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A review by jeffmauch
Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II by Robert Leckie
4.0
I'm slowly trying to learn more about the historic events of the past that I feel were glossed over or too briefly covered during my education both in high school and in college. Now I'm not saying we didn't cover WWII, we definitely did, but it seems that other than Pearl Harbor and dropping the bombs on Japan, we mostly ignored the Pacific side of the war. I took courses in college that solely covered WWII and even than, the focus was mostly on the Eastern front, the politics, and the dropping of the bombs. It was almost like Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Midway, Okinawa, and a number of other battles on other no name islands were merely an afterthought.
I was really turned on the this author after he was portrayed in the HBO miniseries "The Pacific" which was a sequel of sorts to the "Band of Brothers" miniseries. The Pacific was an incredible presentation that tied together the stories of a handful of men that fought in the pacific war, island by island. I found it most interesting that it relied heavily on first person source material via the memoirs of these soldiers. One of those soldiers was Robert Leckie, the author of this book, who went on to be a distinguished author after the war. His book, "Helmet for my Pillow" told of his war experiences and was used heavily for the HBO miniseries. He went on to write over 40 books on military/war history. I read his memoir a year or so ago and really enjoyed his candid thoughts on his experiences.
Okinawa is not a memoir. It is more a military history of the battles surrounding and on Okinawa and why they were important. There was also a large focus here of the Japanese side of the war, which we almost never hear in our America first culture. I found the in depth look at the Japanese kamikaze tactics to be both eye opening and sad. The glimpses of humanity among the Japanese leadership on the island is also something we don't see in the movies and stories about this side of the war.
While I did find this to be a very informative, albeit a bit dry, book. I think it struggles to convey tactics to the reader without visuals. I read this on a kindle, so maybe the paper copy includes maps or diagrams that my copy didn't. I also found it hard to keep track of who was going where at times because of all the different companies, regiments, battalions, and of course different military branches. It was also hard to follow the names of all the different ships involved, the author easily named over a hundred of them. I think that this is more of a matter of being an very thoroughly and meticulously researched subject than it was the author just throwing information out there. This is clear by his source material. Overall, I know a lot more about a large portion of the Pacific war side of WWII and I will definitely be reading more of Leckie's works in the future.
I was really turned on the this author after he was portrayed in the HBO miniseries "The Pacific" which was a sequel of sorts to the "Band of Brothers" miniseries. The Pacific was an incredible presentation that tied together the stories of a handful of men that fought in the pacific war, island by island. I found it most interesting that it relied heavily on first person source material via the memoirs of these soldiers. One of those soldiers was Robert Leckie, the author of this book, who went on to be a distinguished author after the war. His book, "Helmet for my Pillow" told of his war experiences and was used heavily for the HBO miniseries. He went on to write over 40 books on military/war history. I read his memoir a year or so ago and really enjoyed his candid thoughts on his experiences.
Okinawa is not a memoir. It is more a military history of the battles surrounding and on Okinawa and why they were important. There was also a large focus here of the Japanese side of the war, which we almost never hear in our America first culture. I found the in depth look at the Japanese kamikaze tactics to be both eye opening and sad. The glimpses of humanity among the Japanese leadership on the island is also something we don't see in the movies and stories about this side of the war.
While I did find this to be a very informative, albeit a bit dry, book. I think it struggles to convey tactics to the reader without visuals. I read this on a kindle, so maybe the paper copy includes maps or diagrams that my copy didn't. I also found it hard to keep track of who was going where at times because of all the different companies, regiments, battalions, and of course different military branches. It was also hard to follow the names of all the different ships involved, the author easily named over a hundred of them. I think that this is more of a matter of being an very thoroughly and meticulously researched subject than it was the author just throwing information out there. This is clear by his source material. Overall, I know a lot more about a large portion of the Pacific war side of WWII and I will definitely be reading more of Leckie's works in the future.