Okinawa, James MacGregor Burns
Okinawa, James MacGregor Burns
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Okinawa
The Last Battle

Author: James MacGregor Burns, Russell A. Gugeler, John Stevens, Roy E. Appleman

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 15 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/26/2018


Synopsis

On 1 April, 1945, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater began.

The battle for the island of Okinawa would last for the next eighty-two days.

Through the course of this dramatic battle over 20,000 Americans would lose their lives and over 75,000 Japanese were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes of World War Two.

Okinawa: The Last Battle is a remarkably detailed account of this monumental event by four soldiers who witnessed the action first-hand.

They take the listener to heart of the fight explaining the preparations for the invasion, under its codename Operation Iceberg, through to the major conflicts at the beachhead, Ie Shima, breaking through the defenses surrounding Shuri and overcoming the last-ditch counter-offenses of the Japanese.

This book is a must-listen for anyone interested the Pacific Theater and how the United States Marines and Army were able to overcome the Japanese in the last few months of the war.

Corporal Eugene B. Sledge said of the battle: "The Japanese fought to win—it was a savage, brutal, inhumane, exhausting and dirty business."

Okinawa: The Last Battle was written by U. S. Army historians who participated in the Ryukyus campaign as members of a group organized to accompany the American forces to the Ryukyus and secure at first hand the materials for a history of their operations. Maj. Roy E. Appleman was attached to the 27th Division, M/Sgt. James M. Burns and Lt. Col. Stevens accompanied the Tenth Army headquarters, and Capt. Russell A. Gugeler served with the 7th Division on Okinawa. After the war many of the authors went on to become prominent military historians. Appleman passed away in 1996, Burns in 2014, Stevens in 2001, and Gugeler in 1985. Their work was first published in 1948.

About James MacGregor Burns

James MacGregor Burns (1918-2014) was the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government Emeritus at Williams College and the Distinguished Leadership Scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland. He also served as president of the American Political Science Association and of the International Society of Political Psychology. He was the author or coauthor of more than two dozen books, including Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; Leadership, which is considered the seminal work in the field of leadership studies; Government by the People; and Running Alone: Presidential Leadership from JFK to Bush II-Why It Has Failed and How We Can Fix It.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jeff

Truly a great historical account of this devastatingly, bloody battle. I’ve always wondered why Iwo Jima receives all the accolades when Okinawa was anything but a sideshow to the War in the Pacific. This was the most horrific three month campaign the Army, Navy and Marines were thrust into. When we......more

Five stars because all that detail was readable Post Wwii I was stationed on okinawa four years. Discovered the natives to be likeable thru a game one the very oldest I encountered allowed me to observe he and a friend spent playing. I understood it to be called "go". Simple enough that even I under......more

Goodreads review by Jane

World War II Story This the best, the most organized of any relating a battle I have read. Unfortunately, there are many errors in the text. It describes the terrain, the battles, along with individual actions and the actions of those who won the Congressional Medal of Honor. I did not know that t th......more

This history of the World War II battle for Okinawa is mainly written by US Army historians although the US Marines' role is discussed. It deals mostly with the higher level of command but does add another perspective of the battle to take the island.......more