"A gritty, first-person account. ... One can hear Shaw’s voice as if he were sitting beside you." —
Wall Street Journal
An unforgettable soldier’s-eye view of the Pacific War’s bloodiest battle, by
the first American officer ashore Okinawa.
On Easter Sunday,
April 1, 1945, 1.5 million men gathered aboard 1,500 Allied ships off the coast
of the Japanese island of Okinawa. The men were there to launch the largest
amphib­ious assault on the Pacific Theater. War planners expected an 80 percent
casualty rate.
The first American
officer ashore was then-Major Art Shaw (1920-2020), a unit commander in the U.S. Army’s
361st Field Artillery Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division, nicknamed the
Deadeyes. For the next three months, Shaw and his men served near the front
lines of the Pacific’s costliest battle, their artillery proving decisive
against a phantom enemy who had entrenched itself in the rugged, craggy island.
Over eighty-two days, the Allies fought the Japanese army in a
campaign that would claim more than 150,000 human lives. When the final
calculations were made, the Deadeyes were estimated to have killed 37,763 of
the enemy. The 361st Field Artillery Battalion had played a crucial role in the
victory. The campaign would be the last major battle of World War II and a key
pivot point leading to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to the
Japanese surrender in August, two months after the siege’s end.
Filled with
extraordinary details, Shaw’s gripping account gives lasting testimony to the
courage and bravery displayed by so many on the hills of Okinawa.