Additional information
by Estate Of Samuel Eliot Morison (Author), H. P. Willmott (Introduction by)
The first two volumes of this firsthand history of the U.S. Navy in World War II covered operations in the Atlantic from September 1939 to June 1943. Volume 3, The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931 -April 1942 is the first on the war in the Pacific, a major testing ground which proved the ability of American naval forces to come back from disaster and eventually achieve its far-flung objectives. Considerable attention is given in this book to the "incidents" that really began the war in the Pacific and to the internal conflict within Japan. The first four chapters cover the period up to December 1941 followed by a chapter on the attack, a brilliant account in detail of what actually happened at Pearl Harbor. Part II discusses "The Philippines and Near-by Water," including the invasion, the fall of Guam, the landings in Malaya and the rear guard in the Philippines. Part III is called "Out from Pearl" and deals with the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, communications and carrier strikes (January to March, 1942). Part IV, "Defense of the Malay Barrier," begins with the Abda Command of January to March, 1942, tells of Balikpapan, the prelude to the invasion of Java, the battle of the Java Sea, events in the Indian Ocean and finally the Halsey-Doolittle raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Data secured in Japan by a member of Captain Morison's staff, completes the absolutely authentic record of this volume.
Author Biography
Samuel Eliot Morison was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 9 July 1887. He attended Harvard University, from which he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1908. He studied at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Paris, France, in 1908-1909, and returned to Harvard for postgraduate work, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1912. Thereafter he became Instructor, first at the University of California in Berkeley, and in 1915 at Harvard. Except for three years (1922-1925) when he was Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford, England, and his periods of active duty during both World Wars, he remained continuously at Harvard University as lecturer and professor until his retirement in 1955.
