Download or read book Mothers Darlings of the South Pacific written by Judith A. Bennett and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of World War II, two million American military personnel occupied bases throughout the South Pacific, leaving behind a human legacy of at least 4,000 children born to indigenous mothers. Based on interviews conducted with many of these American-indigenous children and several of the surviving mothers, Mothers’ Darlings of the South Pacific explores the intimate relationships that existed between untold numbers of U.S. servicemen and indigenous women during the war and considers the fate of their mixed-race children. These relationships developed in the major U.S. bases of the South Pacific Command, from Bora Bora in the east across to Solomon Islands in the west, and from the Gilbert Islands in the north to New Zealand, in the southernmost region of the Pacific. The American military command carefully managed interpersonal encounters between the sexes, applying race-based U.S. immigration law on Pacific peoples to prevent marriage “across the color line.” For indigenous women and their American servicemen sweethearts, legal marriage was impossible; giving rise to a generation of fatherless children, most of whom grew up wanting to know more about their American lineage. Mothers’ Darlings of the South Pacific traces these children’s stories of loss, emotion, longing, and identity—and of lives lived in the shadow of global war. Each chapter discusses the context of the particular island societies and shows how this often determined the ways intimate relationships developed and were accommodated during the war years and beyond. Oral histories reveal what the records of colonial governments and the military have largely ignored, providing a perspective on the effects of the U.S. occupation that until now has been disregarded by Pacific war historians. The richness of this book will appeal to those interested the Pacific, World War II, as well as intimacy, family, race relations, colonialism, identity, and the legal structures of U.S. immigration.
Download or read book South Pacific Air War Volume 1 written by Peter Ingman and published by . This book was released on 2017-11 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume chronicles aerial warfare in the South Pacific from December 1941 until March 1942, during which air operations by both sides became a daily occurrence. As Imperial Japanese Navy flying boats and landbased bombers penetrated over vast distances, a few under-strength squadrons of the Royal Australian Air Force put up a spirited fight. However it was the supreme power of aircraft carriers that had the biggest impact. Four Japanese fleet carriers facilitated the capture of Rabaul over a devastating four-day period in January 1942. The following month, the USS Lexington's fighter squadron VF-3 scored one of the most one-sided victories of the entire Pacific War. By March 1942 the Japanese had landed on mainland New Guinea, and the scene was set for a race to control Port Moresby. This is the full story of both sides of an air war that could have been won by either incumbent, but for timing, crucial decisions and luck. The two authors are uniquely qualified to tell this story. Raised in Port Moresby, Michael Claringbould is a globally-acknowledged expert on the New Guinea air war and Japanese aviation in particular. Peter Ingman is an acclaimed military history author specialising in the early Pacific War period.
Download or read book Combat Officer written by Charles Walker and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TO HELL AND BACK For the U.S., Guadalcanal was a bloody seven-month struggle under brutal conditions against crack Japanese troops deeply entrenched and determined to fight to the death. For Charles Walker, this horrific jungle battle–one that claimed the lives of 1,600 Americans and more than 23,000 Japanese–was just the beginning. On the eve of battle, 2nd Lt. Walker was ordered back to the States for medical reasons. But there was a war to be won, and he had no intention of missing it. In this devastatingly powerful memoir, Walker captures the conflict in all its horror, chaos, and heroism: the hunger, the heat, the deafening explosions and stench of death, the constant fear broken by moments of sheer terror. This is the gripping tale of the brave young American men who fought with tremendous courage in appalling conditions, willing to sacrifice everything for their country. Look for these books about Americans who fought World War II: VISIONS FROM A FOXHOLE A Rifleman in Patton’s Ghost Corps by William A. Foley Jr. BEHIND HITLER’S LINES The True Story of the Only Soldier to Fight for Both America and the Soviet Union in World War II by Thomas H. Taylor NO BENDED KNEE The Battle for Guadalcanal by Gen. Merrill B. Twining, USMC (Ret.) ALL THE WAY TO BERLIN A Paratrooper at War in Europe by James Megellas
Download or read book South Pacific Cauldron written by Alan P Rems and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Award-winning author Alan Rems brilliantly tells of the campaigns in the South Pacific, a region long overlooked, offering both the big picture and the foxhole view” — Military Officer “A fitting tribute to the men who fought and died in an often overlooked theater of World War II. As such, it is a welcome addition to our knowledge of World War II in the Pacific Theater.” — On Point: The Journal of Army History While the Pacific War has been widely studied by military historians and venerated in popular culture through movies and other media, the fighting in the South Pacific Theater has, with few exceptions, been remarkably neglected. Authoritative yet written in a highly readable narrative style, South Pacific Cauldron is the first complete history embracing all land, sea, and air operations in this critically important sector of the oceanic conflict.
