Crucible of Hell: The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945

by Saul David

From the award-winning historian, Saul David, the riveting narrative of the heroic US troops, bonded by the brotherhood and sacrifice of war, who overcame enormous casualties to pull off the toughest invasion of WWII's Pacific Theater -- and the Japanese forces who fought with tragic desperation to stop them.

With Allied forces sweeping across Europe and into Germany in the spring of 1945, one enormous challenge threatened to derail America's audacious drive to win the world back from the Nazis: Japan, the empire that had extended its reach southward across the Pacific and was renowned for the fanaticism and brutality of its fighters, who refused to surrender, even when faced with insurmountable odds. Taking down Japan would require an unrelenting attack to break its national spirit, and launching such an attack on the island empire meant building an operations base just off its shores on the island of Okinawa.

The amphibious operation to capture Okinawa was the largest of the Pacific War and the greatest air-land-sea battle in history, mobilizing 183,000 troops from Seattle, Leyte in the Philippines, and ports around the world. The campaign lasted for 83 blood-soaked days, as the fighting plumbed depths of savagery. One veteran, struggling to make sense of what he had witnessed, referred to the fighting as the "crucible of Hell." Okinawan civilians died in the tens of thousands: some were mistaken for soldiers by American troops; but as the US Marines spearheading the invasion drove further onto the island and Japanese defeat seemed inevitable, many more civilians took their own lives, some even murdering their own families. In just under three months, the world had changed irrevocably: President Franklin D. Roosevelt died; the war in Europe ended; America's appetite for an invasion of Japan had waned, spurring President Truman to use other means -- ultimately atomic bombs -- to end the war; and more than 250,000 servicemen and civilians on or near the island of Okinawa had lost their lives.

Drawing on archival research in the US, Japan, and the UK, and the original accounts of those who survived, Crucible of Hell tells the vivid, heart-rending story of the battle that changed not just the course of WWII, but the course of war, forever.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, War, Military History, Military Fiction, Japan

423 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2020

About the author

SAUL DAVID was born in Monmouth in 1966 and educated at Ampleforth College and Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities (History MA and PhD).

An expert in the wars of the Victorian period, he began writing his first history book when he was twenty-five and has since completed eight more. They include: The Homicidal Earl: The Life of Lord Cardigan (1997), a critically-acclaimed biography of the man who led the Charge of the Light Brigade; The Indian Mutiny:1857 (2002), shortlisted for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature; Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 (2004), a Waterstone's Military History Book of the Year; and the bestselling Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire (2006). In 2007 he signed a three book deal with Hodder & Stoughton to write a series of historical novels set in the late Victorian period. The first, Zulu Hart, was published on 5 March 2009 to critical acclaim with The Times describing it as a 'rattling good yarn' with 'a compelling, sexy hero who could give Cornwell's Sharpe a run for his money'. He is currently writing a history of the British Army.

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Battle

The Battle of Okinawa was fought on a Pacific island, part of Japanese home territories from 01/04/1945-22/06/1945. It was one of the bloodiest of the Second World War with 12,000 US lives lost, 90,000 Imperial Japanese soldiers and around 100,000 Okinawan civilians also killed. A slaughter that would not be out of place with the Eastern Front in Europe. This battle did not end WWII, but what it showed was as the Japanese slowly got backed into the corner they became more aggressive and desperate. To take Japan itself a force of three million men would be needed, with a cost of around one million lives. An alternative solution would be needed.

Saul David, a British military historian brings this last battle to back to memory, in the hope it find its place alongside the significance of other engagements, Iwo Jima, Stalingrad, Midway, D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge. The book opens with the seemingly calm invasion of the beaches on the south of the island where around 75,000 anxious troops landed without any resistance. Where were the enemy? Was it a trap? The answer being yes and no. Knowing they would not have enough strength to defend the whole island, the Japanese command had decided to fortify the internal southern parts of the island, building a complex network of caves and tunnels in the rock. As I have outlined in other reviews, David follows the new trend in telling military history, combining grand strategy with boots on the ground voices. I feel this always works well, we know what the plan was and what everyone went through in the same text. David does another great job of this here. Voices from both sides are heard.

