Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming thanks for supporting your authors, your favorite authors and your local independent bookstore and thank you tonight to cspan for being here. This is a first for me. Maybe you guys are used to this. Im going to cover just a few basic things before we get started. Copies of the book are available downstairs. I think at the register you can purchase them there and bring them up here to get signed after the events. If you could take a moment, silence your phones come i think we would all appreciate that. You are welcome to take photographs and you can post them on social media if they are good. After the author has finished speaking there will be a q a and if you could please wait for microphone, so we can all hear your questions. That would be great. All right, lets get started. James is a writer, literary agent and former book editor. Hes the author of the New York Times bestseller neptune inferno the last stand he is widely sorry, hes widely acclaimed historical account of the u. S. Navy and pacific during world war ii and has been praised for the detailed description and sharp impact. He has given keynote lectures at the Naval Academy and he is a frequent guest speaker on the history channel, fox news and civics groups. Graduate of the Ut Law School and he now lives in austin. His latest book, the fleet at flood tide is published just in time for the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. It is the extraordinary story with the most consequential contains of the or. The us seizures of the Mariana Islands opening the path to total victory over japan and establish a new state of the art in warfare. Here to give you the details on this extraordinary historical event is james hornfischer. [applause]. Think you, brenda. I appreciate it. Ive always been very happy and proud that my hometown of austin, texas, is home to one of the greatest independent bookstores in america, book people. At the Community Center and events such as these are salon to bring in such a diversity of authors and gives of vibrancy to the community. I am proud to be here for the third time, i think, and especially happy that cspan is here to turn our discussion in the presentation into an opportunity for readers around the country to connect, so thank you for being here. Much appreciated. I have had the Great Fortune to turn a lifelong interest my interest in the navy and pacific journal during world war ii into an ongoing project with a series of narrative histories that first the last stand of the 10 ken taylors back in 2004 was a battle narrative. Didnt extend to far beyond the mission of telling the story of this improbable upset victory that are navy one over japan in october, 1944. Benefited a great deal of engagement in interviews and ongoing conversations with the veterans of battle. Only a tiny handful are left right out. Its been 15 years and over the course of my projects i seen participation of that generation diminish from book to book. My second book, ship of ghosts, was about a single ship, the uss houston. They were lost early in the world march, 1942. Survivors were taken prisoner and made slaves on the notorious project on the thailand railway. Carry their story through three and half years of starvation or and it was a step up in scope and ambition. Of the third book, neptunes inferno is history covering in close detail six month time frame in which the navy that saving seven major sea battles. Now the fleet at flood tide raises the stakes further attempting to take on the story of the endgame of the pacific war really through the better part of 1944 and all the way through to the end, not just for the surrender of japan on board the uss missouri, but through the occupation itself and i think that shows us so much and has so much to show us about the american war effort. Get the microphone issues straightened out. So, this book then covers a large period of history and encompasses diverse operations on air, land and sea. The marianna Campaign Operation involved Three Islands. These islands were strategically vital and within striking distance of the japanese home islands and became hides of b29 bombers and began surrounding skin, 1944, the bombing of japan begins from these islands. The us seizure of the Three Islands moved to the next slide which wu you will see at the center of the detail map, top right, the seizure of these islands provoked japan into its largest counter stroke against the us offensive of the war. The battle of the Philippine Sea is the largest Aircraft Carrier battle of world war ii. Japan sends the entire combined fleet and precipitates a battle of carriers that was more than three size the site of midway. There were 15 us Aircraft Carriers in the engagement, nine japanese and by the end of it, really the question of whether japan has a carrier navy has been settled. It finishes them. As a major story and that itself has been the subject of many books. The third element of my story in this light here, paul tibbets, the founder of americas the worlds first atomic Striking Force and takes command of the composite group and his special mission is to deliver the atomic weapon, deliver to atomic weapons against japan to fly a specially modified b29 bomber in that mission, so the operation forager quickly precipitates something larger than an amphibious operation. It becomes the battle to decide the pacific war and becomes the fulcrum, the marriott of the critical