Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942

"The first book in a new three-volume history of the Asia-Pacific War, by the acclaimed author of Downfall and Guadalcanal. In 1937 the swath of the globe from India to Japan contained half the world's population, but only two nations with real sovereignty (Japan and Thailand) and two with compromised sovereignty (China and Mongolia). All other peoples in the region endured under some form of colonialism. Today the region contains nineteen major, fully sovereign nations. Tower of Skulls is the first workin any language to present a unified account of the course and titanic impact of this part of the global war, which began the torturous route to twenty-first-century Asia. Covering with extraordinary detail campaigns in China, Singapore, the Philippines,and Burma, as well as the attack on Pearl Harbor, it expands beyond military elements to highlight the critical political, economic, and social reverberations of the struggle. Finally, it provides a graphic depiction of the often forgotten but truly horrific death toll in the Asia-Pacific region-over 20 million-which continues to shape international relations today"--
The Vietnam veteran and award-winning historian draws on rich archival research and recently discovered evidence in a revelatory account of the onset of the Asia-Pacific War. By the author of Guadalcanal. Illustrations. Maps.
In 1937, the swath of the globe east from India to the Pacific Ocean enclosed half the world’s population, all save a fraction enduring under some form of colonialism. 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. From just two nation states with real sovereignty, Thailand and Japan, and two with compromised sovereignty, China and Mongolia, the region today encompasses at least nineteen major sovereign nations. This extraordinary World War II narrative vividly describes in exquisite detail the battles across this entire region and links those struggles on many levels with their profound twenty-first-century legacies.Tower of SkullsIn this first volume of a trilogy, award-winning historian Richard B. Frank draws on rich archival research and recently discovered documentary evidence to tell an epic story that gave birth to the world we live in now.