Crucible of hell: the heroism and tragedy of Okinawa, 1945
(Book)
"With Allied forces sweeping across Europe and into Germany in the spring of 1945, one enormous challenge threatened to derail America's audacious drive to win the world back from the Nazis: Japan, the empire that had extended its reach southward across the Pacific and was renowned for the fanaticism and brutality of its fighters, who refused to surrender, even when faced with insurmountable odds. Taking down Japan would require an unrelenting attack to break its national spirit, and launching such an attack on the island empire meant building an operations base just off its shores on the island of Okinawa. The amphibious operation to capture Okinawa was the largest of the Pacific War and the greatest air-land-sea battle in history, mobilizing 183,000 troops from Seattle, Leyte in the Philippines, and ports around the world. The campaign lasted for 83 blood-soaked days, as the fighting plumbed depths of savagery. One veteran, struggling to make sense of what he had witnessed, referred to the fighting as the 'crucible of Hell.' Okinawan civilians died in the tens of thousands: some were mistaken for soldiers by American troops; but as the US Marines spearheading the invasion drove further onto the island and Japanese defeat seemed inevitable, many more civilians took their own lives, some even murdering their own families. In just under three months, the world had changed irrevocably: President Franklin D. Roosevelt died; the war in Europe ended; America's appetite for an invasion of Japan had waned, spurring President Truman to use other means -- ultimately atomic bombs -- to end the war; and more than 250,000 servicemen and civilians on or near the island of Okinawa had lost their lives. Drawing on archival research in the US, Japan, and the UK, and the original accounts of those who survived, Crucible of Hell tells the vivid, heart-rending story of the battle that changed not just the course of WWII, but the course of war, forever."--inside jacket.
David, S. (2020). Crucible of hell: the heroism and tragedy of Okinawa, 1945. New York, Hachette Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)David, Saul, 1966-. 2020. Crucible of Hell: The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945. New York, Hachette Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)David, Saul, 1966-, Crucible of Hell: The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945. New York, Hachette Books, 2020.
MLA Citation (style guide)David, Saul. Crucible of Hell: The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945. New York, Hachette Books, 2020.
Record Information
Last Sierra Extract Time | Mar 22, 2024 08:32:40 PM |
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Last File Modification Time | Mar 22, 2024 08:32:44 PM |
Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Mar 22, 2024 08:32:43 PM |
MARC Record
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100 | 1 | |a David, Saul,|d 1966-|e author. | |
245 | 1 | 0 | |a Crucible of hell :|b the heroism and tragedy of Okinawa, 1945 /|c Saul David |
264 | 1 | |a New York :|b Hachette Books,|c 2020. | |
300 | |a xi, 423 pages, 16 unnumbered leaves of plates :|b illustrations, maps ;|c 24 cm | ||
336 | |a text|b txt|2 rdacontent | ||
337 | |a unmediated|b n|2 rdamedia | ||
338 | |a volume|b nc|2 rdacarrier | ||
504 | |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-402) and index | ||
505 | 0 | |a List of illustrations -- Maps -- Prologue: Love day -- "Where's Douglas?" -- Operation Iceberg -- "Everybody go home!" -- The divine wind -- "More concerned with furlough than fighting" -- "I'm going simply because I've got to-and I hate it" -- "I was crying as I did it and she was crying too" -- "Tomorrow is our big day" -- "It was quite a show" -- "There's always some poor bastard who doesn't get word" -- "The smell of burnt flesh hung about for days" -- "War is indeed hell" -- "I could see him floating by, face upward" -- "Gone? She's gone?" -- "They just knocked the heck out of us" -- "I want to marry Shigeko" -- "Harry, the president is dead" -- "His eyes were rolling in panic" -- "Three bullets had ripped into his temple" -- "Progress not quite satisfactory" -- "All Kaitens prepare for launch!" -- "The most terrible weapon" -- "Corpsman!" -- Hacksaw Ridge -- "We will fight to the last man" -- "Doc, this one is worth saving" -- "The happy dream is over" -- Sugar Loaf Hill -- "Hell's own cesspool" -- "I still hear those cries today" -- "The entire enemy line appears to be crumbling" -- "It is terrifying to think about" -- "There is NO tactical thinking or push" -- "I lost damn near all of them" -- "You're just going to have to hang on" -- "We were so gullible, so innocent" -- "We are down to the final kill" -- "I haven't come up to the front to hide" -- "Every man will...fight to the end" -- "Suppose it doesn't go off?" -- "What a splendid last moment!" -- "All he talked about was you" -- "The most terrible thing ever discovered" -- "My God, what have we done?" -- "We were going to live!" -- Epilogue: "Those dark corners are still there" | |
520 | |a "With Allied forces sweeping across Europe and into Germany in the spring of 1945, one enormous challenge threatened to derail America's audacious drive to win the world back from the Nazis: Japan, the empire that had extended its reach southward across the Pacific and was renowned for the fanaticism and brutality of its fighters, who refused to surrender, even when faced with insurmountable odds. Taking down Japan would require an unrelenting attack to break its national spirit, and launching such an attack on the island empire meant building an operations base just off its shores on the island of Okinawa. The amphibious operation to capture Okinawa was the largest of the Pacific War and the greatest air-land-sea battle in history, mobilizing 183,000 troops from Seattle, Leyte in the Philippines, and ports around the world. The campaign lasted for 83 blood-soaked days, as the fighting plumbed depths of savagery. One veteran, struggling to make sense of what he had witnessed, referred to the fighting as the 'crucible of Hell.' Okinawan civilians died in the tens of thousands: some were mistaken for soldiers by American troops; but as the US Marines spearheading the invasion drove further onto the island and Japanese defeat seemed inevitable, many more civilians took their own lives, some even murdering their own families. In just under three months, the world had changed irrevocably: President Franklin D. Roosevelt died; the war in Europe ended; America's appetite for an invasion of Japan had waned, spurring President Truman to use other means -- ultimately atomic bombs -- to end the war; and more than 250,000 servicemen and civilians on or near the island of Okinawa had lost their lives. Drawing on archival research in the US, Japan, and the UK, and the original accounts of those who survived, Crucible of Hell tells the vivid, heart-rending story of the battle that changed not just the course of WWII, but the course of war, forever."--inside jacket. | ||
650 | 0 | |a World War, 1939-1945|x Campaigns|z Japan|z Okinawa Island. | |
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650 | 0 | |a World War, 1939-1945|z Japan. | |
650 | 0 | |a World War, 1939-1945|x History. | |
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651 | 0 | |a Okinawa Island (Japan)|x History, Military. | |
655 | 7 | |a History.|2 fast|0 (OCoLC)fst01411628 | |
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