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Pacific War Stories: In the Words of Those Who Survived

Author:

Publisher: WW Norton

Published: 2011-09-27

Total Pages: 1224

ISBN-13: 0789260107

This is the most extensive collection published to date of first-person oral histories on so many diverse aspects of the war in the Pacific—told in gripping, eyewitness accounts by more than seventy veterans from all branches of service. In this new book by the authors of Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory of World War II in the Pacific, the history of the War in the Pacific comes vividly to life in the words of those who witnessed it first hand. The editors create for the reader, as the veterans themselves recall it, what that war was like—how it looked, felt, smelled, and sounded. The stories collected here are a unique portrayal of the mundane, exotic, boring, terrifying, life-altering events that made up their wartime experiences in World War II in the Pacific, a war fought on countless far-flung islands over an area that constitutes about one-third of the globe. What the veterans saw and lived through has stayed with them their entire lives, and much of it comes to the surface again through their vivid memories. This is an important book for military buffs as well as for the survivors of World War II and their families. The narratives, grouped into fifteen thematic, chronologically arranged chapters, are stirring, first-hand accounts, from front-line combat at the epicenter of violence and death to restless, weary boredom on rear area islands thousands of miles from the fighting. While their experiences differed, all were changed by what happened to them in the Pacific. These are not the stories of sweeping strategies or bold moves by generals and admirals. Instead, we hear from men and women on the lower rungs, including ordinary seamen on vessels that encountered Japanese warships and planes and sometimes came out second best, rank-and-file Marines who were in amtracs churning toward bullet-swept tropical beaches and saw their buddies killed beside them, and astounded eyewitnesses to the war’s sudden start on December 7, 1941.

Pacific Legacy

Author: Gerald A. Meehi

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2019-04-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0789213338

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The classic photo book about the battlegrounds of the Pacific Theater then and now—updated with new information about the preservation and accessibility of these historic sites. Pacific Legacy offers an unprecedented record of the relics of World War II that have survived on the islands of the Pacific: American landing craft rusting on the reefs where they were stopped by enemy fire; shell-pocked Japanese fortifications; fallen aircraft overgrown by jungle; packed-coral landing strips still as good as new. These evocative color images are paired with archival photographs that show the same tropical battlegrounds as they appeared in wartime. The text covers the entire war in the Pacific, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to Japan’s surrender in Tokyo Bay. The principal battles are recounted hour-by-hour, drawing heavily on firsthand accounts. This vivid narrative helps the reader visualize what it was really like to be at war in the Pacific, doggedly island-hopping to victory.

Voices of the Pacific

Author: Adam Makos

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0425257835

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From the New York Times bestselling author of Spearhead and A Higher Call comes an unflinching, brutal, and relentless firsthand chronicle of United States Marine Corps' actions in the Pacific during World War 2. Following fifteen Marines from the Pearl Harbor attack, through battles with the Japanese, to their return home after V-J Day, Adam Makos and Marcus Brotherton have compiled an oral history of the Pacific War in the words of the men who fought on the front lines. With unflinching honesty, these Marines reveal harrowing accounts of combat with an implacable enemy, the friendships and camaraderie they found--and lost--and the aftermath of the war's impact on their lives. With unprecedented access to the veterans, rare photographs, and unpublished memoirs, Voices of the Pacific presents true stories of heroism as told by such World War II veterans as Sid Phillips, R. V. Burgin, and Chuck Tatum--whose exploits were featured in the HBO(R) miniseries, The Pacific--and their Marine buddies from the legendary 1st Marine Division. Includes rare photos

War Stories II

Author: Oliver North

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-03-28

Total Pages: 687

ISBN-13: 1596983051

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When it comes to sheer savagery endured by the American fighting man, few combat theaters could match the Pacific in WorldWar II: the sodden malarial and Japanese infested jungles of New Guinea and Guadalcanal, the kamikaze pilots for whom death was no deterrent, and the blood-soaked beaches taken by island-hopping Marines. Here, in their own words, are the compelling stories of American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, as told to decorated combat veteran Lt. Colonel Oliver North.

One Marine's War

Author: Gerald A Meehl

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2012-05-15

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1612510930

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One Marine’s War recounts the experiences of Robert Sheeks, a Marine combat interpreter, and how he underwent a remarkable transformation as a consequence of his encounters with the Imperial Japanese Army, Nisei Japanese-American language instructors, Japanese and Pacific Island native civilians, and American Marines. It is the first time the entire story of one Marine Corps combat interpreter has been told, and it provides a unique insight into an aspect of the Pacific war that is not only fascinating history, but also a compelling personal struggle to come to terms with a traumatic childhood and subsequent harrowing combat experiences. The son of an American corporate executive, Bob was born and raised in Shanghai until the family fled the impending Japanese occupation in the 1930s. He was emotionally scarred by grisly atrocities he personally witnessed as the Japanese military terrorized the Chinese population during the “Shanghai Incident” in 1932. However, his intense hatred for the Japanese military was gradually transformed into tolerance and then compassion. He was recruited out of Harvard after the Pearl Harbor attack to be a Japanese language interpreter in the Marine Corps. When he encountered kind and considerate Japanese-American Nisei instructors during the intensive course at the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School at the University of Colorado, he began to re-think his attitudes toward the Japanese. Ultimately, through an intriguing set of circumstances, he developed an empathy for the Japanese enemy he formerly despised. This began during the invasion of Tarawa where he was frustrated by the near impossibility of capturing Japanese combatants, partly because there was no way to communicate with them in their bunkers where they fought to the death. That led him to devise methods to use a combination of surrender leaflets and amplified voice appeals to convince the enemy to surrender. As a consequence, he personally ended up saving the lives of hundreds of Japanese civilians and military by being able to talk them out of caves during combat on Saipan and Tinian in 1944. He was able to find humanity in the midst of war. For his efforts he was awarded the Bronze Star with a unique commendation, certainly one of the few medals ever given to a Marine officer for saving the lives of the enemy.

