Bøger om Stillehavsregionen

Den dramatiske fortælling om drengen Ismael og den hvide dræberhval ’Moby Dick’ er en af verdenslitteraturens helt store klassikere. Ismael drømmer om at blive hvalfanger og får arbejde på kaptajn Akabs skib The Pequod. Akab har mistet sit ene ben i kamp med den hvide hval og er nu besat af tanken om hævn. Hans vanvittige jagt på det farlige dyr bliver en kamp på liv og død, der bringer hele besætningen i fare.Herman Melville (1819-1891) var en amerikansk forfatter, hvis bøger bygger på hans egne erfaringer som sømand. I dag er Herman Melville verdensberømt for sin roman "Moby Dick", men i sin samtid blev romanen dårligt modtaget og hurtigt glemt igen. Først mange år efter Herman Melvilles død blev "Moby Dick" genopdaget og regnes i dag i blandt de allerstørste klassikere i den amerikanske litteratur.

Historien om Anden Verdenskrig i Asien begynder længe før angrebet på Pearl Harbor i 1941 og kan kun forstås, hvis man kender forhistorien om regionens konflikter. Det ældgamle fjendskab mellem Japan og Kina førte til øgede spændinger og kampe i 1930?erne, som kulminerede i udbredelsen af verdenskrigen til Asien. Storm over Stillehavet samler de mange tråde i en medrivende fortælling med facetter og detaljer, som ofte overses. Peter Harmsen beskriver krigen, som den udfoldede sig fra den øverste general til den menige soldat og civilbefolkningen; under subarktiske forhold i øgruppen Aleuterne; under hungersnød i Kina, Indokina og Indien; fra Det Hvide Hus i Washington til marineinfanteristerne på tropeøen Peleliu. Vi møder en række overraskende aktører: russere i japansk uniform i det nordøstlige Kina, mexicanske piloter i amerikanske maskiner over Filippinerne og de forbavsende mange danskere, der befandt sig i regionen i krigsårene. Og vi hører om alle de berømte slag - fra Guadalcanal til Iwo Jima - der har skrevet sig ind i historien som milepæle på vejen mod Japans kapitulation i august 1945.

This book examines the security dynamics of the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific, concentrating upon an analysis and evaluation of the air power capabilities of the various powers active in the two regions.

The series ¿Russia and the Asia-Pacific¿ explores political, economic, social, cultural and environmental interactions of the Russian Far East within its Asian-Pacific context as well as with the Russian capital in the past and present. Its first volume addresses from a multidisciplinary perspective notably the following questions: How were and are directives from a centre thousands of kilometers away perceived and implemented by actors in this region? To which extent was and is the centre successful or how did or does it fail in integrating a region as far away from the centre as the Russian Far East in its state structures? How have notions of ¿centre¿ and ¿periphery¿ changed over time?

Explores how design and innovation shape people's lives in the Pacific. Focusing on plant materials from the region, it reveals ways in which a variety of people - from craftswomen and scientists to architects and politicians - work with materials to transform worlds.

The book focuses on the main security threats, defence industry, arms trade, defence policies and military capabilities related issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Defense & Security Analysis.

This book explores the most important strategic questions about the emerging Indo-Pacific region by offering an incisive analysis on the current and future patterns of competition and cooperation of key nations in the region.Examining emerging policies of cooperation and conflict adopted by Indo-Pacific states in response to a rising China, the book offers insights into the evolving Indo-Pacific visions and strategies being developed in Japan, India, Australia and the US in reaction to shifting geopolitical realities. The book provides evidence of geopolitical advances in what some see as a spatially coherent maritime zone stretching from the eastern Pacific to the western Indian Ocean, including small island states and countries that line its littoral. It also analyzes the development and operationalization of Indo-Pacific policies and strategies of various key nations. Contributors provide both macro and micro perspectives to this critically significant topic, offering insights into the grand strategies of great powers as well as case studies ranging from the Philippines to the Maldives to Kenya. The book suggests that new rivalries, shifting alliances and economic ebbs and flows in the Indo-Pacific will generate new geopolitical realities and shape much else beyond in the twenty-first century.A timely contribution to the rapidly expanding policy and scholarly discussions about what is likely to be the defining region for international politics for coming generations, the book will be of interest to policymakers as well as students and academics in the fields of International Relations, Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Diplomacy and International Law, East and South Asian Studies, East African Studies, Middle East Studies, and Australian Studies.

East Asia has been a growing focal point of geopolitical conflict since the 1940s, and today increasingly sits at the heart of the global economy and high tech as rising regional powers challenge the centuries-old primacy of the Western world. With half a millennium of Western dominated order in the region facing unprecedented challenges and possibly nearing its end, it is now more than ever essential to understand the history behind it and its objectives. This book undertakes the task of elucidating the complex and little-known history of the West¿s involvement in the Asia-Pacifi c, providing context critical to understanding contemporary developments.

Valor is the magnificent story of a genuine American hero who survived the fall of the Philippines and brutal captivity under the Japanese, from New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton.Lieutenant William Frederick "Bill" Harris was 25 years old when captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942. This son of a decorated Marine general escaped from hell on earth by swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay; but his harrowing ordeal had just begun.Shipwrecked on the southern coast of the Philippines, he was sheltered by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and eventually set off through hostile waters to China. After 29 days of misadventures and violent storms, Harris and his crew limped into a friendly fishing village in the southern Philippines. Evading and fighting for months, he embarked on another agonizing voyage to Australia, but was betrayed by treacherous islanders and handed over to the Japanese. Held for two years in the notorious Ofuna prisoner-of-war camp outside Yokohama, Harris was continuously starved, tortured, and beaten, but he never surrendered. Teaching himself Japanese, he eavesdropped on the guards and created secret codes to communicate with fellow prisoners. After liberation on August 30, 1945, Bill represented American Marine POWs during the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before joining his father and flying to a home he had not seen in four years.Valor is a riveting new look at the Pacific War. Through military documents, personal photos, and an unpublished memoir provided by his daughter, Harris' experiences are dramatically revealed through his own words in the expert hands of bestselling author and retired fighter pilot Dan Hampton. This is the stunning and captivating true story of an American hero.