The war in the Pacific began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and ended with the atomic bombs on Hirsoshima and Nagasaki in August 1945–leading to the surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. It was a war of great naval battles, such as those in the Coral Sea, at Medway, and at Leyte, and of grim jungle battles, at Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and Burma. This book explores the many facets of this complicated conflict, which reshaped the face of Asia and splintered European invincibility as a colonial power.