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The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II
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About The Storm On Our Shores: One Island, Two
Product Description This “engrossing” (The Wall Street Journal) national bestseller and true “heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption” (Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers) reveals how a discovered diary—found during a brutal World War II battle—changed our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan. May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called “The Forgotten Battle” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star–winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul. The doctor’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird. Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years. Tatsuguchi’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mark Obmascik “writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood” (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls). Review “Here is a part of World War II that most of us not only forgot—we never knew it happened in the first place. Mark Obmascik has deftly rescued an important story from the margins of our history—and from our country's most forbidding frontier. Deeply researched and feelingly told, The Storm On Our Shores is a heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption.”— Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers, In the Kingdom of Ice, and On Desperate Ground “A riveting true tale of a soldier’s lost diary, The Storm on Our Shores is a vital reminder of grace, forgiveness and the power of words to heal.” — Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being “Mark Obmascik is a master storyteller. He writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood. He brings to life in gritty detail the enormity of the sacrifices made on both sides of the conflict, and thus enables us to appreciate the terrible price of war anew.”— Helen Thorpe , author of Soldier Girls, The Newcomers, and Just Like Us “Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Obmascik . . . serves up a moving, intimate tale of two men, two families, and two countries that intersected at the forgotten WWII battle of Attu. . . . Obmascik’s account of their relationship’s growth reinforces the compassion of everyone involved. This poignant, dramatic tale will captivate both younger readers less familiar with the details of WWII history and those who are passionate about it.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A poignant chronicle of the deeply complicated emotions surrounding the American-Japanese hostility stoked by World War II. . . . Obmascik has carefully and fairly sifted through the layers to this complex story, offering a tightly foc
