining U.S. forces out for a decisive engagement. The resulting battle in June 1942 proved the turning point of the war in the Pacific, however, as the sinking of the four carriers that formed the core of the Kido Butai deprived the Japanese of their ability to conduct further offensive operations.

Toll describes these months in a text that engages the reader with dramatic yet straightforward prose. His pen portraits of the major commanders -- men like Chester Nimitz, Ernest King, and Isoroku Yamamoto -- are a particular strength of the book, as is his integration of the role American codebreakers played in this stage of the war. Though he bases his book almost entirely upon previously published works, his analysis and his evocative writing style make this a book that even readers familiar with the subject will find well worth their time. It's a promising start to what, when completed, could prove to be an enduring go-to source for anyone interested in reading about the Second World War in the Pacific.

[Creighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

To begin, I want to thank all of the people who recommended this book to me; I will now take your recommendations into consideration much more than I did before.


This book was a five star book: I not only was reluctant to put it down, and spent many hours of my day glued to the pages, but I absolutely loved Ian Toll's writing style. I was in a rut for a month or two, and couldn't find the right book to read, and I was drifting into different eras of military history, but this book got me out of that rut.

I have read some stuff that is considered "dry" in other historical eras, and while I like that stuff, I really love picking up history books that are written in a style that makes the subject easier to understand. I must admit, my knowledge of the pacific theatre isn't as great as the European theatre, but I came away from this book with a lot more of an understanding about the war itself. I've got a feeling that when I finish this series, I shall have a better understanding of the pacific theatre, and a desire to read the other books in my collection on the pacific theatre.

I love Toll's writing, and I can tell you I came back with so many memorable passages and pieces of information from the book. For example, I learned so much more about Yamamoto, Hirohito, Nimitz, Spruance, King, and Halsey than I had from documentaries and public education. A memorable bit of information was that the battle of Midway actually had an effect on the war in Europe because if Japan had won, it would've diverted material to the Pacific meant for Europe. I learned about how Hirohito was sheltered as a child, and lacked the will to stand up to the militarists in his nation who were increasing their power with each passing year. I learned about how Joseph Rochefort's Cryptanalysis work helped the US Navy out at Midway, but he never got his due for it. It is best I don't go much further into detail, because there's so much to learn from Toll's work, and this is only the first book of a trilogy.

I would definitely recommend this book!

[Alan Tomkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Fast paced and exciting, this is military history at its best.

[happy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good retelling of the US Naval operations from 7 Dec 1941 - 8 June 1942 (Pearl Harbor to Midway) from mainly the American point of view. There is not a whole lot of new information, but he does give a complete overview of the ops (the defeat of the ABDA at Java, the Feb 42 raids on the Marshalls and the Gilberts, The Doolittle Raid, Coral Sea and of course Midway) with good biographical scetches of the main figures (Nimitz, King, Yamamoto). There is also good coverage of the intel war between Hawaii and Washington. The people is Hawaii ulitmately winning the battle, but losing the beuocratic war.

I think this is meant more for the general reader, but there is enough to make it worth while for a WW II enthusiast. I like Toll's writing style and would higly recommend this.

[Joy D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have read about World War II. It covers the Pacific Theater from both the Allied and Japanese perspectives. It is the first of a trilogy, with this book focusing on 1941 and 1942. It starts with a brief history of the US and Japanese Navies, then moves directly to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It describes the battles that occurred at sea and does so in a way that captures the reader’s attention. It always amazes me when an author can turn non-fiction into a riveting narrative, and history fans will love it. Not every author can do this, and there are plenty of dry, fact-based books about this topic. Fortunately, this is not one of them. Toll does an excellent job of describing events in a way that is easily pictured. It is filled with experiences of all levels of military – from regular sailors to the decision makers at the top. It covers high level strategies as well as the tactics, the specifics and outcomes of each battle, and the implications for the rest of the war. It provides minibiographies of the key players on both sides. This is history at its finest, and I will certainly be reading the next two books in the series.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW this was a great history book. Wonderful overview of the start of the Pacific war with a ton on personal insight from sailors on both sides of the conflict. I am looking forward to the new 2 volumes. Very recommended

[Pam Walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I have read quite a few WWII histories, I am weak on Pacific Theater. Ian Toll does for WWII history what Barbara Tuchman did for the WWI. Pacific Crucible covers the war in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to Midway, that being 1941 - 1942.

Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan already occupied a portion in the northeast of China, plus Manchuria, Korea, French Indo-China (Vietnam), Formosa, The Phillipines, Dutch East Indies, Burma, Siam (Thailand), New Guinea, Malaya and had designs on much more including the Aleutian Islands and Hawaiian Islands. It is believed that while Emperor Hirohito did not have Imperialist desires, that his Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo did.

The architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Isoroku Yamamoto gained recognition in the Russo-Japanese War in the infamous Battle of Tsushima, a smashing victory for Japan. Yamamoto was educated at Harvard and was reluctant to draw up those plans, believing that to go to war with the United States would become a war of attrition that Japan could never win, but as with Japanese teachings, he followed the orders of the war planners. Yamamoto became a major player in all the battles between Japan and the United States. He claimed to have sent a warning to the U.S. prior to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Such warning has never been proven.

Isoroku Yamamoto

By 1940 world leaders were following the teachings of Alfred Thayer Mahan, a historian and Naval officer whose book The Influence of Sea Power upon History, made him world-famous and perhaps the most influential American author of the nineteenth century. He contended that wars could be fought and won with a command of the sea and stressed the profound importance of a strong navy.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought because of Japan's attempt to attack and occupy Port Moresby in New Guinea in order to cut supply lines between the U.S. and Australia. It was largely considered a draw, but it did stop the Japanese from invading Port Moresby and threatening Australia. Many people refer to the conflict as the ‘Battle that saved Australia’. The Battle of the Coral Sea is considered a tactical victory for the Japanese, but a strategic victory for the Allies.

The attack on Midway was a stunning success for the allies and huge credit goes to the brilliance of the Rochefort group of cryptanalysts who broke Japanese codes. U.S. Admirals were hesitant to concentrate the entire U.S. fleet forces on this tiny spec of land called Midway on a certain day at a certain time. It could be disaster. It could be a clever diversionary Japanese tactic. Admirals Nimitz, King and Spruance had to blindly trust. Follow the ideas of a cryptanalyst? This had never been even considered! What a tough decision. A snap decision, but in the end they made the right decision. Midway turned out to be perhaps the most stunning success in U.S. naval history.


Captain Joseph Rochefort - Cryptanalyst

The Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo was the first time the Japanese had been attacked on their homeland, so at the time they were more than a little inflamed (no pun intended).


Lt. Gen. James "Jimmy" Doolittle

The Japanese hoped that a demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate, thus ensuring Japanese dominance in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway was a sea battle. The plan was to lure the American aircraft carriers into a trap and occupy Midway. Although the United States was outnumbered in naval vessels, aircraft and crew, they didn't lack in determination. In the 4 days of battle at Midway, the Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers to one U.S. Pacific Fleet carrier (The Yorktown), thus reversing the tide of the previously invincible Japanese navy.

This well woven narrative is part one of a trilogy. I guess I did it backwards. First I read ,The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 which should have been the second volume of three.

Volume 3 is yet to come out, but will be called "Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945," is expected to be published soon. I am very much looking forward to it.

[Sweetwilliam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good account of the War in the Pacific up through the miracle at Midway. The book gives a nice account of the defense of Wake Island, strategy making on both sides, critical analysis, and of course, Coral Sea and Midway. Ian Toll gives credit to the code breakers in Hawaii as the only major advantage that the USN had over the Japanese at the start of the war.

This is the 11th book that I have read on the Pacific theatre in the past year. One of the books I read and reviewed for Goodreads previously was Lunsford’s The First Team. Lunsford’s focus in his masterpiece is the small family of carrier based aviators during the same timeframe. Please allow me to compare and contrast the First team with Pacific Crucible. First, Toll’s Pacific Crucible covers the same ground as the First Team but in a lot less detail. For example, Ian Toll mentions that the USN adopted the new Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat with the folding wings which allowed the fleet to add an additional 9 planes per carrier. Then Toll mentions that the new Wildcat could only fire its .50 caliber Browning machine guns for 23 seconds instead of 40 seconds as before. What Toll did not explain is that this is because the new Wildcat contained 6 machine guns due to the insistence of the British. The British used the same plane on their carriers and called it the Martlet. Grumman thought the British knew better because they had more experience. The extra two machine guns and the hydraulics on the folding wings (which were unnecessary) added weight. The USN was furious. Toll doesn’t explain any of this. Also, Toll makes mention of the poor performance of the Hornet’s air group at Midway. He mentions that not one of the Hornet’s fighter group VF-8 made it back to the carrier after the battle. That is all that Toll mentions of fighter group VF-8. Lunsford explains that fighter group VF-8 was circling the Japanese fleet waiting for the Hornet torpedo group to attack. Fighter group 8’s elevation was so high they didn’t observe any of the failed torpedo attacks. They circled the Japanese fleet for a long period of time and then tried to make it back to the carrier rendezvous point and ditched having accomplished nothing. Also, Toll describes the planning for the Pearl Harbor attack but not the attack itself. He barely mentions the exploits of Butch O’Hare. The point is that Pacific Crucible lacks this level of detail. If you want this than read Lunsford’s The First Team.

