Okinawa, The Last Battle of WWII -- by Robert Leckie

 

Author Bob Leckie closed like a veteran out of the bullpen, nailing a big victory.

The former WWII Marine turned post-war sportswriter and multi-book author kept his Okinawa going all the way through with excellent writing, continuity, and statistical use in this 1995 edition of 210 pages. He was already finished with combat when the Army, Navy, and Marines invaded Okinawa on April 1, 1945. His last fight was at Peleliu, but he had plenty of familiar faces to serve as sources from Okinawa.

The Okinawa landing force was larger than that which hit the Normandy beaches a year earlier in Europe, and this would be the last huge battle of the war. But no one knew it that day.

Japanese kamikaze planes sank 36 U.S. ships, which supported the invasion, contributing much to the devastating psychological damage there. Leckie trod lightly over that compared to other writers who've made it their lead, or near top, agenda. Leckie sympathized with the commanders and especially the sailors who found rest between attacks nearly impossible.

"Those who survived the suiciders' screaming dives went for days on end without sleep, their nerves exposed and quivering like wires stripped 0f insulation. Lying wide-eyed in their bunks, they waited to hear the dreaded telltale click and static of the ship's bullhorns being activated -- like a starter's gun sending them leaping erect and running so that they were already in motion when the shrill, strident notes of 'General Quarters,' burst in their ears."

Marines and soldiers, with their own daily life-and-death struggles often lost sleep, too, watching the kamikazes attack.

Leckie still, and already well understood the horrors faced by all on and around Okinawa, and they certainly didn't escape this veteran journalist's sights. Often U.S. forces gained control bit by bit, finally establishing peace after the Japanese surrendered.

Leckie found an instant of humor in the deadly fight. A Marine officer had kept a special flag for important ceremonial moments, but it was the Stars and Bars that was raised when Shuri Castle was taken. Original plans had called for the Army's 77th Division, Desmond Doss's division, to the significant old castle of the Ryuku Empire, but the 77th was slowed by the familiar knee-deep mud.

Thoughts turned to the expected coming invasion of Japan when the noises of almost three months of battle eventually died. But the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in effect, ending the war.

And here, Leckie also showed a different perspective, not often heard. He noted that Japan was already a beaten country, and might've surrendered, anyway. There was a major political battle going on between the Japanese government warhawks, and the new Peace Party. Leckie said the bombs, and one might've been enough, allowed Emperor Hirohito to come down on the side of the Peace Party, and accept the offered surrender terms.

However, that left an argument whether Okinawa was a necessary battle, or not. One unseen factor was Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's aggressive tones, and the bomb seemed to keep him, temporarily at bay.

"...if the Japanese had won this biggest battle of the Pacific War, the hold of the War Lords would have been so strengthened that even the influence of Hirohito could not have persuaded the Imperial Conference to accept the Allied surrender offer. Thus the war would have been prolonged..

Goodbye Darkness -- by William Manchester

 

It's mindblowing what I read here coupled with what I've learned elsewhere. Not that everything I've learned is necessarily true, but I am programmed to receive information before tossing any out too soon.

The late great journalist Ernie Pyle was killed in the Okinawa battle in the early stages, but Author William Manchester was there as a Marine Sergeant, and almost killed in the fight's later stages. I've read two of Pyle's books, containing many of his columns, and jumped on Goodbye Darkness starting with the last chapter. There were some blatant similarities in both of their writer's voices.

Manchester admitted being a Pyle reader and might have gone considerably deeper in one of the later chapters. Manchester had plenty of life and death to study in the thick of the Pacific War.

"Despite all evidence to the contrary, most thinkers, with the exception of the Egyptian era and the twentieth century, had come down hard on the side of rebirth. Plato, Aristotle, the fourteenth-century  Moslem Ibn Khaldun, and Oswald Spengler believed men and civilizations were destined for rehabilitation. So did the biblical prophets: Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and Jesus. All used the same evidence: the generational cycle and the cycle of the seasons," he wrote on p. 296 of my copy.

And Manchester was left for dead for four hours after an exceedingly rare Japanese screaming Mimi explosive launch hit the old Okinawan tomb he and a few other Marines were sheltering in. The Marine closest to him was totally obliterated by the projectile, with a bone firmly implanted in Manchester. The future bestselling author was eventually checked over by a Navy corpsman he knew, and Manchester was quickly bolted into the hospital system, eventually getting him to San Diego where he got the word of Japan's surrender.

