Rampage MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila [Hardcover]

Illuminating....An eloquent testament to a doomed city and its people.Powerful narrative history...impossible to put down.A masterful reconstruction of the horror of the battle.A chilling, sometimes horrifying narrative of some of the fiercest urban fighting of World War II....Scott gives voices to the victims, and that is an important service to history....[He] is a fine writer, and he musters his considerable talents to move the storyline forward.An excellent but wrenchingly graphic account of one of the least commemorated massacres in World War II....Scott has dug very deep into the U.S. and Philippine records of the battle and uses them deftly....[He] wields the vivid testimony of the rare survivors to portray the full horrors of the events.Scott has done history a service in recording for all time this dark chapter in the Pacific War.What Iris Chang did for our understanding of the Rape of Nanking, James M. Scott has now done for the Battle of Manila. Here is a sweeping tale of frenzied fighting and heartbreaking devastation, written by a meticulous historian who has unflinchingly probed the truth of this largely forgotten episode from the Pacific.A masterpiece of historical reportage, brilliantly bringing to life the savage battle for Manilaone of the most dramatic and disturbing episodes of World War II.This is General Douglas MacArthur as you have not heard him; this is World War II as you have not seen it before; this is history written with a wide sweep and deep focus, the prose and reporting falling in aching rhythms on scenes of beauty, despair, defiance, the terrible trespasses people make, and their striving to endure. James Scotts skill as a reporter and his precision as a stylist make this story unstoppable from the very first scene. Across these pages falls the shadow of a history we thought we knew well, but in Scotts telling, so much is revealed and illuminated. A bold surprise of a history book. A treasure for lovers of storieslã.