What Pacific Crucible does provide is more strategy and critical analysis. For example, the experienced Japanese fleet could launch a coordinated attack with torpedo planes, dive bombers and fighter support while the USN had far less experience and attacked piecemeal. The IJN torpedo plane was twice the speed of the obsolete American Devastators etc. etc. However, the Japanese offensive spirit was ironically a weakness that day. They did not practice good hygiene on decks and left land base bombs on bomb racks which caused secondary explosions that day. The IJN did not have foam for fighting fires as the USN did and relied on mere water. This was much less effective.

Pacific Crucible also gives plenty of background information and character development on the strategy makers of both sides. A few times there is too much detail. I had a tough time getting through all the background info on Yamamoto for example. I could care less about his feelings toward his Geisha. I could have done with a little less detail and I struggled to get through these sections. Toll is lukewarm on Halsey and Fletcher and makes Spruance out to be a hero. He also was highly critical of Yamamoto at Midway. Thank God for Rochefort and the code breakers in Hawaii. This book finally gives them their due.

All-in-all, Pacific Crucible was a very good read. If you are a fan of the war in the Pacific you will enjoy this book. However, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Lunsford’s the First Team on E-Bay or Amazon.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book in my own going personal challenge-Reading other arenas of WWII, besides Europe. This book was recommended to me because of obviously, all the WII I read and because I read Rick Atkinson's World War II Liberation Trilogy.

Ian W. Toll's writing and story-telling is very similar to that of Atkinson and it made this busty book a breeze to read, feeling "novelish". This style cannot be easy to write, with all the history that goes into it. Toll has done his homework, amount of research authors put into this type of book never ceases to amaze me, but then to make the story come alive-special kudos are deserved.

The story begins with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and takes use through the Battle of Midway. I have done some reading that included P.H and Midway, but nothing that delves this deep into the Pacific arena. T0ll gives us both sides of the story and I always find the mid frame of the Japanese, in this era, engrossing. To see the absolute bigotry (on both sides) is disgusting. Yet, it was how the world was...

The U.S. refused to believe that the Japanese could build a Navy that would be worth much. Unbeknownst to the world, Japan was building up one of the best Naval and Air Forces the world had ever seen. In particular, their aircraft The Zero. The U.S. was nowhere near "war ready". Had these two pieces not changed the world could be a very different place. That is the thing about history that I love so much. The luck of the draw, the engineering being pushed to the limit and failure after failure, but the gusto to still go on and try again.

Toll uses the mid-chapters of the book to give short, yet in-depth, biographies of the leadership on both sides. There are small entries with Churchill and Roosevelt, but the meat of this book resides in the Pacific.

One if the most fascinating stories within the story is that of the building and use of code breaking. A dark, unknown basement in Pearl Harbor introduces you to some of the greatest intelligent work done. These men never taking and credit for their work, while it happened. Being shunned by the seaman and the airmen, because "what were they doing on land to help?" These spies, working in terrible conditions were genius in their work. They knew it, yet had no regret that they could not be recognized.

Like in Atkinson's story of the war, there were blatant mistakes/misjudgments. There were huge personalities in leadership that found it always so difficult to admit someone else was right.

A fabulous beginning to the trilogy.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent book of the initial naval battles between the US and Japan. A great read!

