Larry Smith (2)

This is the first book I have read devoted exclusively to this famous battle. It is a transcription of reminiscences and commentary by a wide range of participants and students of the battle, mostly Marine enlisted infantrymen but no Japanese except in passing. It appears that the Japanese reverence for their war dead is from a different cultural perspective from the American one. Besides the recounting of combat, individual sections of the book are devoted to the Mount Suribachi flag raising, the aviators, the logistical support and the aftermath right up to the publication of the book in 2007. My main quibble is that the author does not make it clear which U. S. ships were sunk in the pre-bombardment phase of the battle. (The shore batteries that sank them exposed their locations and all but one were pinpointed and destroyed in the ensuing bombardment.)… (més)