Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific (review)

The fascination with Iwo Jima still grips the public's attention as seen in the recent cinematic versions of Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), both produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. More than sixty years hence, the stories of courage and sacrifice on that island are all the more poignant as the "greatest generation" dwindles in numbers. In his Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific, Larry Smith uses his interviews with veterans to help preserve some memories of those who saw action on or near Iwo Jima.

Smith conducted most of his interviews in 2006 or 2007. He divides them into several thematic sections. Readers can relive the amphibious landing proper, experience combat on the island, and observe the flag raisings on Mt. Suribachi. For this last section, Smith interviewed Corporal Charles Lindberg, who was the last living veteran among the twelve flag-raisers and passed away shortly after his interview with Smith in 2007. Of particular interest is the section on LSTs (landing ship, tank) in which Smith interviews a machinist's mate, a pharmacist's mate, a combat correspondent, and an African-American marine sergeant serving in what the author termed a "stevedore unit" (p. 249). These perspectives are seldom covered in history books. In another interesting section, Smith includes airmen who related how they made emergency landings on Iwo Jima after bombing the Japanese home islands. Taken as a whole, the veterans give a composite description of the sights and smells of death and the weapons and tactics in combat.

Smith acknowledges that his book is not a definitive work, but instead "it is a series of snapshots offering a glimpse into the lives of twenty-two men who took part in various aspects of the conflict and how they fared since. Their stories speak for themselves" (p. xxiv). Herein lie the strengths and shortcomings of this book. For a popular audience, Smith gives sufficient context in brief, descriptive introductions and then allows the veterans free rein to share their compelling stories. Photographs of veterans in 1945 and recently in 2006 or 2007 make them more human. An appendix of military terms provides helpful insights into the amphibious operational vernacular.

For the audience of scholars, practitioners, and students who read this journal, Smith's book is not as useful as it could be. There is no clear explanation about the durations of the interviews or the questions, media, and archival repositories for the interviews. There is no index, and the maps are perfunctory. Smith does not mention the historiographical debate about the strategic utility of assaulting Iwo Jima stirred up by Robert S. Burrell's award-winning article published in this journal in 2004 and his award-winning book titled The Ghosts of Iwo Jima (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006). Lastly, Smith does not address methodological issues of oral history in ways that Donald A. Ritchie, for instance, outlines in his book Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). To make Larry Smith's Iwo Jima a truly valuable source for students or scholars, the reader will need to supplement it to appreciate the battle and its veterans in their larger contexts.