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Although this was a large historical book (500 pages) by my standards it really read nicely and did not get dry or overly technical. A good amount of the story was devoted to getting to know the commanders and leaders at that time. Roosevelt, Churchill, Nimitz, Spruance, and Yamamoto.
The story begins with a short synopsis of the Pearl Harbor events. Then getting to know Admiral Yamamoto and the Japanese perspective. How they gained military experience in the China war. How Yamamoto was a champion of the Carrier ship being the new most important tool of modern Naval warfare. He helped develop the Zero plane which was lethal dogfight plane. It took the Americans a longtime to develop a strategy fighting the Zero which dominated the skies. After many American losses the “ don’t leave your wingman” strategy was born.
Admiral Nimitz was given command of the pacific after the Pearl Harbor debacle. An even keeled man who never raised his voice but commanded with calm confidence.
Roosevelt and Churchill became buddies through a Churchill visit to America. They spent many a late nights drinking and chatting.
Admiral Spruance the fleet commander at the time of the Midway battle. A cerebral man know for his knowledge of war at sea. He walked the ships deck to keep in shape, ease anxiety, and get to know his men.
The story concludes with a significant description of the Midway battle. Again this flowed well without getting too detailed in any one event of the battle.
Overall an enjoyable read that was much about the events as it was about the commanders/people who were involved in them.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The United States has produced a handful of truly outstanding writers who have applied their pen to the craft of history. This pantheon of American historical writers, writers such as Shelby Foote, Bruce Catton, Samuel Eliot Morrison, Thomas Fleming, Stephen W. Sears, and Rick Atkinson (amongst far too many more to name here) can now be added a new literary titan: Ian W. Toll. 
Toll takes the reader on a deep look into the origins of the American war with Japan, going back as far as Perry's black ships visiting Edo Bay. He doesn't ignore the Japanese side of the story, either. In fact, I'd argue that the chapters dealing with the Japanese are the more interesting ones in the book. 
Perhaps the most remarkable story in world history is the tale of how the Japanese went from a feudal, Medieval polity to one of the most advanced industrial, and military, powers in the world in a single generation. It's all but inconceivable to us moderns how this was possible, but not only were the Japanese not psychologically devastated by their contact with the modern world, they embraced it, while still remaining very Japanese. 
I don't think any other culture in the world could have adapted, and excelled, in so short a length of time as the Japanese. No wonder it took what it did to defeat them. 
Toll also takes the time to discuss the main players involved,  looking at their personal origins, and how their pre war lives shaped them for their divinely appointed time of crisis. He spends the most time on three men, to my recall: Chester Nimitz, Ernest King, and Yamamoto Isoroku. 
All three men are utterly fascinating in their own right, and all three are eminently likeable as men. Yamamoto is perhaps the most 'mans man' of the three, while King is more of the aloof, hard nosed, intellectual type, and Nimitz has the very typical, but very comforting, Texan stoicism. And yet all three are well presented in the narrative, and you cannot help but be drawn into their lives. 
As well as personalities, Toll shows us how events, not necessarily linked to Pearl Harbor and after, shaped the Second War. 
The British Naval treaty with Japan, the Russo-Japanese War and the epic Battle of Tsushima Straits, and very importantly, Toll spends a great many pages on the impact, globally, of American military philosopher Alfred Thayer Mahan and his influential 19th century treatise: Sea Power and its impact on World History. I couldn't help, while reading these passages, but to see correlations between the Japanese of the late 19th-early 20th century and their devotion to Mahanian principles, and the modern Chinese and their similar love affair with all things Mahanian. 
For the Americans, however, it was their own experimentation with carriers and carrier doctrine that opened up a debate between the big gun club of the battle liners, and the carrier aviators within the Navy. 
The Japanese too, obviously, adopted carrier doctrine with a will into their own naval doctrine. However, the Japanese subordinated their carriers and their doctrine to that of the overall Mahanian perception of seeking the epic, massed fleet, showdown decided by the battleships. 
As the ensuing war would showcase, the Japanese were entering the war with outdated doctrine well before the first torpedo and dive bombers roared over Pearl Harbor. 
And yet, the Japanese were completely unstoppable in those first several months of the Pacific War. No other offensive in human history, not even the much vaunted Barbarossa, has been so meticulously planned down the minutest detail, and which flowed like clockwork perfection, as was the Japanese land and sea advance all across southeast Asia and the central and southern Pacific. 
While Toll does skim through certain events, such as the Japanese Army's blitzkrieg through Malaysia, the fighting in the doomed Philippines, and the airborne and marine landings in Indonesia, Toll presents to the reader the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as an unstoppable juggernaut. Not just the US Navy, but also the Royal Navy, the Dutch Navy, and the Australian Navy all felt the stinging lashes of the ever victorious Japanese who drove all before them, and seemed to enjoy the lamentations from everyone, not just their foes women folk. 
It would be the Americans, however, who would give the Japanese their first hint of psychological pause. 
A series of carrier borne raids in the central Pacific in early 1942, while not causing any lasting damage, were a source of concern to the Japanese Admiralty, and the Doolittle raid, wonderfully told here in full detail, was a source of near obsession for many in the Japanese High Command. While none of these inflicted much in the way of physical damage to the Japanese, it wounded their pride, made them lose face, and spurred the quest to seek a decisive, concentrated, fleet on fleet battle. 
However, the Americans would have been doomed in all of this were it not for the boon provided by the American breakthrough in signals and communications intelligence. The story of the breaking of the Japanese codes is an entire, fairly long, chapter on its own and Toll makes the case very well that, more than anything else, that intelligence coup was decisive in the Americans weathering the storm. 
The two main events of the narrative are the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. Both are written in full detail, from both sides perspectives, and it isn't hyperbole to state that the narration of each battle is genuinely exciting, more so than most fiction. The reader genuinely feels the human tragedy of a dying ship, the terrible cost to the sailors and airmen aboard, as well as a hint of what the crew, who loved their ships, felt with the losses of the Lexington, the Yorktown, the Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, etc…
And the writing is so intense during the aerial assault sequences, and the dogfights, that you can easily visualize what the individual pilots would have seen and felt. 
Ian W. Toll presents the entirety of the first phase of the Pacific War in the first volume of his trilogy. From the personalities involved, the historical backstory, to an explanation of both sides Naval doctrine, to the planning and preparation prior, and the operational and tactical details of the war itself, as well as the code breaking and war of intelligence waged by both sides. If that seems exhaustive to you, bear in mind the focus of this work is upon the Naval aspect of the conflict. Toll writes in a manner that he assumes a fair level of prior knowledge on the behalf of the reader regarding Naval matters. While it is a popular work, it is very much a Naval military history, and some people tend to shy away from those for lack of comprehension on anything Naval or the sea. (To include myself in the not too distant past, it's only been in the last several years I have taken an interest in Naval history, and am slowly building my knowledge base in that area).
Despite all of that, I can eagerly recommend this wonderfully written book, and the other two volumes which follow (the third coming this August). Do yourself a favor, and dive into this truly great book. 