David does a great job of describing the battle itself, the tedious day to day struggle to ‘take another hill.’ Hold it and then go again, crawling across the landscape. Famous episodes of the battle such as Sugarloaf Hill and Hacksaw Ridge are explained, each with intense fighting as the legends suggest. As mentioned above, the 130,000 Japanese soldiers on the island are given a voice and we heard from the top down of their trials and tribulations, including the commander General Mitsuru Ushijima’s despair at the wasted life. We also gain an insight into the fanatic ideology of the kamikaze soldier, their selection and determination to take as many American lives as possible. Also the internal struggles, those like Ushijima who do not want to waste unnecessary life and others who want to raise a coup and carry on fighting until the very last Japanese life is spent. In any case all could sense the end was near.

The US Navy personnel on the ships the kamikaze pilots attacks, provide their voices too, as they dived and screamed for shelter trying to take down the planes before they hit their targets. We are also told of the tragic story of Lieutenant-General William Buckner, who was hit by artillery fire in the closing stages of the battle. Other me such as Sergeant William Manchester as able to show they fought not for a America but for the USMC, a surely not individual viewpoint.

As I stated above, the battle did not change WWII, it merely influence President Harry S Truman and others of the need to use the atomic bomb, to save more lives than they would kill, to bring the who thing to a conclusion. I feel David may have no focused of the significance of the battle as much as he could. But for me everything you need to know about this battle is covered, although in places days of fighting or important bloody engagements can come and go in a few lines. Overall a great biography of the battle. David is a solid historian and this is another example of this.

['Aussie Rick' · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saul David’s latest book on Okinawa; "Crucible of Hell: The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945", is one of a few that have recently hit the bookshelves following the 75th anniversary of the battle. I’ve read a number of earlier books on this horrific battle so I was unsure if there was much new that could be offered to the reader.

In the Acknowledgements to this book; the author states: It's hard to convey in a book title the unique horror of these events. I chose Crucible of Hell because these were the words used by an American naval veteran to describe the ordeal of the ground troops. "While on Okinawa," he said, "the marines and soldiers were going through their crucible of hell brought on by rain, heat, poison, snakes, mosquitoes ... the stench of human feces and rotting human flesh filled with maggots.”

The book offers a very readable overview of the campaign to seize Okinawa as part of the stepping-stone strategy to defeat Japan. The author utilises many first-hand accounts, from both sides, from soldiers and civilians, to tell the story of the horrific fighting that took place on land, air and sea. Like this account in regards to the mass suicide of civilians on Tokashiki in fear of the advancing American forces:

"Soldiers distributed grenades among us. We were told that after you pull out the pin, you had to wait three seconds before the grenade exploded. (It didn’t seem to matter that it was prohibited at that time to distribute arms to civilians.) There weren’t enough grenades to go around because there were so many of us. Actually, my family didn’t get one. Anyway, once the grenades were given out, that was taken as a sign and the killing began immediately. The grenades were detonated, but there were few of them, so most people survived the blasts. Then people began to use clubs or scythes on each other – various things were used.

It was the father’s role to kill his own family, but my father had already died. I was only 16 years and one month old, high school age. (Although, I wasn’t in high school.) My older brother and I didn’t discuss how we would do it, but we both knew we had been ordered to kill ourselves and our family.

I don’t remember exactly how we killed our mother, maybe we tried to use rope at first, but in the end we hit her over the head with stones. I was crying as I did it and she was crying too. My younger sister would have been about to become a 4th grader in elementary school and my little brother would have been about to start 1st grade. I don’t remember exactly how we killed our little brother and sister but it wasn’t difficult because they were so small – I think we used a kind of spear. There was wailing and screaming on all sides as people were killing and being killed. If there were knives, knives were used."

While reading this book you will come across a number of names of people that you may have read about previously, with lots of material referenced from numerous authors who have written books on Okinawa and their experiences. Men like Eugene Sledge, William Manchester, Roy Appleman, and many more. The author has skilfully woven their stories into the fabric of his book to highlight the particular horror of this battle.

There are also numerous accounts of very brave American servicemen sacrificing their lives to save those of their buddies, some of these young men were only 19 years old and were subsequently awarded America’s highest decoration for gallantry; the Medal of Honor (twenty-three Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor during this campaign).

