Voices from the Pacific War: Bluejackets Remember - Hardcover

Petty, Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591146631 ISBN 13: 9781591146636

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2003

Synopsis

Although volumes have been written about World War II in the Pacific, very little has been published from the perspective of individual sailors. The Navy enlisted men interviewed for this book fought in some of the fiercest battles of the war, such as Coral Sea, Midway, and the Solomon Islands campaign. Some were eyewitnesses to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and many were part of the island-hopping campaigns of the Southwest and Central Pacific. Others were witness to or casualties of Japanese suicide attacks, and a few saw it all, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. These accounts of the men who faced the horror of combat head on vividly portray naval warfare up close and personal.

This collection of oral histories chronicles the bluejacket experience in graphic detail and without pretense. It offers a rare look at the war at sea and appeals to everyone interested in military history and to general readers seeking to understand what war is really like.

About this title

About the Author

Bruce M. Petty was an aviation ordnanceman aboard the Yorktown during the Vietnam War. He is also the author of Saipan: Oral Histories of the Pacific War.

From Booklist

Petty's valuable oral history contains 23 accounts from enlistee veterans of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Many had joined the navy before Pearl Harbor because of the Depression, and a fair number stayed in the navy after the war. One and all were proud to have served. Their service took them along many different courses, however. One man, on Wake Island, and another, on Corregidor, became POWs of the Japanese. One survived the sinking of the Indianapolis, as harrowing an experience as anyone could suffer. Others spent the war in technical positions aboard battleships on which personality clashes, bad food, and shortages of spare parts did more mischief than the Japanese. One had enlisted at 14, two African Americans found even a segregated navy more tolerable than starving in the streets, and one WAVE met her husband of 55 years at Mare Island Naval Hospital, where he was recovering from wounds. One and all, the book's subjects deserve commendation. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1591146631
• ISBN 13: 9781591146636
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244