Those of you with HBO are lucky because in a couple of weeks, The Pacific is going to air. It’s a 10-part miniseries done by the same people who did Band of Brothers in 2001 (Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman), and so I think we can go ahead and get really excited. Band of Brothers was fantastic.
The best part about all of this is that there’s an official companion book to this miniseries, written by Hugh Ambrose, who not only was Stephen’s son but also worked with him on many of his books. The Pacific is a collection of five narratives, which Ambrose explains were chosen because they are representative of the vast experience that was the Pacific War. And so we see the war from different angles, all of which are personal and vivid. Ambrose gathered much of his information comes from diaries and photos and memoirs and other quite intimate sources, making for a book that is as comprehensive as any other out there, yet also as exciting as a first-hand account of the action.
I’m only about 60 pages into this book and already I’m overwhelmed by the simple fact of the war itself. These stories are tremendously affecting. One thing that’s struck me the most is how vast, new, difficult, and terrifying the Pacific War was. It’s hard for me to fathom, especially since as a young person it has always been simply a fact of history rather than a colorful and uncertain event. It’s been interesting reading about the emergence of the Marines as a crucial force in WW2, as well as the immediate, and varying, reactions these men had after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
We should have a few copies of this book in the store within the next few days (it’s not out quite yet) and even if you’re not planning on watching the miniseries on HBO, I recommend reading it. As I said, I’ve still got to read most of this book but so far it’s fantastic. As Ambrose himself points out in the introduction, there are lots of books about the Pacific War, each with their own place; there’s certainly room in the historiography of the war for this one.
Susie
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