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

Author: Richard B. Frank
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324002115
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1107

Book Description
"A sweeping epic.… Promises to do for the war in the Pacific what Rick Atkinson did for Europe." —James M. Scott, author of Rampage 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 War II narrative vividly portrays the battles across this entire region and links those struggles on many levels with their profound twenty-first-century legacies. In 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.

Taker of Skulls

Author: William King
Publisher: Typhon Press
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
"The King of High Adventure," Starlog. "Immediately convincing, classically brooding," Steve Tompkins, TheCimmerian.com To the world at large, he is a mercenary and assassin, a brutal killer with a deadly blade. In reality Kormak is a Guardian, one of an ancient order sworn to protect humanity from the servants of the gathering darkness. Kormak is a sword and sorcery hero in the tradition of Conan, Solomon Kane and Druss the Legend, a driven man with a mission to hunt down the ancient demons who slaughtered his family. His fast-paced, action-packed adventures take him from one end of his richly detailed fantasy world to the other. TAKER OF SKULLS Kormak is ordered to guard the enigmatic sorceress Karnea with his life as she ventures into the Dwarven city of Khazduroth. It is a quest that begs many questions. What awful knowledge is Karnea really seeking amid the ruins of an ancient civilisation? Why has the sinister and mighty Old One known as the Taker of Skulls chosen this moment to return to the place where he was once worshipped as a god? And will anyone survive the deadly journey into the forsaken homeland of the once proud Dwarves. Join Kormak as he battles his way through a gigantic underground city in search of one of the most dangerous secrets of the Old Ones.

Guadalcanal

Author: Richard B. Frank
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780140165616
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 844

Book Description
“Brilliant...an enormous work based on the most meticulous research.”—LA Times Book Review The battle at Guadalcanal—which began eight months to the day after Pearl Harbor—marked the first American offensive of World War II. It was a brutal six-month campaign that cost the lives of some 7,000 Americans and over 30,000 Japanese. This volume, ten years in the writing, recounts the full story of the critical campaign for Guadalcanal and is based on first-time translations of official Japanese Defense Agency accounts and recently declassified U.S. radio intelligence, Guadalcanal recreates the battle—on land, at sea, and in the air—as never before: it examines the feelings of both American and Japanese soldiers, the strategies and conflicts of their commanders, and the strengths and weaknesses of various fighting units.

Sachiko

Author: Caren Barzelay Stelson
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books (R)
ISBN: 1467789038
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Book Description
This striking work of narrative nonfiction tells the true story of six-year-old Sachiko Yasui's survival of the Nagasaki atomic bomb on August 9, 1945, and the heartbreaking and lifelong aftermath. Having conducted extensive interviews with Sachiko Yasui, Caren Stelson chronicles Sachiko's trauma and loss as well as her long journey to find peace. This book offers readers a remarkable new perspective on the final moments of World War II and their aftermath.

Refighting the Pacific War

Author: James Bresnahan
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 161251068X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
Refighting the Pacific War presents the viewpoints of more than thirty historians, authors, and veterans regarding what happened and what might have happened if events in the Pacific had unfolded differently during World War II. Contributors to this alternative history include the noted military historians William Bartsch, John Burton, Donald Goldstein, John Lundstrom, Robert Mrazek, Jon Parshall, Douglas Smith, Peter Smith, Barrett Tillman, Anthony Tully, and H. P. Willmott. In chapters organized in a roundtable discussion format, the contributors present their differing views on the possible outcomes of the major campaigns of the Pacific War and the implications of those changes on the course of history. The result is a thought-provoking collection of divergent views about the outcome of the war that will be certain to stimulate debate. The naval campaigns and battles discussed include Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf. Additionally, the book delves into key island battles like Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, as well as prewar and postwar political issues: Could Japan have inflicted even greater damage at Pearl Harbor? How might Admiral Yamamoto have achieved victory at Midway? What would have been the impact of that victory on the direction of the war? These are just some of the discussion points posed in Refighting the Pacific War. In addition, the book explores whether the war was inevitable, includes an extensive study of the opening year of the war when the Japanese war machine seemed unstoppable, and considers if the conflict could have ended without the use of the atomic bomb. Vice Admiral Yoji Koda, Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (Ret.), Yamamoto’s successor as commander of Japan’s combined fleet and a pillar of the postwar alliance between the United States and Japan, provides the book’s introduction, in which he places the book in the context of the frequently told stories and views from the Japanese side.