As the battle continued and the Americans gained dominance over the Japanese forces the fighting became even more bitter and desperate:

" ... Their task was made much harder by the fact that, thanks to better weather and firmer ground, the Americans could deploy more armor. 'Flame tanks became the American solution to the Japanese coral caves,' noted the official history. 'Interference from enemy shells became less with the destruction of each Japanese gun; and, more important, through experience the infantrymen and tankers developed a teamwork that neared perfection. The battle for the southern tip of Okinawa blazed with orange rods of flame and became a thunderous roar of machine guns, shells, rockets, and bombs'."

The fighting off the coast was just as deadly for American and Allied naval forces providing support for the ground troops on Okinawa:

"Even as fighting on Okinawa was nearing its endgame, the kamikaze attacks on Allied shipping off the island continued. By mid-June there had been nine major attacks, involving a total number of 1,420 planes (830 navy and 590 army). Intermittent, smaller-scale attacks brought the total number since the start of the campaign up to around 1,850. These planes had sunk more than twenty American ships and damaged a further 150, with other types of suicide attacks and conventional bombing accounting for another eleven sunk and sixty damaged."

The author has provided a number of decent maps to orientate the reader to the land campaign as it progressed. There are also a number of black & white photographs including in the book to help the reader to visualise the terrible fighting conditions and the effects of modern warfare on the soldiers and civilians involved.

Overall a very good book to read on Okinawa and highly recommended as a first book to read on the subject.

[KB · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really struggling when picking out another book on the Pacific War. It was between this one and Bloody Okinawa by Joseph Wheelan. The books were published within about a month of each other, have a similar length, have a similar rating here on Goodreads, and obviously cover the same topic. It was pretty much a coin toss, and I went with Crucible of Hell. Not sure if that was the right choice, but it was a solid read.

There are a few things I can easily say I loved about the book. Author Saul David uses tons of personal accounts in here - he's quoting from them constantly. It's always a huge plus when we can hear directly from the men involved in the battle. And there's a pretty excellent balance between the American and Japanese perspectives, as well. These multiple perspectives are interwoven in a way that feels quite natural. David's writing is clear, and the book is written chronologically so we're not jumping all over the place. We meet a lot of people in Crucible of Hell, but Saul anchors the narrative with certain names that keep reappearing.

But for all that, there was something about this that didn't fully grab me. I can't pinpoint anything in particular, but it just lacks that certain je ne sais quois~ that takes a book to the next level. At some point I stopped taking notes while I read and just went along for the ride. It is, at many times, a difficult read because of the nature of what it covers, but it just didn't quite come together for me in the end.

I'm not trying to imply that Crucible of Hell was a disappointing read at all. I learned a lot, and came away with a clear picture of the battle from both the American and Japanese perspectives on land, sea and air. This is a book I'm quite satisfied with, but wish it had that little extra something to it that would've made it a 5-star read. I think a re-watch of The Pacific is in my future...

[Mike (HistoryBuff) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well told and well laid out narrative of the battle on Okinawa. This is my first time reading an account of the battle and my first experience reading a Saul Daivd novel and it won't be my last. This is an easy-to-read overview of battle that not only focuses on American but Japanese accounts of particular aspects of different fights on different days. The author introduces you to American and Japanese soldiers and shares their accounts of what the horrors of war were like. Very well researched. Highly recommended.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Englantilaisen sotahistorian professorin ja historioitsijan Saul Davidin "Crucible of Hell: Okinawa: The Last Great Battle of the Second World War" (William Collins, 2020) käsittelee aivan toisen maailmansodan loppuvaihessa käytyä Okinawan taistelua. Lähes kolme kuukautta kestänyt taistelu maalla, merellä ja ilmassa oli yksi Tyynenmeren sotanäyttämön verisimmistä ja mukana olleiden muisteloissa homma näyttäytyy jonkinmoisena helvettinä maan päällä.

Näkökulma vaihtelee kiitettävästi molempien osapuolten välillä, mikä mahdollistaa tapahtumien monipuolisen käsittelyn. Lukija pääsee myös tutustumaan niin presidentti Harry S. Trumanin päätöksentekoon, rintamakomentajien pohdintoihin kuin jalkaväen mosurien tai kamikazepilottien tarinoihin. Paikallisten kärsimyksiä ei unohdeta, he muodostivatkin kuolonuhreista melkoisen osan. Vuoden 2016 Hacksaw Ridge – aseeton sotilas -elokuvasta tutun aseistakieltäytyjä Desmond Dossin tarina tulee tutuksi, samaten jättimäisen taistelulaiva Yamaton viimeinen matka.

