The Final Storm

World War II: 1939-1945 #4

by Jeff Shaara

The Final Storm opens a new front in Jeff Shaara’s gripping chronicle of World War II as soldiers, sailors, and marines sacrifice all for one final push toward decisive victory in the fierce maelstrom of the Pacific theater.

As the war in Europe winds down in the wake of the Normandy invasion, the United States has turned its vast military resources toward an all-out effort against the Japanese. In the spring of 1945, Japan’s empire has been pressed slowly back toward its home islands, and the Americans mount a furious assault on the last great stepping-stone to Japan itself—the heavily fortified island of Okinawa. The three-month battle will feature some of the most vicious combat of the entire war, as American troops confront an enemy that would rather be slaughtered than experience the shame of surrender.

With a narrative dexterity befitting his status as a master storyteller, Shaara relates the story of the struggle for Okinawa through the eyes of combatants on both sides: Private Clay Adams, a young marine whose brother Jesse has already earned his share of glory as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in Europe; Admiral Chester Nimitz, who must unite rival army and marine commanders into a cooperative effort; General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., the American ground commander trying to live up to the legacy of his father, who led Confederate troops during the Civil War; and General Mitsura Ushijima, the Japanese general in charge of defending the island, who understands what Tokyo will not believe: that his own fight to the death will only delay the inevitable—as the Americans continue their advance toward the home islands and ultimate victory.

With the fights raging across the Pacific, a different kind of campaign is being waged in extraordinary secrecy: the development of a weapon so powerful, not even the scientists who build it know just what they are about to unleash. Colonel Paul Tibbets, one of the finest bomber pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is selected to lead the mission to drop the horrific new weapon on a Japanese city. As the new president, Harry S Truman, mulls his options, and a Japanese physician named Okiro Hamishita cares for patients at a clinic near the city of Hiroshima, citizens on the home front await the day of reckoning that everyone knows is coming.

A fitting conclusion to one of the most riveting sagas in military fiction, The Final Storm illuminates the heroism and sacrifice that defined the war in the Pacific, bringing the conflict to life as only Jeff Shaara can.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, World War II, Military Fiction, Historical, Military History

446 pages, Hardcover

First published May 17, 2011

About the author

JEFF SHAARA is the award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of seventeen novels, including Rise to Rebellion and The Rising Tide, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure—two novels that complete his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, The Killer Angels. Shaara was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Alexw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never had a Shaara novel disappoints and this is no exception. The Battle for Okinawa was riveting which composed almost the whole book. Dialogue was sharp with enough historical references to keep the action moving. Too much detail on how to load an A-bomb was only slight complaint.
His epilogues on what happened after the war alone was worth my time and money to read this riveting novel.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Coming to power in 1940 is General Hideki Tojo who is stridently anti-American comes to power as the War Minister. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is set against Tojo's plan to take over America, he calls Tojo's plan “utter foolishness.”

While battles such as Saipan, Guam and the Philippines are mentioned, the main focus of this book is the last great battle of the Pacific war – Okinawa. There General Ushijima is leading his troops in a war of tunnels. Their ordnance and soldiers are hidden deep in the many, many tunnels of the island and come out to strafe and sneak up on the American Army and Marines who are fighting a very costly battle.

The character we meet in addition to Ushijima is Clay Adams. He is a private in the Marine Corps recently returned from a month in the hospital with a strange condition. He feels like a replacement because he has been away from his fellow Marines for so long. He is very frightened and feels he has something to prove. He acquits himself very well, however, despite having a few “moments.” His best buddy is a redhead named Welty. They lose many officers and often find themselves leaderless.

We also meet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Lieutenant General Simon Buckner, General Curtis LeMay, Colonel Paul Tibbets and a host of others including President Harry S. Truman for the Americans.

The reader gets a good grasp of what the men are thinking, from the Japanese Ushijima among others, Americans Nimitz, Adams and Truman.

Jeff Shaara gives a very colorful and insightful accounting of the battle of Okinawa. What it must have been like – the smells, the sights, the weather and the sheer terror of being pinned down by the Japanese soldiers. The reader feels like they are there on the blighted island seeing everything that is going on.

There is time spent in the book with President Harry S. Truman and his battle with himself whether or not to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. We all know the outcome of his decision. Related to this, we spend time in Hiroshima with a doctor and a very highly placed and decorated soldier and learn what happens to them when the bomb is dropped.

Very well done, Mr. Shaara. I am very anxious to read the next book, “To Wake the Giant” coming out May 19, 2020.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

As per usual, a generally well-written, well-thought out book about an American war from Mr. Shaara. While I disagree with his assertion at the beginning of the book that he is not trying to promote any point of view or political position, one would be hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn't see his book as promoting the view that the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan was an abhorrent necessity that avoided hundreds of thousands of American casualties, and millions of Japanese (a viewpoint that I personally agree with). Otherwise, I greatly enjoyed the final installment in the author's quadrilogy of World War II (though, while I understand his reasons for not doing so, I am disappointed that he did not complete a full separate trilogy chronicling the war in the Pacific). From my memories of the previous novels, I believe that he focuses in on fewer view points than before, though there are no complaints here. I greatly enjoyed the increased intimacy this created with the few men Shaara did follow. And though I greatly enjoyed the detail that Shaara lavished on the Battle of Okinawa (though, at times, the sequencing felt a bit jumpy), I was disappointed that it was focus of almost the entirety of the novel (as I said before, very sad that there wasn't a full trilogy of the Pacific). I also wish he'd spent more time detailing the experiences at Hiroshima, and that he had maybe done a little on Nagasaki--as in most every other history, it becomes relegated to "When the Japanese didn't surrender after Hiroshima, they also dropped a bomb on Nagasaki." In the same regard, I think some portrayal of the massive bombing campaign of the Japanese mainland was also in order--it was one of the most important parts of the American role in the Pacific theatre in 1945, and it gets only cursory mentions in the text (through the very appropriate visage of Curtis LeMay). Viewpoints of both bomber pilots and Japanese civilians would have been nice (though I don't know if maybe Shaara was restricted by his sources in this case).

