The Pacific: Hell Was an Ocean Away

Reading "The Pacific" was a chore--it's about 450 pages of fine print with insufficient supporting graphics, no table of contents to point you to desired chapters, no glossary to help you understand undefined terms, and no index to aid in research or reviews. That said, I still give this book at least four and a half stars, which this system displays as five. That's because "The Pacific" brings the utter horror of World War II in the PTO to a level of brutal clarity rarely achieved by other writers, if ever. It reads more like a historical novel than pure history, but pure history it surely is, being based entirely on the personal accounts of its principal characters. I also give it high marks for not simply parroting the HBO script. Despite the book's title and its marketing, this is not the book version of the video production. The book goes far beyond what you'll see on HBO, especially with the very dramatic account of a Marine who doesn't appear in the TV version at all. Col. Austin Shofner's personal story of prison camp survival, escape, service with Philippine guerrillas, and desperate combat on Peleliu and Okinawa would warrant a 10-part miniseries itself. The book does have some tedious passages, but that simply attests to its realism. The Pacific War was not all blistering combat; everyone involved endured endless periods of training, traveling, non-combat duties, and sometimes weeks or months of simply anxious waiting. Again, it's history, not a novel, so the author has included some of the highs and lows each character's life that don't involve the Japanese. Read the entire book before judging it (clearly, some of the critics here haven't bothered to do that). It deserves a spot on any bookshelf containing the best histories of the war in the Pacific. With some better reference aids, I'd happily add that final half star.

From a Marines perspective this Book cover the role of the Marine Corps in the Pacific well.... A GREAT READ

There are many things to like about The Pacific. The writing, unfortunately, is not one of them. But do we always pick up a book about the Greatest Generation and their exploits during World War II and expect a literary masterpiece? Not this reader. Sure, Stephen Ambrose moved us to tears as he wrote about the mighty 'Screaming Eagles' of the 101st Airborne Division going toe to toe with Hitler's elite SS Armored units in Arnhem. Ambrose gave life to the men of Easy Company, 506th Infantry Regiment, with passion and great clarity recounting their matchless courage in a way that few World War II historians have done before or since. His son, Hugh, deserves credit for attempting to do for the Pacific Theater what his father did for the European Theater - making it real for those of us who were not there while trying to fill his father's considerable shoes. Ambrose Jr. is certainly not without colorful characters in 'Manila' John Basilone, Sidney 'Sid' Phillips, Eugene B. 'Sledgehammer' Sledge, Austin 'Shifty' Shofner, and Vernon 'Mike' Micheel to work with and help him tell the story. These men are straight out of central casting and worth every bit of the legend attendant to their storied names. Without perhaps the finesse of his father, Ambrose knits together a gripping tale of their service and how their trajectories intersect in a war that would know no parallels in its ferocity. And he does so in a highly readable way. Yes, his writing style is a bit choppy, and he does not always handle the transition from one character's experience to another's as seamlessly or as artfully as he might. Yet there is believability in his writing. More important, we can accept this book for what it is - a companion 'reader' to the HBO miniseries with reasonable entertainment value. An avid reader of military history and war stories alike, I found The Pacific enjoyable for not only the realism but also the humorous anecdotes. I received a glimpse into the experiences of this uncommon breed of men as if they were relating them to me themselves. Many of their recollections ring true and are recounted as I believe these men would actually talk - not through a lot of frilly prose, but through honest, frank, and forthright accounts of a hellish existence on Bataan, Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and in the middle of the Pacific (Midway) with plenty of torpedoes, bombs, and antiaircraft fire keeping their juices flowing! Not just another day at the office, to be sure. From reading The Pacific, I was able to totally get it, and IT was sheer mayhem! Fear was the only constant in their helter skelter lives. This is war as it really happens - organized chaos! For the Marines and naval aviators who went through the meat grinder that characterized MacArthur's and Nimitz's Pacific island-hopping campaign, this is life as they knew it. Mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds and raindrops the size of silver dollars, suicidal Japanese banzai charges and 'bombs' shaped like planes falling determinedly from the sky on the helpless sailors below... From Micheel's white-knuckled, 60 degree dive in his Dauntless on an enemy aircraft carrier to Basilone's machine gun virtuoso in the face of hundreds of crazed, marauding Imperial Japanese soldiers, the reader sees it all, unvarnished and as it really happened. Ambrose's men, plain spoken and salt-of-the-earth Americans, were heroes of the highest order. For me, reading The Pacific was yet another reminder of the extraordinary sacrifice our grandparents made on our behalf. The bouts with malaria, dengue fever, and dysentery in the Cabantuan POW camp, the boxcar-size artillery rounds launched from 16-inch guns installed on Imperial Japanese battleships raining down on Marine fighting positions dug on Guadalcanal amidst the densest jungles conceived by God... How did these men do it? They did it simply because their buddies on either side were expecting them to do it. Not because they were superhuman, but because they were all-too-human and were young enough and foolish enough to believe they could. Island by island these great Americans fought their way to just miles from the Japanese mainland and within range of U.S. bombers. Sometimes ingloriously, but always with love of country in their hearts, they avenged the cold-blooded murder of their comrades at Pearl Harbor while reminding the world and any other would-be hegemon that America remained the mightiest nation on earth... that her spirit might be bowed but would never be broken. The Pacific is above all else instructive. We learn that in the final analysis, men learn to overcome unrelenting hardship because of those they hold most dear - their brothers-in-arms. They are the closest kind of relative, enduring whatever the elements or the enemy can throw at them, and they derive immense strength from the bonds that are forged by fire. It is not for the the unitiated to understand. It is for those who have lived it to merely nod to one another in quiet acknowledgement. Accept this one for what it is and enjoy!

