The Final Storm: A Novel of the War in the Pacific [ペーパーバック]

For those who think of World War II as old history, this book should be a revelation. Shaara excels at bringing battles to life, showing the men who fought and the leaders who planned them and the outcomes. These are rarely as clearcut as history books would indicate and the human element is usually lost in the telling.

After his trilogy covering the war in North Africa and Europe, Shaara was asked by many, especially Marines, if he planned to write about the Pacific theater as well. He tells briefly of the island-hopping, the fierce battles with their terrible toll in lives lost, and the strategy to bring the battle finally to the shores of Japan. Then he tells in depth of the fight for Okinawa, the last island before Japan, and of the decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war.

The use of the bomb is debated still, and this book will help put in perspective the situation that led to the final decision.

Shaara's focus is on the Marines on Okinawa while he acknowledges that an infantry unit also fought valiantly to overcome fierce Japanese resistance. He follows a Marine private and the Japanese commander as well as the U.S. Pacific commanders, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz. For the most part he stays with the Marines.

To tell more would lessen the impact of the book, but it is as fine a portrayal of men at war as I have ever read. I highly recommend it .

We should all be thankful that Jeff Shaara can succumb to a bit of pressure from his readers.

In a brief introductory note to "The Final Storm," Shaara writes that he didn't really intend to write a novel about America's war in the Pacific, but in large part due to the letters from indignant WWII vets who fought there he and his publisher relented. We're lucky he did.

Picking up where Shaara's European WWII trilogy left off, America's war against Japan rages on even as Germany and Italy surrender. The Marines and the Navy have turned back the Japanese offensive but face stiffening resistance as they island-hop toward the Japanese homeland. Iwo Jima has fallen , and the Marines (bolstered by Army infantry and the Navy) have turned their sights to the massive Japanese force on Okinawa. Shaara, true to form, tells this story through the eyes of a specific character for each chapter, and we see the vast majority of the Okinawa fight through the eyes of Marine Private Clay Adams, whose successes in the unit boxing matches has not erased the shame brought on by his long stretch in a hospital and cushy recovery duty following a vicious infection.

Adams wants to fight, and heads into one of the biggest nightmares ever faced by a soldier.

The Japanese side of the battle for Okinawa comes from General Ushijima, the Japanese commander on Okinawa. A true soldier, Ushijima suffers no illusions about his ability to defeat the Americans with their mighty fleet, commanding air superiority, and limitless war materiel. But Ushijima is samurai, and he will die doing his duty. A brilliant tactician, Ushijima combines a masterful defensive network with the fanatical devotion of his soldiers to create a nightmare for the invading U.S. troops. The battle scenes - from the fighting for inches on Sugar Loaf Hill to the kamikaze strikes at the American Navy - are shattering.

The final section of the book focuses on Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan and the work of pilot Paul Tibbets and his crew as they prepare for their infamous mission. Shaara acknowledges that the decision to drop the bomb may be the most notorious decision ever made by the United States, but Shaara's position is clear: a) an American invasion of Japan would have been exponentially worse than Okinawa, and b) the fight on Okinawa inflicted horrifying losses on the soldiers and citizens, including the survivors. By throwing us into the maelstrom of war, far from the world of armchair quarterbacking, Shaara advocates Patton's belief that the atomic bomb was merely an extension of the original tools of war, no more or less barbaric than a javelin or a rock.

After witnessing the inhuman toll Clay and his fellow combatants - including the Japanese - endured on Okinawa, it's pretty hard to argue against that position.

This is among Shaara's best books - moving, expansive, and riveting.

The Final Storm is an appetizer served in lieu of a main course: tasty, but unsatisfying to those readers who were expecting a proper treatment of the Pacific War. The Final Storm picks up in the spring of 1945, when Japan is economically spent but not yet defeated: while American triumph is inevitable, the mindset of Japanese troops and the military government ensure a bloody fight. Marine Private Clay Adams' experience fighting at Okinawa serves to show how miserable a battle the Americans are in for: even without naval and air support, Japanese troops fight like madmen and cost the Marines and Army dearly. As horrific as Okinawa might be, however, it's nothing compared to what an invasion of Japan might be like. Fortunately for the troops, the Manhattan Project has produced a weapon of inestimable power, one which might end the war without causing millions of more deaths.

The fourth act, in which Truman debates the morality of using the Bomb and Col. Tibbets prepares for the role he's to play in history, seems almost incidental. Although the Shaaras are known for a storytelling style which uses a wide panel of viewpoint characters to tell the story of battles from both sides in their own words, combining conventional narration with more stream-of-consciousness delivery that conveys officers' and soldiers' thoughts and emotions, Shaara appears to be moving away from that in The Final Storm, which is largely carried by Clay Adams. Chester Nimitz and the Japanese commander appear occasionally to offer the strategic and Japanese perspectives, but they remain incidental characters. This is Clay Adams' story, and it's about Okinawa -- not the Pacific Theater. Shaara is fully capable of delivering a grand tribute to the Pacific War which begins before Pearl Harbor and follows key characters all the way to Okinawa, but apparently his publishers are in a hurry for him to write a new Civil War trilogy to take advantage of various upcoming Civil War anniversaries.

If you want to read about the Battle of Okinawa, Eugene Sledge's "With the Old Breed", the source of HBO's new show "The Pacific", is a far more gritty read.

High points: Clay's connection to Jesse Adams points out the widespread influence of WW2, for entire families were contained in the ranks of those fighting Hitler and Tojo. This novel may introduce some readers to the viciousness of Pacific War combat.

Low points: superficial historical introduction, advertised as a Pacific War novel when one central battle predominates, Too focused on one character.