Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
The brutal final year of the Pacific War, from the Philippines to the atomic bombings.
The Verdict
The brutal endgame of the Pacific war, told without flinching and without easy verdicts. Max Hastings covers the last year against Japan — the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the firebombing, the atomic bombs — and refuses every comforting simplification. He sets Japanese atrocities beside the moral weight of incinerating cities, and lets neither cancel the other. It is grim, panoramic, and morally serious history of the kind few writers attempt: the war at its most pitiless, examined rather than excused.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The final year of the Pacific war in full
- Readers who want moral complexity, not verdicts
- Japanese and Allied perspectives together
- Unflinching coverage of atrocity and air war
Look elsewhere if you want
- A gentle or triumphal account
- The early Pacific campaigns
- Readers wanting a single clear moral
Why We Rated It 4.5
Historical Context
Retribution covers 1944-45 in the Pacific — the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the strategic bombing of Japan, and the atomic bombings — alongside the disintegration of Japan's empire. Published in 2007, it draws on American, British, Japanese, and other sources.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0307275363
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
More by Max Hastings
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Retribution the same book as Nemesis?
- Yes — Nemesis is the UK title for the same book.
- Does it take a side on the atomic bombings?
- It resists a simple verdict, weighing the bombings against Japanese conduct and the alternatives without offering easy absolution.