World War II in Historical Memory (Book Chapter)

Truman, Unconditional Surrender, and a New Deal for Japan (Book Chapter)

African Americans and the Asia Pacific War (Book Chapter)

Unconditional: The Japanese Surrender in World War II (Pivotal Moments in American History)

On May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day-shortened to "V.E. Day"-brought with it the demise of Nazi Germany. But for the Allies, the war was only half-won. Exhausted but exuberant American soldiers, ready to return home, were sent to join the fighting in the Pacific, which by the spring and summer of 1945 had turned into a gruelling campaign of bloody attrition against an enemy determined to fight to the last man. Germany had surrendered unconditionally. The Japanese would clearly make the conditions of victory extraordinarily high.  In the United States, Americans clamored for their troops to come home and for a return to a peacetime economy. Politics intruded upon military policy while a new and untested president struggled to strategize among a military command that was often mired in rivalry. The task of defeating the Japanese seemed nearly unsurmountable, even while plans to invade the home islands were being drawn. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall warned of the toll that "the agony of enduring battle" would likely take. General Douglas MacArthur clashed with Marshall and Admiral Nimitz over the most effective way to defeat the increasingly resilient Japanese combatants. In the midst of this division, the Army began a program of partial demobilization of troops in Europe, which depleted units at a time when they most needed experienced soldiers. In this context of military emergency, the fearsome projections of the human cost of invading the Japanese homeland, and weakening social and political will, victory was salvaged by means of a horrific new weapon. As one Army staff officer admitted, "The capitulation of Hirohito saved our necks."In Implacable Foes, award-winning historians Waldo Heinrichs (a veteran of both theatres of war in World War II) and Marc Gallicchio bring to life the final year of World War Two in the Pacific right up to the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, evoking not only Japanese policies of desperate defense, but the sometimes rancorous debates on the home front. They deliver a gripping and provocative narrative that challenges the decision-making of U.S. leaders and delineates the consequences of prioritizing the European front. The result is a masterly work of military history that evaluates the nearly insurmountable trials associated with waging global war and the sacrifices necessary to succeed.

Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945

The Cold War Begins In Asia

In the first book to focus on African American attitudes toward Japan and China, Marc Gallicchio examines the rise and fall of black internationalism in the first half of the twentieth century. This daring new approach to world politics failed in its effort to seek solidarity with the two Asian countries, but it succeeded in rallying black Americans in the struggle for civil rights.Black internationalism emphasized the role of race or color in world politics and linked the domestic struggle of African Americans with the freedom struggle of emerging nations "of color," such as India and much of Africa. In the early twentieth century, black internationalists, including W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, embraced Japan as a potential champion of the darker races, despite Japan's imperialism in China. After Pearl Harbor, black internationalists reversed their position and identified Nationalist China as an ally in the war against racism. In the end, black internationalism was unsuccessful as an interpretation of international affairs. The failed quest for alliances with Japan and China, Gallicchio argues, foreshadowed the difficulty black Americans would encounter in seeking redress for American racism in the international arena.

The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945

In The Unpredictability of the Past, an international group of historians examines how collective memories of the Asia-Pacific War continue to affect relations among China, Japan, and the United States. The contributors are primarily concerned with the history of international relations broadly conceived to encompass not only governments but also nongovernmental groups and organizations that influence the interactions of peoples across the Pacific. Taken together, the essays provide a rich, multifaceted analysis of how the dynamic interplay between past and present is manifest in policymaking, popular culture, public commemorations, and other arenas.The contributors interpret mass media sources, museum displays, monuments, film, and literature, as well as the archival sources traditionally used by historians. They explore how American ideas about Japanese history shaped U.S. occupation policy following Japan’s surrender in 1945, and how memories of the Asia-Pacific War influenced Washington and Tokyo policymakers’ reactions to the postwar rise of Soviet power. They investigate topics from the resurgence of Pearl Harbor images in the U.S. media in the decade before September 11, 2001, to the role of Chinese war museums both within China and in Chinese-Japanese relations, and from the controversy over the Smithsonian Institution’s Enola Gay exhibit to Japanese tourists’ reactions to the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. One contributor traces how a narrative commemorating African Americans’ military service during World War II eclipsed the history of their significant early-twentieth-century appreciation of Japan as an ally in the fight against white supremacy. Another looks at the growing recognition and acknowledgment in both the United States and Japan of the Chinese dimension of World War II. By focusing on how memories of the Asia-Pacific War have been contested, imposed, resisted, distorted, and revised, The Unpredictability of the Past demonstrates the crucial role that interpretations of the past play in the present.Contributors. Marc Gallicchio, Waldo Heinrichs, Haruo Iguchi, Xiaohua Ma, Frank Ninkovich, Emily S. Rosenberg, Takuya Sasaki, Yujin Yaguchi, Daqing Yang

The Unpredictability of the Past: Memories of the Asia-Pacific War in U.S.–East Asian Relations (American Encounters/Global Interactions)

As American generals and diplomats accepted Japan's surrender on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri in September 1945, allied combatants wrestled for power in the new post-war world. The decisions made to effect Japan's surrender entangled U.S. forces on the mainland of Asia for the next two years, and helped shape the next several decades of international relations in the Far East. Marc Gallicchio expertly examines the diplomatic, military, and economic struggles in which the United States, China, and the Soviet Union were pitted in the immediate aftermath of victory over Japan. The Allied victory was but a prelude to an American search for a lasting peace across Asia, stretching from Korea to Vietnam and out to the Pacific atolls. In seeking to shape events on the mainland, the administration of Harry S. Truman confronted the anomalous nature of American power. The military operations undertaken by the United States in the early days of post-war peace affected developments in Asia in unexpected ways. As Gallicchio makes clear, Americans would soon find that the scramble for Asia from 1945 to 1947 had set the stage for future conflict in the region.

The Scramble for Asia: U.S. Military Power in the Aftermath of the Pacific War (Total War)

A series of essays by Waldo Heinrichs regarding the United States and the road it paved to war. The following essays are included: Looking Back: Personal Narrative and the Writing of History; Bureaucracy and Professionalism in the Development of American Career Diplomacy; 1931-1937; The Uses of Diplomacy, 1939; The Politics of Force, 1940; The Role of the United States Navy; President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Intervention in the Battle of the Atlantic, 1941; Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Risks of War, 1939-1941; The Russian Factor in Japanese-American Relations, 1941; Summer 1941: The Rush to War

Diplomacy &amp; Force: America's Road to War, 1931-1941 (Imprint Studies in International Realtions)

Villanova University was founded in 1842 by the Order of Saint Augustine. To this day, Villanova’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition is the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. Villanova prepares students to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them.


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Dr. Gallichio's personal knowledge of Japan, having twice taught there as a J. William Fulbright Lecturer, has given him invaluable firsthand insight into the once mighty empire's place in history -- past, present and future. His knowledge of modern military history, with an emphasis on Japan's role in World War II, as well as the post-World War II East Asian conflicts that continue to shape international relations to the present day are Gallichio's specalties.

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