Realistic portrayal of WW 2 in the Pacific theater
581213
Addicting series to watch. After living Iiving on a Pacific island for many years I was really interested in seeing how the islands would be portrayed. I have to say the jungle, beaches, terrain, flora, etc, was very very realistic. There is a story line to this that kept me wanting to see the next episode, however sad things may be. I will probably watch it all again.
1122860
Two different war series of WWII. Band of Brothers set in Europe with the troops facing odds stacked against them. Pacific was based on personal lives of some Marines during the war in Pacific. Both true stories. Both well told. Lots of blood, guts, loss, sadness & glory in both. Pacific more gruesome in ways of war there. Sex & Nudity in Pacific as it relates to these Marines lives. Also, gives a glimpse of the after effects of the war.
1068337
Accurate and realistic ... done in the style of  "Saving Private Ryan" ....
2263237
To a WWII Naval historian who loves the Pacific Theater this is a very good story  Backed into a most interesting time period and with enough "extra" plots to make it very interesting
To me, an enjoyable read
3025801
Published to coincide with the History Channel broadcast of the same title, and based on The Story of World War II, which was in turn Miller's revision and update of Henry Steele Commager's book of the same name.  Miller is a much-published history professor and PBS host. Although the title refers to the 127 separate over-the-beach operations that occurred in the Pacific theater, he spends most of his effort on a relatively small number of familiar names-Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Saipan, Peleliu, Okinawa.  Good section on the B-29 raids, with many quotes from General Curtis LeMay.  Miller's discussion of the decision to use the atomic bomb, with the war aims, fears, and political intentions surrounding it, concentrates on the soldiers in the theater who expected a bloody and suicidal struggle on the home islands, and were eager to do anything to avoid it.  The author has a remarkable narrative flair and a fine eye for the detail that makes history come alive.  Effective use of first-person accounts.  Nothing new here, but a fine introduction to the war in the Pacific. Extensive bibliography. Well worth the purchase as a reasonably short and accessible history.
3981529
This historical account begins in the Philippine Islands during the first days of World War II.  Jack Morris tells this story like a novel.  However, he did a lot of research including interviewing survivors of the US Army (Reserve) Coastal Battery that was sent there to protect Clark Field.  The unit was forced to surrender and went through the Batan Death March.  Then they were placed on Japanese Cargo ships.  This portion of the story ends with the prisoners locked in cargo holds with no light, little fresh air, water, or food.

This story tells it like it was. It is very descriptive, told in soldiers language, and may be hard for some to read.  But, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this part of the war in the Pacific.
3571980
Clearly the result of some very thorough research, and a very moving account of the horrid side of the Pacific War. I really enjoyed the book, and the well-told narrative, but didn't really get to know the characters as well as I would have liked. I saw them more as caricatures than as characters. Historically very interesting, and the 'big picture' was well painted. A very good read, despite the graphic details of abuse in the prisoner-of-war camps.
4190516
Days of Infamy (2004) is the first novel in the Pacific War series.  On December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier planes attacked the US installations at Pearl Harbor.  They sank all the US battleships in the Pacific and destroyed most of the Army Air Corps planes at Hickam Field.  They could not sink the three carriers stationed at Pearl Harbor since these ships were at sea.

In this novel, the Japanese send a third wave of planes to bomb the tank farms and repair facilities.  Then the Japanese army lands on the north shore of Oahu.  Since the Japanese carrier planes are supporting the invasion, the nearby US carriers send planes to protect US troops;  then the Japanese planes find the US carriers and sink or disable all three.

The US army fights back as best it can, but is disorganized, outnumbered, and then defeated in detail.  Eventually most of the soldiers surrender to the Japanese.  Of course, the Japanese consider surrender to be dishonorable and set out to work the prisoners to death.  By the way, Fletcher Armitage is an artillery officer in the US Army, not an aviator.

The Japanese army takes Oahu and then the rest of the nearby islands.  The Japanese set up an occupation government under Army command.  They punish infringement of their orders with death;  the high school principal is beheaded for keeping a radio despite Japanese orders to turn it in to the occupying troops.