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading a great work of history is, for me, a lot like hearing a great piece of music: I can't always describe why it's so good, but I just know deep down that it is. It has a kind of resonance. Reading Pacific Crucible was like that. If I had to give a reason, I'd say it lies in its near-perfect balance of macro- and micro-level accounts of its subject, combined with the ideas and events that led up to it and gave it its distinctive character, all woven together in a compellingly-written narrative that doesn't get bogged down by endless diversions. You get the view from Washington and Tokyo, from admirals, generals, and political leaders, but you also get the view from fighter pilots, dive bombers, and sailors on both sides. The book just works, and it works beautifully. History writing at its finest.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first of three volumes, this one does not disappoint. From Pearl Harbor through the battle at Midway, this book goes into exacting detail covering the first year and a half of WW2. The author intersperses eyewitness accounts with gripping narrative to hold the reader's attention. Even though this series falls outside my normal subject matter, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Jamie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Military history has traditionally be written from a top-down perspective, of campaigns and generals and overall strategies. Recently a new school of historiography has emphasized a bottom-up approach, telling the stories of the people who were actually there doing the fighting and dying. Books which attempt to incorporate both approaches tend to have a choppy, disjointed feeling as they switch from one to the other, but this one manages to seamlessly integrate both, using one to illuminate the other.

The book’s focus is on the first six months of the war in the Pacific, which means its primary focus is on Pearl Harbor, the Coral Sea, and Midway. It ends before the naval battles off Guadalcanal, which are covered in volume two of this series: The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944.

With the benefit of hindsight, history has a sense of inevitability: of course we won World War II, why would anyone think otherwise? A good history book can put you in the shoes of the people who were in the thick of things, when the outcome was not clear and victory definitely did not seem assured. At first the Japanese looked unbeatable. They rolled to victory in the Philippines (where MacArthur’s aircraft were still parked wingtip to wingtip nine hours after receiving news of the attack on Pearl Harbor). Malaysia, Indochina, Hong Kong, and the other possessions of Britain, France, and Holland all fell quickly, with their defenders outgunned, outmaneuvered, and humiliated by quick surrenders. Burma was overrun and India seemed about to fall, and the invasion of Australia looked inevitable. The Europeans were back on their heels and it is no wonder the Japanese were overconfident; victory seemed very close.

This book will also make you think about the role that chance plays in military affairs. Many people have written that if only the Army and Navy forces at Pearl Harbor had paid attention to the signs of imminent attack, the warships could have sailed to deep water, armed and ready to engage the incoming planes. Unlikely. Having served on a steam-powered ship I know that it took twelve hours under normal circumstances to get steam up, and even in an emergency, where you were sure to destroy some of the boiler tubes, it took four hours to go from cold iron to Ready to Answer All Bells. Furthermore, having their ships sunk in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor meant that most of them could be salvaged and returned to action; if they had made it to deep water they would have been irretrievably lost. American gunnery was terrible in the first years of the war, because Depression-era cuts to the military meant that most gunners rarely – if ever – fired live ammunition.

