First published 2005
Donald L. Miller chronicles the Pacific theater of World War II through the voices of those who fought it. Most people know D-Day as the Normandy landing, but Miller reveals that military forces used this code for any offensive operation. The Pacific saw over one hundred such operations between Pearl Harbor and the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Miller draws from eyewitness accounts to tell how American forces waged their seaborne campaign across vast ocean distances. The battles were brutal. Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa rank among the most savage fights in American military history. The final Pacific D-Day came at Okinawa on April 1, 1945, where the largest invasion fleet ever assembled surpassed even the Normandy operation in scale. Miller provides readers with photographs and maps alongside the personal testimonies that bring this massive struggle to life.
Genres: 20th-century, non-fiction, military-history, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: eyewitness-accounts, personal-testimonies
Setting: Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa
Period: Pearl Harbor, April 1, 1945
448 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: violence, war