The Japanese now have a forward base within flying boat range of the continental US.  They bomb Los Angeles and other sites and fly recon on the west coast.  Their biggest problem is the US use of radar, which they don't yet have despite positive advances in their laboratories.

Since most food stores in Hawaii were shipped in from elsewhere, the Japanese convert some commercial farms to food production and encourage the residents to plant gardens.  The fishermen convert their boats to sail and keep on fishing.

Older Japanese residents in Hawaii identify with the invaders, but find that most of their children consider themselves to be Americans.  Some Japanese residents are designated as village overseers by the occupying army, but are often more sympathetic toward their neighbors than the occupation troops.  However, the haoles still consider themselves to be superior to any colored races;  nevertheless, they quickly learn that the Japanese also have racial prejudices.

This novel is basically fiction, but the habits of Japanese occupation armies in the Phillipines and elsewhere have been well documented.  The attitudes depicted herein are truly characteristic of the Japanese at all levels.  The Japanese still exhibit racial prejudices toward their own minorities and other nationalities.  Then, too, other races and nationalities return the favor;  the Okinawans were less than pleased about their return to Japanese rule in 1972.  And many Filipinos, Koreans and other nationalities still hate the Japanese.

Of course, the perseverance and creativity of the Japanese are also well documented.  Fortunately, the US army of occupation in Japan was considerably less harsh and rewarded these and other positive aspects of the Japanese culture.  Now the Japanese are teaching us the same lessons.

In real history, the Japanese didn't attack the tank farms, didn't invade Hawaii, and didn't sink or disable the US carriers.  The destruction of the tank farms does more harm than good to the Japanese;  the Japanese are already short of oil and now the invading force is really short of petroleum products.  The invading army hinders the return of US forces, but also takes these troops away from other areas where they were needed.  The final difference drastically hurts the US efforts to regain the islands;  carriers have to be diverted from other theaters of operation and this takes time.

Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alternate histories and foreign cultures.

