RICHARD
07-15-2007, 02:46 PM
Wow,
A very interesting look behind the famous WWII picture taken of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima.
The book gives us details about the men who ended up at in the photograph-their lives before, during and after.
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It's a well written narrative that kept me up until 4:00 a.m. this morning.
The story gives you just enough information on the event and others leading up it, but it also makes you hungry for more information about the war in the Pacific.
One thing about the early chapters of the story is the details about the code of the Samurai/Bushido warrior. The S/B code was not about committing suicide during or after battle, yet, the men drafted by the Japanese government to go to war were expected to die for the country.
The author explains that this "kamakazi" mentality was a bastardization of the code by the government in power at the time.
-------------------
One of the strangest things about the book was the premonitions of the men who were about to die. Some of the men told their loved ones that they would not be coming back from the war before they went overseas.
I was surprised that these men were able to get on those ships, suspecting that they were going to die in a place that they had yet to be told of.
They were only told of the invasion of Iwo Jima after the ships left California.
I give the book a solid 10.
It's an easy read, filled with the kind of information that will change the way you look at that famous photograph.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/WW2_Iwo_Jima_flag_raising.jpg
A very interesting look behind the famous WWII picture taken of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima.
The book gives us details about the men who ended up at in the photograph-their lives before, during and after.
---------
It's a well written narrative that kept me up until 4:00 a.m. this morning.
The story gives you just enough information on the event and others leading up it, but it also makes you hungry for more information about the war in the Pacific.
One thing about the early chapters of the story is the details about the code of the Samurai/Bushido warrior. The S/B code was not about committing suicide during or after battle, yet, the men drafted by the Japanese government to go to war were expected to die for the country.
The author explains that this "kamakazi" mentality was a bastardization of the code by the government in power at the time.
-------------------
One of the strangest things about the book was the premonitions of the men who were about to die. Some of the men told their loved ones that they would not be coming back from the war before they went overseas.
I was surprised that these men were able to get on those ships, suspecting that they were going to die in a place that they had yet to be told of.
They were only told of the invasion of Iwo Jima after the ships left California.
I give the book a solid 10.
It's an easy read, filled with the kind of information that will change the way you look at that famous photograph.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/WW2_Iwo_Jima_flag_raising.jpg