Sears does a particularly good job of bringing in the various voices of the fast-dwindling corps of American survivors of hellish engagements at Leyte and Okinawa, among other places. Drawing on interviews, diaries and other sources, the author depicts men such as a Marine junior officer who, his soldiers suspected, slept at attention, in contrast with one of those fighters who weighed only 135 pounds and was “quiet, introspective, and mild mannered.” Both served valiantly, as did most of their comrades, even though, by the closing months of the war, recruits were pushed through training and sent into the field as “90-day wonders fresh from Midshipman School.”

The horror of kamikaze steeled them—those who survived, that is, for the attacks took a terrible toll on American sailors, Marines and soldiers, which left “even the healthiest…veterans perplexed and embittered at a nation, culture, and people capable of devising such attacks.”

Sears closes with a look at how veterans on both sides bridged the gulf between them.

Of considerable interest to students of the Pacific War.

Books and Media column, page 61, in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of America in WW2 magazine  (Top)

Before he died in 1994, my grandfather John F. "Jack" Ames told me stories from his WWII service in the navy. He was a junior officer serving primarily on Guam and then Tinian. Two of the stories were particularly striking: watching masses of Japanese soldiers jump from cliffs to their deaths, and seeing a kamikaze attack on a nearby ship. In At War with the Wind, David Sears tells those same stories on a grander scale and puts them in the larger context of the war. He combines detailed accounts of major battles in the Pacific with first-person accounts gleaned from hundreds of interviews. The result is a clear narrative that leads to a deep understanding of why the Japanese military turned to the tactic of large-scale suicide attacks and shows the effect of attacks from both the strategists' and the sailors' points of view. 

The first third of the book sets the scene for the increasingly desperate Japanese situation. It begins with the preparation for the 1945 invasion of Okinawa and then moves to the events that led to the operation. American forces bounced back quickly from the attack at Pearl Harbor, winning major victories in 1942 and 1943 at places such as Midway and Guadalcanal. But the tide really turned for America in 1944, when the massive shipbuilding program, huge influx of personnel, and major technological advances took effect. Sears seamlessly blends explanations of the strategic considerations, character studies of the major commanders, and first-person descriptions of army, marine, and navy life with narratives of the major battles in the Pacific. Despite the fierce resistance put up by Japanese forces, the overall sense in the first part of the book is one of nearly inevitable American victory over Japan. 

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, part of the invasion of the Philippines, brought the situation to a head. The Japanese responded to their extensive losses, especially of planes and ships, by instituting corps of suicide attackers. Sears follows the development of suicide attack tactics and specialized equipment from the first call for volunteers by Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi on October 19, 1944, to the much more organized efforts that followed through the end of the war. Sears includes personal stories from Japanese pilots, stories that are as compelling as the accounts told from the American point of view. 

The final third of the book covers the increasing effective and devastating Japanese suicide attacks that occurred during the Battle of Okinawa. It comes as no surprise that the most gripping, terrifying, and inspiring sections are the battle narratives incorporating first-person accounts of kamikaze attacks. In contrast to the first part of the book, this section fills the reader with a sense of dread at the inevitability of successful suicide attacks and the resulting horrible damage and casualties. Time after time, Japanese aircraft attack ships, most attackers are shot down, but then one gets through. Nearly every time a suicide attacker hits a ship, the damage is terrible, with bomb blasts deep in the ship's bowels and flaming fuel burning sailors and setting off ammunition. Remarkably, many ships survive terrible damage due in no small part to heroic actions of sailors. It is strange that the Japanese attacked smaller targets like destroyers more frequently than larger cruisers, battleships, and carriers. In April and May 1945, what Sears calls the cruelest months, American victory seemed far less sure, and the pending invasion of the Japanese mainland far more costly than ever.

The book has one odd omission. Although Sears describes the kamikaze attacks on the USS Indianapolis during the Battle of Okinawa in detail, he concludes the story of that ship with its return to California. His final words on the Indianapolis allude to the ship's future tragedy but give no details on its ultimate fate. Readers unfamiliar with that story will not realize the rest of the story has some relevance. When Indianapolis returned to the war, its first destination was Tinian, where the crew delivered parts of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. 

At War with the Wind presents both personal detail and the big picture equally well. It is well researched and comprehensive. More importantly, it is an exciting book with a vivid story. Its greatest accomplishment, however, may be how well it explains why Japanese and American leaders made the choices they did.                                                                       

-Drew Ames, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

© D.L.Sears & Associates, Inc. 2004-2010
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