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
Although the during-and-after-Milosevic format in each segment grows tiresome, Seirestad’s educated eye sees all that’s...
An intrepid Norwegian journalist follows the varied fortunes of Serbs—ranging from celebrities to refugees—during and after the reign of Slobodan Milosevic.
Seierstad has trod the bloody ground of Afghanistan (The Bookseller of Kabul, 2003) and Iraq (A Hundred and One Days, 2005) and here recounts her experiences in Serbia between 1999 and 2004. She tells the stories of 13 individuals and one family, virtually all of whom share two beliefs: The Serbs committed no war crimes or “ethnic cleansing”; and the United States is the cause of all their troubles. Says a Milosevic protégé: “America is the source of all wickedness in the world.” To Seierstad’s credit, she does not accept these assertions silently; rather, she prompts her sources to elaborate and to justify. Most merely repeat what they’ve seen on government television—or rumors they’ve heard from frustrated friends. Seierstad interviewed people who varied widely on just about every human dimension—income, education, sophistication, political affiliation, celebrity. Among the latter were some media personalities, a novelist (Ana Rodic, whose Roots was a Serbian bestseller) and rock musician Antonio Pusic, who goes by “Rambo Amadeus” and describes his music as “acid-horror-funk.” Seierstad went boating with him and added some tracks to one of his CDs. Among the many charms of the author’s work is that her Serb contacts are all invariably glad to see her, grateful for her attention, eager to tell their stories. (Some even try to find her a husband.) Perhaps the most touching story is that of a family from Kosovo now living in a refugee center in southern Serbia. When the Kosovo Albanians arrived, bent on ethnic vengeance, the family fled, leaving behind virtually all they had—except their photo albums and their hope.
Although the during-and-after-Milosevic format in each segment grows tiresome, Seirestad’s educated eye sees all that’s important, and her compassionate heart beats in tandem with some poorly understood, deeply afflicted people.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2006
ISBN: 0-465-07602-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
A compelling book dealing with the question of MIAs in Vietnam. As a journalist Keating has worked for Soldier of Fortune magazine and the conservative Washington Times. Nonetheless, in the present volume, she uses her skills as an investigative reporter to attack the notion that American POWs and MIAs were left behind in Indochina. A vocal lobby clamors for a full accounting of all MIAs, numbered by the federal government at around 1,200. Reported sightings add fuel to the belief that American soldiers were held hostage by the Vietnamese and abandoned by a government eager to put the war behind it. After all, the logic goes, hadn't it happened to the French in the 1950s? The truth, however, according to Keating, is that the US experience is not that of the French: No American POWs remain. And aside from a few known defectors, all the MIAs are dead. Citing the 80,000 missing from WW II, Keating points out that MIAs are part of the nature of modern warfare, in which the recovery or identification of remains is often impossible. In the case of the Vietnam POWs, however, the military had reduced the number of true ``missing'' to under 100 before a political hue and cry forced them to inflate the MIA list with the names of many men known to be dead but whose bodies were not found. Sightings of live POWs are hoaxes, says Keating, designed to fuel a political machine or to extort money from relatives on the slim hope that the men are alive. She slams, in particular, mercenaries like Bull Simons and Bo Gritz, who plan raids into Indochina (most of which never occur) in search of the lost. The real conspiracy, writes Keating, is not committed by a government bent on hiding a scandal but by those who prey on the hopes and fears of the ones truly left behind—the families of the dead. Highly persuasive.
Pub Date: Nov. 11, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-43016-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
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