Everything aside, I was still very pleased with this book, though I don't think it quite lives up to most of his other novels.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

You may have noticed I dropped the rating here to 3 stars. Please be aware that what I'm going to say does not reflect on Jeff Shaara's ability to tell a story. The writing is just as well done here. The problem for me and for some others is the story that gets told.

Mr.Shaara mentions that he'd received letters from those upset at the way he told the story. Marines who thought/felt that their contributions to the war had receive short shrift. The Soldiers who died in the Pacific before the events where we start are also given barely a nod.

We start the book with a "quick" overview of ALL the events of the Pacific war up to the Battle of Okinawa. From there we move through the horrific events of that battle to "the bomb".

Okay, the war in the Pacific while being "2nd" in importance to President Roosevelt due to the perceived importance of defeating Hitler and Germany in Europe It was in many way first in the hearts of the American people. After all it was the attack on Pearl Harbor (during peace talks with Japan in Washington). Okay quite likely true...BUT... that in no way reduces the importance of that war, nor the suffering of the ones who fought it. The war in the Pacific was in many ways more savage than the European war. The Japanese believed to surrender was dishonorable. Even to be defeated was dishonorable so they largely (read almost to a soldier) chose to die fighting. They would die in a last charge, pretend to surrender while concealing a grenade to kill themselves and as many of the "enemy" as possible.

This led to a kill of be killed mentality. It was a war in which no quarter was asked...or given.

I believe the war should have been given as complete a treatment as the European war. Mr. Shaara says he couldn't do that due to his publisher's present needs. \

No, I don't know what that means either.

Also, he declines to take a stand on what is popularly referred to as "the morality of dropping the bomb".

Well, I'm not hampered in that way.

My dad was on Okinawa. Like most who have know war he almost wouldn't talk about it. However being a boy child I was often guilty of the "what did you do in the war daddy" question. He said little always downplaying his part but one thing he did tell me was that after Okinawa he was "slated for the invasion of Japan".

Now, casualty estimates for the invasion of Japan for American troops ranged from 500,000 to 1,000,000. Had the bomb not been dropped chances are very good i would not be here typing this, nor would I have been around to be in the military myself, nor would my children be here, nor would my grandchildren...and so on.

There is little to no doubt that dropping the atomic bomb reduced not only American (allied) dead it reduced Japanese dead as they planned to (again) fight to the last person. How many American soldiers would have had to die before they began to kill the children sent against them with spears?

No. Stop apologizing for the 2 bombs, Japan has never apologized for the rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March or a thousand other atrocities. It was a war. It's over. People were trying to end it.

The Bomb happened.

So I think this is a weaker book than the ones on the European war.

My opinion throughout.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A follow-on volume to Jeff Shaara’s excellent World War II trilogy (The Rising Tide, The Steel Wave, and No Less Than Victory), this novel turns the attention to the war in the Pacific. Most of the Pacific War is skimmed over in the prologue so that the novel can focus on the single bloody battle for the island of Okinawa, the final major action before what would have been the invasion of the Japanese home islands had the atomic bombs not been dropped. The author does his usual great job of describing history through the eyes of just a few participants including Admiral Nimitz, President Truman, Japanese General Ushijima (commander in Okinawa) and others. By far the major viewpoint throughout the novel is granted to Marine private Clay Adams whose up close and personal experiences is some of the bloodiest, ground-pounding modern warfare you will ever read. It is absolutely top-notch writing and realistically exposes the reader to what many of us have imagined the true Hell of close combat warfare to really be like.

I really wish that this book had been granted its own trilogy similar to the first three books of the series. Jeff Shaara could have devoted quality time to many aspects of the earlier war in the Pacific with the resulting finale written about in this volume becoming the culmination of the incredible sacrifices on all sides that had come before. I understand that the publisher however, needed Shaara to get back to the Civil War novels for which he is known and for which his devoted readers keep demanding more of. Perhaps, sometime in the future, these other books can be written.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this book. The final portion, devoted to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, seemed sort of tacked on as a way of bringing a conclusion to the entire set of four books (the real “Final Storm”) although travelling along with Paul Tibbets, the pilot who flew the Enola Gay and dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, was far more thrilling than I thought it would be. The logistics of pulling this off in total secrecy was very enlightening. The afterword was very informative as well, letting us know what happened to all of the major players.

I have read quite a number of historical fiction books centering on a particular battle or war and Jeff Shaara always come through. He remains one of my top-tier historical novelists.

[James Korsmo]

This novel, The Final Storm, is a follow-up volume to Shaara's very good trilogy focusing on World War 2 as it developed in Africa and in Europe. Once the victory occurred there, the Allies shifted their full attention to the Pacific, and Shaara does likewise. He doesn't tell the whole story of the Pacific, but instead picks up the story in mid-stream, focusing on the final months of the conflict and the lead-up to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like the earlier trilogy, this book is full of quality writing and thick characters, from President Harry Truman to Marine private Clay Adams to Chester Nimitz to Japanese General Ushijima (though the Japanese side of the narrative was weaker than I would have liked). He also uses vivid portrayals of the sights, smells, sounds, and experiences of battle, with all its brutality and horror. The middle section of the book (pages 70-330) focuses pretty tightly on the battle for Okinawa, a brutal battle that was more-or-less last in a chain of island battles fought by the Allies as they made their way toward Japan. And here is one of the weaknesses of this book that sets it apart from the earlier trilogy that I loved so much: in those books, it really felt like you got the story, from both sides, of how the war was developing, the big picture interspersed with on-the-ground experiences about what it was like to live through the various developments. But in this book, the battle for Okinawa seemed to overwhelm the larger narrative, and the book bogged down in the brutality of the slow advance around the island. The lead-up to Okinawa and the final part of the book focused on the decisions and preparation to drop the atomic bomb both picked up the tempo and broadened the perspective, and I enjoyed both of them immensely. And I grant that the battle for Okinawa helps put the decision to drop the horrific bomb on Japan in perspective of what a battle on Japanese soil might have been like for both sides, but it still bogged down the book. In all, I'd say this was a good book that could have been great.

