Additional Attributions and Sourcing

Companion notes to A War for Half the World

I wrote A War for Half the World for readers who want to follow the story of the Pacific War without frequent interruptions for source notes. I also want to give credit to the historians, writers, and interviewers whose work helped me tell that story. I’ve gathered these additional notes here so readers can trace selected quotations, eyewitness accounts, and passages to their sources. The page numbers refer to the printed edition.

Preface · The Other Front

P. xxv · Prewar American planning for the Pacific. United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report (Pacific War), July 1, 1946, section “The United States Plan Before Pearl Harbor.” Report

Chapter 1 · “Black Ships”

P. 11 · Iris Chang on the Nanjing massacre. Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (Basic Books, 1997), introduction. Excerpt and page reference

Chapter 4 · “Tora! Tora! Tora!”

P. 44 · Roosevelt’s address to Congress. Franklin D. Roosevelt, address to a joint session of Congress, December 8, 1941. National Archives transcript

Chapter 5 · Japanese Blitzkrieg

P. 51 · The warning about a Japanese “overt act.” Gen. George C. Marshall’s warning of November 27, 1941, to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Lt. Gen. Walter Short is discussed and quoted in Army History, no. 104 (Summer 2017). U.S. Army Center of Military History

P. 55 · Don Bell’s report of the attack on Clark Field. A contemporary diary entry for December 8–10, 1941, recalls hearing Bell announce the bombings over the radio from Manila. Philippine Diary Project

Chapter 7 · “I Shall Return”

P. 76 · MacArthur on the fighting withdrawal toward Bataan. Douglas MacArthur, quoted by Lew H. Wallace in “Weaver’s Warriors: The 192nd Tank Battalion in the Philippines,” edited by James C. Claypool, Armor, January–February 1989. U.S. Army journal

Pp. 77–78 · Demolition of the Calumpit bridges. Louis Morton, The Fall of the Philippines (Office of the Chief of Military History, 1953), pp. 209–10, draws on Col. Skerry’s account, General Wainwright’s Story, p. 44, and interviews with Generals Jones and Sage. Morton dates the demolition to January 1, 1942, at 6:15 a.m., and identifies Skerry as the engineer Wainwright addressed. U.S. Army Center of Military History

P. 79 · Francis Sayre’s appeal for help. Francis B. Sayre, NBC broadcast to the United States, December 13, 1941, reprinted in the Annual Report of the United States High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands, appendix E, p. 137. Official transcript

Chapter 9 · Stopping Point

P. 118 · Jimmie Thach on the dive bombing at Midway. John S. Thach’s assessment of the attack on Kaga appears in Craig L. Symonds, The Battle of Midway (Oxford University Press, 2011), “The Tipping Point.” Chapter excerpt

Chapter 10 · Watchtower: Turning the Tide

P. 155 · Ohmae Toshikazu at Savo Island. The account by Mikawa’s chief of staff of the Japanese ships opening fire is quoted in James D. Hornfischer, Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal (Bantam, 2011), in the chapter on Savo Island. Chapter excerpt

P. 156 · The flare over the transports at Savo Island. The description of the ships lit up by a flare is Marine combat photographer Thayer Soule’s own narration in Shooting the Pacific War: Marine Corps Combat Photography in WWII (University Press of Kentucky, 1999), p. 4. Soule was aboard Hunter Liggett and recalls Capt. Louis Perkins speaking separately. University of Kentucky repository

Chapter 12 · The Critical Months

P. 182 · The sharks during the rescue of USS Wasp survivors. Ford Richardson of USS Farenholt, quoted in James D. Hornfischer, Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal (Bantam, 2011), “What They Were Built For.” Chapter excerpt

Chapter 15 · Piercing the Defensive Ring in the Marianas

P. 220 · John C. Chapin on the Saipan landing. John C. Chapin, Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan (Marine Corps Historical Center, 1994), opening account of the D-Day landings. Marine Corps University

Chapter 16 · Target Leyte: MacArthur’s Return

P. 261 · Nimitz’s message to Halsey. The Naval History and Heritage Command reproduces the signal about Task Force 34 and explains how the trailing padding reached Halsey. “Leyte Gulf in Detail”

Chapter 17 · Luzon, Liberation, and Tragedy in Manila

P. 300 · Yamashita’s Radio Tokyo interview. A longer English rendering of Yamashita’s January 1945 remarks appears in Prudencio R. Europa, A Warrior’s Rendezvous with Destiny (1989), p. 12. Europa’s rendering refers to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. University repository scan

P. 304 · The Newsweek headline on Manila. The headline comparing Manila’s fall to a ripened plum is reproduced in “Few remember the sacrifice in Manila, ravaged in WWII. Why?” Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2023. Article

P. 304 · James M. Scott on Manila before the war. The description of the prewar city comes from James M. Scott’s interview with Jeremy Collins about Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila, The National WWII Museum, February 3, 2020. Interview

P. 308 · Bill Dunn on the Manila that disappeared. The CBS correspondent’s recollection is quoted by James M. Scott in the same National WWII Museum interview. Interview

Chapter 19 · Fire from the Sky

P. 322 · The bomber crews’ reaction to the low-altitude briefing. The description comes from The Long Haul: The Story of the 497th Bomber Group (VH), also quoted by Max Hastings in Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944–45 (Knopf, 2008), “Fire-Raising,” note 564, citing the group history, p. 19. Digitized unit history

Pp. 325–26 · Martin Sheridan’s view of the burning city. Sheridan’s Boston Globe eyewitness dispatch, published March 11, 1945, describes seeing the glow of Tokyo from forty miles away. Marc Lancaster reproduces the passage in “Eyewitness to the Tokyo Firebombing,” March 9, 2021. Dispatch excerpts

P. 331 · Ernie Pyle on the fighting still ahead. A wartime issue of News Views preserves a version of Pyle’s warning about the years ahead and includes the wording “soul-trying days.” Digitized wartime reprint

Chapter 22 · Surrender

Pp. 362–63 · MacArthur’s remarks aboard USS Missouri. Douglas MacArthur, address at the Japanese surrender ceremony, September 2, 1945. Naval History and Heritage Command transcript

P. 363 · George C. Kenney on the surrender flyover. Kenney’s description of the American warplanes turning toward Mount Fuji after the surrender ceremony is quoted in William Manchester, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964 (Little, Brown, 1978). First-edition catalog record