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The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II
This “engrossing” (The Wall Street Journal) national bestseller and true “heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption” (Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers) reveals how a discovered diary—found during a brutal World War II battle—changed our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan.
May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star–winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul.
The doctor’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird.
Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years.
Tatsuguchi’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mark Obmascik “writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood” (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls).
May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star–winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul.
The doctor’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird.
Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years.
Tatsuguchi’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mark Obmascik “writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood” (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls).
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2014
242 people are currently reading
1437 people want to read
About the author
Mark Obmascik
8 books37 followersMark Obmascik is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of The Big Year, which was made into a movie with the same name. He won the 2009 National Outdoor Book Award for outdoor literature, the 2003 National Press Club Award for environmental journalism, and was the lead writer for the Denver Post team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. His freelance stories have been published in Outdoor and other magazines. He lives in Denver with his wife and sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 171 reviews
July 19, 2020
“Yet war’s dark chapters were lodged in his conscience.” (3.5 stars)
If I had ever heard of the Battle of Attu in WW II, I had forgotten that fact. “The Storm On Our Shores” is a quick, and mostly good, text that can remedy that issue if you are in the same boat as I was.
Mark Obmascik (the author) uses the true story of an American educated Japanese surgeon, and the American soldier who killed him (and found a battle diary the surgeon kept in the process) as a jumping off point to give a brief overview of the war in the Pacific and the Aleutian campaign in particular.
The stories of Paul Tatsuguchi and Dick Laird are nicely interwoven with this history to give the war a human dimension. I appreciated the fact that Obmascik did not focus exclusively on them, but wove their tales into the larger contact of the war in the Pacific.
The part of the text that depicts the Battle of Attu is scattered. The writer jumps around a lot. I can’t say that that is a bad thing. It is just something I noticed, and I am not sure it enhances the book.
Overall, “The Storm on Our Shores” feels slight. The author is a journalist, so I guess that surface examination might be a residual effect. The text could have been heftier, there is much to digest there, and it has an incredible lack of notes and bibliography for a nonfiction book. That makes me a little nervous as to its veracity. But, for what it is I can accept it and enjoy the fact that I have some basic knowledge of something I knew little about before.
The book quality is about 3 stars, my reading experience (I did enjoy it a lot) was 4 stars.
If I had ever heard of the Battle of Attu in WW II, I had forgotten that fact. “The Storm On Our Shores” is a quick, and mostly good, text that can remedy that issue if you are in the same boat as I was.
Mark Obmascik (the author) uses the true story of an American educated Japanese surgeon, and the American soldier who killed him (and found a battle diary the surgeon kept in the process) as a jumping off point to give a brief overview of the war in the Pacific and the Aleutian campaign in particular.
The stories of Paul Tatsuguchi and Dick Laird are nicely interwoven with this history to give the war a human dimension. I appreciated the fact that Obmascik did not focus exclusively on them, but wove their tales into the larger contact of the war in the Pacific.
The part of the text that depicts the Battle of Attu is scattered. The writer jumps around a lot. I can’t say that that is a bad thing. It is just something I noticed, and I am not sure it enhances the book.
Overall, “The Storm on Our Shores” feels slight. The author is a journalist, so I guess that surface examination might be a residual effect. The text could have been heftier, there is much to digest there, and it has an incredible lack of notes and bibliography for a nonfiction book. That makes me a little nervous as to its veracity. But, for what it is I can accept it and enjoy the fact that I have some basic knowledge of something I knew little about before.
The book quality is about 3 stars, my reading experience (I did enjoy it a lot) was 4 stars.
January 9, 2023
I’m the one who killed your father
When Dick Laird visited Laura Davis, a Japanese woman living in California, it was not an everyday encounter. Dick Laird was a veteran of the little-known World War II battle of Attu, which was attacked and occupied by Japanese troops and subsequently recaptured by the US 7th Infantry Division in 1943. Laura Davis's father Paul Tatsuguchi was fighting on the side of Japan, and a journal he had kept for a few days just before his death had become popular reading among veterans. A journal which was found by Dick Laird, after he killed Tatsuguchi.
This book describes the lives of Dick and Paul, from their birth unto their conscription into the American and Japanese armies, the battle of Attu and the lives of Dick and Paul's daughter and wife after the war. Dick who joined the army to escape poverty, Paul who studied in the US and who - after returning to Japan - was conscripted into the Japanese army, torn between his love for the US and his home country.
I have read a lot of WWII books, focussing on the battles, strategy and logistics, but sometimes it is good to focus on the destruction brought about by conflict. This emotional story of the two families brought together by war — and eventually peace — is a story of redemption that comes from forgiveness and understanding.
When Dick Laird visited Laura Davis, a Japanese woman living in California, it was not an everyday encounter. Dick Laird was a veteran of the little-known World War II battle of Attu, which was attacked and occupied by Japanese troops and subsequently recaptured by the US 7th Infantry Division in 1943. Laura Davis's father Paul Tatsuguchi was fighting on the side of Japan, and a journal he had kept for a few days just before his death had become popular reading among veterans. A journal which was found by Dick Laird, after he killed Tatsuguchi.
This book describes the lives of Dick and Paul, from their birth unto their conscription into the American and Japanese armies, the battle of Attu and the lives of Dick and Paul's daughter and wife after the war. Dick who joined the army to escape poverty, Paul who studied in the US and who - after returning to Japan - was conscripted into the Japanese army, torn between his love for the US and his home country.
I have read a lot of WWII books, focussing on the battles, strategy and logistics, but sometimes it is good to focus on the destruction brought about by conflict. This emotional story of the two families brought together by war — and eventually peace — is a story of redemption that comes from forgiveness and understanding.
January 24, 2022
The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II by Mark Obmascik is now my new favorite book; ignore all of my previous declarations of new favorite books because this is it! It hooked me immediately and never let me go until the last page...AND it is a true story about real people in extraordinary circumstances! This “engrossing” (The Wall Street Journal) national bestseller and true “heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption” (Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers) reveals how a discovered diary—found during a brutal World War II battle—changed our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan.
May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star–winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul.
The doctor’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird.
Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years.
Tatsuguchi’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mark Obmascik “writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood” (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls).
May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star–winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul.
The doctor’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird.
Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years.
Tatsuguchi’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mark Obmascik “writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood” (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls).