[Furnison · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff Shaara has added another powerful work to his oeuvre. He (and his father) have developed an approach to historical fiction that is quite effective. They juxtapose the actions and thoughts of key characters in an unfolding drama.

This work focuses on the battle for Okinawa. It adopts the perspectives, in a fictional framework, of various characters in the fight for this island. The actors include "grunt," foot soldiers, generals (including the Japanese commander Mitsuru Ushijima), and other key players.

If the reader of this review is familiar with the Shaara approach (pere and fils), then you would understand the nature of this work. His approach remains effective. Sometimes, one is limited in perspective by the insular views of the characters, who are only aware of a small part of the larger picture. But that also humanizes the narrative, exemplifying how different people--at different levels within their respective armies--see the action.

All in all, a worthy addition to the Shaara collection.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some time ago I read the first three books that Mr. Shaara wrote about WWII. Those were concerned with the war in Europe and I really enjoyed them. In spite of the fact that I found it very interesting, this book was a bit hard to get through. I hadn't known that much about the war in the Pacific. Of course I knew the basics: the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battle of Midway, the Bataan death march, the terrible lot of Americans captured by the Japanese. But I was unaware of how much worse were the conditions endured by the soldiers and marines who fought on the many islands held by the Japanese and how many more men died in these battles. It gave me a greater appreciation for what these men did for our country. I also have a greater understanding of why Pres. Truman ordered the use of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, but not as good as the other books in his WWII quartet. Although The Final Storm includes engaging character voices, the number and variety is much lower than in Shaara's other books. The War in the Pacific surely deserves a full recounting by someone as talented as Shaara, something he alludes to in his introduction, but it appears this single volume on the Battle for Okinawa and the bombing of Hiroshima is all readers are going get.

Jeff Shaara is too good of a writer to deliver a bad book, but this title seems a bit of an afterthought meant to appease readers and veterans who felt neglected by his trilogy on the War in Europe. Here's to hoping that someday he'll circle back to tell the story that began at Pearl Harbor.

[Steven J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book about the end of the Pacific war against Japan. Well written and easy to read. Much of the text is about a Marine fighting in Okinawa during WW2 where Shaara shows the reader what they were going through in detail. It makes you appreciate the horrifying experience of Island fighting against a viscous dug-in enemy who has no fear of dieing and wants to kill as many Americans (and local population) as they can before their inevitable defeat. Die vs surrender. The events described makes one think if Iwould be able stand up to the horrors and fight on as many have. Lucky I don't have to find out as these young soldiers had to do. The book covers other events as well all the way through the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Shaara keeps these events alive with well written novels which to me, are a pleasure to read.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic Shaara read and #4 in his WWII lineup. This time the historical fiction master goes to the Pacific and weaves a great tale. Particularly noteworthy was the story of the development and dropping of the Little Boy atomic bomb with Lt Gen Grove and Col Pat Tibbetts, the pilot of the mission.

[Jim Bullington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read all of Shaara's books and this was the best. the story of the crew that delivered the Atomic Bomb is the high light of the book. My uncle fought all the way across the Pacific starting on an island off the coast of Australia. he was on a ship heading for Japan when the bomb was dropped. I probably would have never met him.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent examination of the war in the Pacific and the buildup to the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This story evokes a lot of emotion for me and my family because we are a military family. At least we can laugh at the fact that soldiers never change no matter what era they are from.

[Cody Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first Jeff Shaara book I’ve read and certainly won’t be the last. He has a way of capturing the raw emotion that the men felt on both sides of the conflict through multiple points of view. Can’t wait to read more of his works, he hit this one out of the park

[Nick Corwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book read to me like a 2.5 in the moment because of how stressful the situations were (I read this while in the hospital trying to recover from a stress-induced condition), and I enjoyed Shaara’s books from the European theater more (maybe I burnt out on war fiction by binging those books), but overall this book deserves a solid 4.5. Certainly won’t read again, and I wouldn’t recommend reading all four Shaara WWII books in order, but still a great story, very informative and has the best ending of any book in the series.

[JC Roadman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished the final book in the four book world war two series. this was about the war in the Pacific. This was my favorite out of the four!!! I have now read all the Jeff Shaara war novels. except for his new one that Just came out about the Korean war.

[Susan in NC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating doesn't begin to describe this story of the terror, filth, gore and brutality faced by the Marines attempting to secure the Japanese-held island of Okinawa at the close of World War Two. Jeff Shaara uses several points of view to illustrate the Herculean task the American forces faced fighting the Japanese island by island in the Pacific theater: Admiral Nimitz, General Ushijima, the Japanese commander on Okinawa, and most powerfully for me, Clay Adams, a young Marine. In the final part of the book we experience the last days of the war and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima through the characters of Harry Truman, Paul Tibbets and a Japanese doctor in that city.

Shaara convincingly illustrates why an invasion of Japan, the only alternative to using the bombs, would have protracted the war indefinitely and caused catastrophic loss of life on both sides. The reader is reminded of the devastating losses America suffered in the grinding campaigns to take Guadalcanal, Saipan, Iwo Jima and now Okinawa; Truman muses over the differences between the wars in Europe and the Pacific, and how "the astounding viciousness of the Japanese seemed to pervade their entire military culture, a culture that Truman knew was nothing the Americans had ever faced before."

