Blossoming Silk Against the Rising Sun

by Gene Eric Salecker

From the attack on Pearl Harbor through Japan's surrender, the Americans and Japanese conducted a total of twelve combat parachute drops in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Filling a glaring gap in the historical record of the war, Gene Eric Salecker recounts all twelve drops, highlighting the courage of paratroopers on both sides.

Genres: World War II

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[JD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read a few book on paratrooper operations in the European Theatre of Operations of both Allied and Axis forces during World War 2, this book covering airborne operations in the Pacific definitely fills a void there is. It gives details of both Japanese and Allied (almost exclusively American) airborne drops and all the tactics that went with it. What really gives this book it's 5th star is the detail in which the author explains the beginning and development of airborne doctrine of the US Army (and Marines), which I have not read about in any other book covering the subject. Recommended for any World War 2 bookshelf.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited about reading this book since there's very little about U.S. airborne forces in the Pacific during World War II, and virtually nothing (as far as I know) about Japanese airborne operations during the war. This book attempts to fill that void and does a fair job...but falls short.

The author goes into great detail about the equipment used by both sides, which is informative, but he sometimes repeats himself so you end up getting the same equipment breakdown more than once. He also seems to try and name every single unit involved in every action, which is also informative, but tends to lose the reader in a mass of different numbers. However, I feel the main fault of this book is the lack of detail from the personal side. I can understand not having much in the way of personal recollections by Japanese soldiers since most probably died during the war or the records of their actions were lost somewhere in the conflict. But there should be much more personal information available from the American side of the story, and sadly this is lacking. There are bits here and there in the book, but oftentimes the author gives vague, statistical overviews of battles and encounters. Dammit man, give me some action! I don't want to hear about this unit suffering X amount of casualities while killing Y amount of enemy troops. I want to know what the men behind those numbers were experiencing, how they felt, what they saw, not some stat sheet like a baseball boxscore.

Overall, I'd say this book is a good start for airborne operations in the Pacific, but only a start. Too many holes to fill in with details.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really good initial overview of the various parachute jumps that occurred in the Pacific Theater (12 total, 5 from the Japanese and 7 from the Americans). Unfortunately, most people interested in paratrooper history focus on Normandy, Market-Garden and maybe the various Italy jumps without realizing the depth of operations like Corregidor or Los Banos. This book is a good bridge to start to explain those details.

The biggest shortcoming of this book are the limited number of maps as well as their poor quality. Since many readers focus more on the European theater we tend to also be more familiar with the geography of that continent. But I struggle with placing the various islands and other locations in relation to one another in the Pacific theater. Consistently good maps would have really made this book special. Instead, it serves as general survey and a primer for deeper research into individual jumps (seriously, read about Corregidor, it's such an amazing battle).

Definitely worth reading. But best if augmented with some other materials as well.