May 10, 2019
Before he died, the journey of Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi was already unusual. And epic. Raised in Hiroshima as a Christian, he fell in love with the United States, proposed to his Japanese girlfriend in Yosemite National Park, included Niagara Falls on his honeymoon itinerary, and earned his medical degree at Loma Linda University in California. His favorite Bible passage was from Deuteronomy, “choose life.”
After he died, during a banzai attack as a surgeon alongside Japanese troops defending a useless hill on the far western tip of the Aleutian islands, in a vastly overlooked moment of World War II history, the journey and legend of Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi became no less impressive.That’s because Tatsuguchi kept a diary that went viral in the way that things went viral in the 1940’s—via paper copies getting passed around. The translated diary was a hit among U.S. soldiers who fought on Attu and, once ships carried the copies to the mainland, among a wider military audience and a hungry media, too. In death, “Tatsy” was instantly famous.
The nuts and bolts of Tatsuguchi’s cross-cultural, circuitous, and remarkable life are readily available on an extensive Wikipedia page, along with some key excerpts from the diary itself.The rough outline is powerful. In "The Storm on Our Shores," Mark Obmascik makes it a two-man story, contrasting Tatsuguchi’s life with Ohio coal miner Dick Laird, who killed Tatsuguchi and seven other Japanese as the brief but horrific Battle of Attu entered its final phase. Laird, who dropped out of school at age 14 and who killed a man who pursued education through medical school, would be haunted for decades by the moment and everything he’d done.
Tatsuguchi’s story has been told. "The Storm on Our Shores" contrasts Tatsuguchi and Laird in riveting detail. The contrasts couldn’t have been more striking, with Laird belonging to a family in which the parents “seemed to look for any excuse to deliver a whupping.” The family was so poor that a wounded mule might be become stew. The family moved ten times through the Appalachian coal mines before Dick Laird was six years old. His father drank and gambled to oblivion. Dick Laird loved school, but he was forced to quit to help work in the mine to help the family coffers.The human portrait is powerful and beautifully sets up Laird’s earnest search for closure and humanity.
After the war, Laird sought redemption by reaching out to Tatsuguchi’s family and, well, you need to read the book. Synopses, for the emotional part of this saga, won’t do it justice. Among its many strengths, "The Storm on Shores" is impeccably timed for maximum emotional punch.
Start to finish, the Battle of Attu was baffling. Attu is about as remote as remote gets. The Japanese took it with about 2,000 troops, hoping to distract the United States into defending its home soil (1,500 miles west of Anchorage). The island was lightly inhabited and easily taken by the Japanese.The United States waited a few weeks and then sent 15,000 soldiers to take it back—only to see soldiers and sailors die trying to land and fighting the elusive Japanese, who used the foggy mountains to their strategic advantage. Planning, execution, communication, coordination—the assault on Attu took military ineptitude to a new level. Five hundred and forty-nine U.S. soldiers lost their lives fighting on Attu. More than a 1,000 were wounded.
Obmascik goes back centuries for history of Japanese religion, its isolation, earlier wars, and the all-important “true Holy Writ of Japan” that demanded “essential loyalty” to the emperor over wife, children, everything. The code taught that Japanese soldiers that death is “noble and purifying” and as “light as a feather.”
And here is where it gets so hard to imagine that a devout Seventh Day Adventist like Tatsuguchi (again, “choose life”) would agree to serve alongside his fellow Japanese soldiers and commit to the banzai attack. “Only thirty-three years of living and I am to die here,” he wrote. “I have no regrets. Banzai to the Emperor. I am grateful that I have kept the peace of my soul which Christ bestowed upon me…”The Storm on Our Shores is, quite frankly, almost impossible to believe. Almost. We all know truth is stranger than fiction. This story is proof of that. Don’t ponder the odds of some of the coincidences that emerge from the fog (and muck and misery) of this story. You are better off letting the surprises happen mid-story.
Obmascik’s meticulous research and straightforward narrative style make this non-fiction account a gripping page-turner with genuine heartache. Could you grant forgiveness to the man who killed your father? Would you? And, if so, why?
A godforsaken location, an under-reported battle of World War II, and two remarkable characters—one whose life was cut short and one who survived but was never the same. "The Storm on Our Shores" is a trip you won’t forget.
After he died, during a banzai attack as a surgeon alongside Japanese troops defending a useless hill on the far western tip of the Aleutian islands, in a vastly overlooked moment of World War II history, the journey and legend of Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi became no less impressive.That’s because Tatsuguchi kept a diary that went viral in the way that things went viral in the 1940’s—via paper copies getting passed around. The translated diary was a hit among U.S. soldiers who fought on Attu and, once ships carried the copies to the mainland, among a wider military audience and a hungry media, too. In death, “Tatsy” was instantly famous.
The nuts and bolts of Tatsuguchi’s cross-cultural, circuitous, and remarkable life are readily available on an extensive Wikipedia page, along with some key excerpts from the diary itself.The rough outline is powerful. In "The Storm on Our Shores," Mark Obmascik makes it a two-man story, contrasting Tatsuguchi’s life with Ohio coal miner Dick Laird, who killed Tatsuguchi and seven other Japanese as the brief but horrific Battle of Attu entered its final phase. Laird, who dropped out of school at age 14 and who killed a man who pursued education through medical school, would be haunted for decades by the moment and everything he’d done.
Tatsuguchi’s story has been told. "The Storm on Our Shores" contrasts Tatsuguchi and Laird in riveting detail. The contrasts couldn’t have been more striking, with Laird belonging to a family in which the parents “seemed to look for any excuse to deliver a whupping.” The family was so poor that a wounded mule might be become stew. The family moved ten times through the Appalachian coal mines before Dick Laird was six years old. His father drank and gambled to oblivion. Dick Laird loved school, but he was forced to quit to help work in the mine to help the family coffers.The human portrait is powerful and beautifully sets up Laird’s earnest search for closure and humanity.
After the war, Laird sought redemption by reaching out to Tatsuguchi’s family and, well, you need to read the book. Synopses, for the emotional part of this saga, won’t do it justice. Among its many strengths, "The Storm on Shores" is impeccably timed for maximum emotional punch.
Start to finish, the Battle of Attu was baffling. Attu is about as remote as remote gets. The Japanese took it with about 2,000 troops, hoping to distract the United States into defending its home soil (1,500 miles west of Anchorage). The island was lightly inhabited and easily taken by the Japanese.The United States waited a few weeks and then sent 15,000 soldiers to take it back—only to see soldiers and sailors die trying to land and fighting the elusive Japanese, who used the foggy mountains to their strategic advantage. Planning, execution, communication, coordination—the assault on Attu took military ineptitude to a new level. Five hundred and forty-nine U.S. soldiers lost their lives fighting on Attu. More than a 1,000 were wounded.
