Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific Book

I grew up surrounded by WW2 Marine Corps veterans. That is because my father was an active duty Marine aviator who led a squadron in the Solomons Campaign and continued on the staff of General Geiger, running the air campaign into the northern Solomon's. I was steeped in the culture. I knew what it meant.

The personal stories of individual Marines, and others, in this book, are compelling, grafic and sometimes horrifying. The nature of the Pacific war was different than the European conflict in that it was a war of murderous attrition, fought for the most part in locations devoid of civilians until Okinawa. "Kill 'em all" was the order of the day for both sides and both sides pursued that with abandon. It is hard to read this for long periods of time because the horror of it gets hard to take, much like WW1 details.

As a teenager, I sailed with an Iwo Jima vet years ago, one of only three men in his unit to survive unwounded or killed. I asked him late one night what it was like. As he told me things, I saw him transform before me to the young marine with the thousand yard stare as the memories came out, an experience I have never forgotten. This book mirrors that experience. Hard to read, but necessary if you want to know the truth of war and its' horrors.