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To the End of the Earth Cover

To the End of the Earth

The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945

John C. McManus

Dutton Caliber, New York, 2023, 448 pages

Book Review published on: May 12, 2023

With the publication of To the End of the Earth: The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945, historian John C. McManus completes his superb trilogy that effectively tells the story of the U.S. Army’s role in World War II’s Pacific theater of operations. As noted in a review of his second volume—Island Infernos: The US Army’s Pacific War Odyssey, 1944—McManus has sought to set the record straight with a more accurate portrayal of the Army’s exploits in the seminal battles of the ground war in the Pacific.1 McManus observed, “The land war was fought primarily by the Army, though popular memory has focused almost exclusively on the comparatively smaller Marine effort.”2 In the previous two volumes of the trilogy, McManus covered the Army’s Pacific exploits during the years 1941–1943 and 1944, respectively. In this final installment, the author provides exceptional insight into the seminal events of 1945, including the liberation of the Philippines, the completion of the Burma Road, the Battle of Okinawa, and the final surrender of Japan. He ends the book—and the trilogy—with a memorable epilogue that not only recaps the fate of the dramatis personae but also provides valuable commentary on the legacy of the Pacific War, with proper homage to those who fought it. In Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943, McManus wrote, “The Army often came up short during the war with Japan, and certainly in posterity’s view of that war.”3 With To the End of the Earth, the author has made a significant contribution to correcting that misperception.

To the End of the Earth continues with many of the strengths in McManus’s first two volumes—highly accessible and clearly written prose, insightful portrayals of the combatants—Japanese as well as American, seamless integration of all levels of war, and an unvarnished account of the horrors of combat. This time, the author applies his talents to describing the events of the last year of the war, when the allied noose was tightening against an increasingly desperate Japan. Thus, several developments distinguish 1945 from the earlier years covered by McManus. These include large-scale urban combat operations for the first time, as Army forces such as the 1st Cavalry Division and 11th Airborne Division sought to liberate Manila from a determined and dug-in Japanese adversary. With operations underway in the Philippines, this also meant the Allies freed hundreds of prisoners of war for the first time, many survivors of the notorious Bataan Death March, which took place more than three years earlier. (The theme of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s return to the Philippines—and its strategic versus political value—is especially poignant in this third volume of the trilogy.) Other developments had a more ominous tone. The Japanese used massed kamikaze attacks, especially against U.S. naval fleets, in a final effort to stem the allied juggernaut as they approached Japan proper. Additionally, 1945 saw the first large-scale slaughter of civilians, not only in the Philippines but especially in the latter stages of the Okinawa campaign. Some were victims of Japanese atrocities, while others were caught in the crossfire of combat which devastated civilian areas.

McManus analyzes each of these new developments with characteristic aplomb, always explaining to the reader the significance of each event, and never forgetting the human cost in documenting some of the bitterest fighting in the Pacific theater. He is masterful at incorporating vignettes, first-person accounts, and his own observations to bring the narrative to life. Additionally, he never shies away from applying a critical eye, whether to the Allies or to their Japanese adversary. Thus, he decries the allied tendency to severely underestimate Japanese strength during several campaigns, as well as Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s proclivity to claim victory “prematurely”—with fighting still to be done, particularly in the case of the Manila and the island of Luzon. McManus also faults the Japanese leadership for costly operations, particularly in their two counterattacks from the vaunted Shuri Line during the Battle of Okinawa, both of which failed miserably. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the author questions the efficacy of several major operations mounted by the Allies in 1945. Regarding Lt. Gen. Robert Eichelberger and U.S. Eighth Army’s campaign to liberate the central and southern Philippine Islands, he writes, “The campaign accrued little if any, strategic advantage to the Americans since, in essence, they had simply reclaimed a relative backwater and inflicted more losses on an already beleaguered enemy.”4 Similarly, McManus considers the completion of the Burma Road (Ledo-Kunming Road) “brilliant in implementation, but with a dubious strategic return.”5 The allied road connecting India to China, completed at great cost in blood and treasure, was eventually surpassed by aerial resupply efforts. All told, the author’s intellectual courage, demonstrated in his previous works, continues in To the End of the Earth and will challenge the reader to think critically about the events, as well as their meaning, in this last year of the Pacific War.

In Fire and Fortitude, the first volume, McManus wrote, “Beneath our comfortable cultural veneer of the greatest generation fighting the good war, the real story of the Pacific/Asia War awaits telling, the dirty war, the merciless war, the Army’s war.”6 The author has clearly accomplished that mission, as the trilogy makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the Army’s role in the Pacific War. McManus’s narrative style, and his ability to interweave first-person accounts with his chronology of events, is something to behold. To the End of the Earth will readily appeal to the military professional, as well as to students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The book, as well as the trilogy, merits this reviewer’s highest recommendation.

Notes

  1. Mark Montesclaros, review of Island Infernos: The US Army’s Pacific War Odyssey, 1944, by John C. McManus, Military Review (website), 1 July 2022, accessed 11 May 2023, https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/MR-Book-Reviews/July-2022/Book-Review-001/.
  2. John C. McManus, Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943 (New York: Dutton Caliber, 2019), 4–5.
  3. Ibid., 5.
  4. John C. McManus, To the End of the Earth: The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945 (New York: Dutton Caliber, 2023), 157.
  5. Ibid., 182.
  6. McManus, Fire and Fortitude, 12.

Book Review written by:Mark Montesclaros, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas