Pacific War Diary Illustrated

This new, illustrated edition of Pacific War Diary preserves, in abbreviated form, Fahey's vivid narrative. A selection of photographs, drawn from both Navy and Army sources, follows the course of events described by Fahey.

Fahey was a 24-year-old garbage-truck driver when he enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 3, 1942, and became a seaman first class on the USS Montpelier. During almost three years of battle in the Pacific Ocean, he defied Navy rules against keeping a diary by writing copious notes on loose sheets of paper that appeared to anyone watching to be ordinary let

PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL.

The fall of Singapore and the brilliant victories achieved since the start of the war mean we are protected, but I don’t know just how grateful I should be. —Takahashi Aiko, housewife, February 1942 This is my final departure from the home islands. I have paid my respects to those who have helped me. I have no regrets. —Itabashi Yasuo, navy kamikaze pilot, February 1944 We had rice gruel for lunch again. There was no tofu in it, but there were potatoes.... We went through with the closing ceremony and received our report cards. Everyone was there. From now on, I’ll persevere and not fail. —Manabe Ichiro, primary school student, July 1944 This collection of diaries gives readers a powerful, firsthand look at the effects of the Pacific War on eight ordinary Japanese. Immediate, vivid, and at times surprisingly frank, the diaries chronicle the last years of the war and its aftermath as experienced by a navy kamikaze pilot, an army straggler on Okinawa, an elderly Kyoto businessman, a Tokyo housewife, a young working woman in Tokyo, a teenage girl mobilized for war work, and two schoolchildren evacuated to the countryside. Samuel Yamashita’s introduction provides a helpful overview of the historiography on wartime Japan and offers valuable insights into the important, everyday issues that concerned Japanese during a different and disastrously difficult time.

This is the illustrated diary of Japanese Navy floatplane pilot Warrant Officer Nemoto Kumesako, dating from the early months of the Pacific War. Unusually, these memoirs are presented in a style consistent with the format of Japanese manga (illustrated cartoon).

This is a modified version of the original April, 1942, Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet War Diary. Beginning in April, Enclosures are no longer included in the CinCPac War Diary. All War Diaries are now submitted separately. Also in April CinCPac became an expanded command which encompassed all military forces in the Central, South, and North Pacific - this command was called Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinC-POA). However at that time, the War Diary was still listed as that of CinCPac. One casualty of this change is the comprehensive "Summary of the Situation" outline format that had been in use, with minor changes, since January 1, 1942. It was replaced with an abbreviated 10-point outline form. While the previous Summary of the Situation and the current Daily Distribution of Operating Forces had at times been redundant, they had complemented each other. The new form is more streamlined (albeit less detailed), and makes the Daily Distribution of Operating Forces the War Diary's center-piece.