islands become the fulcrum become which will finally forced japan tourist surrender. These three figures are my devices with diverse colonnade all operations and operations. We have three prominent willful interesting characters at the center of the story. Raymond screws, commander of the fifth fleet. Just as beatles and Rolling Stones people the world divides itself among the two types in the context of the navy navy and the pacific you have sprint people, so reserved and analytical, thoughtful and intellectual. Then theres the fiery and impulsive, both tremendously effective. There is a degree of risk to what he is doing japanese became to know him as the man that was impossible to trap, so when marianna and their contrasting styles really become pronounced naval history buffs like to speculate what might have happened if sprints role in hasses role had been flipped. That is a parlor argument can get rather heated with these polarizing figures and the story of the marianna campaign were kind of that of this huge carrier battle that pits one side of the navy at penn state another the air admiral. They became heir Group Commanders, carrier commanders, test Group Commanders and fleet commanders committed to the proposition that the true power of the navy is in the form of these Ugly Duckling ships. Spruance did not come up through these ranks, but was a battleship man and the fact that he did not cut his teeth in carriers is costly held against him in these partisans resent him for his victory in the battle of midway and now, for his audacity in conducting through the person of a subordinate, the greatest Aircraft Carrier of the dial of the Philippine Sea. The navy kind of fights for its own soul and takes place through the controversies with his subordinates and code equals and becomes the theme of the book with its rooted in the trade craft of Naval Warfare and the rise of the Aircraft Carrier, which comes to focus in the mariannas. With kelly turner who is the subordinate. The navy is undergoing a transformation not only in terms of the types of ships that fight for control of the sea, but also in terms terms of the type of ship that projects power and turner was in charge of the Ugly Duckling llcm, all of the, you know, amphibious ship which is the sole mission to carry troops across the ocean and turner is the modern master of this. The mariannas campaign is the first large island that he undertakes the siege, 46 square miles in a deep terrain and it becomes sort of a proving ground for ideas about amphibious warfare and also holds surprises for the americans that become faithful indeed as the Campaign Rolls along. Finally we have paul tibbets as i indicated earlier. Hes past with any of the war from these islands. The title of the book is suggested in the following pie chart. On sorry if this is hard to read. Apologies to the home audience on cspan. We have a graphic indicating annual Navy Production 1943 through 9044 and it really shows the growth of fleet, and the large silhouettes will command your attention. C control navy is surging through 1943, 15 large and medium size fast carriers quickly taken under notices we mostly from pearl harbor the pacific that the vast majority of these. Battleships as well, destroyers, but at lower right the Landing Craft you will see some positively huge numbers with Single Digits from the battleship and carriers an annual production. Its in the area of Landing Craft where we see the transformation of the fleets with this kind of metaphorical new dimension. Landing craft on the order of 21000 produced in 1943 and 37000 in 1944. This will be the fleet that really wins the western pacific campaign. Sought so its when turner arrives june, 15, it has been nine days since that landed in normandy. We have this math operation the Central Pacific thats always overshadowed by dday. This is the other da. June 15, 1944, 2 divisions of the United States marine corps go ashore the southwestern jeep of saipan as well as a division of the us army in reserve. Saipan is sort of a rubicon. Its here. These islands are essentially south of tokyo. Right along the 145th line a meridian and tokyo is 140. This provokes japan to a massive counterstrike and the fight for the island itself is seen as a preview of what awaits us further to the west. Particularly with regard to possible landing in the home islands of japan. Will we havent saipan for the first time in the pacific is not only craggy terrain, large landmass, we have a 1500foot mountain at the center that provides cover for artillery and mortars. Something important exists on saipan that americans encounter for the first time and thats the presence of civilians. Japanese sugar farmers and plantation workers are there in great numbers, 25000 some odd japanese civilians are on saipan. There is another large settlement and of course the military garrison with 30,000 japanese soldiers protecting saipan, see you have a mixed military Civil Society that we proceed to take by force and the reaction, the dynamics of the threeweek campaign for saipan changes the way the americans look at the war, especially american commanders that are tasked with wendy on the home islands. This will give you a sense of what saipan looks like, the mangrove forest, limestone, craggy caves, basaltic lava beaches. One of the features of this campaign surrounding saipan required for the first time a large employment of underwater demolition then, socalled demolition swimmers, the frog workmen to operate with turners force as kind of the reconnaissance unit, kind of scout out the laguna figure out the best avenue for the landing ships to approach. Was the marines could assure they are quickly swallowed up in a battle where the lines are blurry indeed. The marines struggle in the fight for saipan to hold their lines tight and prevent infiltrators and it gets very difficult, 13000 americans will become casualties in this campaign with about 4000 dead. You can see here how terrifying it must have been. Saipan also sees one of the first city fights anywhere in the pacific. The japanese capital, administrative capital is the the side of some fairly intense combat. So, that invasion takes place june 15 and almost immediately the japanese contest. Thr admiral brings the entire combined fleets and the americans meet him in what becomes the battle of the Philippine Sea. Its kind of a test case of spruances leadership style. That becomes controversial the fact that spruance never gets his carrier commanders license rome west and seek battle over the japanese fleet. Yokes them close to the island, so they stand, 15 carriers stay kind of quest of lawn in recovery position because spruance realizes the strategic objective is the island themselves in the air admiral cannot wait to reckon with the japanese plea, get a hold of the carrier and set them to the bottom, but spruance has this mission in mind have three divisions of spruce. The consequences of holding the island will become strategically vital, so he kind of throws the leash around nature and clark and their pilots and holds position close to the island. This means the navy has to absorb the first blow is the Japanese Carriers approach. The japanese know right where our carriers are with scouting aircraft flying from the island and sightings of our force. On june, 1944, the socalled great marianna turkey shoot takes place, battle of Philippine Sea acquires its nickname for the number of aircraft and planes in battle, some 380 japanese planes are shot down june 19. That has a lot to do with the world hellcat fighter and even more to do with our mastery of error search radar and the Rapid Transmission between ship and Squadron Commander of vectors and so forth. The fighter direction teams are able to control the combat air patrol to where we interest at the japanese almost on a Straight Line just at the right altitude. What is that matter . Our pilots are intercepting so efficiently with plenty of fuel left and in the series of air battles through the day of the 19th, 380 kills and this gaudy score is posted. This just about takes care of any possibility of a Japanese Carrier power ever again fighting with affective force. Mark pitcher is the air admiral who want to think carriers and they say this Mission Accomplished without a different way. Very convincing effect. One of the great pieces that follows the next day is when spruance finally authorizes strikes. We have absorbed a series of air attacks from the 19th and we are still casting search plans through all searching for the japanese fleet in turn in our submarines to make some sightings. To Japanese Carriers are put down by submarines. Seven more Japanese Carriers are roaming out there somewhere to the west and late in the day on the 20th, us guiding search aircraft make a siding of ozawa. The reason it presents a problem is the siding is made late in the afternoon of the 20th and any prospect of a strike will have to be will have to involve a nighttime recovery, which are pilots are not trained for, so late on the 20th, pitcher sent out strike planes such as the hell divers here and they manage to seek a third Japanese Carrier and the recovery entails a socalled turn on the lights episode, so planes take off late in the afternoon and they make their strikes around sunset and on the return we have a desperate circumstance where pilots are navigating in some cases wounded, low on fuel trying to find task force 58, their home, their Aircraft Carrier to land the. Standard at night is to black out everything. A cigarette butt can be seen for miles by an enemy submarine skipper, so the strict about blackout protocol is in place in the pilots are navigating home in the radio beacons assisted them, but they are making their way in this desperate way of late in the evening. All of a sudden the fuel is running tight and they have a sense they are close and they can hear the beacon and make radio contact. On they said none nighttime erupts in lights and every searchlight on every destroyer, cruiser, battleship and Carrier Task Force 58 is thrown skyward with huge 24 inch searchlights, handheld flashlights, every sailor topside and its a reprieve for these pilots. This episode kind of cements the loyalty of our naval air corps. Naval aviation has it traditional not only victory, of unit cohesion showed that admiral. Pilots to this day, f14 pilots will talk about this night as something important in their history and again its incredible set piece and i pulled this into the story of how the navy does it to business and age of the Aircraft Carrier as they chart west port its final reckoning in the home islands of japan. Here is a picture of the Japanese Carrier absorbing some blows. Meanwhile, back in taipan the stories acquiring gravity. The marines are confronting civilians for the first time, as i said. We sort of assumed that they would come to our lines, hands up and be taken into custody to be taken back to the internment camps. Thats not what happens in taipan. The japanese has been fed terrible propaganda about the nature of the American Fighting man and are told marines in order to have their enlistment accepted has to kill their mothers. They are told if you are taken prisoner by americans your children will be, your women will be raped and we killed in short order. This is a fairly persistent message delivered by the Japanese Army and other Japanese Garrison islands, so when american troops push inland and engage in japanese troops and ground combat, they find civilians with them. The civilians have been herded up and there held essentially prisoners by their own nations military indicates, in many cases. They seldom surrender and at the lines push north and taipan is secured in the threeweek play for the island we have some horrible atrocities taking place. Japanese troops are killing their own people not allowing them to be taken prisoner and then in the northern tip of taipans we have japanese civilians so terrified of americans their killing their own children and leaping off of cliffs to their own death took this is stunning to american souls. It was a tragic and the japanese standpoint, to be sure, but would americans see this their eyes are disbelieving. July, 1944, when admiral nimitz shown here, commanderinchief of the Pacific Fleet in the company of general holland smith, marine Corps Commander and admiral ernest king, Chief Naval Operation and to visit their given a tour of the island. They are shown the spectacle of bodies drifting in the surf at the bottom of the cliffs there is a widespread sense of utter disbelief on the part of american commanders and whats important about this campaign is shortly after this reconnaissance takes place of our top pacific commanders, nimitz returns to hawaii and came returns to the west coast and each into in july 44, president roosevelt comes to hawaii for strategy meeting where he sits down with nimitz and macarthur to decide on the westward path across the pacific. The following months king, admiral king goes to quebec city where he joins president roosevelt in the socalled octagon conference, meeting of combined chiefs of staff in quebec city where the larger question of allied war strategy is handled. Churchill is there with his top people, fdr is there with his top people in king is one of them. Kings fresh from this jawdropping experience in the Mariana Islands and what we see coming out of these meetings are something i thinks important. I think we crossed the line into this horrible resolve that i call total war. Its not my formulation. Its a term that suggests no longer will we abide selfimposed restrictions on the way we fight. All weapons will be used. The goal will be as before, the goal will be Unconditional Surrender of our enemy. But, all options are now on the table took in the mariana uc Army Tactical aviation the point napalm for the first time on a largescale and you see the Strategic Bombing of japan as well in the form of b29 which base for the first time in the Central Pacific, really 1300 miles south of tokyo, just within range and the willingness to use these weapons against civilian Publishing Centers is practiced here. We have the bombing, the bombings that proceed from the mariana, target cities. Theres a sense that here are the cliffs before you move along. What i wanted to get to was the words of fdr himself following this revelation, following the revelation in the hawaii Planning Session with macarthur had nimitz and then following the meetings in quebec city at the octagon conference. Fdr to macarthur august 9, 1944, you have been doing a magnificent job and with great difficulties getting us by climate and certain human animals. September 16, 1944, falling octagon conference. This is a fairly staid recitation of the conclusion. We have official allied press communique which says in part in a short space of time decisions reached on all points both with respect to the completion of the war in europe approaching its final stages and the destruction of the barbarians of the pacific. That language i find stunning. It certainly i made a bold face and put it read because thats how it struck me in the initial reading, these words are daggers, if you will i mean very out of phase with what you would expect from allied commanders. I guess in private correspondence he might expect fdr to be a bit salty with one of his printable army commanders, but an official press can indication you would not expect to use foreign relationship relation such as barbarians. The revelation of saipan triggered this willingness to see the enemy in this way. I dont believe, by the way, that america fought this war is a race for. I think the reaction to the nature of the fighting led at the frontline you see the dehumanizing kind of dynamic coming into play i think japan did conceive of this war in a cart as a pushback against western colonialism and we can get into this later if you want, but there werent specific elements of a race war in the japanese notion. You see the way this culturally homogenous culture inflicted itself upon asia as having this element of rape of mankind, the wholesale enslavement of koreans, that expressly racist framing of the fight against the west. I guess the american and the british. In this language, you really start to see the pushback, the recognition that we are up against something other than an enemy that we can reckon with on traditional terms. Not to get too heavily into