Obmascik goes back centuries for history of Japanese religion, its isolation, earlier wars, and the all-important “true Holy Writ of Japan” that demanded “essential loyalty” to the emperor over wife, children, everything. The code taught that Japanese soldiers that death is “noble and purifying” and as “light as a feather.”
And here is where it gets so hard to imagine that a devout Seventh Day Adventist like Tatsuguchi (again, “choose life”) would agree to serve alongside his fellow Japanese soldiers and commit to the banzai attack. “Only thirty-three years of living and I am to die here,” he wrote. “I have no regrets. Banzai to the Emperor. I am grateful that I have kept the peace of my soul which Christ bestowed upon me…”The Storm on Our Shores is, quite frankly, almost impossible to believe. Almost. We all know truth is stranger than fiction. This story is proof of that. Don’t ponder the odds of some of the coincidences that emerge from the fog (and muck and misery) of this story. You are better off letting the surprises happen mid-story.
Obmascik’s meticulous research and straightforward narrative style make this non-fiction account a gripping page-turner with genuine heartache. Could you grant forgiveness to the man who killed your father? Would you? And, if so, why?
A godforsaken location, an under-reported battle of World War II, and two remarkable characters—one whose life was cut short and one who survived but was never the same. "The Storm on Our Shores" is a trip you won’t forget.
June 16, 2021
This spring, while preparing to move to a new house, I had to comb through and organize boxes of old letters, cards, photos, and documents left over from my grandmother-in-law who had lived in our house many years ago. Through many hours of musty and tedious work, I made some very interesting discoveries about the history of the family, and shared through messenger with friends and family some of the neatest looking old photos or papers.
When I came across a battle report typed on a sort of onion paper, I sent snapshots to my mom to get her take on them. She read through the report more thoroughly and said it looked like a report from a Japanese soldier in WWII and to share it with my grandpa, who is very much a history buff. I emailed him snapshots of the document along with all the info I had on my husband's step-grandfather, who served in the Aleutians and South Pacific during WWII.
The timing was serendipitous. My grandpa and his wife had just read this book and sent me a screenshot of one of the pages. It was a passage from the diary of Paul Tatsuguchi, a field report that was recovered after his death, translated, copied, and distributed throughout the US and especially among the troops that fought in the Aleutians. While the original diary was lost, many copies exist, with some typos and translation variations. The copy I have looks very similar to the passage in the book, but it does have typos particularly with the spelling of names, at the end when Paul is wishing his family farewell.
Reading this book was so eye-opening because I did not know anything about Attu Island, and I didn't know anything about the Japanese perspective in the war. It was also amazing and heartbreaking to read about Paul Tatsuguchi and his family. Paul Tatsuguchi loved the US and received his medical license in California. He was a Seventh Day Adventist and therefore a pacifist. Family matters happened to pull him back to Japan just at the time when the Imperial Army was drafting. Paul was forced, despite his belief in peace and his love for America, to show loyalty to Japan and fight in a battle that was doomed.
This book also portrays Dick Laird, the man who killed Paul Tatsuguchi and was haunted with guilt and PTSD. Neither the Japanese nor the Americans should have had to battle in the Aleutians and so many, many lives were lost just due to the inhospitability of the location and the unpreparedness of the troops for the climate there.
Reading this whole story really makes me curious about exactly where my husband's step-grandfather was stationed during the war. I hope to be able to track down more information.
When I came across a battle report typed on a sort of onion paper, I sent snapshots to my mom to get her take on them. She read through the report more thoroughly and said it looked like a report from a Japanese soldier in WWII and to share it with my grandpa, who is very much a history buff. I emailed him snapshots of the document along with all the info I had on my husband's step-grandfather, who served in the Aleutians and South Pacific during WWII.
The timing was serendipitous. My grandpa and his wife had just read this book and sent me a screenshot of one of the pages. It was a passage from the diary of Paul Tatsuguchi, a field report that was recovered after his death, translated, copied, and distributed throughout the US and especially among the troops that fought in the Aleutians. While the original diary was lost, many copies exist, with some typos and translation variations. The copy I have looks very similar to the passage in the book, but it does have typos particularly with the spelling of names, at the end when Paul is wishing his family farewell.
Reading this book was so eye-opening because I did not know anything about Attu Island, and I didn't know anything about the Japanese perspective in the war. It was also amazing and heartbreaking to read about Paul Tatsuguchi and his family. Paul Tatsuguchi loved the US and received his medical license in California. He was a Seventh Day Adventist and therefore a pacifist. Family matters happened to pull him back to Japan just at the time when the Imperial Army was drafting. Paul was forced, despite his belief in peace and his love for America, to show loyalty to Japan and fight in a battle that was doomed.
This book also portrays Dick Laird, the man who killed Paul Tatsuguchi and was haunted with guilt and PTSD. Neither the Japanese nor the Americans should have had to battle in the Aleutians and so many, many lives were lost just due to the inhospitability of the location and the unpreparedness of the troops for the climate there.
Reading this whole story really makes me curious about exactly where my husband's step-grandfather was stationed during the war. I hope to be able to track down more information.
December 22, 2021
A work of history that reads like a mystery, this book focuses on the most forgotten American campaign of World War II. When the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands, The U.S. responded, sending forces to repel them from an area that many considered Godforsaken. The battle on the island of Attu in May 1943 brought together (among others) two antagonists. Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi immigrated from Japan to California to attend medical school. A gentle man who loved both places, he returned home to help family, which ultimately led to his conscription in the Japanese army. Dick Laird enlisted in the U.S. Army to escape grinding poverty in his native Appalachia. He discovers Tatsuguchi's war diary, which he in later years he decides to share with his former enemy's family, if he can find them.
Obmascik incorporates both the drama of men at war and that of dealing with the consequences of fighting for the survivors. There are no villains here but the story does not lack for immediacy. A short yet memorable addition to a World War ii home library.
Obmascik incorporates both the drama of men at war and that of dealing with the consequences of fighting for the survivors. There are no villains here but the story does not lack for immediacy. A short yet memorable addition to a World War ii home library.
October 3, 2022
Alaskan history + WWII. Those of you who know me shouldn’t be surprised at all that this book caught my attention.