It is also well known that the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor missed the American carriers, whose destruction would have had monumental consequences: the Japanese could not have been turned back at Coral Sea, so the invasion of New Guinea would have happened, and Australia would have found hostile forces poised to attack only a few miles from its mainland. Without those carriers the U. S. Navy would not have had the airpower to turn back the attack on Midway even if they had found the Japanese fleet, whose discovery was another of those improbable and unpredictable events that change the course of history.

This book covers a surprising amount of ground, and does so well. You will read biographies of the key players, with the Japanese leaders getting as much coverage as the Americans. There are also technical descriptions of the capabilities of the ships and aircraft involved, a discussion of managing logistics over vast distances, the impact of new technologies, the political as well as military plans of the nations involved, and much more. It is an immersive account, and even those who already have some familiarity with the war in the Pacific will learn much from Ian Toll’s account.

There is a good description of the breaking of the Japanese naval cipher, which allowed the Americans to know that an attack on Midway was coming. Years ago I attended a conference at Pearl Harbor, held in the building next door to where the codes were broken. The building we were in still showed damage to its facade from where it had been strafed during the attack. The codes were broken in the basement of the other building, but when I asked if I could see it I was told it is now just a musty old storage room (but one of the people who worked there said, with a smile and a wink, “Oh sure, that’s what they tell everybody.”)

The Japanese leadership had a low opinion of Americans, who they considered a mongrel race made up of the dregs of the nations they had emigrated from. They felt that democracy was hopelessly outmatched by a strong, united people with a will and a capability to fight. They were sure that if the Americans’ noses could just be bloodied sufficiently, they would beg for peace and slink away home. Admiral Yamamoto, who had extensive experience in the West, including a time studying at Harvard, knew better. He had seen the vast industrial base the Americans could muster, and he knew they would fight, not run. When given the task of planning the attack on Pearl Harbor he felt that he could run wild across the Pacific for two years, but if the Americans were still in the game at that time the balance of power would shift decisively. Yamamoto also had a low opinion of the Japanese army generals, considering most of them idiots. His opinions were well known enough that at one time he was on an assassination list and had to stay aboard his ships at their anchorages.

The book does a good job describing the maneuvering at Coral Sea and Midway, which authors sometimes struggle with as different things are going on in different places at the same time. As he is describing this he does not fail to tell the stories of the men fighting the battles, and does a good job conveying their fear and exhaustion as they realized that every moment could be their last.

I highly recommend this book, and indeed, the other volumes of the series. Even though Mr. Toll is describing well covered ground, he manages a fresh, insightful approach.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rival navies that had spent decades sizing up the other guy - though both were blinkered, parochial, and arrogant in their assessments - finally come to blows, and wake into that strange clarity war will provide. Each is surprised by the strength of the other. Fascinating stuff.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read quite a few WW2 histories lately, but not a comprehensive account of the Pacific theater. Toll's 3 volume, 1500 page epic seemed like a reasonable place to start. This book focuses on Pearl Harbor to Midway, with detours into the historical origins of major figures, the admirals Nimitz, King, Halsey, and Yamamoto. As expected, Toll is an incredibly engaging writer (I read this book at a gallop, long past a sensible bedtime), bringing the drama and history of the moment alive. He is the dean of naval historians, evocatively painting the scene while avoid the excesses of purple prose that Hornfischer sometimes falls victim to.

Midway to Pearl Harbor is such a well-trodden period that there's little new here, though I did appreciate having the timelines all in one place, which helped me understand the interplay of Japan's massive early victories, probing raids by American carriers in the Battle of the Coral sea and the Doolittle Raid, and the decisive victory at Midway. And the drama of early carrier fighting comes through. These were eggshells with sledgehammers. Interception and anti-air fire were not yet well developed sciences, and battles were tense games of blind man's bluff across hundreds of miles, with tense timing of strikes.

I enjoyed the framing, which was around Mahan's theory of sea power and the importance of concentration of force. Japan embraced Mahan wholeheartedly, using his theories to defeat Russia in 1906. The Kido Butai, the six striking carriers that hit Pearl Harbor and supported the wave of conquests, was a vindication of the theory of concentrating capital ships. At Midway, Yamamoto disregarded Mahan, scattering his forces and objectives while attempting strategic deception (rendered futile by American codebreakers), while Nimitz aimed solely to sink the Japanese carriers. While luck played a large role in the American victory, it was Nimitz's preparation that turned opportunity into victory.

