Pacific War

In December 1941, Japan attacked the British Empire and the United States, turning the European war that had raged since 1939 into a global conflict. For a few desperate months during early 1942, the Kiwis faced crisis. Australia had its own threat to face. Britain was stretched to the utmost against Germany, and the United States - with millions still unemployed - took time to turn its huge industry to war production.Despite heavy commitment to the European war, New Zealanders eventually fought the Japanese on land, sea and air, from Malaya to the Solomons and, finally, in Japanese home waters. Kiwis contributed in many other ways, providing bases and recreation facilities for US forces, food for the whole campaign, even sending physicists to work on the atomic bomb project.This book is an essential summary of that far-reaching effort - New Zealand's Pacific war.