The Storm on Our Shores focuses on two men who fought on opposites sides in Attu, one of the small, storm-prone islands on the far western end of the Aleutians that was captured by the Japanese during WWII.
Paul Tatsuguchi was Japanese, but also a devoted Christian who loved America. He went to medical school there, only returning to Japan because one of his siblings needed his help. When war began, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army and given no choice but to wage war against a country he loved. On a small island in Alaska with some of the world’s worst weather, Tatsuguchi served with and ultimately died with the Japanese troops. He left behind a wife, two daughters, and a diary.
Dick Laird grew up in extreme poverty, in a home where love was sparse and hardship common. Joining the United States Army gave him a way to escape the coal mines. Despite training that best prepared him for desert warfare, he ended up in Alaska. His actions there would earn him a Silver Star, but what he saw, what he did—and the diary he found written by an American-trained surgeon—would haunt him for decades.
The book covers the lead-up to war between Japan and the US, the Battles of Attu and Kiska, and Laird’s subsequent wartime service in the South Pacific, including campaigns in the Philippines and Okinawa. Covered, too, is the Tatsuguchi family’s experiences during and after the war, and the ultimate meeting between Laird and the remnants of the Tatsuguchi family. The forgiveness and peace that they ultimately find is my favorite part of the book. It’s powerful.
Readers who enjoy WWII nonfiction will enjoy this look at an often overlooked battle. Readers who enjoy stories of endurance and healing will be touched by the human elements.
The Storm on Our Shores focuses on two men who fought on opposites sides in Attu, one of the small, storm-prone islands on the far western end of the Aleutians that was captured by the Japanese during WWII.
Paul Tatsuguchi was Japanese, but also a devoted Christian who loved America. He went to medical school there, only returning to Japan because one of his siblings needed his help. When war began, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army and given no choice but to wage war against a country he loved. On a small island in Alaska with some of the world’s worst weather, Tatsuguchi served with and ultimately died with the Japanese troops. He left behind a wife, two daughters, and a diary.
Dick Laird grew up in extreme poverty, in a home where love was sparse and hardship common. Joining the United States Army gave him a way to escape the coal mines. Despite training that best prepared him for desert warfare, he ended up in Alaska. His actions there would earn him a Silver Star, but what he saw, what he did—and the diary he found written by an American-trained surgeon—would haunt him for decades.
The book covers the lead-up to war between Japan and the US, the Battles of Attu and Kiska, and Laird’s subsequent wartime service in the South Pacific, including campaigns in the Philippines and Okinawa. Covered, too, is the Tatsuguchi family’s experiences during and after the war, and the ultimate meeting between Laird and the remnants of the Tatsuguchi family. The forgiveness and peace that they ultimately find is my favorite part of the book. It’s powerful.
Readers who enjoy WWII nonfiction will enjoy this look at an often overlooked battle. Readers who enjoy stories of endurance and healing will be touched by the human elements.
November 6, 2019
Wonderful book! This is not your typical book about World War II, although it does have a gripping section dealing with the brutal and gritty fighting on the small, storm-swept Aleutian Island of Attu. Rather, the book is about the humanness of two soldiers on opposing sides of the battle, one American and one Japanese.
The Japanese soldier (Paul Tatsuguchi) grew up and was educated in Los Angeles. Circumstances took him to Japan shortly before the war started, and he was ultimately drafted to fight for the land of his ancestry. He was a medical doctor, and a Seventh-Day Adventist who opposed violence. He maintained journal of his time on Attu. The American, Dick Laird, killed Tatsuguchi, and then found his journal. The surprise was the humanity expressed in the pages of the journal - this Japanese soldier was profoundly human, did not hate Americans. Combined with at least one other close call where he almost killed two young natives of Attu, Laird began to question what he was doing. This continued to fester after the war, until he eventually meets up with Tatsuguchi's family.
The first third of the book provides context - background of the soldiers, great background on the history of japan that brought them to the point of attacking Pearl Harbor, etc. The middle part of the book is a lot about the brutal battle, fought under terrifying conditions; but it is softened by the journal which shows the enemy to be human also. The end of the book is about the Laird's life after the war, as well as that of Tatsuguchi's family, until they finally meet and gain some closure.
One of the best books about WWII I have read.
The Japanese soldier (Paul Tatsuguchi) grew up and was educated in Los Angeles. Circumstances took him to Japan shortly before the war started, and he was ultimately drafted to fight for the land of his ancestry. He was a medical doctor, and a Seventh-Day Adventist who opposed violence. He maintained journal of his time on Attu. The American, Dick Laird, killed Tatsuguchi, and then found his journal. The surprise was the humanity expressed in the pages of the journal - this Japanese soldier was profoundly human, did not hate Americans. Combined with at least one other close call where he almost killed two young natives of Attu, Laird began to question what he was doing. This continued to fester after the war, until he eventually meets up with Tatsuguchi's family.
The first third of the book provides context - background of the soldiers, great background on the history of japan that brought them to the point of attacking Pearl Harbor, etc. The middle part of the book is a lot about the brutal battle, fought under terrifying conditions; but it is softened by the journal which shows the enemy to be human also. The end of the book is about the Laird's life after the war, as well as that of Tatsuguchi's family, until they finally meet and gain some closure.
One of the best books about WWII I have read.
September 19, 2019
Two lives interconnect: a Japanese army surgeon and a West Virginia coal miner turned army Sargent. Place: An extremely inhospitable Aleutian island during WW2. Diaries and reminiscences from both reveal the traumas and fears of servicemen. This is not an official history book, but I like it as I do most such books written by journalists, not history profs. Obmasik's extensive research and in-depth interviews located discrepancies in previous accounts of these two wartime relationships, some negative. He puts a positive and human light on it all by revealing the emotional mental states that characterize wartime military service. Fifty years after the war, poignant meetings between the U.S. veteran and the wife and daughter of the surgeon help all release their feelings, sorrows and achieve closure. Change a few names, dates and places and the narration could be current.
January 2, 2019
A most compelling read about a Japanese soldier and an American soldier on the Aleutian Islands during WWII. Featuring a comprehensive, though condensed, history of Japan, and how this island nation came to be a world power, challenging the largest super power which, itself, had become complacent regarding any aggression from its West.
I read this EARC courtesy of Edelweiss and Atria Books, 04/09/19
I read this EARC courtesy of Edelweiss and Atria Books, 04/09/19
April 24, 2019
Similar in concept to the movie "Letters from Iwo" except dealing with the Japanese invasion of Alaska during World War II. The author does an excellent job of describing the cultural and political histories of both Japan and the United States which set the stage for the two lives that he intertwines. There is some conjecture in the work.
