Alvin Coox

Alvin D. Coox (born March 8, 1924 in Rochester , New York , † November 4, 1999 in San Diego , California ) was an American military historian .

Coox graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree and a PhD in history from Harvard University . He taught at Harvard in the 1940s and was at Johns Hopkins University before going to Japan for 15 years as an Air Force Reconnaissance Analyst . From 1964 to 1995 he taught at the University of San Diego and from 1985 to 1987 he was also adjunct professor at Naval War College in San Diego.

Coox is best known for his extensive book about the almost forgotten battles at Nomonhan ( Handagai ) in 1939 between Japan and the Soviet Union , which took place on ten days in August 1939, claimed tens of thousands of deaths and ended in a complete defeat for the Japanese, whose attempt one The invasion of Mongolia from Manchuria ended. After Coox, the Japanese shied away from further conflicts with Russia and turned to the supposedly easier opponent USA. For his 1200-page book, he interviewed more than 400 participants over the course of 35 years of preparation. It earned him a reputation as a military historian not only in the United States but also in Japan.

In 1986 he received the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize in particular for his book on Nomonhan.

Fonts (selection)

• Nomonhan: Japan against Russia 1939, 2 volumes, Stanford University Press 1988
• 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
• The unfought was: Japan, 1941–1942, San Diego State University Press 1992

Web links

• Obituary in the NY Times, Nov. 23, 1999