A definitive chronicle of the final year in the Pacific war of World War II offers insightful portraits of key figures in the efforts to defeat Japan--MacArthur, Nimitz, Mountbatten, Mao, and Chiang Kai-shek--and discusses such topics as the road to Allied victory, the war's bloody campaigns, Japan's war against China, and the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 100,000 first printing.