Rated 4.5 Stars
From: Library
The only reason I rated this 4.5 stars instead of 5 stars was that a lot of the photographs in the book were troubling to me. In fact, the only reason I have not purchased this book and sent it to my ten year old Great Grandson are those pictures. He has an interest and knowledge of WWII that is exceptional for his age.
BOOK REVIEW FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: The U.S. aircraft carrier Bunker Hill and the Japanese kamikazes that struck her on May 11, 1945, embodied two fundamentally different approaches not only to war but to life, according to Kennedy. The Bunker Hill manifested American material power, and its civilian sailors reflected the determination of a nation to punish Japan's aggression with total victory. The pilots of the Divine Wind (or kamikaze) , on the other hand, represented a philosophical and spiritual response, an epic of pride, honor and virility. And when the kamikazes struck the Bunker Hill, it seemed for a time that a few determined men could frustrate American power, killing almost 400 Americans and wounding another 250. In what he views as a relevant lesson for the age of terror, Kennedy (Make Gentle the Life of This World) explores "how an individual's desire to live can be so successfully suppressed" that he will train for certain death. The author combines extensive archival research with interviews of American and Japanese participants in a spellbinding account showing that much more than geopolitics was at stake in the Pacific war. Photos. (Nov. 4) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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