General Ushijima on Okinawa mulls over the same thing, disgusted with the over-the-top patriotism and bravura of his second-in-command, General Cho, one of the architects of the horrendous brutality of the Japanese campaign in Manchuria. Ushijima gradually comes to grips with the appalling cost of the war and the Imperial High Command's inability to send him any support or relief, only mindless exhortations to honorable victory and the Divine Wind, or kamikaze, to attack the massive American armada of ships surrounding the island. The reader comes to realize, as did the American president and commanders, that the Japanese people would never surrender, indeed had no idea of the extent of their losses; they were being told only that "the cost of waging war is honorable death" and would try to take as many Americans with them as possible. Through the eyes of Adams, the young Marine, we see the horror instilled by countless suicide attacks by the desperate Japanese soldiers; surrender isn't even an option, as their own snipers will pick off Japanese soldiers "dishonorable" enough to attempt it. This is a vicious enemy that becomes "less than human" to the American Marines as they attempt to take Sugar Loaf Hill and other landmarks on the island.

A lot of books, movies, and documentaries have covered this ground in the last several years as various World War Two commemorative anniversaries have come and gone, and many of the brave men and women who fought and served have died as well. Other reviewers may have found this familiar ground, but I had not read any in-depth history of the brutal, seemingly hopeless conditions our soldiers and Marines faced fighting the Japanese. I had to stop and put the book down a few times, as gripping as it was; I was deeply moved, but needed to step away and digest what I had read, what these very real characters not much older than my own son had endured. I found this a very affecting and honest chronicle of what our troops went through in the Pacific, and a fitting tribute I would recommend to any reader interested in great historical fiction based on actual history.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just read the memoir by E.B. Sledge of his time as a Marine on Peleliu and Okinawa, I was digging through my TBR shelves for something & ran across this book that has been here at the house for a long time. It's mostly about a Marine company on Okinawa & the end of the Pacific War, so I put it on my nightstand to read next. And it's been a great read. I've spent the last year reading a lot of WWII material, both fiction & non-fiction, in an attempt to clean off my shelves & it's been interesting to immerse in a subject. Reading this on the heels of "With the Old Breed" showed me again how well researched Shaara's books are & reminded me that I like reading them. It's been a long time since I read one. The horrors of war are detailed as Private Adams & his company slog through the mud of Okinawa. They see many unimaginable things & are faced with death on a daily basis. Interspersed are chapters from other POVs like Nimitz, the Japanese general in charge of the defense of Okinawa, & others. It gives a real sense of the time period. Part Three deals with the final chapter of the war told by Truman, Paul Tibbetts, & a doctor in Hiroshima, culminating with the atomic bomb & Japanese surrender.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the final book in a four book story of World War II. The first three books dealt with the war in Africa and Europe. This one covers the Pacific war. The introduction sets the stage for the main portions of the book by covering the period from Pearl Harbor until the Battle for Okinawa. The next two portions of the book cover the Battle for Okinawa as told from both sides. The last section briefly covers the development of the atomic bomb, and it spends the majority of its time detailing the actual use of the atomic bomb. It does not take a position either way on its use, but it just gives the facts, again from both sides. For fans of military history, Shaara again provides a riveting account of the events of the Pacific war. Drawing from interviews and personal documents, he protrays the emotions and actions of real people in a way that makes the reader feel as if they were part of the action. A great story. Looking forward to reading other books by Shaara.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read every one of Jeff Shaara’s historical fiction books, from the Revolutionary War and Civil War to the Mexican American War and the WWII Battles in Europe. As Shaara says in his prologue, he had left off the Pacific Action during WWII. For the first time, I was disappointed with Shaara's book, The Final Storm, as the characters and dialogue seemed to pale compared to his other works. The story begins where the European action ends with the battle of Okinawa. That said, it is still a good book, just not in the caliber of his other works. The story of the individuals involved with the delivery of the atomic bombs is a part of History often not discussed, and this is told very well. I give The Final Storm a good read.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Jeff's work and have met him at several signings. I think it interesting that he is beginning a series of Civil War books - 3 on the Western theater but manages to cram the entire WW II Pacific War into this one book. Actually, not crammed. Quick summary to start and then a long story on Okinawa finally winding up with the dropping of the atom bombs (which I thought was actually the strongest part of the book). Handled with his characteristic jumping between the viewpoints of the participants from privates to generals which makes for interesting reading.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pacific Theater of war as seen through the eyes of the admirals, politicians, seaman, and soldier.
The narrative picks up with the war and closing the noose on the Japanese. Partically interesting is the narratives dealing with Okinawa and the decisions that lead to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Once again Shaara does a fine job in narrating this conflict through these figures.

[Geoffrey Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, although it didn't pick up until half way through. I've read most, if not all, of Shaara's work and I liked this the least. It just seemed like he short changed the subject considering the depth in which he covered other conflicts. Despite what this review might seem, I did enjoy the book - I think I have high expectations for his work.

[Hannes Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great offering from Shaara.

Anyone with an interest in history should read this book and all others penned by Shaara. His unique style of historical fiction makes learning history more like living history.

[Charles Gluck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this appropriate for leading up to Veterans Day. A very somber and real account of battle and how it affects people.

[Francis Gahren · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Take
Once again I am left in awe of the one of the greatest generations of America to ever live – my parent’s generation. The sacrifices made by the Marines, soldiers, and Navy men are vividly described in this novel by one of my favorite authors, Jeff Shaara.

This is now my favorite Jeff Shaara book (that’s saying a lot) – lots of character development (both with admirals/generals and privates) combined with the massive research that I’ve come to appreciate that he does for each of his books.

This is really several books in one. In the Introduction, Shaara provides an excellent introduction that summarizes events leading up to WWII (especially in the Pacific theatre with Japan’s invasion of China – Shanghai and Nanking) all the way up to the invasion of Okinawa by the Americans. That’s a lot of information to squeeze into nine pages, but he does it well.