I have been watching this series on HBO. Only one episode left. I wanted to see this in the first place because my dad fought in the Pacific. Like most Marines he didn't talk a lot about what happened. He was wounded on Guadalcanal. He almost died and was reported MIA for three weeks. He was found in a hospital in Hawaii. I wanted to see what he must have gone through. Guadalcanal was all he ever talked about and he said very little. This movie explains the mentality of the Marines and why they hated the Japanese so much. I am glad he didn't see this series. I think it would have been to hard for him to watch. He died in 1978. I feel this series puts into perspective the mentality of the Marines. It was horrible. They went through a lot and this movie is brutal in parts. Not for kids. I read some of the other reviews and one person had issues with the personal lives of some of the Marines. Tom Hanks wanted to keep it as realistic as possible and show the Marines outside of battle. I recommend this series to anyone except kids. I also think I understand why my dad and my uncles always hated the Japanese. Anyone that had to go through what they did have the right. Ground troops are up close and personal with the enemy. Anxious to see episode 10 which focuses on their return home. People don't understand why we fought this enemy but this series tells us. We had to keep the Japanese from taking over the entire Pacific just like Hitler tried to take over all of Europe. Unfortunately the US has to get involved in order to save the world. Can you imagine only two nations controlling the world? The Japanese in the Pacific and Hitler in Europe. Their control would have spread to every country on the globe. Great series.

I read many of the reviews before purchasing this book and found most want to relate it to the movie. As the author plainly states, this book is the work of research not used by the movie. This book should in no way be connected to the movie and stand on it's own merit. Also, I do believe the author also stated he was not a writer and this is his first book which he wrote in honor of his deceased Father. The book is very informative and I did not realize until reading this that I have never read much about Iwo Jima or Okanowa battles. Anyone who is interested in history or WWII should read this book as it should be a must read. Most WWII books you read only go the late 1943 and jump over the Pacific Theater until mid 1945, glossing over the horrors. After reading this, I am now is search of more books. Highly enjoyed reading and savoring the information provided. I agree at times, the reading seemed to jump around (as many other do) and at times you may have to review something that was previously wrote to keep the story line in mind. Even with any flaws the reader may find, this book should go on your reading list. One of the best informative books I have read in a long time. Full of new perspective and many new views not previously written. To Hugh Ambrose, I say thank you.

Several stories of several very diffent WWII vets are recounted in this book. They were very much American heros. They had no idea what they were getting into joining the various services to fight the Japanese. Oh, how things have changed! Now the Japanese are our allies! We now all know what war is like. After WWII we had korea, viet nam, iraq and afganistan. All of those wars and what we learned should keep us from going to war again. And yet we have ukrane and putin. What a waste! So Enjoy (this book) and learn from it.

