Episode Details

Biography John McManus is the Curator's 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