that, but this points to why the Mariana Campaign was this rubicon where you have an awareness on the part of fdr himself that there was an alien this, this extreme sense of utter alien this to the enemy and i believe this lingers like this activates willingness to use any and all means in the course of defeating the enemy. Saipan, tenpenny and and guam, guam is rolled up in august 44 and almost mealy Aviation Engineers have their bulldozers and transforming these islands into what will be the largest air complex anywhere in the world for strategic bombers. We have a picture here of a b29 taxiing for takeoff as i said earlier thanksgiving, 1944, was the first strikes against japan using conventional bombs, high explosives from high altitudes and the deal was with an Army Air Force precinct was that we could wage the same type of war against japan that we waged against germany, socalled precision bombing, again, these were strikes against cities that contain military factories and comb mingling of civilian and military targets, but the initial idea was we can bomb japan from a highaltitude. Japan, the jetstream wind around the western pacific and it ensures bombs dropped a highaltitude will be historically inaccurate in the first strikes by the 21st Bomber Command from the mariana was utter failure. Aircraft losses, negligible accuracy and so curtis lemay relieves him in 1945, and it changes the way Strategic Air power flights. Will altitude and using incendiaries. The slide in front of you is taken from b29 strike in the japanese city of nagoya and early 1945. These are not the egg shaped bonds you normally see, eight air force dropping over germany or dive bomber stopping on Aircraft Carriers. These are incendiary clusters, devilish little things. If you go to youtube you can find the training video that shows how they work. They burst at altitude and disperse 6pound incendiary bomblets and when they hit the ground they spurt this devilish chemical, some chemical composition and bombing phosphorus napalm and it is almost impossible to get out. Army planners realized the plan would be an ideal target for this weapon, well before the war started. We also used them against germany was not exclusively reserved for japan, but at england airfield in the Florida Panhandle these have been tested in the plan was if it ever came to it, back in the 20s era planner saw the japanese areas were susceptible to incendiary bombing. Lemay commences the incendiary defense against japan. We are talking three dozen major cities burned out, 50 of its square mileage of these urban areas, 50 or more of the urban area of 30 or more japanese cities entirely burned out. The mosses in these strikes a dwarf the atomic raids. March 10, 1944, the bombing of tokyo, firebombing of tokyo killed 100,000 japanese civilians. This is more than either of the atomic strikes. Whats stunning and i think what that the roots of the necessity for this type of warfare had to do with the views of this mansion right here, the japanese war minister. He held additional duty on the emperors supreme word direction counsel. This was a six man body basically said set japans war policy. He and two of his colleagues were absolutely on unreconstructed dead enders about dead and are in the sense how far we are willing to carry this war. Their view was that the penalty for defeat should be the death of every man, woman and child and if they argued this view at every meeting of the supreme word direction counsel through the summer 1944 9045 to tragic results. My book looks not only at the operational side of the American Military in the marianas in 44 through 45, but also looks at japanese politics or japanese war policy and the people of the socalled big six. Their role was utterly tragic. It was they are dead ender philosophy ensured that the means of war that was carried out from the mariana would fall upon japan in the hardest possible way and its utterly tragic for the japanese people, the people in mainland asia under the Japanese Occupation and for everyone involved in the pacific war. That the willingness to surrender was simply nonexistent at the level at which it could have matter. You can find a lot of japanese commanders knew the war was over as soon as the summer of 1944, pull year before mr. Strategic offenses began. You will see a lot of complaining and even political scheming with the fall of the marianas in the summer 44, Prime Minister is sacked. He was the head of the highly militaristic Japanese Army army click that took over japanese form foreignpolicy the 30s and carry the war to this point. The fall of the marianas sees him second in his place he is succeeded by a Prime Minister who is far less militaristic, but its really not a good thing at all. Good thing at all that his successor is ineffectual because it gives control to the war council in the work counsel with its three out of six total dead enders and their role in planning is insured. This is a propaganda leaflet that were dropped, the likes of this leak play were dropped by the tens of thousands over the home island of japan and every Garrison Island in the western pacific. Dot americans realized that we have to find a way to persuade japan that defeat is upon them. We have to give them an opportunity to surrender with a pride intact. This dynamic, this cultural dynamic is at the center of this propaganda effort, which is detailed in revealing documents i found my research where they talk about how to communicate with japanese civilians, japanese soldiers. How do we give them the space and allow them the opportunity to surrender with her dignity intact and so if i could simplify this, the line we used essentially went , great warrior, you fought nobly for your country, but tragedy is upon all of us. End of the war. Lay down your weapon and come to us with your dignity in tact and we will feed you, clothe you in getting medical aid and ensure that you are able to help move your nation out of the tragedy of this war into a brighter future. You know, it was come to our show gone and surrender to our show gone, general smith and he will not show mercy, but treat you with respect. This was the message. We also used this imagery to suggest that illegitimacy of this click, emperor here and his war council, this predatory kind of militaryindustrial click that had japan under its ability in 1945. We are waging a Propaganda Campaign aimed at sprain this message, purposely. It to does not obviously bear quick results. It does not bring fruit really until the final chapter is read in the form of the atomic patient. Long story short, the Strategic Bombing rolls through the summer 45, towards the fall. We have terrible losses. The japanese are suffering terribly at the hands of the 21st Bomber Command. Meanwhile, the island campaigns in the western pacific are becoming costly. Iwo jima, oklahoma and finally the atomic bombings are the final tragedy in this epic story. Simply historical fact that not before august 9, the bombing of august talking was japan ever ready to throw in the towel on the pacific war, on the were efforts. Its only when the emperor himself to sense from his sort of divine remove and involves himself in the controversy that is raging in his own big six in the supreme direction counsel that surrender is possible. The imperial is a stripped august 15, as the announcement to his nation that the war needs to end in the name of saving humanity he adopts this pretends that japan is doing this great favor to the world, which i guess it sort of did. It was only within japans power, only japan have the ability to end this war, america could not end the war for japan. The great tragedy of this pacific war was that a required means so harsh to force this result and i guess its much to his credit that he had the courage to really break with Japanese Culture and tradition, dissent from his semi divine remove, come talk to the big six and tearfully explained to them that this war had to end the. My book carries that back past the surrender of the surrender ceremony in the depths of the uss missouri september 2, 1945. I spent a lot of time looking at how the occupation itself kind of carried on this idea that japan would be rebuilt and continue, that the nation of japan would not be dealt with in this punitive way and here general douglas macarthur, i think turns in his most important efforts as a fivestar commander. He was named pre supreme commander. Given to macarthur to take the plan that was to be that invasion of japan, this two phase plan, olympic and coronet and use it as a mission of murky verse mercy. We will demilitarize the nation and accept the surrender of its armed forces, but we will do so in a way that allows their traditions to survive and that indeed affects surrender by with and through the emperor, his police, all the mayors of the different areas of the country. We will leave it in place so that ordinary way of life that the services that the japanese citizens are used to receiving continuing their isnt this punitive removal of all public officials. This really was macarthurs greatest moment as a leader, i think. Of the way he has this massive ego and self possessing sense of his, you know, his demand for the moment. He has a defined sense of mission and we really needed a man like macarthur to presume to command an emperor. He was subject to macarthurs wishes and orders, but it was in preserving that political edifice of japan i think had a foundation for americas great position the cold war with japan as a ally for the postwar period was affected through the surrender proceedings and the manner of occupation a manner which japan was occupied , so its a terrible and tragic story that i have tried to enfold a lot of subject matter into one volume taking the last 18 months of the war from the invasion of the marianas to the strategic result, highly important purposes to which those islands were put. I tried to use a narrative story to make it accessible to do justice to its complexity operationally and strategically, but to spend a lot of time with people, showing people in their moment wrestling with the possible circumstances and doing the best they could. If ive taken criticism from a previous books its that theres always the opportunity to do more with the japanese side, so in this book i spent time developing not only military personnel, but civilians , the civilian of expense of this war was so fateful. During my work i found incredible diaries in particular an 18year old daughter of a sugar trader on saipan who wrote a detailed memoir of her experiences confronting americas war power firsthand and confronting the japanese and military brainwashing effects and determination never to surrender firsthand, caught in this spice how do she find a way through. Her story is very much at the heart of this book and i developed this sort of attempt to reckon with the human tragedy of this war at really kind of the most understandable