Loppunäytöksenä käydään läpi Hiroshiman ja Nagasakin ydinpommitukset, jotka kirjailija hyväksyy yllttävän suorasanaisesti - ja kieltämättä Okinawan taisteluiden verisyys pistää miettimään, montako ihmishenkeä olisikaan maksanut maihinnousu Japanin pääsaarille. Todennäköisesti kuolleita olisi tullut enemmän, puolin että toisin.

Sotahistorian maallikkoharrastajalle "Crucible of Hell" näyttäytyi hyvänä yhteenvetona itselleni vähemmän tunnetun taistelun tapahtumiin, vaikka taitaakin olla niin, että Saul David on koostanut teoksensa ensisijaisesti perinteiseen tapaan aikaisemmin tuttuihin lähteisiin pohjautuen, ei niinkään oman tutkimustyön tuloksena.

Jos pidät Antony Beevorin kirjoista ja haluat näkökulmaa myös meillä Suomessa vähemmälle huomiolle jääneisiin Tyynenmeren sotatapahtumiin, niin kannattaa tarttua teokseen.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ 59%

[Neil Blanchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a detailed on-the-ground account, this isn’t it. This was like listening to generals play chess. Also, worst narrator I’ve ever heard

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

well its a fantastic book. I read it and it was very interesting at the start. However, once you hit the middle it will start to get stale. The book does a good job of showing the japanese side and the horrors of war. However, some chapters felt like he just quoted another book like Requiem of Yamato. However credit must be given to the amount of research he did. He does not focus on strategy as much and tries to portray the horrors of ground combat but the description of it seems to be the same in every chapter. Ultimately, its a good book but there are some parts which are just uninteresting.

[Darrell Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

WW2 Epic battles are difficult to grasp - usually the terrain is too vast, the numbers too great and the 300,000 casualties attest to this. However Okinawa benefits from the nature of the Japanese defence in that it allows the defence lines to slowly unravel along with the narrative. The Insights Into the brainwashing, coercion and massive suffering of the indigenous population was powerfully told through the conscripted nurses.... the horror of a distorted honour code conveyed through the misery of a Kamikaze widow. I could have done with more maps, more photos of Sugar Loaf, the Shuri line, Hacksaw ridge and other legendary places to try to better understand the detail. The US memories blur into each other a little but the book is strongest in the contrasting of the crazed intensity of fighting for every yard, with the final calculated steps in preparing to drop the atomic bomb. The chilling narrow escape for Kokura...I knew nothing about the homeland invasion plans for 1946 and the threat of a further million casualties - a case is made to justify the bombings not often heard. Had never even heard of the worlds largest battleship Yamato, sunk with barely a plane lost. Yahara’s testimony is crucial to giving the book balance, and Buckner doesn’t come out of it too well. Overall an engrossing read from a campaign that as British, I am only starting to learn about

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

CRUCIBLE OF WAR is subtitled "The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945." Although the Pacific theater of WWII was drawing to a close in the early summer of 1945, America still had to push out the Japanese troops on every island near to the approach to the mainland. Okinawa itself was a small and seemingly unimportant island, but it was defended basically to the death from a faairly large contingent of Japanest troops and native Okinawans. In fact, the Americans lost many thousands of troops, sailors and ships in this battle that raged for weeks.

Author Saul David is a noted historian who has been awarded a number of times for his other historical writings. Reflecting a lot of research, David goes on a thorough look back at this bloodies battle in the entire Pacific Theater, looking at the buildup, strategic points of the battle both from land and sea, and then with the tragic aftermath for all sides. There is much information and background supplied from the Japanese and Okinawan side of this event, along with the American troops and leaders.

This is for anyone with an interest in military history, and especially of WWII. Highly recommended!

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the Battle of Okinawa, but it could also be a book about why we dropped the atomic bombs on mainland Japan afterwards.

