Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I think most people know more about World War II in Europe than they do about the war in the Pacific. Yet, for America, the War began and ended in the Pacific. Maybe it is just harder to do movies about ships and island invasions than it is about ground campaigns. We always talk about Omaha Beach, and we should, but there were many invasions of islands in the Pacific that were more costly in life for us and the enemy.
This book has more than 200 well chosen photographs that show us some views of Pearl Harbor and the various battles of the Pacific that are not always shown. Obviously, some of them, such as the photo of the Hiroshima bomb detonation, are well known. I learned some new things from the photos and the captions by Bob Duncan. For example, I knew that there was tremendous loss of life during the attack on Pearl Harbor, but I didn't know about those trapped in the Oklahoma and the rescue efforts that saved some, but others lingered for two weeks until they died in the dark of the overturned ship.
The shot of the Missouri firing her guns and the water "boiling" from the concussion is simply breathtaking. While there are plenty of shots taken during the fighting and there are some shots of the dead, none are gruesome or shown for the sake of horror. But the effects of the war on those who fought it are explained quite well. We also get a humorous shot of a soldier sitting on an unexploded shell from a 16-inch gun emptying the sand from his shoes. Talk about the definition of nonchalant!
The book is in three parts: Crisis in the Pacific (1941-1942), Learning New Ways of War (1942-1944), and A Colossus Emerges (1944-1945). There are many great shots of the ships, planes, guns, and soldiers who fought in the war. Mostly American soldiers, but a few Japanese show up. Mostly we see the Americans doing their level best to kill as many Japanese as they can, which, during the fighting, was an important task.
This is a terrific book and should be viewed and read by everyone.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
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On December 7, 1941, America s hopes of remaining neutral in World War II disappeared in the oily smoke that roiled from her battleships burning at Pearl Harbor. The nation faced Herculean tasks to strike back against the Imperial Japanese military that had attacked her. Victory demanded crossing thousands of miles of ocean, creating new weapons, and arming hundreds of thousands of young men to fight their way across a series of desolate islands that a fanatical enemy had fortified to exact the highest possible price from the American troops.Historic Photos of World War II Pearl Harbor to Japan portrays this epic story, using black-and-white photographs selected from the finest archives and private collections. From the sinking of the Arizona to the raising of the Stars and Stripes over Japan, Historic Photos of World War II Pearl Harbor to Japan depicts in a way mere words cannot the determination, struggle, and sacrifices of America s fighting men as they rose to the challenge of liberating free peoples of the Pacific from a conquering invader.
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