Yet, the narrative choice was to jump almost directly from Mahan and 1900 to Pearl Harbor. I can see the reason why, the attack was a strategic surprise, a shocking blow to America. Yet it also came at the end of escalating tensions between the US and Japan, and decades of treaty-constrained warship design. Toll is good of a historian not to mention this, and while I can follow his reasoning, the effect seems forced. Still, an exceptional history. I'm excited for volumes 2 and 3.

[Jason Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading WW2 history, but until late last year when I read The Admirals, I hadn't ready anything about the Pacific theater. As a member of the History Book Club, I decided to take advantage of the numerous titles on the subject. The Admirals was first, Pacific Crucible was second.

I wasn't exactly super excited to read this book...it kinda felt like a "have to." But then, about 70 pages in, I realized what an exceptional book it truly is. To be sure, readers who already know a good deal about the Pacific theater may not be as impressed as I was, but Toll does a tremendous job with a dramatic story. Numerous times I thought to myself, "this would be so cool as a movie!" (such as the defense of Wake Island, the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, and of course the thrilling victory at Midway).

There's plenty in this book to like, but I want to focus on chapter 3. This chapter is a masterful tour-de-force. Just read those 60 pages and try to put the book down. In it, Toll introduces the reader to Admiral Yamamoto, painting a sympathetic portrait of the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack. Yamamoto was a realist but he was also a patriot. War with the U.S. would be "a calamity" he wrote, almost exactly a year before Pearl Harbor. "To fight the United States is like fighting the whole world. But it has been decided. So I will fight the best I can."

We learn of the near-barbaric treatment of young recruits of the naval flight training program, the development of the Zero, the modernization of the navy. We learn of the rise in Japan (not unlike in Axis partner Germany), of a vocal, right wing nationalistic/militaristic cabal who saw war as the way to break through the perceived limitations placed on Japan by the Anglo-American powers.

We learn of the god-emperor Hirohito, the Tenno (heavenly sovereign). Japan had developed a "Confucian order" which "offered to advance the lot of lesser people by bringing them under the care and guidance of the emperor, the only sovereign who was also a god, and the only god who was also a sovereign...It [Japan's political order] gave the Japanese people a reason to believe they were fighting for something more than national aggrandizement."

Toll explains that as relations between Japan and the Western powers frayed, "it was a peculiar tragedy of Japan's ultranationalist psychodrama that the men best qualified to deal with the West were shunted to the margins of power...Professional diplomats sensed that war with the United States was coming, but felt as if nothing could be done to stop it."

The chapter ends with a couple key observations. In the fall of 1941, "The ears of the Japanese people were ringing with propaganda calculated to arouse them to war, and they never heard a dissenting point of view." And, the corollary, "With a shared sense of relief, the men who ruled Japan turned away from the great issues of foreign policy and bent to the more familiar task of launching a war, as if it were a mission that had been assigned to them and not one they had chosen."

The rest of the book is just as engaging. The passages dealing with battles, and there are many, are electric. It feels as if Tom Clancy (when he was at the top of his game) is handling the narration.

Read it!

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this after finishing Atkinson's The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 . I wanted to balance my reading on the European Theater of WWII with the Pacific.

Toll is a good writer. His style is similar to Atkinson's in that in includes extra details that add perspective. For example, a description of the Japanese planes flying so low over Honolulu, that the Americans on the ground saw the pilots faces covered by "their cats eye flying goggles".

Toll does a fairly good job at keeping the narrative level at 10,000 feet. Modern war involves men, machines, doctrine, politics and strategy. Toll's story dips into all of these, but never too deeply. Politics and some doctrine are mainly through the focus of President Roosevelt and the Hirohito (the Japanese emperor). Mahan's contribution to the footings of the combatants doctrine and strategy is emphasized. The compare and contrast between American and Japanese warfighting was instructive. I would have appreciated a deep dive into the strengths and weaknesses of the American Navy's pre-war organization. There seemed to be more of an emphasis on the Japanese weaknesses . The thumbnail description of the Japanese A6M Zero was particularly good for aircraft technology. Naval vessels and evolving marine technology get less attention. Strategy comes later with the rise of Halsey, Spruance, and Nimitz vs. Yamamoto and Nugamo.

If I find fault with this book, it's that it does not cover the submarine campaign at all. There are a few scant references to submarine reconnaissance. There are also a few oblique references to the notorious 'Torpedo Problem' that plagued the fleet at the beginning of the war. However, compared to the carrier actions, there is nothing on the beginning of the submarine actions against the Japanese by boats based out of Australia and Hawaii. In addition, Japanese submarine campaign has never been documented well, at least not in English language publications. Its not documented here either.