relatable level. It was a great challenge. Im proud of the book. Im glad you are here to talk to you about it and if you have a questions i think i would like to start thinking those right about now, so thank you. Thank you very much,. [applause]. After we dropped the second bomb did we have enough material for a third . Yes. Gloss alamos would have had a third atomic bomb ready by the end of september, and Going Forward from there wouldve been about three bombs a month. We would have had 10 bombs through the end of 1945. Whats chilling is to see what the plan said about how they were to be used. Starting october, november, they would i atomic bonds would be used with the invasion of japan, which meant they would have been dropped on japanese two or three days ahead of american assaults. At the time there was no real understanding of the facts of the emirate sickness of the Nuclear Atomic fallout. Index the imagination, i think, to envision what that would have looked like. Something i get into in the book is the experience of the hostile ship, uss haven that pulls in in august of 1945 in nagasaki. They are there to evacuate the us pows. Again, occupying japan anti militarizing the japanese military, Japanese Society and we are also tending to our own who are in great numbers all through as pows. Nagasaki, pows are exactly did and then come the japanese civilians who have been through the bombing of nagasaki and our navy medical teams had never seen what that japanese were calling the bomb disease, affects of gammaray exposure and there was really no understanding. Everyone understood that atomic Chain Reaction released heat energy, but this next level affect was a revelation. In this sense, can you imagine american troops and the experience of atomic weapons on the battlefield all around japan. Three bombs a month through the end of 45 with the capacity of loss alamos and they would have used them. They would have used them. You said your interest in the pacific war came from your childhood. Can you tell us about any books or movies or things you did as a child they gave fruit to that interest . It was a whole lot of model building. As we got over and in high school and by the time i left for college there wasnt a square inch of my ceiling left that did not have a push pin in it with some monograph on aircraft tank. My bookshelves were filled and as we got older we got into avalon hill wargaming. Black sheep squadron was on nbc friday nights. Terrible history. The storylines they made up for that series were ludicrous, but it was a gateway drug to all of the hardware of the South Pacific campaign. It was a childhood passion. I feel like lou gehrigs that im the luckiest man on the face of this earth and i feel the opportunity to turn a childhood interest into Something Like this has ive been fortunate in that respect, but i left it behind. When you go off to college a study military history in college. Except for a handful of institutions, texas a m, liberal arts coming as really has to be kind of a hobby, so i reconnected with this stuff when i started my career in Book Publishing and thats been, i think. So, with fewer and fewer actual veterans from world war ii alive, did you have an opportunity to do any in person interviews with combatants . On this book i have to tip my to the foresight of groups such as the us naval institute, wide and deep end so expertly done. It allows us to tap into that well of Human Experience forevermore. Because of their foresight and collecting these testimonies. The answer is, no. I think in one of my sons of boy scout trips to louisiana we found a whole or in cajun who actually drove on lci. He was there i one of the history sites we went to and i remember interviewing him on the sly and he is actually quoted in the book. You can look him up. I think that maybe the only living interview i did for this book because with a Campaign Like this the focus is the strategic level and so at quantico the diaries and oral histories of individual marines on the second and Fourth Division i use those heavily, but i really did miss, i think, the experience of talking to men not only individually, but in the coming of their shipmates and fellow marines and soldiers. When i wrote my last book i went a large number of these reunions and got a sense of the social network and the bond and thats not Historical Data as such, but its an energy and i have missed a tapping into it for this book. How do you use Research Assistance . You said Research Assistance . These are as a friend of mine said who works alone, these books are handcrafted, so every snapshot of a document, every photocopy, i do it all. This book, you know, was fairly ambitious in scope and needed the way i segregate my work the first couple years is stealing time from an ongoing work as a literary agent, weekends and to go to repositories and just collects material. I dont worry about writing until i feel like i had a Critical Mass of documentary evidence i can write from. I do it all myself. I think we were very fortunate to have a whole lot of talent at the admiral level in our navy. Do you think it was more so than normal or was it due to our great naval institutions or were we was it a bit of luck . You know, those kids that came out of the depression in world war i, produced a whole lot of talented admirals. Yeah, yet the couple different strata, i think, personnel. Imagine the depression. I was struck when working on the story of houston and where the survivors