Alvin D. Coox
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Alvin David Coox, (pronounced "cooks"; March 8, 1924, Rochester, New York – November 4, 1999,
San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
) was an American military historian and author known for his award-winning book, ''Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia''. Coox studied at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
with a bachelor's degree in accounting and achieved his doctorate in history at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He taught at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in the 1940s and at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
, before working as an analyst for the United States Air Force after they went to Japan. From 1964 to 1995, he taught at
San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...
. Coox is primarily known for his two volume book, ''Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia'', about the nearly forgotten battles in the Nomonhan Incident, where the Soviet Union and Japan fought for control of Mongolia and where Japan was halted in its inland westward conquest from
Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
. In 1986, he received the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize.


Scholarship and impact

Coox told colleagues that his book on Nomonhan was a result of 35 years of research and more than 400 interviews. Nomonhan was a "nearly forgotten moment in history," wrote John H. Boyle in his review in the '' Journal of Asian Studies''. Coox "reconstructed the Japanese folly at Nomonhan in all of its political, military, and human dimensions to produce a masterful study that will stand as a model of scholarship for military historians." He showed that the Japanese army "did not know and did not want to know about enemy capabilities," and that the Japanese decision makers were so shaken by the defeat that they turned their strategic emphasis away from the Soviet Union in the north to opportunities in the south.


Selected works

* ''The Unfought War: Japan, 1941-1942'', San Diego State University Press 1992 * " Repulsing The Pearl Harbor Revisionists: The State Of Present Literature On The Debacle," In ''Pearl Harbor Reexamined: Prologue To The Pacific War'', edited by Hilary Conroy and Harry Wray. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1990. * ''Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia 1939'', 2 vols, Stanford University Press 1988 * "The Pacific War Revisited (Review Article)," ''Pacific Affairs'' 56.1 (1983) *
Japan: The Final Agony
', Ballantine Books 1970 *
The Anatomy Of A Small War: The Soviet-Japanese Struggle For Changkufeng-Khasan, 1938
', Greenwood Press 1977 * with Saburo Hayashi, Kōgun, ''The Japanese Army in the Pacific War'', Quantico, US Marine Corps 1959, Greenwood Press 1978 *
Tojo
', Ballantine Books 1975


References


External links


Pacific Rim Archive: Alvin Coox papers
University of Southern California. 1924 births 1999 deaths Writers from Rochester, New York American military historians American historians of World War II Harvard University faculty San Diego State University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni New York University alumni Historians from New York (state) {{US-historian-stub