This book was very readable. It's a good beginner to intermediate introduction to the beginning of the naval war in the Pacific. This book is part of a trilogy. This is the first book. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944. The third book in the series is supposed to be published in 2018.

Readers of this book might find reading books like Toland's The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45 likewise interesting. Although, that book is dryer than this one. Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan may be helpful in making up for lack of coverage of the submarine campaign.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had Pacific Crucible by Ian Toll kicking around on Kindle for several years now. I could never quite bring myself to read it. That has nothing to Mr. Toll's work, it's just that I'm of an age where I have read A LOT of histories on the Pacific War. What more could Toll bring to the table? Turns out quite a bit. I can't exactly pinpoint what is different from the previous histories I have read, but most Pacific Crucible struck me as fresh. Perhaps its the numerous in-depth biographies (Nimitz, Yamamoto, Halsey, etc.), or the longer reach of his account, which reaches back to the 1904 battle of Tsusmia between Russia and Japan in order to highlight the revolution in naval tactics. Toll also extends his examination by looking at the cultures (and prejudices) of the two countries, and how it color the combat to come. And then there's the great battle, Midway. Toll provides clarity where clarity is hard to come by. One thing that stands out is the naval revolution, from battleship power to carrier power, is illustrated beautifully as both countries had figure it out by trial and (particularly in Japan's case) brutal error. Highly recommended.

[Ozymandias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book, the greatest I've ever read on the Pacific theater. And it's a navy book, which I think any book that seeks to explain the strategy behind a campaign conducted mainly on islands no bigger than a good-sized town has to be. But naval warfare is a particularly difficult type of war for the non-expert to relate to, which is probably why it so rarely shows up at the center of films.

And that is why this book is exciting. It makes naval warfare interesting and explains the needlessly different naval language (port, starboard, deck, head...) in a way that doesn't feel like you're being talked down to. And it's full of facts and details that both show that he knows his stuff and provides you with important context. For example, the fact that the Wildcat used up all its ammo in twenty seconds. Or pretty much any observation of shipboard life.

At its heart this book is a story. It reads almost like a novel. Part of that is the detailed character studies of key commanders, but while important and insightful these take up 3-4 pages tops. Maybe a dozen pages total out of over 500. For the most part though, it's just the way that everything is laid out in a clear and simple manner building up to the main event. This book is about the first six months of the war. It starts with Pearl Harbor (literally starts with it, there's no lead-up or anything) and ends with Midway. So the first half of the book is concerned with American forces being hopelessly overwhelmed and the second half with the lead-up to Midway.

The book also offers an unusually detailed look at the Japanese navy. And he is pretty clear about the reasons for their failure. None of them are overly controversial: overconfidence, overplanning, overextending, overexerting... The main failure of the Japanese was their state. It was really a failed state. The civilian government had fallen and the military(ies) had taken over. But they had no plan beyond eternal warfare against all opponents. And worse still, there was no key figure in charge. Rather, mid-level officers made aggressive decisions and ignored their orders and their superiors went along with it because the alternative was to look weak or face literal assassination. As a result, Japan had no plan for winning the war. And the men in charge drank the kool-aid they brewed for the populace. They believed their own propaganda about superior Japanese fighting spirit and the weakness of democracies. And that, combined with the army/navy split, meant that no conceivable endgame could be found.

Which is what makes Yamamoto so sad. He, pretty much alone of the Japanese military, acknowledged what Japan faced and how dangerous it was for Japan with its limited natural resources and industrial base to compete with the vast resources of America. And he did his best to stop it. And when that proved not to be enough, he did his best to ensure it ended as fast as possible before America had time to recover. Hence Pearl Harbor and hence Midway.

The Battle of Midway is a difficult one to understand because so much was going on and nobody really understood the situation at the time. The battle was fought out of sight of the enemy and the fog of war clouded everything. But Toll keeps his eye on the main prize: the American ambush and destruction of the Japanese aircraft carriers. That was all that mattered in the end. And I found that he made it clear enough that it seems hard to understand how so many other books covering it struggle to make it cohesive. But that's really the book's gift: it makes all this look easy.

[Corey Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining, and a perfect introduction to the Pacific theater. As someone with minimal knowledge on this subject, I learned a lot without ever feeling as if I was reading a history text. The true events are dramatic enough, and the book well enough written, that Pacific Crucible achieves that perfect balance of entertaining and educational.