When the Shooting StoppedHighly recommended as a sobering but enlightening account. Richard B. Frank, author of Downfall: The End of the Japanese Empire In the 44 months between December 1941 and August 1945, the Pacific Theater absorbed the attention of the American nation and military longer than any other. Despite the Allied grand strategy of Germany first, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U. S. especially was committed to confronting Tokyo as a matter of