Publisher Description

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. 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. This is an important book for military buffs as well as for the survivors of World War II and their families.

Author Biography

Rex Alan Smith and Gerald A. Meehl are the co-authors of Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific. Smith is a veteran of 36 months with the Army Engineers in the Pacific. He is also the author of Abbeville's One Last Look and The Carving of Mount Rushmore. Gerald A. Meehl has travelled extensively in the South Pacific over the last 30 years and has photographed every major Pacific battlefield and site.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents from: Pacific War Stories INTRODUCTION A PACIFIC WAR OVERVIEW 1. "A DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY." PEARL HARBOR, DECEMBER 7, 1941 FIRMAN BALZA, navy, USS Maryland, battleship RUSSELL McCURDY, marines, USS Arizona, battleship EVERETT HYLAND, navy, USS Pennsylvania, battleship DEL ALDRICH, navy, USS Ramsey, destroyer-minesweeper AL BODENLOS, army, Schofield Barracks HARVEY AND JEAN FRASER, army, Schofield Barracks WAYNE "JIM" JOHNSON, army air force, Hickam Field BILL AND RUTH COPE, army air force, Hickam Field TOM LARSON, navy, Pearl Harbor LENORE RICKERT, navy, Pearl Harbor, nurse 2. THE FALL OF THE PHILIPPINES: CORREGIDOR AND THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH, 1941--42 ALAN HANCOCK, army, Bataan Death March IRVING STROBING, army, Corregidor JOHN BRUER, army, Bataan, Corregidor 3. THE DOOLITTLE RAIDERS BOMB TOKYO, APRIL 1942 BILL BOWER, army air force, B-25 pilot 4. ISLAND COMBAT BEGINS AT GUADALCANAL, TARAWA, PELELIU, NEW GUINEA, 1942--44 ROBERT MAHOOD, marines, Guadalcanal 127 CARL ALBRITTON, army, New Guinea, Philippines 134 DAVE BOWMAN, marines, Peleliu, Okinawa 138 5. COPING WITH CASUALTIES: MEDICS AND CORPSMEN, 1942--45 VERN GARRETT, navy, corpsman, USS Yorktown, carrier, and Marine invasions: Tarawa, Guam ROBERT CLACK, navy, corpsman, USS Yorktown, carrier STERLING CALE, navy, corpsman, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal DAVE GUTTERMAN, army, medic, New Guinea, Philippines, Japan 6. COMMUNICATING WITH THE ENEMY: INTERPRETERS, 1942--45 BOB SHEEKS, marines, Japanese language officer, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian DAN WILLIAMS, marines, Japanese language officer, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima HARRY FUKUHARA, army, Nisei interpreter, New Guinea, Philippines, Hiroshima 7. MANNING THE PT BOATS, 1942--45 DAVE LEVY, navy, pt boat skipper, Solomons, Philippines AL HAHN, navy, pt boat motor machinist mate, Philippines 8. THE WAR IN THE AIR, 1942--45 JOHN BEDDALL, army air force, B-25 radio operator and gunner, Marshalls A.C. KLEYPAS, army air force, B-24 radio operator and gunner, New Guinea, Philippines JIM ROSENBROCK, army air force, P-38 and P-51 armorer, New Guinea, Philippines JOHN W. VINZANT, army air force, B-29 pilot FRED WOLKEN, army air force, C-47 troop carrier pilot, New Guinea, Philippines DON VAN INWEGEN, army air force, B-29 tail gunner BILL MASHAW, navy, Naval Air Transport Service pilot LOUIS MEEHL, army air force, gunner 9. THE WAR AT SEA, 1942--45 RUSSELL FRINK, navy, USS Fletcher, destroyer, Solomons WYLIE DAVIS, navy, USS Chicago, cruiser PERRY MAX JOHNSTON, navy, lst 958 OZ LEVERENZ, navy, destroyer crewman BILL LEWIS, navy, lcsl captain, Okinawa CLARENCE COOK, navy, armed guard, merchant ships BILL POND, navy, USS Tulagi, carrier, deck crew CLARENCE "DUDE" STORLA, coast guard, lst 831 GEORGE THOMA, navy, USS Sperry, submarine tender MIKE DeBOLT, navy, USS Portland, cruiser LEO DORSEY, navy, carrier fighter pilot "EX-CHIEF PETTY OFFICER," navy, Underwater Demolition Team [name withheld by request] JIM LOCKHART, navy, submariner 10. LIFE IN THE REAR AREA ISLANDS, 1942--45 FRED GILES, navy, Bora Bora DOUG McEVOY, navy, Midway REX ALAN SMITH, army engineers, Canton, Funafuti, Guam, Philippines CHARLES McNEAL, marines, Samoa ROBERT PHELAN, army, rear area islands CARL HAMILTON, navy, Seabees 11. WAR AS ISLAND NATIVES SAW IT, 1942--45 FALAVI, coast-watcher, Beru, Gilberts KIMIUO AISEK, Truk JORGE CRISTOBAL, navy, Pearl Harbor, Guam 12. THE VIEW FROM JAPAN, 1942--45 PAUL KURODA, Tokyo AKIRA KASAHARA, Tokyo 13. THE FINAL PHASE OF ISLAND COMBAT, PHILIPPINES, SAIPAN, GUAM, TINIAN, IWO JIMA, OKINAWA, 1944--45 JIM MILLIFF, marines, Bougainville, Guam HARLAN WALL, army, Philippines FRED SAIZ, army, New Guinea, Philippines MILO CUMPSTON, marines, Iwo Jima BILL HASTINGS, marines, Iwo Jima JOE WOODS, marines, Saipan, Iwo Jima 14. FACING THE KAMIKAZE, 1944--45 JIM SPRIGGS, navy, USS Laffey, destroyer BOB KARR, navy, USS Laffey, destroyer LARRY DELEWSKI, navy, USS Laffey, destroyer DALE KILLIAN, coast guard, lst 170 15. THE SURRENDER, AND ENTERING JAPAN, 1945 HOADLEY DEAN, army, advance party into Japan KEN GUENTHER, army, Philippines, Hokkaido THE PACIFIC WAR IN RETROSPECT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEX

