So Sad to Fall in Battle

This is the book based on General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's letters from Iwo Jima. It's an excellent book to read. It is not a dry history of the terrible battle; instead, it shows the soldiers as realistic, writing home to loved ones. It shows how advanced Kuribayashi's thinking was, also.

Instead of doing a defense of Iwo Jima in the traditional way, he did it his way, literally, and his way produced far more American casualties than if he had followed tradition. The book reveals a lot about the general, and just how much he though of his wife and children back in Japan.

There is, of course, a lot of detailed description of the battle itself, the fortifications, the severe shortage of water, the shell of sulfur and the heat, the constructions of the tunnels, etc. Every detail is considered from the human viewpoint, though, and not from a cold, stark “this is the way the battle went” approach.

This is definitely a book that is well worth reading, and it will really hold your attention.

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