This book is laid out in three parts (see below) from the perspectives of Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific, Private Clay Adams, a private in the Sixth Marine Division, General Mitsuru Ushijima, commander of the Japanese forces on Okinawa, Lieutenant Porter (briefly), Adam’s platoon commander, Okiro Hamishita, a doctor practicing in the city of Hiroshima, President Harry Truman, and Colonel Paul Tibbets, the mission commander and pilot of the “Enola Gay”.

Part One: February 21 to May 2, 1945
The book starts out with a bang with snippets from an unnamed Navy Captain of an unnamed American submarine (so it could be anyone/anywhere – nicely done), with interesting insights about submarine warfare - picking up downed pilots, colleagues being killed by their own torpedoes (either misfiring or circling back around to kill them), and dealing with crafty enemy (a Japanese submariner using a freighter as a screen).

Part Two: May 4 to June 21, 1945
Continues the Battle of Okinawa as General Ushijima reluctantly agrees to General Cho’s insistence to launch an offensive counterstrike at the Americans. Adams and Welty continue to fight in the worst possible conditions – rain and mud and cold, no shelter, no natural cover. Somehow, Welty manages to keep up his ravenous appetite and maintains a quiet sense of dignity. Casualties continue to mount as the Japanese relocate their headquarters south. Among the casualties – Sgt Ferucci and Lt Porter; Private Yablonski, the big mouth you come to loathe, is killed by his own hands as he incorrectly uses a flamethrower. Clay Adams goes “Asian” for a bit but returns after a brief respite in a field hospital. Many are killed by Japanese subterfuge (strapping bombs to Okinawan women, disguising themselves as women with a machine gun strapped to their backs), and the Marines start using appropriate weapons such as shotguns and phosphorous grenades to kill them one by one. Tragically, Jack Welty is killed after being separated from Adams during one of the last fights, and Adams hooks up with Mortensen for the rest of the battle.

Interesting quote: “On May 8, 1945, the war ended in Europe with Germany officially surrendering. On Okinawa, VE Day was virtually ignored.”

Part Three: July 8 to August 14, 1945
After finishing Part Two, I was wondering what Shaara was going to do with the rest of the 110 pages in the book – I needn’t have worried. The last part was even better than the first two – it covers the decision by newly sworn-in Harry Truman to drop the atomic bomb and described those who did it – Colonel Paul Tibbetts and his crew of the Enola Gay.

I went off on so many rabbit trails at the end of this book (I spent a whole day writing this up) – see the “Connection” page at the end of this write-up.

An awesome novel about an awesome generation – thank God they stepped up when they did. Or, as my father once told me, we would be speaking another language right now (German or Japanese).

Character Perspectives

CHESTER NIMITZ
A look at the war from the perspective of command – his dealings with Washington and other brass as he tries to get things done. Curtis LeMay comes off as a somewhat of a Neanderthal - from just about everyone’s point of view this guy was (apparently) a gruff, rude, self-centered jerk. Also showed Lt Gen Simon B. Bucker, the commander of the Marines, as somewhat incompetent and blustery. He was killed by artillery fire because he thought he needed to take a look at the front lines – an unecessary death due to his own arrogance.

CLAY ADAMS
A look at the war from the ground level – as Private Clay Adams (the brother of Sgt Jesse Adams from the European theatre series) strives to earn a reputation in his unit as a tough guy by boxing – something that more people notice than he thinks. Sergeant Ferucci gives him training and sets up his fights. His first combat experience was at Guadalcanal, where after only a few days on the island he contracts a tropical parasitic disease (filariasis) that sent him back to San Diego for recuperation. Clay’s best friend is the red-headed Jack Welty, a quiet man who had seen a lot of combat and keeps to himself. The officers over them are Captain Bennet, the company commander, and Lieutenant Porter, his platoon commander. One of the scenes from Clay’s perspective is especially ironic – as they march inland virtually unopposed (part of Gen Ushijima’s strategy), they come across an airfield where a plane is landing. They think it’s a U.S. plane, but then see the “meatball” on the side as it lands. The Japanese pilot gets out of the plane, looks around, realizes his mistake and reaches for his pistol, and he gets hosed by machine gun and rifle fire. As Captain Bennett says, “It’s happened in every army that’s ever fought. There’s always some poor bastard who doesn’t get the word.”

MITSURU USHIJAMA
It was very interesting to see the perspective from the enemy’s side – from the commander of the Japanese forces on Okinawa, General Mitsuru Ushijima. Interestingly, he had to deal with a lot of the same stuff that Nimitz did – intransigent colleagues (Lt Gen Isamu Cho – a true “believer” who had been the primary force behind the rape and destruction of Nanking), inter-service rivalry, poor communications, etc. I’m reminded of a Japanese movie I saw a long time ago about the battle of Okinawa – from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers – and how much it surprised me to look at it from their perspective (this was a long time before Letters from Iwo Jima). I remember a Japanese soldier who had both legs blown off scraping his way along a trail, encouraging his fellow soldiers as he kept on fighting. I get the sense that this was the essence of the Japanese fighting soldier – and a chill when I consider how many casualties – American and Japanese – would have resulted from an invasion

HARRY TRUMAN
What an enormous burden Harry Truman acquired when Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12th – waging a world war, reigning in the Soviet Union and determining what the post-war scenario should like, and the challenge of an entirely new and untested weapon to boot! He had been completely out of the loop on the Manhattan Project as vice president, but when he was thrust in to having to make an immediate decision on what to do with it – God bless him he made the correct one. He had backbone (“the buck stops here”) and he was a Christian – and he saved millions of lives by making the decision to drop the two bombs on Japan.

