MacArthur's "Ultra": Codebreaking and the War Against Japan, 1942-45 (Modern War Studies) - Hardcover

Drea, Edward J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0700605045 ISBN 13: 9780700605040

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 1991

Synopsis

Cracking the enemy's radio code is a task so urgent and so difficult that it demands the military's best minds and most sophisticated technology. But when the coded messages are in a language as complex as Japanese, decoding problems multiply dramatically. It took the US Army a full two years after the attack on Pearl Harbour to break the codes of the Japanese Imperial Army. But by 1944 the US was decoding more than 20,000 messages a month filled with information about enemy movements, strategy, fortifications, troop strengths, and supply convoys. In "MacArthur's ULTRA", historian Edward Drea recounts the story behind the Army's painstaking decryption operation and its dramatic breakthrough. He demonstrates how ULTRA (intelligence from decrypted Japanese radio communications) shaped MacArthur's operations in New Guinea and the Philippines and its effect on the outcome of World War II. From sources on both sides of the Pacific and national security agency declassified records, Drea has compiled a detailed listing of the ULTRA intelligence available to MacArthur. By correlating the existing intelligence with MacArthur's operational decisions, Drea shows ow MacArthur used - and misused - intelligence information. He tells for the first time the story behind Macarthur's bold leap to Hollandia in 1944 and shows how ULTRA revealed the massive Japanese mobilization for what might have been (had it occurred) the bloodiest and most protracted engagement of the entire war - the Allied invasion of Japan. Drea also clarifies the role of ULTRA in Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 and concludes that ULTRA shortened the war by six to ten months.

About this title

Review

"No one writing on military operations in the Southwest Pacific will be able to ignore this book."--William M. Leary, editor of We Shall Return: MacArthur's Commanders and the Defeat of Japan, 1941-1945 "Adds significantly to our understanding of the war and of MacArthur as commander and strategist."--Stanley L. Falk, author of Bataan: The March of Death "A 'must' item for analysis of the Pacific war."--Harold Deutsch, author of Hitler and His Generals

-No one writing on military operations in the Southwest Pacific will be able to ignore this book.---William M. Leary, editor of We Shall Return: MacArthur's Commanders and the Defeat of Japan, 1941-1945 -Adds significantly to our understanding of the war and of MacArthur as commander and strategist.---Stanley L. Falk, author of Bataan: The March of Death -A 'must' item for analysis of the Pacific war.---Harold Deutsch, author of Hitler and His Generals

From the Back Cover

In this book, the author assesses the relationship between special intelligence and the campaigns of General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific. During World War II, special intelligence, commonly referred to as ULTRA today, meant information obtained through monitoring, intercepting, and decoding enemy radio communications.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700605045
• ISBN 13: 9780700605040
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304