Readers certainly won’t be bored, but they’ll find a richer, more comprehensive account in George Feifer’s Tennozan: The...
A history of the battle of Okinawa, from investigative reporter Sloan (Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944—The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War, 2005, etc.).
Okinawa’s Japanese commander decided not to defend the beaches for the logical reason that earlier attempts on other islands had failed in the face of overwhelming naval firepower. His 110,000 troops retreated to the island’s mountainous southern third, where they constructed dense interlocking fortifications including elaborate underground tunnels and living quarters. American forces also learned from earlier battles. Previous bombardments had left defenses largely intact, so Okinawa received the greatest pounding in history, which devastated civilians and literally demolished Okinawan culture but hardly touched Japanese defenses. Landing April 1, the Americans were amazed at the absence of resistance. A week passed before they encountered the enemy and launched nearly three months of brutal fighting during which 107,000 Japanese and 12,000 Americans died—the United States’s greatest loss in any battle during World War II. Since the Japanese were defending a remote section of the island, far from the critical airfields, readers may wonder why U.S. leaders didn’t simply seal off the area and allow the already starving defenders to wither. The author reminds us more than once that Okinawa’s stout defense convinced U.S. leaders that invading Japan proper, scheduled for November, would cost massive casualties. Sharing this belief, soldiers breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing of the atom bomb. Writing from the American point of view, Sloan pays less attention to Japanese military actions and to Okinawans, who died in greater numbers than both combatants. Like many popular historians, the author can’t resist enlivening a story that needs little dramatization—though some of the veterans’ stories are compelling.
Readers certainly won’t be bored, but they’ll find a richer, more comprehensive account in George Feifer’s Tennozan: The Battle of Okinawa and the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb (1992).Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7432-9246-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
This colorful narrative succeeds at bringing four historically distant lives closer to us. Tillyard (The Impact of Modernism, not reviewed) reveals the characters of four well-to-do Englishwomen who rode the shifting cultural currents between 1740 and the onset of the Victorian age. While thorough research accounts in part for the range and reach of Aristocrats, the privileged lives of the four sisters themselves gives the author unusual access to extraordinary stories. As the daughters of the second Duke of Richmond (descended from an illegitimate son of Charles II, he was a a cabinet minister and a gentleman-scientist), these intelligent, well-educated women were exposed to the newest ideas of the 18th century, as well as to the latest plays, books, and fashions. Over the course of their lives, each would make strong choices and live—for better or worse—with the consequences. Against her parents' wishes, Caroline Lennox married for love an ungainly, politically ambitious M.P. who nearly became prime minister of England; their elopement created a scandal in London. Her canny younger sister Emily married the senior peer of Ireland when she was 15; she spent his fortune freely and bore him 19 children. Louisa Lennox wed Ireland's richest man. Sarah, the youngest, was courted by King George III, who ultimately humiliated her by marrying a German princess. The Lennox women bore children who became important cultural figures—indeed revolutionaries; Emily's son Edward participated in the Irish Rebellion of the 1790s. Tillyard is adept at showing how the next generation's radicalism was a product of, as well as a reaction against, the family heritage. Using thousands of letters exchanged among the sisters, their lovers, their children, and their friends, Tillyard reconstructs the sisters' relationships to one another, to the others in their lives, and to the changing culture around them. Although the formal history could be more adeptly integrated, Tillyard generally brings the women and their extraordinary world to life.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-374-10305-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
From historian and former Librarian of Congress Boorstin (The Creators, 1992, etc.), 17 sparkling and erudite essays that ``explore some of the surprising novelties and unexpected continuities in our recent past.'' Boorstin is a magnificent anachronism: He still believes in the essential goodness of the American experiment, and as an amateur rather than professional historian, he prefers straightforward narratives on grand themes rather than narrowly focused, footnote-laden quarrels with musty academics. These pieces, all published since 1986 as either keynote addresses or introductions to other writers' books, amply display his gift for arresting anecdotes and his ability to connect different events in compelling new ways. Several of his interests come to the fore here. First is his fascination with discovery and the creative process. He discusses the partnership between ``the search to know'' (discovery) and ``the passion to innovate'' (invention) and our current ``Age of Negative Discovery'' (case in point: James Cook, whose 18th-century Pacific explorations showed that the ``Great Southern Continent'' did not exist). While dazzled by advances in science and technology, Boorstin remains aware of their ephemeral nature, noting that all discovery ultimately reveals new realms of human ignorance. On the positive side, technology has given rise to revered American institutions; mass printing, for instance, paved the way for greater public acceptance of the Constitution. As a social analyst, Boorstin examines the role of conscience in Western literature and in America's current contentious politics. Alexis de Tocqueville and the Marquis de Custine, who wrote respectively of 1830s America and Russia, are his examples of social commentators who use history as a ``cautionary science'' and an avenue into a nation's soul. Finally, he offers a personal tribute to his lawyer father and ``the amateur spirit'' in the arts. Like the curious amateurs he celebrates, Boorstin offers ``a wonderful vagrancy into the unexpected.''
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-43505-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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