Excerpt from Book

Excerpt from: Pacific War Stories Introduction A man in his eighties sits down as the table and carefully spreads out in front of him ten or so small black-and-white photographs. They have all now taken on a kind of amber hue, after some sixty-odd years, but their images are still sharp and clear. All the photos picture very young men, teenagers clowning for the camera, hats at jaunty angles, on beaches, in front of tents, palm trees always in the background. "I''m this fellow here. He points to one of the smiling lads in the photo closet to him. You look up from the old photo to the face of this amiable, distinguished, Pacific war veteran, and it''s difficult to imagine that they are the same person. Then, as arranged, he starts to tell his story, first what made him enlist in 1942, then the crazy things that happened while training Stateside for war, then being crammed into a converted Hawaiian cruise ship with thousands of other teenagers, crossing the Pacific with a sense of high adventure, and then further stories of wild times on leave in wartime Honolulu. Then he finds himself on another ship, this time going to invade an enemy island he has never heard of, an island few people even remember today. Then, in an uninterrupted stream, there are stories of terror, violence, and death, interspersed with bizarre and even humorous events, You marvel at how easily he can switch his narrative from a truly gruesome experience to one that is so funny he has trouble getting it out between fits of laughter. Ultimately he tells about hearing that atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan, and he confides that he felt a profound sense of relief when he learned that the war in the Pacific was finally over, that he would indeed survive the war. Then one last story, about another ocean voyage, on another ship, but this one is taking him home. He stops for a moment, and you think the stories have ended, but it is just a pause. Perhaps unexpectedly, he has somehow tapped deep into a well-secured vault of Pacific war memories, and now they begin to resurface one after another. His face brightens again and again as more images of things that happened come into focus. "And I remember one time--and, you know, I don''t think I ever told my family this story..." and he launches into a humorous, R-rated experience he had in Honolulu. Then another island combat anecdote. Then a story of a strange thing that happened to a friend of his on one of the islands. He will later say he''s told you stories he hasn''t related to anyone for a long time, and some of them he''s never told since the war. When they first came back, most Pacific war veterans didn''t seem to talk much about what happened to them in the islands. They needed first to get on with their lives, and of course they knew that many other veterans had similar stories they could tell. What a vet had personally done, as just one individual embedded somewhere in the Pacific islands, might not have seemed all that spectacular, unique, or even interesting to others, at the time. Sometimes when tempted to tell their stories, the vets could see family eyes roll and hear a chorus of, "THere goes dad again with his old war stories." But even with an interested audience, Pacific war veterans would seldom tell anyone about the bad things that happened. They figured was was tough for everybody one way or another, and nobody would want to hear about the horrible things anyhow. However, half a century later, it dawns on some veterans that they actually did have a part in world history, and that what they did then was even fairly interesting. Since more people appear ready to give them an ear, many are now willing to share their experiences, willing to acknowledge that they did play a role, however small, in the outcome of the Pacific war. Listening to a Pacific war veteran tell his stories is not a relaxing experience. You strain to imagine the scenes he is recalling, and you struggle to keep up, in your mind''s eye, with the images he describes. But as you begin to relive with him his varied experiences, he is no longer an eighty-two-year-old man sitting across from you but a young man stationed on a South Sea island long ago, recounting events with an immediacy that also transports the listener to the Pacific. It''s a form of time travel, and you are there on exotic Pacific islands, living hilarious events that happened on leave in Honolulu, experiences horrific