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Nemesis
MAX HASTINGS
THE BATTLE FOR JAPAN, 1944-45
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This ebook edition first published in 2009
First published in Great Britain by HarperPress in 2007
Copyright © Max Hastings 2007
Cover photograph © akg-images/Pictures from History
Max Hastings asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007219810
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007344093
Version: 2017-03-23
From the reviews of Nemesis:
‘The shocking, little-known story of the war against Japan. Absolutely excellent’
JOHN SIMPSON, Observer
‘Spectacular. Hastings is excellent, unsparing and compelling. Searingly powerful’
ANDREW ROBERTS, Sunday Telegraph
‘A triumph. Put all these elements together—the ambition, insight, sureness of touch—and you have a book of real quality’
LAURENCE REES, Sunday Times
‘An outstandingly gripping and authoritative account of the battle for Japan, and a monument to human bravery—and savagery’
DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Daily Telegraph
In memory of my son
CHARLES HASTINGS 1973-2000
War is human, it is as something that is lived like a love or a hatred…It might better be described as a pathological condition because it admits of accidents which not even a skilled physician could have foreseen.
MARCEL PROUST
‘Oh, surely they’ll stop now. They’ll be horrified at what they’ve done!’ he thought, aimlessly following on behind crowds of stretchers moving away from the battlefield.
Tolstoy’s Pierre Bezukhov at Borodino, 1812
In 1944, there seemed absolutely no reason to suppose that the war might end in 1945.
CAPTAIN LUO DINGWEN, Chinese Nationalist army
Contents
5 America’s Return to the Philippines
6 ‘Flowers of Death’: Leyte Gulf
7 Ashore: Battle for the Mountains
14 Australians: ‘Bludging’ and ‘Mopping Up’