At Potsdam (southwest of Berlin) on July 16, 1945, it was interesting to note how warm Churchill was to him and how Truman was already planning for post-war trouble with Stalin and the USSR. Again, I wonder why Churchill hated Henry Wallace, the vice president before Harry Truman, so much and what it was about Truman that so endeared him to Churchill? (see article on Wallace)


PAUL TIBBETS
I have always liked this man, and I like him even more now. I saw him at one of the Dayton Air Shows when we were at Ohio State University, and I’d heard that he never lost sleep over what he had done – good for him!

Shaara really puts more skin on him. Perhaps I like him so much because he was a fellow aviator, but I also like him for his strength of character – he was a real no-nonsense kind of guy with a bit of a sense of humor (e.g. the bit about him taking LeMay’s exec – Colonel Blanchard – up for a flight in a B-29!).

Tibbets had been the primary pilot for Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Mark Clark, and had more than forty missions as a B-17 pilot.

Tibbets had an excellent relationship with Maj Gen Leslie Groves, the commander of the Manhattan Project, based on mutual respect. LeMay tried to give Tibbets a hard time, but when he (LeMay) realized he couldn’t hand-pick who flew the plane that would drop the a-bomb, he relented somewhat. Again, LeMay comes across as something of an ass – I get a sense this was very true.

Interesting story about Tibbets’ first flight as a 12-year-old (dropping Baby Ruth candy bars from a barnstorming pilot’s plane). His mother had always supported him - hence the name of the plane, the Enola Gay.

He missed his kids terribly – Paul Tibbets and Gene Tibbets. What happened to them?

OKIRO HAMISHITA
Dr. Okiro Hamishita was a doctor living in Hiroshima, who had his own clinic and also attended to American POWs in Hiroshima Castle as well as his own patients. His wife, who had just returned from Tokyo, was killed immediately in the bombing. Hamishita died twelve days later of radiation sickness.


Other prominent characters/events in the book

Robert Oppenheimer, the chief physicist of the Manhattan Project; about the only one confident that the bomb would go off. Said to have thought of the phrase “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” when he witnessed the first atomic explosion at 0530 on July 16, 1945 (from the ancient text of the Hindu people, the Bhagavad Gita.

Robert Furman and James Nolan – two men who accompanied the bomb from Alamosa to Tinian (aboard the ill-fated Indianapolis).

Brief discussion of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the ship that brought the atomic bomb to Tinian (of the 1,196 aboard, 900 made it into the water; only 317 survived five days of exposure and terrible shark attacks) and subsequent tragic life of her skipper, Captain Charles McVay.

Captain Robert Lewis, copilot. Competent, but seemed to have a bug up his ass about a lot of things (that Tibbets named the plane Enola Gay, that Tibbets actually flew the mission himself, etc.)

Major Tom Ferebee, bombardier; highly capable.

Captain Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, navigator, highly skilled.

Captain Deak Parsons (USN), Weaponeer and Ordnance Officer. At his suggestion, the bomb was not armed until in flight. This was extremely difficult (confined space, air turbulence, arming a NUCLEAR WEAPON) but he got the job done. He was aided by Lieutenant Morris Jeppson, Ordnance Expert.

Lieutenant Jacob Beser, radio countermeasure officer.

Private Richard Nelson, radioman.

Sergeant Joseph Stiborik, radar man.

Sergeant George R. “Bob” Caron, tailgunner.

Sergearnt Wyatt Duzenberry, Flight Engineer,and Sergeant Robert H. Shumard – Assistant flight engineer, were not mentioned in the book


Additional Impressions

The B-29 Superfortress: I wasn’t aware of the poor record of the B-29 – until reading this I thought it was a good airplane. It was rushed into production and had terrible engine problems (among others); I wonder how many crews were lost because of this. The description of the B-29 that crashed on takeoff (Tinian) on August 3rd – just before Tibbets’ own flight – was brutal. But it was wartime and lives were cheap – even our own.

Admiral King: Nimitz thought he was a miserable SOB, “How could one man make so many people so damn miserable?”

Douglas MacArthur: Confirmed what I know about him; a real pain in the ass to work with, especially if you disagreed with him. Apparently, he shelled the hell out of Manila, much more than he could/should have, before entering it and reclaiming it as his own. I thought the Japanese destroyed Manila, but apparently it was MacArthur. He was a smart guy but an incredible egomaniac, somewhat of a god-complex in this man. From Nimitz, “Can’t imagine that he thought all he had to do was show up and the Japs would hand him the place…he’s overdoing it, trying to scrape every Jap out of every cave…costing us casualties we should be losing…he can’t help…being Doug.”

The incredible brutality of the fighting on Okinawa: On both sides, from the Japanese as they fight for every yard using whatever they can to “take as many Americans with them as they die” and from the Americans as they shoot, stab, and burn them up one at a time. Whole companies of men are lost – only 6 of the original 100 men in Adams’ company are alive at the end. Corpsman who run out to take care of the wounded are savagely killed by the Japanese. This is carnage on a grand scale – and a horrifying preview of what would have happened if we had to invade the mainland.

p.330 “As the caves were exposed and the enemy obliterated, the Americans began to explore, shocked that the shattered remains of the dead were not always the worst that awaited them. In many of the caves, stolen American equipment and food was found, trinkets and souvenirs that showed very clearly that the Japanese showed no mercy either. Letters from American wives and mothers lay among the ruins in the caves, along with photographs of children, Bibles and notebooks, diaries, the forbidden journals written by American GIs who had kept them out of sight of their officers, personal thoughts recorded on burned pages that no on e would ever read…But the Americans responded in kind, gathering their own souvenirs, some with a horrifying disregard for the humanity of their enemy. ON both sides gold teeth were pulled from the jawbones of the dead and dying, jewelry ripped from fingers and necks…The fight for Okinawa had brought tout the worst in everyone involved, but in that it was not unique.”