The Pacific Theater of World War II is very often overlooked when history is taught or dramatized. I get it, it’s much better talking about killing Nazis. However, this view of thinking greatly underestimates the fanaticism of the Japanese Imperial Army. No one was safe, including their own soldiers and civilians.

Okinawa was not just a land battle. There were significant smaller battles at sea and in the air as Japan was preparing for the final phase of the war. Kamikaze and other suicide attacks became the norm. Saul David hammers home the desperation of the Japanese Army but also how the entire country of Japan was conditioned to think dying to protect Japan was not just preferred but required.

I appreciate David’s very clear thoughts on the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan at the end. I don’t like opinion in my history books unless the facts are there to support it.

[Feiraco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This single-volume on the climax of the Pacific War, a bloody battle of almost 3 months, provides an excellent overview of all the relevant events. The book is very much readable due to the fact that it's divided into many smaller chapters of 8 pages on average. This means that subjects are not handled in (too) much detail. Stories are told from many different participants from both sides (Japanese and American). The author also goes into the military details and overall strategy but never too deep. Sometimes it's difficult to keep track on all the different divisions and regiments going from one place to another which most of the time comes down to ‘ridges'. The handful of maps are helpful but don't always provide those insights. It was my first specific book on Okinawa after having read dozens of books on other WW2 topics. I definitely enjoyed Crucible of Hell and especially recommend it to people starting to learn about this battle.

[Maduck831 · Rating 5 out of 5]

not as detailed on the military side, but a great read, i'd say "enjoyable" but considering the topic, not the best use of words...read more like a long newspaper article (in a good way), also interesting to learn more about ernie pyle...will check out more by saul david...

The scene of battle, meanwhile, had reverted to "Homer's wine-dark sea," unvisited by veterans from either side because "there will be no monuments, no crosses, nothing to view but an ocean forever anonymous." (219)

225 - Sergeant William Manchester's account.

Sugar Loaf Hill.

On Sugar Loaf, in short, I realized that something within me, long ailing, had expired." Though he would continue to fight, he "now knew that banners and swords, ruffles and flourishes, bugles and drums, the whole rigmarole, eventually ended in squalor." (240)

Men, he understood, "do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another." (279)

[Lindsay Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't read much about the war in the Pacific, and this book gives great detail about one of the final campaigns. The battle was grindingly slow, a matter of the front line moving forward, back, stalling.
It describes an infantry war reliant on artillery, naval bombardment, resupply and all in the face of regular kamikaze attacks.
The Japanese strategy was to allow the invasion force to land unopposed, then deal with them through a process of attrition via a series of well placed defensive lines. The unopposed landing was criticised as a strategy, but given the disparity between the resources of the opposing forces, the Japanese were always going to lose eventually.
The final deliberations about ending the war came down to the use of 2 atomic weapons on the Japanese homeland, which finally brought the war to an end.

[Ryker Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novel Crucible of Hell is a very solid five stars. Written by Saul David, this book gives the personal accounts of both American and Japanese soldiers/civilians that were involved in the Battle of Okinawa. The brutality, intense fighting, and inhumane conditions and reality of warfare is portrayed vividly through eyewitness accounts and personal writings of those involved in combat, ranging from higher ups in the armed forces of both nations to the civilians on Okinawa. Knowing that everything in the novel was experienced by those who really lived and experienced the horrors of Okinawa makes it all the more compelling to read. Overall, if you love history and have a keen interest in WWII, specifically the Pacific Theater, than Crucible of Hell is a must read.

[Bill Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Crucible of Hell, Saul David sets out to describe the battle for Okinawa in the Pacific during WWII. But it is so much more than that. He also explains the importance of this battle to the ultimate defeat of Japan. In the process he also the development and use of the atomic bombs and alludes to the naval and air war against the Japanese home islands.

He writes a very interesting and personal tale. He weaves many individual accounts into the overall story. He uses the experiences of American, Japanese and even Okinawan participants to tell us what occurred there in 1945. He also points out how important this battle was in determining whether or not to use atomic weapons. And he explains why he feels their use was the right thing to do.

This was a well written book that adds to our scholarship of this battle. And he does an excellent job of tying in the other aspects of the end of the war against Japan.