I am a huge fan of Stephen Ambrose and I was hoping that Hugh would have been as masterful a story teller. This book seems to me to be disorganized in construction. Such reffering to John Basilone as Manila John, John and Basilone all in the same paragraph. Hard to follow, almost like we were cutting a pasting to put together a book. The stories are riveting, but they jump around and back and forth with no real sense of purpose. I suspect some of this comes from not following a single group (such as Easy Company) to following, or attempting to follow individuals in different companies. Plus the jumping from battle to battle, didnt' seem to be well thought out. With all of that being said, the stories are great, the men where heroes and we enjoy our liberties because of the Greatest Generations sacrifices. The book is worth the read, but be prepared to flip back a few pages to figure out where you are during the war.

My reading of this book was a first for me in a couple of ways. This was the first of Hugh Ambrose's work I have read and my first experience with a Kindle Book or any type of e-book for that matter. It was not my first attempt at reading a book that was written to be a companion to a movie or TV mini-series. I willingly allowed myself to fall into that trap again. I am, as I almost always am, disappointed that I read and completed the book before watching, or in this case finished watching the visual production. Mr. Ambrose's work in this book seemed very well researched and provided a real insight into the personal experiences of the main cast of characters. His writing style is not my favorite however and his habit of shifting between third person story telling and first person quotes - often in the middle of sentences and without any set up or notice - was both distracting and confusing. This habit often broke the rhythm of my reading and required me to stop and sort out what had happened to the words. This reduced my enjoyment of the book. I am certainly no expert in the history of the Second World War in the Pacific but I didn't come across anything in this book that struck me as incorrect. This is a good read for those who wish to see and feel the war through the accounts of the men in the front lines. I give it a solid 4 out of 5. The down side of reading this book while watching or before watching the mini-series is that I am already disappointed with the producer's apparent choice to not include the naval aviation thread (Trying not to throw down any spoilers here). That thread was one of the best in the book and I think the mini-series suffers for the lack of its inclusion. The book and mini-series part company within the first thirty minutes of the mini-series and I do not see how the producers are going to drag their story line back into synch with the book at this point (I'll watch episode 4 tomorrow night). I loved "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers" and I am not enjoying "The Pacific" mini-series nearly as much. But, then again, I didn't read a "companion book" prior to watching the visual productions of the other two. My advice to everyone is to read this book - but wait until you finish watching the mini-series. You'll enjoy both much more. Now to a short critique of the Kindle Version of this book. I like the active links between the work and the footnotes and references. It was really pleasant to be able to flip back and forth between them. There were, however, at least two places in the book where a part of the text was just missing. A paragraph would be going along and the words would just stop in the middle of a sentence and a new paragraph would start. There did not appear to a great amount of text missing - at least from what I could tell - but it is frustrating to try and puzzle out what the author had to say based on what came before and after the AWOL text. There was also an instance of a footnote being embedded in the text - in the middle of a sentence as a matter of fact - that clearly should have been represented by an active link and contained at the back of the book. I hope that these problems are not representative of the quality control in Kindle Books - especially the first run ones. There is another issue that makes me frustrated with people who think it is okay to treat customers this way. The price of this book dropped by $4.00 between the time I bought it and now (two or three weeks later) when I returned to review it. That tells me that it would pay everyone to let a new book age on the website for two or three weeks before you buy it. Shame on you Amazon! I think I going to read a couple more Kindle books using the freeware "Kindle for PC" to see if these are pandemic problems or just a one off problems with this particular book before laying out $350.00 or more for a Kindle and required accessories. I give the Kindle version of this book a 3 out 5 for quality of production and pricing tricks.

top book top seller

entretenido tanto por la forma como por el fondo, asi como bastante ligero de estilo, muy comprensible,yyes, para todas las edades

Hugh Ambrose hat es geschafft die Biografien und Schicksale bekannter und unbekannter Soldaten in ein größeres Ganzes zu packen. Dabei bleibt der Fokus eng an den persönlichen Schicksalen und Erlebnissen und ermöglicht einen ungeschminkten Blick auf die Grauen des Krieges aber auch der Kämpfe und inneren Antriebe der im Buch porträtierten.

I’m so happy with this purchase. I watched the series years ago and wanted to dig into more detail with this companion book. An incredible read that takes you across the Pacific. From Pearl Harbour to VE Day. The stories of the men involved in the conflict are absolutely incredible to read. I cannot recommend this book enough

This is a companion book to the TV series of the same name. It has been well put together and provides further background info' to events shown in the series. I would recommend the book to those who have and interest in the events of WW2.