The poor supply of the USMC during the battle: from horrible rations (K-rations that were decades old) to oil-laced water (from containers that had oil in them originally but had not been cleaned out before being filled with water) to even poor weapons (they had to beg, borrow, and steal ammunition and weapons). This is unconscionable – and hopefully has changed since then.

The Kamikaze Attacks (“Operation Chrysanthemum”): Did take a heavy toll on the US Navy, but not on the big ships, on the smaller escorts (like my dad was on).

The brutality of the Japanese soldiers towards the Okinawans, and why the Okinawans chose suicide over surrender.

The rancor between/among politicians, even during a time of war. Harry Truman and FDR didn’t like each other at all – it was a marriage of convenience. The vice president before Truman, Henry Wallace, was from Iowa and was perceived as some kind of “religious zealot”. In addition, Winston Churchill despised him (why?). This hasn’t changed much – as a matter of fact it has gotten worse. Barack Obama and the Democrats couldn’t care less about the Republicans, and they, likewise, hate the other side.

Target List for the Atomic Bomb: Kyoto, Kokura, Hiroshima, Niigata, Nagasaki. Truman vetoed Kyoto because it was an important religious and cultural center more than a military target.

Operation Olympic: The invasion of Japan. Scheduled for November 1, 1945. A “beach party that would make Normandy look like a rainy day in Miami.”

U.S. POWs in Hiroshima: I didn’t know about this, but there were American flyers who had been taken prisoner (like in many other Japanese cities) who were incarcerated in Hiroshima. There appears to have been 10-12 American POWs in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. It would have sucked to be killed by your own people’s bomb – especially the a-bomb – but that’s only one of the infinite tragedies of the war. There is a book out that describes the two aircrews who perished; remarkably, the aircraft commander of one of them (Captain Thomas Cartwright of the B-24 crew The Lonesome Lady) survived because he was being interrogated in Tokyo at the time the bomb was dropped (see book). Also see article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: An American face to the tragedy of Hiroshima).

Some little known but interesting facts about the atomic bomb –

• No one really knew if it was going to work (the fuse had malfunctioned on previous test runs); this was a HUGE gamble

• Tibbets himself selected the B-29 that would do the job, from the Martin assembly plant in Omaha, Nebraska; Lewis flew it to Tinian

• Final target choice made en route (weather) – Hiroshima

• Loading of the bomb: Began at 1200, 5 August

• Aircrew Briefing: 2300, 5 August – Tibbets reveals the details of the mission to the crew

• Before the flight, the group flight surgeon gave Paul Tibbets twelve cyanide capsules, one for each member of his crew

• Takeoff: 0130, 6 August (Tibbets used every single bit of runway to take off)

• Flew at 5,000 ft so that Parsons could arm the bomb in the bomb bay (oxygen)

• 0325 – the bomb is armed

• Hiroshima situated in a valley (blast effects)

• The bomb itself was 9,000 lbs, 10 ft long, 2 ft. wide

• Explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT – equivalent of 200,000 average bombs

• The bomb was called Little Boy

• Three B-29s took off one hour prior to Enola Gay to act as weather ships (Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki)

• A fourth B-29, the Top Secret, was in place at Iwo Jima as a spare

• A fifth B-29, the Great Artiste, flew several miles in trail of the Enola Gay with sensor equipment to record the blast and observer the aftereffects

• Explosion over Hiroshima: 0815 on 6 August. A T-shaped bridge at the junction of the Honkawa and Motoyasu rivers near downtown Hiroshima was the target. When the bomb exploded, 80,000 to 140,000 people were instantly killed and 100,000 more were seriously injured. The bomb exploded 1, 890 feet above the center of the city, over Shima Surgical Hospital, some 70 yards southeast of the Industrial Promotional Hall (now known as the Atomic Bomb Dome). Crewmembers of the Enola Gay saw a column of smoke rising fast and intense fires springing up. The burst temperature was estimated to reach over a million degrees Celsius, which ignited the surrounding air, forming a fireball some 840 feet in diameter. Eyewitnesses more than 5 miles away said its brightness exceeded the sun tenfold.

• Immediately after the “bomb away” from Ferebee, Tibbets put the Enola Gay into a 155 degree descending right turn to get away from the blast.

• To the crew of the Enola Gay, Hiroshima had disappeared under a thick, churning foam of flames and smoke. The co-pilot, Captain Robert Lewis, commented, "My God, what have we done?"

• About 30 minutes after the explosion, a heavy rain began falling in areas to the northwest of the city. This "black rain" was full of dirt, dust, soot and highly radioactive particles that were sucked up into the air at the time of the explosion and during the fire. It caused contamination even in areas that were remote from the explosion.

• Radio stations went off the air, and the main line telegraph had stopped working just north of Hiroshima. Chaotic reports of a horrific explosion came from several railway stops close to the city and were transmitted to the Headquarters of the Japanese General Staff. Military headquarters personnel tried to contact the Army Control Station in Hiroshima and were met with complete silence. The Japanese were puzzled. They knew that no large enemy raid could have occu

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff Shaara's "The Last Full Measure" is one of my favorite historical novels of all time, both for it's power and emotion, as well as its historical relevance. The love I have for that book had my hopes sky high for this effort, but it fell short of greatness for a few reasons. To begin, I have known the in depth detail of World War II since I was seven years old, and as a result, it's like an old bath robe for me, as I am as familiar with it, as the back of my hand. I read World War II histories and novels like water, as it's so familiar to me, I'm not being told anything that I don't already know, so I'm not stopping while reading to absorb what I've just learned, as I would in other era's of history. As a result, some of the dialogue sounds too contemporary and not of the time. I felt as if I was listening to people talk, from today, rather than from 1944-1945, so it didn't ring true for me.