October 2, 2025
This book was an excellent look at the brutality and often pointlessness of war. Thousands of American and Japanese men were sent to an isolated Alaskan island with little to no strategic value, and either suffered life-altering physical and psychological afflictions or perished on the island. The book does a fascinating job following two of the soldiers who met in the battle on opposite sides and broke down why they were there, who they were, and makes you appreciate how casualties aren’t just statistics on a summary sheet but full lives of people who had much more to live for and weren’t necessarily committed to the fight they were forced into.
Rating 1,195
Rating 1,195
October 3, 2019
Summary: The story of a forgotten battle in 1943 on Attu in the Aleutians, and two soldiers, "enemies" to each other, one who died, one who survived, and the after story.
You are living quietly as a Japanese-American on the west coast, caring for an aging widow, whose husband died in the Japanese war effort. An elderly man visits your home who was in the battle in which your father died. As he leaves, he finally blurts out the reason the real reason for his visit: "I'm the one who killed your father."
Mark Obmascik tells the story of the battle that the devoted pacifist Japanese husband and father, Dr. Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, died in, and the story of Dick Laird, the scrappy, courageous soldier at whose hand he died. He fleshes out the life story of each that brought them to this moment, the moments that followed, and the healing Laird finally found as he and Laura Tatsuguchi Davis eventually talked.
Paul Tatsuguchi had emigrated from Hiroshima to California in the 1920's, was raised in a Seventh Day Adventist home, and eventually enrolled in medical school, where he excelled as a surgeon. While there he met, and married Taeko Miyake, who he had known from childhood in Japan. Family needs brought them back to Japan where Paul served as a doctor in an Adventist tuberculosis sanitarium. As the clouds of war gathered, their first daughter Joy was born. Then Paul, who was a pacifist, was drafted into the Japanese war effort. Fortunately the need for doctors meant he would not be called on to kill the enemy. But he could still encounter those who once had been his American friends.
Dick Laird grew up in a southeast Ohio coal town. Enlisting in the army seemed the one thing that promised a better life. He met Rose in Columbus while going through training. They had a tumultuous relationship until the army finally grew him up. Laird was the guy you wanted on your side in a fight and he became a leader among men, rising to sergeant. He could have risen further except for his doubts about his education, offered the opportunity to go to Officers Candidate School.
In June of 1942, Japan invaded a lonely island at the western end of the Aleutians named Attu, about as far west as the U.S. goes. They thought they were getting a stepping stone, but the storms, the spongy soil, the cold and the fogs made it more or less useless as a base. They eventually took Kiska to the east. None of this afforded them much strategic advantage but they did not relinquish it.
American pride could not let this invasion of even these insignificant islands go unchallenged and so in May of 1943, Dick Laird was part of an invasion force sent to retake Attu. Much of the book chronicles this effort and the horrors to which this led. There was the Japanese no-surrender policy of fighting to the death, either in battle or in bushido (ritual suicide). There was the fog in war, in this case the literal fog that led to Laird accidentally killing one of his own runners, mistaking him for the enemy, and nearly taking innocent lives at another point. There were the gruesome deaths all around him of friends and others he fought alongside.
Meanwhile, there was the diary kept by Paul Tatsuguchi chronicling the deteriorating conditions that led to the giving of grenades to his patients so they could take their lives rather than be captured. There is also his faith, and his love for his daughters, including Laura, born during the war. The end came when the remaining Japanese defenders mounted a banzai attack. Tatsuguchi was among a group of soldiers charging Laird and his men. Laird had no choice but to throw a hand grenade, followed by his and his men's rifle fire that wiped out the group.
When they searched the dead, Laird found Tatsuguchi's diary, later widely copied and circulated by others. Someone else found his Bible. Laird struggled after the war with what we now know as PTSD, the memories of gruesome deaths, the runner, the innocent he almost killed, and the death of Tatsuguchi, a pacifist doctor mixed up in a fatal charge. He had nightmares for years, even as he tried to leave the war behind in the daylight.
The most moving part of the book is the encounters he has with Laura, including the incredible letter she wrote him that finally enabled him to sleep at night. The book also raises the questions war so often raises about soldiers each doing their duties honorably, mixed up in what was a needless battle because of the decisions of others and bearing the consequences in their deaths, or their lives. Laird is the embodiment of the tension of doing what he must do, deeply regretting what he had done and yet seeing no way out of this tragic dilemma. All the decorations he received could not unravel this. Only the aggrieved mother and daughter could do so. The wonder of this book is how they did.
You are living quietly as a Japanese-American on the west coast, caring for an aging widow, whose husband died in the Japanese war effort. An elderly man visits your home who was in the battle in which your father died. As he leaves, he finally blurts out the reason the real reason for his visit: "I'm the one who killed your father."
Mark Obmascik tells the story of the battle that the devoted pacifist Japanese husband and father, Dr. Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, died in, and the story of Dick Laird, the scrappy, courageous soldier at whose hand he died. He fleshes out the life story of each that brought them to this moment, the moments that followed, and the healing Laird finally found as he and Laura Tatsuguchi Davis eventually talked.
Paul Tatsuguchi had emigrated from Hiroshima to California in the 1920's, was raised in a Seventh Day Adventist home, and eventually enrolled in medical school, where he excelled as a surgeon. While there he met, and married Taeko Miyake, who he had known from childhood in Japan. Family needs brought them back to Japan where Paul served as a doctor in an Adventist tuberculosis sanitarium. As the clouds of war gathered, their first daughter Joy was born. Then Paul, who was a pacifist, was drafted into the Japanese war effort. Fortunately the need for doctors meant he would not be called on to kill the enemy. But he could still encounter those who once had been his American friends.
Dick Laird grew up in a southeast Ohio coal town. Enlisting in the army seemed the one thing that promised a better life. He met Rose in Columbus while going through training. They had a tumultuous relationship until the army finally grew him up. Laird was the guy you wanted on your side in a fight and he became a leader among men, rising to sergeant. He could have risen further except for his doubts about his education, offered the opportunity to go to Officers Candidate School.
In June of 1942, Japan invaded a lonely island at the western end of the Aleutians named Attu, about as far west as the U.S. goes. They thought they were getting a stepping stone, but the storms, the spongy soil, the cold and the fogs made it more or less useless as a base. They eventually took Kiska to the east. None of this afforded them much strategic advantage but they did not relinquish it.
