"Strangling the Home Islands" explores the final year of the Pacific War and the Allied strategy to force Japan's surrender through economic warfare and the destruction of infrastructure. Featuring John T. Kuehn, PhD, and James M. Scott, chaired by Jonathan Parshall, the session examines the U.S. Navy's blockade, the Army Air Force's firebombing and aerial mining campaigns, and the profound impact on Japan's economy, civilian population, and military leadership.
This session is part of The National WWII Museum's 2024 International Conference on World War II presented by the Pritzker Military Foundation, on behalf of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library. For more information: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/about-us/notes-museum/2024-international-conference-world-war-ii
The International Conference on World War II is the premier adult educational event bringing together the best and brightest scholars, authors, historians, and witnesses to history from around the globe to discuss key battles, personalities, strategies, issues, and controversies of the war that changed the world. Joining the featured speakers are hundreds of attendees who travel from all over the world to learn and connect with each other through engaging discussions, question-and-answer periods, book signings, and receptions throughout the weekend.
John Kuehn is a professor of military history at the US Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). He served as Fleet Admiral Ernest King Visiting Professor of Maritime History at the Naval War College from 2020–21. He retired from the US Navy in 2004 with the rank of Commander after 23 years, serving as a naval flight officer flying land- and carrier-based aircraft. He has taught a variety of subjects, including military history, at CGSC since 2000. Along with numerous articles and editorials, Kuehn is the author of Agents of Innovation (2008); A Military History of Japan: From the Age of the Samurai to the 21st Century (2014); Napoleonic Warfare: The Operational Art of the Great Campaigns (2015); America’s First General Staff (2017); and The 100 Worst Military Disasters (2020). He coauthored Eyewitness Pacific Theater (2008) with D. M. Giangreco. He was awarded a Moncado Prize from the Society for Military History in 2011 and a Vandevort Prize from the same organization in 2023. His newest book, Strategy in Crisis: The War In the Pacific, 1937-1945, was published in 2023 by the Naval Institute Press.
James Scott, a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, is the author of Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor, which was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist and named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews, The Christian Science Monitor, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. His other works include The War Below: The Story of Three Submarines That Battled Japan and The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly 1967 Assault on a US Spy Ship, which won the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award. Scott’s fourth book, Rampage, was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by the editors at Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, and Military Times. In addition, Scott has been interviewed on national television, public radio, and in newspapers ranging from The New York Times to The Washington Post. Scott also was a featured presenter on the Smithsonian Channel’s television series Hell Below and at the 2018 International Conference on World War II. Scott lives with his wife and two children in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.
Jonathan Parshall is coauthor of Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Widely published on the Pacific War, his work has appeared in the Naval War College Review, Naval History magazine and Naval Institute Proceedings, Wartime (the Magazine of the Australian War Memorial), World War II magazine, the Northern Mariner, and many others. He is a frequent speaker at venues such as The National WWII Museum, the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, the National Museum of the Pacific War, and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. He has appeared on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian Channel. Parshall is a coauthor of Fighting in the Dark (2023), which details the history of naval night combat, as well as a forthcoming new narrative history of the year 1942, covering all theaters of the war. He is a graduate of Carleton College and the Carlson School of Management.