Ep. 7: John McManus on the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II

School of War

Biography

John McManus is the Curators' Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. McManus completed his doctorate in military history at the University of Tennessee and is the author of more than a dozen books. His latest, Island Infernos: The US Army's Pacific War Odyssey, 1944, is the second installment of a trilogy detailing the U.S. Army's role in the Pacific theater during World War II.

Times

• 01:12 - Introduction
• 03:38 - Misperceptions of the Army and Marines in Guadalcanal
• 08:44 - The Army's role in the Pacific
• 12:46 - Geography of the Pacific and dividing the theater between General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz
• 18:30 - Island hopping and the turning point in the Pacific theater
• 22:26 - The infantry's experience in combat
• 23:52 - The Pearl Harbor Conference and the endgame of war in the Pacific
• 31:55 - General Joseph Stilwell and China
• 38:39 - Prisoners of War in Japan
• 41:32 - The legacy of the War in the Pacific

Recorded November 23, 2021