Book review: The Pacific War Remembered

The Pacific War Remembered is a collection of World War II stories, compiled by John T. Mason. The book was originally published many years ago, when most of the American leaders from World War II were still alive, and available for interviews. Most of the contributors were naval officers, many of whom became admirals after the war.

I enjoyed the book quite a bit because it includes anecdotes that don't usually make into general histories of the conflict, but which provide interesting and unusual insights into how the conflict was fought. A harbormaster for an American island base talks about how the captain of the battleship USS Iowa tried to show off by running his ship almost full speed into a drydock, which ended up damaging the facilities and the ship. The harbormaster was on the bridge with the Iowa's captain the whole time, telling him to slow down, but because the battleship captain outranked him, he just ignored him and pressed on. An officer on the USS Missouri describes his preparations to host the Japanese surrender on the deck of the battleship, and how they had to steal a table from the crewmen's galley for the ceremony because the nice desk they had wasn't big enough for the large parchment documents. Other chapters in the book describe a sailor's personal experience on the USS Arizona as it blew up at Pearl Harbor; a Marine recon officer whose job was to scout out the beach at Saipan just days before the U.S. invasion; and pilot Jimmy Thach talks about how he invented the Thach Weave, a fighter tactic that allowed America's Wildcat fighters to win engagements against the much superior Japanese Zero fighters.

All in all, a really good book, if you're into World War II history. Two thumbs up.