Hell to Pay

Author: D. M. Giangreco
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682471667
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Book Description
Two years before the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped bring a quick end to hostilities in the summer of 1945, U.S. planners began work on Operation Downfall, codename for the Allied invasions of Kyushu and Honshu, in the Japanese home islands. While other books have examined Operation Downfall, D. M. Giangreco offers the most complete and exhaustively researched consideration of the plans and their implications. He explores related issues of the first operational use of the atomic bomb and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war, including the controversy surrounding estimates of potential U.S. casualties. Following years of intense research at numerous archives, Giangreco now paints a convincing and horrific picture of the veritable hell that awaited invader and defender. In the process, he demolishes the myths that Japan was trying to surrender during the summer of 1945 and that U.S. officials later wildly exaggerated casualty figures to justify using the atomic bombs to influence the Soviet Union. As Giangreco writes, “Both sides were rushing headlong toward a disastrous confrontation in the Home Islands in which poison gas and atomic weapons were to be employed as MacArthur’s intelligence chief, Charles Willoughby, succinctly put it, ‘a hard and bitter struggle with no quarter asked or given.’ Hell to Pay examines the invasion of Japan in light of the large body of Japanese and American operational and tactical planning documents the author unearthed in familiar and obscure archives. It includes postwar interrogations and reports that senior Japanese commanders and their staffs were ordered to produce for General MacArthur’s headquarters. This groundbreaking history counters the revisionist interpretations questioning the rationale for the use of the atomic bomb and shows that President Truman’s decision was based on real estimates of the enormous human cost of a conventional invasion. This revised edition of Hell to Pay expands on several areas covered in the previous book and deals with three new topics: U.S.-Soviet cooperation in the war against Imperial Japan; U.S., Soviet, and Japanese plans for the invasion and defense of the northernmost Home Island of Hokkaido; and Operation Blacklist, the three-phase insertion of American occupation forces into Japan. It also contains additional text, relevant archival material, supplemental photos, and new maps, making this the definitive edition of an important historical work.

Tower of Skulls

Author: Richard B. Frank
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0393541363
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
“A sweeping epic.… Promises to do for the war in the Pacific what Rick Atkinson did for Europe.” —James M. Scott, author of Rampage 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 War II narrative vividly portrays the battles across this entire region and links those struggles on many levels with their profound twenty-first-century legacies. In 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.

Skulls in the Stars

Author: Robert E. Howard
Publisher: SAMPI Books
ISBN: 6561333497
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 30

Book Description
In "Skulls in the Stars" by Robert E. Howard, Solomon Kane, a grim Puritan adventurer, must cross a haunted moor despite eerie warnings. As he ventures into the fog-laden wilderness, he confronts a supernatural force tied to a dark secret. The tale weaves an atmosphere of tension, danger, and moral retribution, showcasing Kane's fearless resolve against otherworldly evil.

Circle of Skulls

Author: James P. Davis
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
ISBN: 0786957573
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Book Description
A dark fantasy of fallen angels, desperate rituals, and a series of occult murders—set in the seedy underbelly of Waterdeep Jinn is an angel trapped in mortal flesh, sent down from the heavens to fight, die, and be reincarnated endlessly in the war against evil. But over the years, revenge supplanted justice. Now he lives only to wreck vengeance—whatever the cost—on the dark angel who killed his lover. A series of brutal occult murders, left like breadcrumbs for him to follow, lead Jinn straight to Asmodeus—an invitation to a final battle for the soul of Waterdeep. But will Jinn still be able to choose the path of justice when he is so close to his enemy, after lifetimes of failure? Circle of Skulls is the sixth book in a series of standalone novels set in Waterdeep.

Blackstaff Tower

Author: Steven E. Schend
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
ISBN: 0786956135
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
A young group of friends must navigate conspiracy and sorcery in one of the most legendary cities of the Forgotten Realms—Waterdeep When the newest Blackstaff—a powerful wizard who defends the city of Waterdeep—is captured as part of an evil ploy for power, a motley crew of accomplices must band together to restore the Blackstaff to power and save the city. Laraelra, Meloon, Renaer and other legendary heroes of the Forgotten Realms form an unlikely team, rising above their humble origins to complete an epic quest through the City of Splendors. Together, they fight side by side in the race to reach Blackstaff Tower before the forces of evil can claim it as their own. Blackstaff Tower is the first book in a series of standalone novels set in Waterdeep.