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When discovered by local hunters on Guam, Yokoi was widely reported as a ‘no surrender man’ who survived, living up to the old Japanese military code of honour. This book sheds light on the reality of the war in the Pacific while addressing some key issues concerning the nature of Japanese culture in modern times.
For Dutton Caliber's American War Heroes series, a World War II narrative on the American liberation of Guam in 1944, focusing on the twenty days of intense combat as the Marine Corps took the island back from the Japanese. On July 21, 1944, a US Marine division landed on the beaches of Guam, a once sleepy island in the Pacific that had been seized from the Americans by the Japanese in the hours after Pearl Harbor. The Japanese would not be giving Guam up easily. The large enemy force defended the island viciously, punching holes through the American lines, attacking from the flanks, and eventually resorting to banzai suicide attacks. The fighting was bloody and brutal, every bit as deadly as Iwo Jima or Okinawa would be. Now, acclaimed author Don Keith offers up a compelling account of one of the toughest fights of the Pacific War, a battle that led to ten thousand American casualties and four Medals of Honor.
At 16.00 hours on 27 July 1944, the Stars and Stripes were raised over the central Pacific island of Guam. The symbolism of this moment was not lost on the officers and men who saluted the raising of Old Glory. This was because the first American flag to be pulled down by the Japanese in the Second World War was in Guam, on 10 December 1941, just three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before the war three of the four main Mariana Islands - Saipan, Tinian and Rota - had substantial Japanese populations and were considered part of the Japanese empire. On the other hand, the largest island of the group, Guam, had been under American administration since the end of the nineteenth century, and its inhabitants saw themselves as Americans. Their liberation would be a 'psychological high point' in the long war against Imperial Japan for the people of the United States. The re-capture of Guam was more than just the recovery of lost territory. It was an essential element of Operation Forager, the US offensive to take the Mariana and Palau islands with the aim of neutralizing Japanese bases in the central Pacific and supporting the Allied drive to retake the Philippines. There was another factor which possibly was of even more significance. Prototypes of the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress were already being flown. The B-29 had an operational range of 3,500 miles, putting the Japanese Home Islands, and even Tokyo itself, well within striking distance of the Marianas. It would be from the Marianas that the strategic bombing campaign which helped bring Japan to its knees in 1945 would be carried out. The US assault upon the Marianas began with the attacks upon Saipan and Tinian. Then, on 21 July 1944, men of the III Marine Amphibious Corps landed on Guam after the longest preparatory bombardment of the war in the Pacific. For the next twenty days the Marines and the US Army's 77th Division struggled through dense undergrowth and jungle and over rugged, wooded mountains to eliminate an enemy determined to fight to the death - and die they did. Roasted alive by flamethrowers in dugouts and caves, blasted out of ill-prepared pillboxes by artillery and mowed down by the score in senseless, tactically naïve headlong charges, almost the entire 20,000 strong Japanese garrison was killed. In the savage struggle throughout the island, American casualties were in excess of 6,000 and many hundreds of civilians were also killed in the fighting. But, after more than two-and-a-half years of Japanese occupation, honor was finally restored in the Central Pacific.
"A gripping insight about the liberation of Guam." - Reviewer Guam's Japanese garrison fought practically to the last man. By invading Guam, US forces were not only getting access to a fine harbor and a number of airfields to use in future operations but were also liberating a US territory captured by the Japanese in 1941. The attack on Guam was intended to begin only days after the landings on Saipan but was postponed for a month. US forces used the delay to make the preliminary bombardment and air attacks extremely thorough and to ensure that offshore obstacles to landing craft were cleared efficiently. The landing force included both Marine and Army units from General Geiger's III Amphibious Corps, in all 55,000 strong. General Takashina commanded 18,000 defenders, who had built a typically elaborate network of bunkers, artillery emplacements, and other fortifications. This narrative recounts the story of the liberation of Guam in vivid, gritty detail. Explore the fascinating feats of strategy, planning, and bravery, handing the Allies what would eventually become a victory over the Pacific Theater and an end to Imperialist Japanese expansion.
Author : United States. National Park Service Publisher : Page : 40 pages File Size : 24,74 MB Release : 1994 Category : War in the Pacific National Historical Park (Guam) ISBN :
In the spring of 1974, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese army made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle after a thirty-year ordeal. Hunted in turn by American troops, the Philippine police, hostile islanders, and successive Japanese search parties, Onoda had skillfully outmaneuvered all his pursuers, convinced that World War II was still being fought and that one day his fellow soldiers would return victorious. This account of those years is an epic tale of the will to survive that offers a rare glimpse of man's invincible spirit, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. A hero to his people, Onoda wrote down his experiences soon after his return to civilization. This book was translated into English the following year and has enjoyed an approving audience ever since.