Central Kansas Library System

Journalist and historian Thomas writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures as he follows four men through the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled...

War in the Pacific presents a masterful collection of 400 World War II color photographs detailing a generation of ordinary people rising to extraordinary challenges, captured in wartime settings. From armed forays into the steaming jungles of New Guinea and the Solomons to B-29 Superfortresses carrying the war to the Japanese homeland, to the legendary Edward Steichen's photos of US Navy ships and their crewman on and off duty, these color images...

Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, days after delivering the components of the atomic bomb from California to the Pacific Islands in the most highly classified naval mission of the war, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the center of the Philippine Sea when she is struck by two Japanese torpedoes. The ship is instantly transformed into a fiery cauldron and sinks within minutes. Some 300 men go down with the ship. Nearly 900 make it into...