American pride could not let this invasion of even these insignificant islands go unchallenged and so in May of 1943, Dick Laird was part of an invasion force sent to retake Attu. Much of the book chronicles this effort and the horrors to which this led. There was the Japanese no-surrender policy of fighting to the death, either in battle or in bushido (ritual suicide). There was the fog in war, in this case the literal fog that led to Laird accidentally killing one of his own runners, mistaking him for the enemy, and nearly taking innocent lives at another point. There were the gruesome deaths all around him of friends and others he fought alongside.
Meanwhile, there was the diary kept by Paul Tatsuguchi chronicling the deteriorating conditions that led to the giving of grenades to his patients so they could take their lives rather than be captured. There is also his faith, and his love for his daughters, including Laura, born during the war. The end came when the remaining Japanese defenders mounted a banzai attack. Tatsuguchi was among a group of soldiers charging Laird and his men. Laird had no choice but to throw a hand grenade, followed by his and his men's rifle fire that wiped out the group.
When they searched the dead, Laird found Tatsuguchi's diary, later widely copied and circulated by others. Someone else found his Bible. Laird struggled after the war with what we now know as PTSD, the memories of gruesome deaths, the runner, the innocent he almost killed, and the death of Tatsuguchi, a pacifist doctor mixed up in a fatal charge. He had nightmares for years, even as he tried to leave the war behind in the daylight.
The most moving part of the book is the encounters he has with Laura, including the incredible letter she wrote him that finally enabled him to sleep at night. The book also raises the questions war so often raises about soldiers each doing their duties honorably, mixed up in what was a needless battle because of the decisions of others and bearing the consequences in their deaths, or their lives. Laird is the embodiment of the tension of doing what he must do, deeply regretting what he had done and yet seeing no way out of this tragic dilemma. All the decorations he received could not unravel this. Only the aggrieved mother and daughter could do so. The wonder of this book is how they did.
May 15, 2019
Attu, the westernmost island in the Aleutian chain off the coast of Alaska, was the site of the first invasion of the United States since the War of 1812. The year was 1943; the invaders were the Japanese. This book tells the story of that battle -- but also relates the story (both smaller and larger in scope) of two men who had a fateful encounter on the island: the American-trained Japanese surgeon conscripted into a war he knew his homeland could not win (and one that went against his Christian pacifist beliefs) and an American soldier from Appalachia. The American (Dick Laird) killed the doctor (Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi), adding to the almost overwhelming trauma derived from his war experiences. The focus on the two men -- with alternating chapters about their lives pre-Attu -- narrows the scope of the story; Laird's search for inner peace and forgiveness from the daughter of the man he killed (a woman who never knew her father) broadens the tale to one of grace and forgiveness. The author does an excellent job of showing the inhuman conditions on the island and the bloody toll the American victory exacted. What one takes away from the book, however, is the story of the power of repentance and the power resulting from the release of past bitterness and hatred. (One quirk of mine: I begin to mistrust the facts of any nonfiction book when I discover a glaring error: Napoleon Bonaparte did NOT precede the French Revolution, as the author indicates on page 27 -- I suppose book publishers don't have fact-checkers these days...?)
March 10, 2020
An excellent story about a Japanese Christian who came to the US to become educated as a surgeon, married a Japanese girl who also came to the U.S. for her education, & how they went back to Japan just prior to Pearl Harbor.
As a loyal Japanese man, despite his love for the USA & his understanding of its people & resources, & despite knowing his country could not win in a war with the U.S., he went when called to serve as a surgeon in the Japanese army.
The other part of the story is about a young Appalachian coal miner who found a different life once he joined the US Army. He became a First Sergeant & was even considered for OCS training, but due to his struggle with & lack of education, he didn't have the self confidence to go for it, & asked to have his name withdrawn for consideration.
The two men have their different struggles & both end up on an EXTREMELY sparsely populated island in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, which the Japanese High Command figures to be a good place for a diversion for the US Forces. It was actually a good idea...in theory, but they didn't know the facts about the tiny island of Attu. Extremely cold, snowy, foggy, & other times foggy, it's soil was mostly a bog that swallowed the men & equipment of two Armies...the Japanese & the US.
Paul Tatsaguchi & Dick Laird do "meet" on the final day of the US counterinvasion of Attu...sort of. What happens then & all the years following is what makes this such a fascinating story. I was moved to tears a few times & found it an extremely touching &readable book.
As a loyal Japanese man, despite his love for the USA & his understanding of its people & resources, & despite knowing his country could not win in a war with the U.S., he went when called to serve as a surgeon in the Japanese army.
The other part of the story is about a young Appalachian coal miner who found a different life once he joined the US Army. He became a First Sergeant & was even considered for OCS training, but due to his struggle with & lack of education, he didn't have the self confidence to go for it, & asked to have his name withdrawn for consideration.
The two men have their different struggles & both end up on an EXTREMELY sparsely populated island in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, which the Japanese High Command figures to be a good place for a diversion for the US Forces. It was actually a good idea...in theory, but they didn't know the facts about the tiny island of Attu. Extremely cold, snowy, foggy, & other times foggy, it's soil was mostly a bog that swallowed the men & equipment of two Armies...the Japanese & the US.
Paul Tatsaguchi & Dick Laird do "meet" on the final day of the US counterinvasion of Attu...sort of. What happens then & all the years following is what makes this such a fascinating story. I was moved to tears a few times & found it an extremely touching &readable book.
January 4, 2020
I really loved this book. There was a history lesson on every page. Things I have never known even though I am a history buff. I highly recommend.
September 16, 2020
First off, full disclosure, This was nearly a DNF for me. It could have been my mood, it could have been how parts of it seemed rather slow and over done. Whatever the reason, I am glad I pushed on and finished it. Well worth the effort.
This book attracted my attention because the blurb highlighted that it took place during WWII and in the Aleutian Islands. Japan invaded Alaska? Why did I never know about this?
Although this is a war story, there is so much more to it. It revolves around the lives of 2 men, whose lives are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi was born in Japan, educated in California, became a doctor and returned to Japan. Dick Laird was a coal miner, raised in Appalachia. These 2 men met on the battlefield of Attu, and their lives were shattered.
This is a story of faith, family, love and forgiveness. Highly recommended.
This book attracted my attention because the blurb highlighted that it took place during WWII and in the Aleutian Islands. Japan invaded Alaska? Why did I never know about this?