The book is divided into three parts with the second part devoted entirely to the Battle of Okinawa which in my opinion hasn't had enough attention paid to it throughout recent history. While Shaara does a very nice job in putting you into the battle, and experiencing the horror that was that conflict, it goes on a little too long, and seems to be a little too stretched out by the time it comes to an end. It feels like the book often times lacked a clear vision of what it wanted to be, so he stitched three different sections together and called it "A Novel of the War in The Pacific" where what it is -is a novel about the Battle of Okinawa and the decision to drop and use the Atomic Bomb on Japan to end World War II.

It is a compelling read, but not a great one. The final and third section of the book which details Harry Truman's decision to drop the bomb, along with the actual bombing on Hiroshima by pilot and Colonel Paul Tibbets is the finest part of the book, as it is fast paced, engrossing, as well as having a high educational content. It was the most fascinating part of the whole novel for me and I wished the rest of the book had been as well written. It makes one of the best cases for why the atomic bomb had to be dropped on Japan to not only end WWII, but to save the countless American lives that would have been lost if a conventional ground invasion of the country had taken place. It could be argued that what the Japanese had planned for the Americans if their home island had been invaded would have been the nightmare which was Vietnam only times ten. As a result, the novel foreshadows the American Vietnam war experience to come 20 years later, but also describes how the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped us to avoid such a fate in Japan at the end of World War II.

A good read that is often compelling, but isn't able to sustain it consistently, which is why it falls short of greatness. Others may like it much more and that is fine, because I have very exacting standards for World War II history and novels which makes me hard to please some times.

[Mike Cuthbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

With this book I think I have reached the end of Jeff Shaara’s treatments of WWII. He is a prolific writer and clearly has a lot of research left unused, so I may be wrong and we may have a Hitler biographical novel coming yet, but that would be a stretch. In many ways, this is Shaara’s finest work. He has cut down on the number of characters, focused on one major battle, Okinawa, and drawn his officer characters with a more sensitive pen than has been the case previously. His villains emerge more strongly, particularly Genl. Buckner, whose death on Okinawa was unusual in that he was one of the few WWII generals to die on the battlefield. There were some prime suspects on the Japanese side as well: General Cho stands out as particularly hard-headed and devoted so deeply to the concept of “bushido,” the code of honor of the samurai, that he cost thousands of lives in inane attacks on fortified Allied positions. Counter-balancing Cho is General Ushijima. The latter ends his war with the ultimate dictum of the bushido code: death by hari kiri as the inevitable loss of his armies becomes a fact. The luckiest of the Japanese officers, Yahara, escapes Okinawa disguised as an Okinawan peasant and lives to ripe old age after writing his successful biography. As is usual with Shaara’s war novels, the battle scenes are elegantly done with all the gore and panic that must have been felt and seen by the participants on both sides. Shaara makes crystal-clear the fact that the Japanese were not about to give up—ever—and that such an attitude led to the decision to drop the bomb on Nagasaki after the “success” in Hiroshima. Shaara seems to accept the rationale that the second bomb was necessary and that the use of the A-bomb saved lots of American lives, a concept of the war I have always thought to be shaky. The theory was based, in part, on the belief that the Japanese would not yield until it was proven that they had nothing left. Since we did not allow them to make that decision, even though there were signs that they were ready to yield, the question remains moot. The fact that the Soviets took advantage of the situation and invaded Manchuria on the way to attacking China itself is interesting, but more as it applies to the ensuing Cold War rather than the inevitable end of WWII, which had already been accomplished by Col. Tibbetts and the Enola Gay. The entire A-bomb program is nicely condensed with Oppenheimer getting a bit of the short end of the stick in favor of General Groves, but that is excusable, given the structure of the novel that Shaara had established: he focuses on the military rather than civilians. It does seem unlikely that Pvt. Clayton Adams, the main grunt character, lived to be 82 after serving until the end of the war and beyond. His hair’s-breadth escapes from various situations makes one believe in luck as perhaps the best guarantee of surviving war. As always, a good, informative read.

[Ted Waterfall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff Shaara’s concluding volume of his World War 2 novels, this one takes place in the Pacific and focuses mostly on the ghastly engagement on Okinawa - a battle that takes some three months to conclude - to the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. As with all of Jeff Sahara’s novels he tells the story through the eyes of real persons, both high ranking and enlisted, both military and civilian, and tells that story as best he can from their point of view with as little bias as reasonably possible.

“If you are looking for either a strident argument in favor of the atomic bomb, or an apology for American immorality, you will find neither here. The story is told through the eyes of the participants, whose perspectives and decisions and experiences reflected what was happening around them. There is no judgement in hindsight, no moral verdict on my part. That just isn’t my job.” This is from his preface, page xi. What a refreshing approach.

As my own personal observation, if anybody reading this does have a “strident argument” one way or another, you should definitely read this book. It just might give you a new perspective regardless of your “strident perspective.”

The fanaticism of the Japanese continues to amaze me. Numerous examples are highlighted in this novel. The Yamato, the largest battleship of the war, was sent by Japan to Okinawa to assist the Japanese garrison. Without enough fuel for a return trip it was intercepted by American aircraft and sunk. “Those few Japanese who survived were rescued by their own ships after the American planes had gone home. Whether those rescued sailors regretted the complete absence of lifeboats, no one would dare complain. It was tradition onboard Japanese naval vessels that life boats were a symbol of defeat, that sailors who did not die with their ship would suffer a shameful indignity if they survived.” (P. 121).

Don’t get too attached to any of the characters in Jeff Sahara’s novels. They are taken from real life and and someone you may find interesting might be dead by the next page. And his descriptions of one’s life ebbing away can be breathtaking.

Some of the description of combat on Okinawa could get a bit tedious, but this battle was a long, extended, brutal engagement with absolutely unspeakable personal experiences. I can recommend anything by this incredible author.