of that ship endured the horror of captivity. What could have prepared them for that level of deprivation . What could have prepared them to be so tough to get through three years of japanese captivity on a cup of rice a day in burma . You have to say that the depression prepared them , that being raised by an abusive father may have paid an unexpected dividend in the jungles of burma. A poor family they know that level you can look at it from that level. You can look at it from the question of higherlevel military leadership. I think through an appreciation of chester nimitz, president roosevelt picked him from really he was kind of an off menu choice, if you will, for president roosevelt. People held kind of the people on that list were consensus choices by the fleet. There was a list of a ranked list of who the top guys were in nimitz was not on it, so he did something to impress roosevelt along the way and the fact that nimitz was the navy hero of navigation which was the name a gay back in the day to their personnel office. He was head of the personnel of the navy. It was one of his great strengths was dealing with people, managing diverse personalities of ferocious will all around him. He could maintain his equilibrium and keep everyone focused on the mission. Not to make a war effort a cold personality or to give credit to one man, that nimitz did have that gift and ask for separating fighting admirals from everyone else, the war itself took care of that and thats my theme on my book. They were tall war fighters come about by the end of the war you look at our submarine corps with the crop of people who commanded submarines and there was a hard forging that took place over 43, 44 and by the end of the war you had some real war fighters out there carrying that the fight into enemy waters. Same thing with the air groups pilaris. The Training System setup, american genius for Personnel Management and training processes. Japanese sent their pilots to the front and they fought till they died. Our pilots put together a fairly good to her to her and then they look aback to Corpus Christi and train the next generation, so we had that going as well in terms of where our people came from and i think thats important, but its a fascinating to look at, where talent comes from and how people either rise to the moment, rise to the occasion of the moment or dont. Semi case studies that i think are illuminating and should bear lessons for today. How do we pick our leaders . Do we need politicians or fighters and where should they be put in the hierarchy . What should their sphere of influence the . Different in peacetime, i guess. Anything else . Yes . Can you talk about the admiral when he took over the Japanese Carriers . , it on the admiral. I started out by talking about what would have happened if spruance had been in howlins place and if spruance had been in the Philippine Sea and not a people say anything wouldve gone better and we would have had the fiery aggressive commander at the Philippine Sea where we needed to chase Japanese Carriers and be aggressive and some people say we needed spruance cool follicle discernment at a time when the japanese were trying to bait us into a mistake. You know, i think it worked out fine. I think the war was over by the time the campaign was underway. Its not to underestimate the loss of life that took place on october 25, 1944. Howlin made a terrible mistake, but admiral kincaid made a terrible mistake and the two fleets under divided command, theyll vary your belliard to communicate, each size has operability. This is the first time i can point to where church nimitz had responsibility to. Nimitz never should have given howlin that kind of discretion because he erred. He erred in chasing what in hindsight we now know and really i suppose could have known at the time were a threadbare, very feeble Japanese Carrier force. So, howlin was the man we needed the guatemala canal when a risk taker, you know, when the talents of a risk taker were kind of in need, but was fascinating to look at is that at the end of the war when the last star is being given out by president truman, the choice comes down between spruance or howlin and a board of inquiry had recommended courtmartial for policy following his second express with the tightfitting at when the decision comes down which guy gets the last six star promotion it goes to him and i think the rationale was, well, in the early going when the worker gone either way he held Theater Command in the South Pacific and spruance never had that. You is nimitz chief of staff. Lets remember the good when you look back at the story of the pacific he made his share of mistakes, but really at the time when the war could have gone either way his position was such that he goes down to the South Pacific in 1942 interns hoping around. That should not be forgotten. I met mixed mind of his great hero, but great heroes do blunder. After the war the japanese game spruance a compliment saying spruance was the man that we could never trap he was just too smart. Examines how word meanings have changed over time. This program contains language some may find offensive. Welcome to the manhattan library, my name is erica parker, im a library here at midmanhattan. Before i get started i would expect the speaker and your fellow audience members, i would like you to silence all Electronic Devices at this time. Thank you for joining us for a talk with John Mcwhorter on his book words onhe