"In honor of the 75th Anniversary of one of the most critical battles of World War II ... Martha MacCallum pays tribute to the heroic men who sacrificed everything at Iwo Jima to defeat the Armed Forces of Emperor Hirohito--among them, a member of her own family"--
On Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles of World War II, nearly 7,000 Marines were killed and 22, 000 were wounded in thirty-six grueling days. MacCallum takes us from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima through the lives of these men of valor; among them is Harry Gray, a member of her own family. Their stories, told through letters and recollections are woven into the larger history of what American military leaders rightly saw as an eventual showdown in the Pacific with Japan. Through the jungles of Guadalcanal, over the coral reefs of Tarawa, past the bloody ridge of Peleliu, against the banzai charges of Guam, and to the cliffs of Saipan, these men were on a path that ultimately led to the black sands of Iwo Jima, the doorstep of the Japanese Empire. -- adapted from jacket.