Download or read book The Neglected War written by Hermann Hiery and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: .
Download or read book South Pacific Destroyer written by Estate of R S Crenshaw and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today only a select few know firsthand what it is like to feel their ship shudder from the blast of their own guns, watch enemy guns flash back, and see friendly ships erupt in flames. Russell Crenshaw is one of those few. His riveting account of the savage night battle for the Solomon Islands in early 1943 offers readers a unique insider’s perspective from the decks of one of the destroyers that bore the brunt of the struggle. Russell Crenshaw was a gunnery officer on the USS Maury. His vivid, balanced, and detailed narrative includes the Battle of Tassafarounga in November 1942 and Vella Gulf in August 1943, actions that earned his warship a Presidential Unit Citation and sixteen battle stars. Crenshaw also discusses the impact of radar and voice radio, the shortcomings of U.S. torpedoes and gunfire, and the devastating effectiveness of Japan’s super torpedo.
Download or read book The White Pacific written by Gerald Horne and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-05-31 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[Book title] ranges over the broad expanse of Oceania to reconstruct the history of "blackbirding" (slave trading) in the region. It examines the role of U.S. citizens (many of them ex-slaveholders and ex-confederates) in the trade and its roots in Civil War dislocations. What unfolds is a dramatic tale of unfree labor, conflicts between formal and informal empire, white supremacy, threats to sovereignty in Hawaii, the origins of a White Australian policy, and the rise of Japan as a Pacific power and putative protector."--Back cover.
Download or read book The War in the South Pacific written by Jon Diamond and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese invaded the Solomon Islands in May 1942 with the aim of building an airfield at Guadalcanal. After an epic six month struggle they were repulsed and the island became a staging base for US Admiral Halsey and his South PacificForce. Comprising powerful naval, marine and army assets as well as land and carrier-based aircraft, Halseys Forces mission was to neutralise the Japanese presence in the South Pacific before moving on to Japan itself. As explained and depicted in this fascinating book, the campaign was eventually successful but only after some of the bitterest fighting of the Second World War. The fanatical opposition called for extreme measures from US, British and Australian land, seas and air forces. With detailed narrative and captions, the many archival photographs in The War in the South Pacific make for a superb record of this legendary conflict.
Download or read book The Lessons of Tragedy written by Hal Brands and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “brilliant” examination of American complacency and how it puts the nation’s—and the world’s—security at risk (The Wall Street Journal). The ancient Greeks hard-wired a tragic sensibility into their culture. By looking disaster squarely in the face, by understanding just how badly things could spiral out of control, they sought to create a communal sense of responsibility and courage—to spur citizens and their leaders to take the difficult actions necessary to avert such a fate. Today, after more than seventy years of great-power peace and a quarter-century of unrivaled global leadership, Americans have lost their sense of tragedy. They have forgotten that the descent into violence and war has been all too common throughout human history. This amnesia has become most pronounced just as Americans and the global order they created are coming under graver threat than at any time in decades. In a forceful argument that brims with historical sensibility and policy insights, two distinguished historians argue that a tragic sensibility is necessary if America and its allies are to address the dangers that menace the international order today. Tragedy may be commonplace, Brands and Edel argue, but it is not inevitable—so long as we regain an appreciation of the world’s tragic nature before it is too late. “Literate and lucid—sure to interest to readers of Fukuyama, Huntington, and similar authors as well as students of modern realpolitik.” —Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book War in the South Pacific written by Gerold Frank and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War in the South Pacific: U.S. Marines Tell Their Stories, first published in 1943, is the account of the combat experiences of 21 Marines--told in their own words--fighting in the bloody Solomon Islands campaigns of World War II. The stories provide the reader with an intimate view of war at the frontlines (on the ground or in the sky as a Marine aviator), with the Marines facing a determined enemy who would die rather than surrender.The stories of these brave young men vividly portray the horrors of war as well as serve as a lasting reminder of the heroism displayed by these men.
Download or read book Natives and Exotics written by Judith A. Bennett and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2009-07-15 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ambitious in its scope and scale, this environmental history of World War II ranges over rear bases and operational fronts from Bora Bora to New Guinea, providing a lucid analysis of resource exploitation, entangled wartime politics, and human perceptions of the vast Oceanic environment. Although the war’s physical impact proved significant and oftentimes enduring, this study shows that the tropical environment offered its own challenges: Unfamiliar tides left landing craft stranded; unseen microbes carrying endemic diseases disabled thousands of troops. Weather, terrain, plants, animals—all played an active role as enemy or ally. At the heart of Natives and Exotics is the author’s analysis of the changing visions and perceptions of the environment, not only among the millions of combatants, but also among the Islands’ peoples and their colonial administrations in wartime and beyond. Judith Bennett reveals how prewar notions of a paradisiacal Pacific set up millions of Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Japanese for grave disappointment when they encountered the reality. She shows that objects usually considered distinct from environmental concerns (souvenirs, cemeteries, war memorials) warrant further examination as the emotional quintessence of events in a particular place. Among native people, wartime experiences and resource utilization induced a shift in environmental perceptions just as the postwar colonial agenda demanded increased diversification of the resource base. Bennett’s ability to reappraise such human perceptions and productions with an environmental lens is one of the unique qualities of this study. Impeccably researched, Natives and Exotics is essential reading for those interested in environmental history, Pacific studies, and a different kind of war story that has surprising relevance for today’s concerns with global warming.
