Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific

by Rex Alan Smith, Gerald A. Meehl, Joe Foss (Foreword by)

Overview

The classic photo book about the battlegrounds of the Pacific Theater then and now—updated with new information about the preservation and accessibility of these historic sites.

Pacific Legacy offers an unprecedented record of the relics of World War II that have survived on the islands of the Pacific: American landing craft rusting on the reefs where they were stopped by enemy fire; shell-pocked Japanese fortifications; fallen aircraft overgrown by jungle; packed-coral landing strips still as good as new. These evocative color images are paired with archival photographs that show the same tropical battlegrounds as they appeared in wartime.

The text covers the entire war in the Pacific, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to Japan’s surrender in Tokyo Bay. The principal battles are recounted hour-by-hour, drawing heavily on firsthand accounts. This vivid narrative helps the reader visualize what it was really like to be at war in the Pacific, doggedly island-hopping to victory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789213334
Publisher:	Abbeville Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Edition description:	Forth Edition
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 10.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Rex Alan Smith (1921–2010) was a veteran of thirty-six months with the Army Engineers in the South Pacific., where he eventually became third mate of the USS Dan Kingman, an army dredging ship clearing harbors and channels for ships of the advancing American Fleet. He was also the author of Moon of Popping Trees, about the Wounded Knee Massacre; One Last Look (Abbeville), about the 8th Air Force in World War II, and The Carving of Mount Rushmore (Abbeville).

Gerald A. Meehl, has traveled extensively in the South Pacific, photographing every major island battlefield as well as most other Pacific sites connected to World War II. His interest in the war came from hearing stories told by his father, a B-17 crew chief, and three uncles who also fought the Japanese. He is the author or coauthor of several other books on the war, including Fast Boats and Fast Times, One Marine’s War, A Shanghai American, and One Small Town Boy.

Table of Contents

Preface
Foreword by Joe Foss
I: This Is No Drill!—The Attack on Pearl Harbor
-Pearl Harbor
-Remember Wake Island
-The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo
II: The Time Buyers—Losing the Philippines
-The Bataan Death March
-Surrendering Corregidor
III: The Long Road Back—Invading Guadalcanal
-Guadalcanal
-Tulagi and the PT Boats
-Munda and the Evolution of an Island Base
-Bora Bora the Island Paradise
IV: A Thousand Honored Dead—Overcoming Tarawa
-Tarawa
-Guam, Saipan, and Tinian, the B-29 Bases
-On the Sidelines
-Peleliu, the Unnecessary Sacrifice
-They Also Serve Who Stand and Wait
-Returning to the Philippines
V: Uncommon Valor a Common Virtue—Securing Iwo Jima
-Iwo Jima
-The Interpreters
-Pacific Island Natives
-Okinawa, the Last Land Battle
VI: Nothing New About Death—Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki
-The Atom Bombs and the Japanese Surrender
Epilogue
Credits
Index