scenes of violence and death, feeling the discomforts of rain, heat, mosquitoes, and the oppressive humidity of the tropics, seeing stunning beauty in lush, island scenery, contemplating all those spectacular sunsets, enduring the boredom, waiting for something big to happen even on rear area islands. As he talks, the face of the elderly man appears to merge with that of the smiling teenager in the photos. You no longer see the thinning hair and creased face but focus instead on a pair of eyes, the same eyes that saw everything he is describing, the eyes that have not aged, that are still as clear and blue at age eighty-two as they were at age eighteen. Those eyes recall all the Pacific islands he describes, all the events he witnessed, all the tragedy and humor of his experiences in the Pacific war. Yet, through his eyes you see but one part of WWII in the Pacific, a tremendous series of historic events staged and played out across one third of the planet''s surface. At the end of the interview, you look at the old photos again, and they seem familiar now. You don''t see just old black-and-white snapshots anymore--the palm fronds are dark green, the tropical sky is brilliant blue, the beaches are searing white, and the uniforms are rumpled khaki against the tan, forever young faces. It is this sense of time travel that we attempt to convey in Pacific War Stories. Having interviewed dozens of war veterans for our earlier book, Pacific Legacy (Abbeville Press, 2002), we sensed that some were aware that their island experiences had been overshadowed in the popular media by stories about the European theater of war, and we knew they wanted to be heard. But of all the eyewitness stories collected, we could only include a fraction in Pacific Legacy. Nevertheless, we were determined to all let them have their say, before it was too late. So in this volume we have been able to present the firsthand war stories of more than seventy veterans, just as they recounted them to us, in as much detail as they remembered, with a level of clarity that is at once remarkable and fascinating. Pacific war veterans are now all close to eighty years of age, or older, yet they still remember in spectacular detail what they did and saw during World War II. Their stories, in this volume, range from up-close and terrifying island combat, to perilous encounters at sea, to aching boredom on rear area islands, and include all the myriad feelings in between that comprise the cast scope, the color, and the vivd imagery within this rich tapestry of stories by veterans who put their lives at risk for their buddies and their country. The result, we hope, will provide those who weren''t there a small sense of what it was like to have had a part in history, to have been out in the Pacific during World War II with a generation of brave and selfless individuals. During the preparation of this book, Dave Levy, a PT boat skipper in the Solomons who served with John Kennedy, told us, "Everybody who was out in the Pacific has all kinds of stories of what they did during the war, and those stories are worth telling, of course. But what I find fascinating is how the war affected the course of our lives. I know my entire future was changed by my experiences in the Pacific with the Navy. Why don''t you let the veterans finish their stories?" We agreed, and include an epilogue to many of the stories, so the veterans can reveal just how this war altered the trajectories of their later lives. For some, the impact was profound, either due to lingering effects of wounds suffered or because of horrifying memories that continued to resurface for years in nightmares and flashbacks. Some simply picked up where they left off and continued with what they had set out to do before the war. Others who could never resume their former lives headed off in entirely different directions, in careers perhaps energized by their Pacific war experiences. But whatever the war veterans did after returning from the islands, all of them agree that their war experiences in the islands have become central elements in their lives. They have found that memories of what happened ten or even twenty years ago are not nearly so vivid as those harsh or humorous events on tropical islands recalled from sixty years ago. The Pacific was veterans who have carried their memories deep inside them all this time are now, in this volume, ready to share their stories.

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