-Arthur W. Jordin
182748
A well written book about the horrors one man and his fellow Marines faced in the Pacific theater during WWII.
4844788
My father and uncle both fought with the Marines in the Pacific during WW2.  My dad in the 4th Marine Div. and his brother in the 1st Div.  Both survived but were different.  I was young when they came home, but still remember like it was yesterday.  I know they both saw plenty of action, but this series gave me a greater appreciation for their, and all the others, sacrifices.  I also think the Japanese soldiers were depicted fairly.  Even  though they were our enemy at the time, you have to give the Japanese plenty of credit for their tenacity against overwhelming odds. This is a series you don't want to miss.  It appears to be historically accurate & does  the best job I have seen of depicting the horrors of being on the line.  It also does a good job of showing the costs of war.  Great character development as young men quickly age in a terrible environment. Watched it twice.  Five stars from me.
1460937
This book will immerse you into the theatre of War in Vietnam. The characters are amazingly real in their depiction. You can feel the heat & humidity in the air as you read about the operations talking place. As someone with first hand knowledge of the conditions endured by those who spent time there, I could relate to the story.  The tragedy of War and those who endure the conditions of War are well represented in this story.  Kudos to the author from a former Vietnam Veteran of the 1st Infantry Division. Served  my tour from 1966- 67.
2127930
Based on a real historic event, the author has embellished the tale, changing some of the locations and adding characters to create a narrative about prisoners of war during WWII, but the tale concentrates largely on the escape the Japanese prisoners planned and carried out in Australia. Using facts about the Japanese code of conduct, their demand for honor, obedience and nationalism, he has caught the atmosphere of those times and those prisoners mindsets. The story concentrates on the captives and the captors and their relationships to each other and to their families; it largely concerns the Japanese prisoners but also illuminates the practice of using the Italian prisoners as farm hands instead of placing all of them in prison barracks and compounds. It lightly touches on the way the British prisoners of war were treated by their Japanese captors, but it is obvious that they were not treated as well, nor were the Geneva Convention followed. The Japanese would not accept defeat, did not want to be taken prisoner, and did not believe in giving up. Constantly on their minds was the thought of living to fight another day or dying with honor either at the hands of their enemies or at their own hand.
Around this 1944 event, Keneally has created a fictional narrative, including romantic impulses and infidelities due to the loneliness and distance war creates, and the nature of the characters seems very plausible, under the circumstances. The barbaric behavior of the Japanese is well documented, and the naivete of the Allies in their treatment of the enemy is evident. In the Japanese culture, their honor superseded the value of their lives and they believed that it was their duty to die fighting. It was sheer cowardice to allow the enemy to take them prisoner. Those that were captured, therefore, were recalcitrant, often giving false names so their families would not know they were alive and would mourn them as dead, honoring their memories as brave soldiers who died for their country, rather than as cowards who laid down their arms and were captured..
The arrogance and social distinctions that the British observed was also very well represented. It was that very arrogance that led to many of their mistakes in dealing with the prisoner outbreak. Each culture reacted differently to the loss of their family member and each culture treated prisoners with varying degrees of respect, with the Japanese often abusing their prisoners while the British might have babied them a bit, providing for many creature comforts and distractions, never thinking them capable of the brutality they eventually carried out, not thinking that they might want to even break out when they could stay safe until the war ended and return home to their families if they followed the rules.
The clash of cultures was apparent for the Japanese believed capture was shameful and humiliating; they tried to entice the victors to murder them by running at their weapons or attacking them so that they in turn would be attacked, or else, they even resorted to suicide which to them was an honorable death, more honorable than being a captive, eventually to be returned to society, to a society that had already mourned their loss and would have to revisit that trauma and perhaps shame. While the English and Italian soldiers would most likely be welcomed back home, the Japanese might very well be ostracized for what was considered shameful behavior by a soldier.
4460948
This is another realistic depiction of life in the military before and during World War Two.  The novel is about enlisted men on Oahu just prior and then after the attack on Pearl Harbor, written by an author who had served in the military.  If one reads numerous novels of this type, such as The Naked and The Dead, Battle Cry, Tales of the South Pacific, The Young Lions, one gets a distinct impression of both life in the military and American Society during this time.  These various novels concerning the military vary, course, in degrees of darkness and cynicism.  I would place this novel on the darker side with "The Naked and The Dead."  Also some of these young enlisted men have these amazingly complicated philosophic discussions from time to time.  I don't feel that is realistic.  If one is interested in American domestic life at this time, one might add "Dangling Man" by Saul Bellow and "The Street" by Ann Petry as interesting additions to these novels.

When I was visiting a military family member in Hawaii, I did a walking tour of Honolulu using the streets identified by James Jones.  They are real streets.  The geography is accurate.  (I know, I have no life!!)

This novel of course, is the basis of a very iconic movie of the same name.  Generally I prefer the book to the movie.  That is not the case here.  I liked the movie better.

In summary, I am very glad I read this novel, although I will probably not read it again, at least not in its entirety.  Thank You...
1293480
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, a down to earth kind of guy. The kind of man who gave credit where credit was due. Unlike General Douglas MacAurther, he did not insist on "hogging" all the glory. He wasn't seen as much as a "hero" in the public's eye, like General MacAurther was, because of it. Unlike MacAurther, he did not complain about having to share part of the Pacific Theater. He made sure that the NAVY got the credit it deserved. That the NAVY and the NAVY's Marine Corps fought most of the war in the pacific. I think if you are interested in WWII, Pacific Theater, that this is a book you should read. I think it is worthy of an AUDIO book edition.
2677616
I had two brothers in the U.S. Navy during WWII, both of whom experienced battles in the Pacific.  SAILOR MAN brought back many memories of that dramatic time. My brothers returned safely, but other service people in our neighborhood did not.  Their injuries and deaths affected their families and our neighborhood in many dramatic ways.  SAILOR MAN relates realistic scenes my family and I experienced during those years of WWII and the aftermath. Later I served as a Chaplain in a VA Hospital for 25 years, interviewing  and counseling injured veterans like J.P. Nunnally.  Their troubled mental and emotional lives were the direct result of WWII experiences similar to those related in SAILOR MAN.  .
4390534
A good WW 2 movie about a tank crew.  Seemed very real to me.  Great sound, almost like I was there
830865
A well written reflective novel which truly immerses you in the challenges of the 2nd World War.