The book starts by recapping what had taken place in the Pacific theater.
The book talks about the battle of Midway and the attack on the Aleutian Islands. However, it also says that Japan “planned to attack the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska and the west coast of the United States.” From what I have read in a variety of other sources, at no time was there any plan to attack these three areas at the same time, much less at the same time they attacked Midway and the Aleutians. Actually, I don't recall ever reading about any proposed plan to attack Alaska itself.
There were a few sorties against the west coast by submarines and plane-carrying subs, but no all-out attack.
In relation to the Gilbert Islands and the Marshalls, the book says that the Japanese were “wiped out to the last man.” This is absolutely incorrect. The numbers of Japanese who survived were low, granted, but there were survivors.
Yet another mistake or exaggeration. On p. 13 there is a picture of Iva Toguri, who they identify as “Tokyo Rose.” They imply she was the one-and-only “Tokyo Rose,” yet there were several women involved in that position, not just one. She happened to be the one that was open about what she did, was arrested and tried and imprisoned, but she was not the only “Tokyo Rose.”
The book then describes the fight for Iwo Jima. They describe one flag raising, but not the two that actually occurred. Again I ran into a problem. The book talked about General Kuribayashi, the Japanese leader of the Iwo Jima defenders, and it states that he “committed suicide.”
Actually, the exact circumstances of his death are unknown since he body was not recovered and identified. The idea he committed suicide is considered a minority opinion and it's more realistic that he was either killed by shellfire or died leading his men in a last-ditch attack.
The thing is, the book is making statements like this as if they are factual, but they are not proven; most of the time, the book is actually presenting minority opinions, not the generally excepted opinions of historians.
The book then covers the battle for Okinawa. It mentions the Japanese ship Yamato, and says “before it could even fire its mighty 18-inch guns in combat for the first time...” it was sunk. However, the Yamato had already fired its guns in combat, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Granted, the ship never managed to become the vicious beast that the Japanese hoped for, but it was not a virgin to combat as this book avows.
What makes this so bothersome is that I am not an expert on the war. Granted, I've read a lot, but I'm not any actual expert, yet even I was able to identify these places where the book either made an outright error or implied that something actually happened that may not have happened that way at all.
Very disappointing.
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