Some fast research shows that some writing talent showed up on the other side, too. There were some active writers from the Japanese mainland who moved to that island, and Okinawa natives Shun Medoruma and Eiki Matayoshi stand out. So did Ernie Pyle's energy self-distribute? Maybe someone has the answer.

This was a memoir of the author in the Pacific, with his return trip not coming until 1977-78. He belonged to an unusual group, calling itself The Raggedy Ass Marines. Most were Up East Ivy Leaguers, not the more common blue-collar-born and bred Marines of legend, or Hollywood lore. Manchester was from an old Massachusetts family, but his mother was from Virginia, and of Confederate blood.

My only complaints with Goodbye Darkness were the imagination-lacking editing and some vocabulary choices. Some of Manchester's memoir, rather naturally, drifted off into PTSD hallucinations, which probably caught some readers off guard. I'm guessing that setting those old battlefield memories in print probably sparked discussions between several in the publication process. Another never-ending battle.

Manchester moved about the battlefields of his youth like a professor in a lecture, sharing information and insight. I read all the way through the book, and reread the final chapter. It seemed like everyone else was reading Manchester books when I was outside being a kid. That was probably quite valuable, too. But now I can catch up on his works, and they're probably cheaper now, too.

Masterpiece, Seeing Yourself As God's Work Of Art Changes Everything -- by Dr. Ken Nichols

 

It's a short, to-the-point, polite, that you might hand to a friend who's down in the dumps but reads.

If they read that's always a plus, and they can take this friendly short, quick read probably in one sitting. I broke mine up, but it's support material for a work-in-progress for a lead character who's been married four times, but won't give up on the dream, or fantasy, of a happy married life.

Religious tones, and advice, are laced throughout, but nicely pinched in to make for a comfortable read without over-imposing. Author Ken Nichols does a good job of sounding like an old friend, or kind and understanding uncle. Nobody's pushing, just trying to help.

It shouldn't scare anyone off: it's only 93 pages.

Irregular People -- by Joyce Landorf Heatherley

 

I believe anyone can parts of themselves, and others more easily, in Joyce Landorf Heatherley's Irregular People. A problem is admitting to yourself, or to someone else, that you have that social problem, or acted that way, giving other people the wrong impression.

It's always easier to see, and remember those people doing that.

Heatherley authored several books before she passed away recently, probably helping a lot of people see themselves better through the sometimes regrettable actions of others. There are Bible passages noted, but it's more of a human psychology book than churchy.

It's interesting, fast, thought-provoking reading, and one that's likely to have you doing some extra research in human behavior: about others and you. If you have already admitted that nobody is perfect, you won't be facing any mental breakdowns here.

Patrick O'Brian {A life Revealed] -- by Dean King

 

I thought I had Dean King's Patrick O'Brian figured out after just three chapters, but I was only partly correct. Patrick O'Brian had been revealed as an off-beat, sometimes anti-social man who walled off his sometimes distracting family, so he could write great books and make money.

O'Brian's real surname was Russ, who indirectly seemed to have gotten the name change idea from two nephews who had moved to Australia. But obviously, it worked for him.

He grew up mostly in the London area, but his mother died when he was still a boy. His father was a doctor and inventor. One of his many uncles had shown early interest in writing, but that faded. Richard Patrick (O'Brian) Russ didn't fail there, serving as an intelligence officer in WWII, and started his writing successes with magazine articles that drew attention, which allowed him to build on, and eventually get the call to write about sailing adventures in the late 1960s with Master and Commander published in 1969.

Master and Commander was a joint U.S. and British venture, looking for a good replacement for C.S. Forester and his hero Horatio Hornblower. Captain Jack Aubrey and Surgeon Stephen Maturin sailed to almost instantaneous success. The series finished in double-digit volumes, and in effect died with O'Brian's passing in 2000.

Despite his protective walls, O'Brian lived an adventurous life. He was married twice and had one son. A young daughter died of poor health. O'Brian lived in Wales for several years before moving to the coastal South of France for the rest of his life. He found many things to his liking on the Catalan sea coast of the Mediterranean.

"O'Brian recognized in Coullioure an authentic people and place, with a tolerance for individuality that suited him. Here his poverty, which he was determined to endure in order to write, would not be so degrading as in England."

O'Brian found the place where sailing boats in the view from his home, could help exact exciting, reader-pleasing adventures.

Celebrities like the painter Picasso were there often enough to keep life interesting, but Coullioure was its own entertainment and inspiration.

"Coullioure had a rugged, earthy physicality and raw beauty, the people of Coullioure, a wild dark attraction.'