36th Annual Nimitz Symposium - 2023 | Richard Frank, Guest Speaker

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Long considered ancillary to the European War, the Asia Pacific War has taken on a new relevance in the 21st century. In 1937, when the conflict erupted, the Asia-Pacific, a region extending from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sweltering jungles of Guadalcanal, from the high seas around Midway Island to the edge of the Himalaya Mountains on the Indian Subcontinent, held a billion people—nearly half the world population. Yet across this span, only Japan and Thailand were sovereign, independent states. This presentation addresses the myriad of ways the Asia Pacific War from 1937 to 1945 fundamentally shaped the path to independence of over thirty major and minor Asian and Pacific nation states. These include particularly China and India, today the two most populous nations in the world and leading economic, military, and political powers.

Speaker Bio:
Richard B. Frank is an internationally recognized leading authority on the Asia-Pacific War. He published his first book Guadalcanal in 1990. His second work, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, appeared in 1999 and has been called one of the six best books in English about World War II. Both Random House books won awards and became main selections of the History Book Club. In 2007, he completed MacArthur as part of the Palgrave Great Generals series. The first volume of his trilogy on the Asia Pacific War 1937-1945, Tower of Skulls, published in March 2020, was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History 2021.

36th Annual Admiral Nimitz Symposium Sponsors and Donors:
Fischer & Wieser
Dian Graves Owen Foundation
Dr. Leon Bromberg Charitable Trust
Humanities Texas
Messina Hof
Hilmy Cellars

From the National Museum of the Pacific War, thank you to our guest presenters for
providing the content for this program. Any research, historical information, and opinions expressed are their own.
This is a recording from the National Museum of the Pacific War. Copyright 2023.
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