Into the Rising Sun

Author: Patrick K. O'Donnell

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2010-07-13

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 1439192693

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In his award-winning book Beyond Valor, Patrick O’Donnell reveals the true nature of the European Theater in World War II, as told by those who survived. Now, with Into the Rising Sun, O’Donnell tells the story of the brutal Pacific War, based on hundreds of interviews spanning a decade. The men who fought their way across the Pacific during World War II had to possess something more than just courage. They faced a cruel, fanatical enemy in the Japanese, an enemy willing to use anything for victory, from kamikaze flights to human-guided torpedoes. Over the course of the war, Marines, paratroopers, and rangers spearheaded D-Day–sized beach assaults, encountered cannibalism, suffered friendly-fire incidents, and endured torture as prisoners of war. Though they are truly heroes, they claim no glory for themselves. As one soldier put it, "When somebody gets decorated, it’s because a lot of other men died." By at last telling their stories, these men present a hard, unvarnished look at the war on the ground, a final gift from aging warriors who have already given so much. Only with these accounts can the true horror of the war in the Pacific be fully known. Together with detailed maps of each battle, Into the Rising Sun offers a complete yet deeply personal account of the war in the Pacific and a ground-level view of some of history’s most brutal combat.

One Square Mile of Hell

Author: John Wukovits

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2022-10-04

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0593187474

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For Dutton Caliber's American War Heroes series, the riveting true account of the Battle of Tarawa, an epic World War II clash in which the U.S. Marines fought the Japanese nearly to the last man. In November 1943, the men of the 2d Marine Division were instructed to clear out Japanese resistance on the Pacific island of Betio, a speck at the end of the Tarawa Atoll. When the Marines landed, the Japanese poured out of their underground bunkers—and launched one of the most brutal and bloody battles of World War II. For three straight days, attackers and defenders fought over every square inch of sand in a battle with no defined frontlines, and where there was no possibility of retreat—because there was nowhere to retreat to. It was a struggle that would leave both sides stunned and exhausted, and prove both the fighting mettle of the Americans and the fanatical devotion of the Japanese. Drawn from new sources, including participants’ letters and diaries and exclusive firsthand interviews with survivors, One Square Mile of Hell is the true story of a battle between two determined foes, neither of whom would ever look at the other in the same way again.

Survivors of WWII in the Pacific

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781310262678

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Survivors of WWII in the Pacific is a collection of personal stories by victims and veterans of World War Two in the Pacific. Feeling that these stories deserve to be preserved as historical evidence of the suffering and heroic actions of civilians and military alike, Ronny Herman de Jong, a survivor herself of Japanese prison camps, gathered and edited these stories for your edification.

Goodbye, Darkness

Author: William Manchester

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2008-12-14

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 0316054631

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This emotional and honest novel recounts a young man's experiences during World War II and digs deep into what he and his fellow soldiers lived through during those dark times. The nightmares began for William Manchester 23 years after WW II. In his dreams he lived with the recurring image of a battle-weary youth (himself), "angrily demanding to know what had happened to the three decades since he had laid down his arms." To find out, Manchester visited those places in the Pacific where as a young Marine he fought the Japanese, and in this book examines his experiences in the line with his fellow soldiers (his "brothers"). He gives us an honest and unabashedly emotional account of his part in the war in the Pacific. "The most moving memoir of combat on WW II that I have ever read. A testimony to the fortitude of man...a gripping, haunting, book." --William L. Shirer

Pacific War Stories

Author: Richard Allison

Publisher:

Published: 2020-09-18

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9781716699955

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This book describes in striking detail six different aspects of our enormous struggle with the empire of Japan, starting with a never published handwritten survivor account of a battleship sinking at Pearl Harbor (written only weeks after the attack) and ending with the peaceful occupation of Japan and the establishment of America as the Pacific superpower. The 1942-43 story is of a Yale University NROTC graduate who assumes command of a US subchaser and deploys to Australia to join "MacArthur's Navy" where he is immediately thrust into patrol convoy duty. He writes of harsh tension within the chain-of-command, exhaustion, boredom, anger, loneliness and anxiety as he leads his crew into combat. In 1944 a married father endures infantry jungle fighting with a hometown buddy in New Guinea and the Philippine Islands. A belief in God and small town community support in the form of prayers and letters received sustain these men until they return, diseased and wounded, on hospital ships. The same year a U.S. Army psychiatric nurse endlessly treats battle-fatigued G.I.s at an island station hospital. It changes her life. In 1945 a ship's surgeon prepares to receive on board the first casualties from the invasion of Okinawa. He volunteered especially for this duty. Months later the war is over and the rest of 1945 and all of 1946 is a party of youth and Navy salt for a young sailor stuck on the US central Pacific stronghold of Guam. Readers who enjoy immersing themselves in history that makes them feel like they are there will find a gem in this book.