Japanese Military Strategy in the Pacific War
Was Defeat Inevitable?

Challenges the wisdom that Japan's defeat in the Pacific was historically inevitable. This book shows how the Japanese army and navy had both the opportunity and the capability to have fought a different and more successful war.

Instead it examines how familiar events could have become more complicated or problematic under different, but nevertheless historically possible, conditions due to changes in the complex interaction of strategic and operational factors over time. Wood concludes that fighting a different war was well within the capacities of imperial Japan. He underscores the fact that the enormous task of achieving total military victory over Japan would have been even more difficult, perhaps too difficult, if the Japanese had waged a different war and the Allies had not fought as skillfully as they did. If Japan had traveled that alternate military road, the outcome of the Pacific War could have differed significantly from that we know so well--and, perhaps a little too complacently, accept.

Part 1 Introduction: Pacific War Redux Chapter 2 Going to War Chapter 3 Losing the War Chapter 4 Winning the War Chapter 5 Missing Ships Chapter 6 Sunk! Chapter 7 A Fleet-in-Being Chapter 8 The Battle for the Skies Chapter 9 The Army in the Pacific Chapter 10 Conclusion: The Road Not Taken