Download or read book Touched with Fire written by Eric M. Bergerud and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1997-07-01 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant history of the land battles in the Pacific theater of World War II, with stirring personal accounts of the horrifying struggle between the Japanese and Allied forces. The horrors of WWII in the South Pacific extended far beyond the detonation of atomic bombs. In this revelatory portrayal of the lives of the regular infantrymen who struggled to contain the Japanese advance, Eric Bergerud has given us a compelling and chilling record of the incredible hardships endured by these soldiers, and the heroic efforts that resulted in the reversal of the course of the war. Bergerud spent hundreds of hours interviewing the last surviving veterans of this remarkable campaign, and he has placed their personal experiences at the center of his analysis of military strategy. “Aspires to do for the ground war in the South Pacific what Keegan achieved in Six Armies in Normandy.”—Los Angeles Times
Download or read book The War of the Pacific written by Gabriele Esposito and published by Winged Hussar Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pacific War was one of the greatest and bloodiest war ever on the west part of South America, and is one of the most important conflicts in South American history. The Pacific War was one of the greatest and bloodiest war ever on the west part of South America, and is one of the most important conflicts in South American history. It is also known as the 'Saltpeter War' or the 'Guano War' because the possession of these two highly profitable nitrates was the main cause of the conflict. This book examines the troops, uniforms and equipment used by the Chilean, Peruvian and Bolivian forces and traces the events of the war from the early naval blockades, through major pitched battles, to the final guerilla campaign in occupied Peru. The war ended in total victory for Chile, and that country's military emergence thereafter as 'the Prussia of South America', while it cost Peru some lucrative provinces, and Bolivia its outlet to the Pacific coast. A lavishly illustrated book with original plates by artist Angel Garcia Pinto
Download or read book France in the South Pacific written by Denise Fisher and published by ANU E Press. This book was released on 2013-05-23 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: France is a Pacific power, with three territories, a military presence, and extensive investments. Once seen by many as a colonial interloper in the South Pacific, by the early 2000s, after it ended nuclear testing in French Polynesia and negotiated transitional Accords responding to independence demands in New Caledonia, France seems to have become generally accepted as a regional partner, even if its efforts concentrate on its own territories rather than the independent island states. But Frances future in the region has yet to be secured. By 2014 it is to have handed over a set of agreed autonomies to the New Caledonian government, before an independence referendum process begins. Past experience suggests that a final resolution of the status of New Caledonia will be divisive and could lead once again to violent confrontations. In French Polynesia, calls continue for independence and for treatment under UN decolonisation procedures, which France opposes. Other island leaders are watching, so far putting faith in the Noumea Accord, but wary of the final stages. The issues and possible solutions are more complex than the French Pacific island population of 515,000 would suggest. Combining historical background with political and economic analysis, this comprehensive study offers vital insight into the intricate history -- and problematic future -- of several of Australias key neighbours in the Pacific and to the priorities and options of the European country that still rules them. It is aimed at policy-makers, scholars, journalists, businesspeople, and others who want to familiarise themselves with the issues as Frances role in the region is redefined in the years to come.
Download or read book War in the South Pacific written by Thomas J. Maroon and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Finish Forty and Home written by Phil Scearce and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the men and missions of the 11th Bombardment Group as it fought alone and unheralded in the South Central Pacific, while America had its eyes on the war in Europe.
Download or read book Imperial Japan s Allied Prisoners of War in the South Pacific written by C. Kenneth Quinones and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three weeks after Imperial Japanâ (TM)s surrender, five men dressed in baggy khaki uniforms stared at the camera. They and two colleagues were the only survivors out of the 210 Allied airmen which Imperial Japan had imprisoned in â oeparadise.â Joining them were 18 British soldiers, the only survivors of 600 of their countrymen similarly but separately imprisoned. Another 10,000 Allied soldiers and civilians were also imprisoned on the South Pacific island of New Britain. More than half died before liberation. What motivated such inhumane treatment? This bookâ (TM)s quest for an answer traces the genesis of Bushido, Imperial Japanâ (TM)s martial code, and surveys the prisonersâ (TM) recollections of their ordeal as the Battle for Rabaul raged around them from 1942 to March 1944.