[Joe Duffus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who questions whether Harry Truman was right to drop two atomic bombs on Japan should read this excellent history of the savage battle for the island of Okinawa to understand his decision. The closest battle to the Japanese mainland, the island was the IJA's last stand against the superior troops and equipment of the US Army, Navy and Marines arrayed against it. But they fought bravely, with a tenacity that caused Okinawa to be the bloodiest campaign of the entire Pacific war. America lost more than 12,000 on Okinawa, and the best estimates for a full-scale land invasion of Honshu suggested American casualties of more than 500,000.

That is why Truman dropped the bomb.

[Derek Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book wanting to learn more about why the Atomic bombs became necessary to end World War II. What I got, was a highly detailed, extremely interesting account of what happened on Okinawa. I 100 percent recommend Crucible of Hell for anyone wanting to dive further into the land battles of the Pacific campaign.

I can honestly say it was tough to read some sections of the book. Not because it was poorly written, but simply because what I was reading was beyond tragic and horrifying. Simply one of the most chilling, and interesting books on WWII I have had the privilege to read.

[Joe Vigil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I've read so far about the Battle of Okinawa. For those unfamiliar with troop movements and tactics, Saul David does an amazing job untangling the absolute chaos that reigned down on that little coral island in the Pacific in 1945. David also does a great job of highlighting the role of the Army on Okinawa, which is generally viewed as an all Marine affair. For the WWII history buffs who are looking for a reliable and well researched account of Okinawa told from the side of civilians, the Japanese soldier's, and of course the American's, this book is highly recommended.

[Penecks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very good. Thorough research, varied sources, and just a pinch of journalistic elan to keep it from being boring, make it a page turner while still offering plenty of details. The author does seem to bypass many of the naval aspects of the battle, and forces in some atomic bomb material, which is alright but obviously not the focus of the work. Even so, these are minor and don't detract from the main narrative which has a satisfying conclusion.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the Pacific theater.

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched book. I like books like this that tell the story from several participants views. It has several military and civilian views from the Okinawan side of the battle. It also has an epilogue that I find interesting.

A separate, follow up part of the story was the teting and using the atomic bomb after the Okinawa capture. Many views that have been considered in the 77 years since it was deployed, both moral and military. A very interesting book.

[sam-i · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Crucible of Hell, David gives humanity to the most dehumanising aspects of war. He sheds light on not just the valour of the American soldiers but also that of the Japanese, and notably the Okinawan people caught in the middle of this horrendous battle. Whilst many ask "what was it all for", I felt heartened to learn that as one of the veterans recounted, the only satisfaction of fighting in the war came from the camaraderie among the soldiers.

[Oliver James · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely well balanced account from all sides, that refuses to shy away from the horrors and personal tragedies of the men, women and children trapped in these terrible circumstances.
Saul David has got the balance between facts and story spot in, whilst being able to stir emotions and pique further interest.

[Mando B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saul David has become my personal favourite non-fiction authors alongside James Holland and Giles Milton.
To tackle such a large event as Okinawa, which in some ways saw a bigger naval assault than D-day, Saul David expertly weaves the personal stories on both sides with a heavy emotional backdrop to what war really is.

[Patrick Macke · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's well done; the alternating American and Japanese perspectives are very effective and the author makes a compelling case for why the brutality of the battle made the ultimate dropping of A-bombs on Japan a life-saving proposition

[Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. Each chapter is a small vignette related to the Battle of Okinawa, shifting back and forth well between U.S. and Japanese forces and offering the continuity of a well-written story. I highly recommend this book.

[Joshua Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the most readable type of long-form "single battle" narrative. Engaging enough throughout as the author capabably weaves together many narratives from Americans (officers, infantry, etc) and Japanese. A bit too long for my taste.

[Greg Hutch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crucible of Hell by Saul David is a vivid and harrowing narrative of the battle of Okinawa. He uses personal accounts from soldiers and civilians as well as thorough research. This added perspective to what I had learned from Hacksaw Ridge and American Prometheus.

[Lukas Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very comprehensive overview of the Battle of Okinawa. The action and heroism of the Marine Corps, along with the sacrifices made by both militaries for their countries, were deeply felt. Overall, very well done.

[Mark Uhlar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book on a hellish campaign and the writing is top notch. Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy. It is one of the best books I have read this year.