Into the Rising Sun

In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veteran

Patrick K. O'Donnell

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781439192580
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439192696
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

In his award-winning book Beyond Valor, Patrick O’Donnell reveals the true nature of the European Theater in World War II, as told by those who survived. Now, with Into the Rising Sun, O’Donnell tells the story of the brutal Pacific War, based on hundreds of interviews spanning a decade.

The men who fought their way across the Pacific during World War II had to possess something more than just courage. They faced a cruel, fanatical enemy in the Japanese, an enemy willing to use anything for victory, from kamikaze flights to human-guided torpedoes. Over the course of the war, Marines, paratroopers, and rangers spearheaded D-Day–sized beach assaults, encountered cannibalism, suffered friendly-fire incidents, and endured torture as prisoners of war. Though they are truly heroes, they claim no glory for themselves. As one soldier put it, "When somebody gets decorated, it’s because a lot of other men died."

By at last telling their stories, these men present a hard, unvarnished look at the war on the ground, a final gift from aging warriors who have already given so much. Only with these accounts can the true horror of the war in the Pacific be fully known. Together with detailed maps of each battle, Into the Rising Sun offers a complete yet deeply personal account of the war in the Pacific and a ground-level view of some of history’s most brutal combat.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Overview: The Elite Infantry of the Pacific
• Chapter One: Operation Shoestring
• Chapter Two: Starvation Island: Guadalcanal
• Chapter Three: Up the Solomons: Strangling Rabaul
• Chapter Four: Burma: Merrill’s Marauders
• Chapter Five: New Guinea
• Chapter Six: Into the Marianas
• Chapter Seven: Leyte: The Return to the Philippines
• Chapter Eight: Luzon
• Chapter Nine: Clearing the Philippines: Corregidor, Luzon, and Negros
• Chapter Ten: Into the Jaws of Hell: Iwo Jima
• Chapter Eleven: The Last Battle: Okinawa
• Chapter Twelve: Home
• Appendix
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• About the Author