Simon Schuster, $27.00
356 pages
The Fog of War
Sixty years after the end of World War II, we continue to see a steady stream of books dealing with a history of the war. My grandson gave me for Christmas Rick Atkinson’s An Army at Dawn, which is about the North African campaign in 1942-43. Now we are treated to a book by Evan Thomas, with the somewhat unwieldy title Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and The last Naval Campaign 1941-1945.
I hasten to add that the title is the only cumbersome part of this fascinating book. Thomas is a wonderful storyteller. His most recent publication, John Paul Jones, was a best seller and Sea of Thunder is its equal. Thomas focuses on the lives and actions of four commanders, two American and two Japanese, in his analysis of the Pacific campaign, which climaxes in the battle of Leyte Gulf. Readers may be familiar with the American Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, but the other three men are less well known. Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian, was not an admiral, though he played an important role at Leyte Gulf. Thomas is equally informative about the two Japanese commanders, Admirals Matome Ugaki and Takeo Kurita. His research took him to Japan where he interviewed naval veterans as well as family and friends of the two men.
Sea of Thunder is both a history of the Pacific War and an examination of two diverse cultures 60 years ago. Diplomacy had failed and we see America and Japan sliding towards conflict, separated by a cultural divide “wider than the Pacific Ocean,” according to Thomas. He adds, “The roots of mutual contempt were twisted and deep.” In 1943 Admiral Halsey posted a billboard at the entrance of Tulagi Harbor, “Kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs!” Halsey thought the Japanese were cowards at heart, a miscalculation that ended up costing thousands of American lives.
The Japanese in turn fatally underestimated the United States, thinking Americans lacked the stamina to stay in submarines for long periods of time, and were not smart enough to break Japanese codes. Both assumptions had disastrous results for Japan.
The four commanders represent a continuum. At one extreme is the colorful, impulsive, charismatic Halsey. Thomas vividly characterizes his “Ahab-like pursuit of Japanese carriers.” At the other end is the cautious, methodical, kindly Admiral Kurita who survived the war, living to be 87. In between is the proud, aloof, willful Japanese Admiral Ugaki, who died leading a kamikaze raid on an island near Okinawa in 1945. The Cherokee Indian Ernest Evans was a gallant, fearless destroyer commander who sacrificed himself and his ship at the height of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, thus winning the Medal of Honor.
The author provides us with a careful analysis of the strategy and tactics in the Pacific War. Occasionally we are treated to historical nuggets like Douglas MacArthur carrying his father’s derringer “in case he was captured alive,” or 16-year-old John McCain’s meeting with Halsey who said, “Bring this young man a glass of bourbon!”
Thomas begins Sea of Thunder with a quote from Churchill, “War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.” By the end of the book he has made his point many times over.