Although this is a war story, there is so much more to it. It revolves around the lives of 2 men, whose lives are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi was born in Japan, educated in California, became a doctor and returned to Japan. Dick Laird was a coal miner, raised in Appalachia. These 2 men met on the battlefield of Attu, and their lives were shattered.
This is a story of faith, family, love and forgiveness. Highly recommended.
November 2, 2021
This is the story of two men. Dick Laird served in the US Army. Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi was an American educated surgeon who ended up serving in the Japanese Imperial Army. Both were at the Battle of Attu. Paul was killed there...by Dick. This book tells both men's stories and the fight for the island of Attu. I had never heard of this battle and found this book to be fascinating. Highly recommended.
July 4, 2025
A powerful and poignant account of lives shaped by war.
This book tells the compelling story of two men whose paths crossed by fate during World War II, and the lasting impact that encounter had—not only on them, but on the family left behind. Their personal narratives are skillfully woven into the broader and often overlooked history of the Battle of Attu in the remote Aleutian Islands. It’s a gripping, deeply human read, and I’m grateful this story was brought to light.
This book tells the compelling story of two men whose paths crossed by fate during World War II, and the lasting impact that encounter had—not only on them, but on the family left behind. Their personal narratives are skillfully woven into the broader and often overlooked history of the Battle of Attu in the remote Aleutian Islands. It’s a gripping, deeply human read, and I’m grateful this story was brought to light.
July 24, 2019
I was somewhat familiar with the battle of Attu and I also have a friend who was stationed at the Coast Guard station there a few years back. I decided to read this after seeing the story on 60 Minutes. It was very well written. It combines the history of the battle, as well as other pertinent WWII history, with the personal stories of the American and Japanese soldiers. In addition to that, it shows how powerful forgiveness can be.
June 20, 2019
I never knew about the Battle of Attu in World War II between USA and Japan. This book tells about the battle, and the lives of two soldiers, one American and one Japanese, and how their lives intersected. This is a great read, I highly recommend it.
January 25, 2020
I can never pass up an untold story and The Storm on Our Shores doesn’t disappoint. War is brutal and there’s no way around that. This book acknowledges the huge, unfathomable scale of war while also narrowing in on the stories of two specific men caught up in the maelstrom of World War II’s Pacific theatre.
March 25, 2025
I had never heard of this battle and was surprised we actually fought on “American” soil. The story was very interesting and written very well. I don’t really care for religion or America so I wasn’t really affected by the book, but its historical significance still made it worth reading.
August 5, 2019
Because the focus is on two soldiers on opposite sides of the battle, this WWII account is a bit more personal, emotional, and poignant than may battle stories are. Lots of background into the Japanese doctor who had studied in the states and then was caught up in the Japanese draft on a visit to rescue his sister from sexual slavery in Mongolia and on the young American who escaped the Pennsylvania coal mines. Tonally, it reminded me of Brian Payton's The Wind is Not a River, also partly set on Attu in the Aleutians and the only battle of WWII on American soil.
December 15, 2020
A great story about war, the effects, the obstacles, the triumphs, the emotions, and the forgiveness. What a battle.
March 19, 2025
In the fall of 1967 as a sophomore at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota I was privileged to participate in the Term in Thailand with 25 other students. We studied at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok - Buddhism, Southeast Asian history, art, literature, and political science. On the way to Bangkok we visited Japan and Hong Kong. Coming home included stops in Penang, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Guam. We were the only undergraduate study group in Southeast Asia - the closest program was in Japan. I have been an avid reader of World War II history and literature for more than 60 years. My father and most of my uncles served in the war in many roles - as a tank driver in Patton's army, a tail gunner who was killed over Germany, and a medic in the Pacific Theater. My reading, however, had largely been within the European Theater of operations. About 2 years ago I had a "DUH" moment. Why was I not reading about the Pacific War when I had visited so many important sites in that history?? I am trying to make up for my lack of knowledge. The following are the most significant books that I have read in that effort: "The Imperial Japanese Army: The Invincible Years 1941-42" Bill Yenn "Building the Death Railway: The Ordeal of American Pows in Burma, 1942-1945" Robert S. LaForte "Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia" Gary J. Bass "82 Days on Okinawa: One American's Unforgettable Firsthand Account of the Pacific War's Greatest Battle" Art Shaw "140 Days to Hiroshima: The Story of Japan's Last Chance to Avert Armageddon" David Dean Barrett "Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945" Ian W.Toll "The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945" James D. Hornfischer "Thailand and Japan's Southern Advance, 1940-1945" E. Bruce Reynolds "Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal" James D. Hornfischer "The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45" John Toland "Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor" by Donald A. Davis. . I have visited two locations of horror and death at the hands of the Japanese. The first is the bridge over the river Kwai at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. With an enormous pool of captive labor at their disposal, the Japanese forced approximately 200,000 Asian conscripts and over 60,000 Allied POWs to construct the Burma Railway. Among the Allied POWs were some 30,000 British, 13,000 Australians, 18,000 Dutch, and 700 Americans. Of the US personnel forced to work on the railway, 133 died. (Their remains were expatriated. ) This included personnel from USS Houston and the 131st Field Artillery Regiment of the Texas Army National Guard. The Americans were called the Lost Battalion as their fate was unknown to the United States for years after their capture. Near the bridge is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, the main prisoner of war (POW) cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment while building the Burma Railway. . The cemetery contains 6,982 graves of British, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war, of whom 6,858 have been identified. I have walked through that cemetery and always remember the peace and beauty of the bougainvillea, and the graves and graves and graves. After contemplating the devastating loss of life in WWII, we were standing on the railroad bridge over the River Kwai when 3 American jets made a low pass - coming from or heading toVietnam. Remember this was the fall of 1967. The Tet Offensive would be in the spring of 1968. I could not help but think of the new waste of lives and the fact that we never learn. I still recommend the 1957 movie, "The Bridge on the River Kwai", starring William Holden and Alec Guinness . Although it is not completely factual, it does capture the hardship of the slave labor to build the railway. Ironically upon awakening on our first day in Tokyo my roommate and I heard the "Colonel Bogey March" which was the theme song from the movie. We looked down upon a lower roof and saw Japanese workers doing morning exercises to the music. We wondered if they had any idea that the music was associated with Japanese atrocities for us.. I have walked through Fort Santiago, the last building in old Manila liberated by the Americans during the recapture of the Philippines. It had been used as a prison/ torture chamber / death house and was found with literally hundreds if not thousands of dead bodies inside. The main entrance when I was there was broken and enlarged to permit American tanks to enter the fort. One of the most difficult books that I have read so far in my Pacific Theater education is "Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila" by James M. Scott. Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya" had ordered his army to retreat into the jungle highlands because he believed he could not defeat the Americans in Manila. Rear Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji defied Yamashita’s orders to withdraw from the city and utilized his 18,000 men to massacre thousands of Filipino civilians. This book isvery painful as it has many first-person accounts of the murders and rapes. I have also had the privilege or having known a survivor of the Bataan Death March as a friend. He did not wish to speak in great detail, but the one thing that I have never forgotten was the role of other soldiers to protect their comrades. He explained that they always tried to walk in 3's with the weakest man in the middle supported by two stronger men on each side.. I fell in love with Kyoto and Nara. The beautiful gardens and shrines... The city largely escaped the fire-bombing toward the end of the war. In my reading I was grateful to learn that though Kyoto had been at the top of the list for the atomic bomb, Secretary of War Stimson removed it because he had also fallen in love with this the city. One evening as a couple of friends and I were walking, we were stopped by 3 Japanese university students who offered us drinks in return for an opportunity to practice their English. 57 years later I remember one of the young men asking why the U.S. did not drop atomic bombs on North Vietnam. I could not believe that a citizen of the only country to experience such devastation would think it a good idea to use such a weapon... Finally I believe that anyone who seriously studies the Pacific War has anobligation to form an opinion about whether the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the best option to end the war. There are several factors that have led me to believe that this was the right decision. We were fire-bombing cities all over Japan - led by Curtis LeMay. Thousands of civilians were dying. Our knowledge of the effects of the atomic bombs was so limited that one proposal for the invasion of Japan involved dropping a bomb on an area and invading 24 hours later. We had no idea that we would be killing the American soldiers involved. Some theorists state that the fact that Russia had invaded Manchukuo meant that the Japanese would have surrendered soon. The Japanese were not that concerned about Russia. They also were not surprised. One has to remember that the Soviet Union had never conducted an amphibious landing during WWII, if ever. They had not trained troops for such an endeavor nor did they have any ships or transports for invasion. In Europe and especially the Pacific, the Americans had conducted dozens of water invasions and would have had to supply all the training and the equipment. Finally, even after the first bomb and even after Nagasaki there were still strong forces who did not want to surrender. A particularly militant faction attempted to seize the emperor and keep the war going. The death toll among the armed citizenry and both militaries would have been HUGE. I wish the atomic bombs had not been necessary, but I believe they were more humane than fire bombing, blockading and starving the country and the massive Allied and Japanese loss of life in an invasion. **************** Because of my own mental conflicts with my love for Nara and Kyoto and the atrocities committed by the Japanese during the war, I have never read a book from the point of view of a Japanese soldier. I was aware of the invasion of the Aleutian Islands and many years ago had read "The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians" by Brian Garfield. I read the book around 1969 the year it was written. I was happy to see that Mr. Obascik recommended the book as a good reference for the logistics and command issues of the fight for Alaska. Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi was not a "typical" Japanese soldier. He was a physician educated in the U. S., a Seventh Day Adventist, and a man who ( at least before the battle of Attu ) loved both America and Japan. Dick Laird was a young man who found his way out of poverty through the military before WWII and found himself fighting in battles in the Pacific. This book is VERY READABLE!!! The author depicts the horrors of war for both sides and the effects of marriage to a WWII veteran by Japanese and American civilians. I highly recommend this book on WWII from a personal perspective. Kristi & Abby Tabby Childless Cat Lady
August 23, 2019
I usually put together lists of books to read to learn about World War 2, The Civil War, Vietnam, and so on. What I look for is books that capture the heart of what it is like going to war, to address the big picture of the war while focusing in on a particular person or people so it feels more personal. The Storm on Our Shores makes that list for World War 2 and rests with books like Unbroken, Band of Brothers, and Citizen Soldiers. It is a tragic story focusing on the futility of fighting in a far away piece of frozen rock in the north Pacific, on American soil of Alaska. I didn't even know we fought a battle in Alaska and I've been studying the war for my entire life. We can learn so much from World War 2 if we pay attention to the stories from those who lived it and and in this case, it is an American G.I. doing his duty and a Japanese doctor who studied in the U.S. and kept a meticulous journal of the battle. It is not a long book so not intimidating to a newer reader of World War 2 history but the story is worth reading and read like a novel. You'll be in tears at the end, I promise.
August 6, 2020
Wow, I thought that I knew a good bit about WW2, but it turns out that I don't know a hill of beans.
I had NO IDEA that we where invaded and that there was a battle in Alaska- an island called Attu .
This is a story about two soldiers, on opposite sides of the war, but their story is simple: two men that loved their country, that answered the call of war.
First we have Paul Tatsuguchi- a doctor that loves America. He came over here to study and was beloved by his classmates. He is also a Christian who was a practicing pacifists.
Then there is Dick Laird, a man who grew up poor in the Appalachia Coal Mines and joined the military to get out.
These two unlikely people fight against each other and Laird kills Tatsuguchi. He finds his diary and soon Paul's diary spreads like wild fire throughout the fighting men. Many many years later Laird gets the courage to meet Tatsuguchi's family and tell them of his guilt.
I had NO IDEA that we where invaded and that there was a battle in Alaska- an island called Attu .
This is a story about two soldiers, on opposite sides of the war, but their story is simple: two men that loved their country, that answered the call of war.
First we have Paul Tatsuguchi- a doctor that loves America. He came over here to study and was beloved by his classmates. He is also a Christian who was a practicing pacifists.
Then there is Dick Laird, a man who grew up poor in the Appalachia Coal Mines and joined the military to get out.
These two unlikely people fight against each other and Laird kills Tatsuguchi. He finds his diary and soon Paul's diary spreads like wild fire throughout the fighting men. Many many years later Laird gets the courage to meet Tatsuguchi's family and tell them of his guilt.
May 10, 2019
An absolutely true story, and a fascinating read - made so particularly because my maternal Grandpa was IN the battle on this remote aleutian island during World War II. Even though, obviously, he was not a part of this specific account - nevertheless the chance to learn more detail and context for the extremely few stories he told of his war experiences was priceless.
June 18, 2019
This book is a great work. I usually don’t like reading a lot about war, but this has been an exception. Its the story of more than one person. The main story is of a Japanese man that came from Japan to the US to study medicine. He loved America. When WWII started Japan called him back to that country and he was obligated to serve in their army. The story is fascinating and hard to put down.
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