The Pacific

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledgements

Introduction

ACT I - "HOUSE OF CARDS"

ACT II - "EVEN UP AND SQUARED OFF"

ACT III - "THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES"

ACT IV - "HAZE GRAY AND UNDERWAY "

ACT V - LEGACIES

ENDNOTES

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First Printing, March 2010

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Ambrose, Hugh.
The Pacific/Hugh Ambrose.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-18584-1

1. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Pacific Area. 2. Marines--United States--Biography. 3. United States. Marine
Corps--Biography. 4. United States. Marine Corps--History--World War, 1939-1945. I. Pacific (Television program)
II. Title.
D767.9.A46 2010
940.54'59730922--dc22 2009041530

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STEPHEN E. AMBROSE

IN MEMORIAM

1936-2002

HEY DAD,
I WAS LUCKY
TO BE YOUR SON
AND PROUD
TO BE YOUR PARTNER.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE STORY OF HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE WRITTEN BEGINS WITH MY FATHER, the historian Steve Ambrose. He called me in 1992, as I completed the course work for my master's degree in American history, asked if I "could do some research for him," then said the magic words "I'll pay you." In the course of that research, for a book entitled
Undaunted Courage
, we were both surprised and delighted to find we enjoyed working together. As the years passed and the number and variety of projects increased, my father generously allowed me a greater role as his researcher, agent, and fund- raiser for nonprofits. We had a ball.

After we completed his book on America's first transcontinental railroad, I suggested a book on the D-days of the Pacific War. It was hardly an original idea, given the enormous success of his book on D-day in Normandy. He said, "Let's do it." In the course of developing a new collection of original stories, our work came to the attention of my father's friend the director Steven Spielberg. Steven was also interested in developing a story on the Pacific War. Working in tandem with this great filmmaker led to a number of exciting and unanticipated developments, chief of which was the documentary
Price for Peace
. Dad and I were both so proud of our involvement in this film, directed by James Moll.

When my father became ill, he decided he could not finish a book on the war against Japan. "It's just too big," he said. He asked me to finish it. After he passed away in 2002, I was not sure how I would accomplish such a feat until I received a call from Steven Spielberg in early 2003. Steven and his friends Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman had decided that the Pacific War needed to be told in a manner similar to their miniseries with HBO,
Band of Brothers.
It needed to be representative of the entire experience and it needed to connect the greatest battles. Steven (through his company DreamWorks) and Tom and Gary (through theirs, Playtone) had engaged the screenwriter Bruce McKenna to develop the story of the war in Japan. I was hired to help Bruce, who had written episodes of
Band of Brothers
, and his team of writers find the stories for the miniseries. Once again, great good fortune had called me, and I gratefully accepted, with alacrity. We faced a big challenge. The war against Japan was more complex than the one in Europe. All of America's military services played key roles in many different battles in different countries. Finding a narrative thread to connect a representative sampling of those battles was not easy.

Bruce already had begun to do some reading and spoke to me about two books that he loved: E. B. Sledge's
With the Old Breed
and Robert Leckie's
Helmet for My Pillow
. I took this as a good sign. He had identified two of the most important memoirs about the Pacific War. They differed not only in where and when the authors had served, but also in how the men had responded to their experiences. Upon request, I put him in touch with the Sledge family. The Sledges expressed interest in the project and put Bruce in touch with Dr. Sidney Phillips. By the time Bruce called me back, he was ecstatic. Dr. Sidney Phillips had served in the same company with Robert Leckie and was one of Eugene's best friends. Bruce had found a way to connect the first battle in the war with the last battle. Dr. Phillips had already written a splendid memoir of his service entitled
You'll Be Sor-ree!
The story of John Basilone was added to the mix later, when we found the moment of happenstance that connected John Basilone to Phillips and Leckie. That connection allowed the miniseries to include "Manila John," a unique individual with a different set of important experiences.

DreamWorks and Playtone brought their vision of a miniseries, covering a vast sweep of the war as seen through the eyes of a few fascinating men, to the only place to realize their vision, HBO. With HBO on board, "the stars had aligned," so far as Bruce and I were concerned. While the show's producers supervised Bruce and his team as they developed the miniseries, I continued to conduct original research on those aspects that needed further illumination. Many other stories were explored during the course of several years as we strove to leave no stone unturned. Working for the writers and producers of
The Pacific
has been a fabulous experience for me. Their love for the men and women who served America so magnificently was apparent from the first day. One part of a huge process, I learned so much about storytelling from Steven, Tom, Gary, and Bruce, as well as from other key figures of the project, like Tony To and Tim Van Patten.

The stories for the miniseries were eventually chosen by the producers. I had, in the meantime, become excited about two other characters, Austin "Shifty" Shofner and Vernon "Mike" Micheel. Although E. B. Sledge mentioned Austin Shofner in his book, I paid Shofner little attention until I came in contact with Colonel Otto Melsa, a veteran himself and a big fan of Shofner. His enthusiasm encouraged me to learn more. Similarly, I wish to thank Arnold Olson, a veteran of USS
Enterprise
and one of the founders of the Web site
www.cv6.org
. Olson did not know me from Adam, but he kindly gave me contact information for a number of fascinating navy pilots, including Vernon "Mike" Micheel. The more I learned about Mike and Shifty, the more I felt that their stories fit perfectly with the others. An idea for a companion book began to take shape.

As a huge fan of Dr. Sidney Phillips, I felt privileged to spend a weekend with him (those of us who are truly blessed get to drink a beer and smoke a cigar with him). At one point in our interview, he mentioned that his friend John Wesley "Deacon" Tatum had kept a daily diary. Mr. Tatum allowed me to use his diary, which is a truly amazing document. It allowed us to tell the story of the Battle of Guadalcanal at a new level of intimacy. For the Basilone story, his niece Diane Hawkins allowed us full access to the Basilone Family Collection of material relating to her uncle. This treasure trove of untapped information, along with the material gathered in the Basilone Reading Room of the Raritan Public Library and the support of Basilone's friends (Richard Greer, Clinton Watters, Chuck Tatum, Barbara Garner, and others), helped us find the real John Basilone. The final pieces of the puzzle came when I visited the Special Collections and Archives of Auburn University. Dwayne Cox and his assistant John Varner were both generous and efficient. The papers of Eugene Sledge revealed more about him and about King Company.

After all the pieces came together, I saw a new vision for this book. Originally, I had envisioned the companion book to be written similar to the way my father wrote his book
D-Day
. I would weave together the stories of hundreds of veterans into an organic whole. I had amassed a collection of new research capable of sustaining such a book. In light of the amazing history assembled by the producers and writers of
The Pacific
, and armed with new research, I decided to try something else. I would use the connections between the veterans to relate key parts of the war not found in the miniseries. For instance, the war could not have been won without the U.S. carrier fleet and its naval aviators. Seeing something of the type of empire that Japan's leadership strove to create was also important. While a book can explore a much larger territory than a ten-hour miniseries, there is still a limit to the number of stories a reader can be expected to track through the vast conflict. To add the battles of Bataan and Midway, therefore, I needed to cut one of the characters depicted in the miniseries. It was a difficult choice. Ultimately I decided that there was relatively little I could add to Leckie's own extraordinary firsthand account and that the loss of Leckie's voice, while unfortunate, would allow the book to remain an effective companion to the miniseries as well as encompass more of the ocean of enmity we call the Pacific War. The vision for this book is more properly described in the following introduction. I would like to thank Steven Spielberg and my friends at Playtone, as well as Kary Antholis and James Costos of HBO for allowing me to deepen
The Pacific
.