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A Novel of the War in the Pacific
Ballantine Books
May 2011
On Sale: May 17, 2011
480 pages ISBN: 0345497945 EAN: 9780345497949 Hardcover
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Fiction
The Final Storm opens a new front in Jeff Shaara’s gripping
chronicle of World War II as soldiers, sailors, and marines
sacrifice all for one final push toward decisive victory in
the fierce maelstrom of the Pacific theater. As the war in Europe winds down in the wake of the Normandy
invasion, the United States has turned its vast military
resources toward an all-out effort against the Japanese. In
the spring of 1945, Japan’s empire has been pressed slowly
back toward its home islands, and the Americans mount a
furious assault on the last great stepping-stone to Japan
itself—the heavily fortified island of Okinawa. The
three-month battle will feature some of the most vicious
combat of the entire war, as American troops confront an
enemy that would rather be slaughtered than experience the
shame of surrender. With a narrative dexterity befitting his status as a master
storyteller, Shaara relates the story of the struggle for
Okinawa through the eyes of combatants on both sides:
Private Clay Adams, a young marine whose brother Jesse has
already earned his share of glory as a paratrooper with the
82nd Airborne in Europe; Admiral Chester Nimitz, who must
unite rival army and marine commanders into a cooperative
effort; General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., the American
ground commander trying to live up to the legacy of his
father, who led Confederate troops during the Civil War; and
General Mitsura Ushijima, the Japanese general in charge of
defending the island, who understands what Tokyo will not
believe: that his own fight to the death will only delay the
inevitable—as the Americans continue their advance toward
the home islands and ultimate victory. With the fights raging across the Pacific, a different kind
of campaign is being waged in extraordinary secrecy: the
development of a weapon so powerful, not even the scientists
who build it know just what they are about to unleash.
Colonel Paul Tibbets, one of the finest bomber pilots in the
U.S. Army Air Corps, is selected to lead the mission to drop
the horrific new weapon on a Japanese city. As the new
president, Harry S Truman, mulls his options, and a Japanese
physician named Okiro Hamishita cares for patients at a
clinic near the city of Hiroshima, citizens on the home
front await the day of reckoning that everyone knows is coming. A fitting conclusion to one of the most riveting sagas in
military fiction, The Final Storm illuminates the heroism
and sacrifice that defined the war in the Pacific, bringing
the conflict to life as only Jeff Shaara can.
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