Science and the Pacific War : Science and Survival in the Pacific, 1939-1945 (1999 ed.)

From the beginning of the war in the Pacific, Allied and Japanese forces were obliged to adapt familiar scientific practices to unfamiliar environments, to design new items of equipment (including amphibious vehicles and long-range radar), and to invent new ways of dealing with tropical diseases and parasitic pests.

By 1945, the war confronted scientists with many ethical questions - concerning not only the use of the atomic bomb, but also the potential use of chemical and biological weapons, whose development was almost forgotten in the aftermath of Hiroshima.

Looking beyond official histories, this book draws upon collective scholarship in several related fields in assessing some of the leading characteristics of the 'scientific war' in the Pacific.

Unusually, it explores aspects of the war and its impact not only in relation to America and Japan, but also in the experience of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.