Ripon Public Library

The color of war, how one battle broke Japan and another changed America, James Campbell

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The color of war

bibliography

739646090

James Campbell

how one battle broke Japan and another changed America

A retelling of the key month, July 1944, that won the war in the Pacific and ignited a whole new struggle on the home front. Among the great World War II conflicts, the three-week battle for Saipan is often forgotten--yet historian Donald Miller calls it "as important to victory over Japan as the Normandy invasion was to victory over Germany." On the night of the battle's end, the Port Chicago Naval Ammunition Depot, just outside San Francisco, exploded with a force nearly that of an atomic bomb. The men who died in the blast were predominantly black sailors, toiling in obscurity loading munitions ships. Yet instead of honoring the sacrifice these men made, the Navy blamed them for the accident, and when the men refused to handle ammunition again, launched the largest mutiny trial in US naval history. By weaving together these two battle narratives for the first time, author Campbell paints a new picture of the month that won the war and changed America.--From publisher description

"Another Sunday, another Pearl Harbor attack" -- Big dreams -- Leaving Texas -- Mosquitoes, mud, and mayhem -- Semper fi -- Eleanor Roosevelt's niggers -- The right to fight -- The first -- Port Chicago -- Bombs for the black boys -- Like a dog on a bone -- A war of their own -- A desolate place -- Whom are we fighting this time? -- Waiting for war -- Broken promises -- Ernie King's beloved ocean (the strategic picture) -- Baptism by fire -- Paradise -- Camp Tarawa -- Ernie King's victory -- Praise the lord and pass the ammunition -- Where young men go to die -- The terrible shore -- A long, bitter struggle -- A healthy spirit of competition -- The devil's backbone -- Valley of the shadow of death -- Tapotchau's heights -- Gyokusai -- Red flags -- Island of the dead -- Hot cargo -- End of the world -- Down the barrel of a gun -- Proving mutiny -- Putting the Navy on trial -- Punishing the seamen -- The sins of a nation