Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific

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Type: Book
Studio: Abbeville Press
An unprecedented chronicle of America's bitter war against Japanese imperialism a half-century ago that interweaves poignant first-person memories with unique color photography of the major battle sites paired with evocative archival images.

This fascinating, richly illustrated survey of all aspects of the Pacific war, from Pearl Harbor to Japan's surrender in Tokyo Bay, presents something unique among World War II histories: an extensive color portfolio of dramatic wartime relics surviving decades on most of the Pacific island battlefields. Rusting American landing craft and tanks still can be found on treacherous reefs and beaches where they were tragically stopped by enemy fire so long ago, aircraft of both sides lie hidden in the jungles where they crashed, battle-scarred Japanese pillboxes and artillery emplacements still stand sentinel, and packed-coral landing strips remain as good as new. All such evocative memento mori have been beautifully captured by Jerry Meehl, probably the only photographer to have sought out all these far-flung battle sites, many of them still dangerous underfoot and now off limits to travelers. The authors also searched official archives for pictures that really show the terrors of combat, and often these display the very tanks and amtracs now decomposing on distant invasion beaches. They also found captured prewar photos of Japanese pillboxes and gun emplacements as newly built, and contrast them with their current, war-torn condition.

But this is far from just a "then" and "now" picture book. Each of the more than twenty photo essays of particular battles features a lively narrative that relies heavily on the firsthand accounts of men who were there, archival pictures shot during the actual fighting, and color photographs of the remaining Japanese bunkers and gun emplacements all of which help the reader visualize what hand-to-hand combat in the Pacific war was really like.

Other details: 500 illustrations, 250 in full color

Pacific Legacy
I normally don't write reviews but for this book I had to make an exception. Of the hundreds of books on the Pacific war I've read over the years, this stands head and shoulders above any I've read. The photos are spectacular and are well laid out. If you have any interest in the personal part of that war, this is an absolute must. Just as an aside, I recommended to a WWII Seabee friend, he bought it, and found his photo.

Fascinating Book
I've read a lot of books about the Pacific war, but this one is definitely my favorite.

Rex Alan Smith served 36 months as an Army Engineer in the Pacific. Since then, he has traveled extensively, visiting and talking with other veterans of the Pacific war. Gerald Meehl has spent years combing the Pacific and photographing the places which played important roles in WWII in the Pacific: places such as Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Bataan, Corregidor, Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Munda, Tarawa, Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa; along with lesser-known, but exotic outposts, such as Bora Bora and Pago Pago.

What emerges from their work is a series of more than 20 essays on individual battles, in the order in which they occurred, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the final surrender at Tokyo Bay. The essays begin with explanations of why the battles were fought, and what strategies were employed. Aerial photographs give you an overall view of the operation. First-hand accounts by the men who fought there give you a chilling sense of what it was like to charge up the beach in the face of withering enemy fire. There are hundreds of photographs - about half in black and white, which were taken during the actual fighting; and half in color, taken by Mr. Meehl some years later, often of the same scenes. The color photographs are beautiful and haunting. You'll see the rusting hulk of an abandoned tank, or the crumbling rubble of a bombed-out pillbox, surrounded by sparkling white beaches with swaying palms, crystal clear ocean waters, and blue skies with fluffy white clouds.

In his introduction to the book, Joe Foss, Medal of Honor winner at Guadalcanal, says, "We could not cover every campaign in detail, nor was it our purpose to present a comprehensive history of the Pacific war. Rather, we tried to create for the reader, while the veterans themselves can recall it, what that war was like--how it looked and felt and smelled--and to examine the legacy today of a war so fiercely fought on faraway Pacific Islands."