Another Book Review

Turner Publishing is at it again. They have sent me a review copy of Historic Photos of World War II: Pearl Harbor to Japan. Once again the photos have been selected, captioned and accompanied by text written by Bob Duncan. The Pacific War was a very different experience from the war in Europe. On the ground it was dominated by island fighting and the island fighting  commands a large proportion of the pictures in the book. This suits me well because, as I have mentioned before, my father fought on Iwo Jima and my uncle fought on Guam.

Island fighting was relatively short compared with European land campaigns but was also correspondingly intense.  The well chosen photographs capture that intensity. In discussions at the dinner table my father would tell me stories of marines who, having survived one or two island combats , would become convinced that this next assault landing would be their last. The stories that survived were of course about the marines who didn’t. Frequently such a story accompanied the death of a marine who received the Congressional Medal of Honor or another decoration for bravery posthumously.

So many photos dramatize the island fighting that I came away with a sense that the naval war, the air war, the home front and the weapons and equipment did not get their fair share. This may be unfair as the Pacific Ocean and the pacific war  (there’s an irony for you) were both vast in scope. The war was also uniquely American in a way that the European war was not. Still the previous volume on Europe did a better job of capturing the essence of the American effort there. Although the individual photographs are excellent, the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts. Still, for those like me who have a special interest in the island war the book is more than sufficient when seen as a book primarily on that topic and I would recommend it on that basis.

Once, again I have an argument with Mr. Duncan’s  captions and text. I have been fortunate not to have experienced war to any great degree but I have studied it enough, have enough capacity for empathy and have lived long enough not to be moved in the way intended by triumphalism and nostalgia.  Cliched writing doesn’t help either.

Maybe I am being too harsh. It’s a photography book and the photographs are well chosen and very evocative of an important aspect of World War II – the island fighting in the Pacific. Accepted as such it is a very enjoyable and worthwhile book for those who share that interest.

Now that I have seen this book and the earlier one on Europe, I notice the Turner Publishing “Historic Photos of….” series everywhere. At my local Borders Books I saw that they did a very nice job with local and civil war history in my community of Alexandria, Virginia. The series is a worthwhile one and nicely fills a valuable niche. If historic photography interests you, see what they have at your local bookstore or on their website.

A Book Review

From time to time I intend to do book reviews on these pages. I am a firm believer in the adage that any book you haven’t read is a new book. So some of my reviews may be of earlier published, perhaps out of print (but still available used on the internet) books. Today’s book, however is a new one.

Historic Photos of World War II: North Africa to Germany is a photography book with text and captions by Bob Duncan. The book’s 198 photographs drawn from archival sources begin with the origins of the war in the rise of Nazism and Fascism and move quickly into the American campaigns in North Africa, Italy and Northwest Europe.

Coming as it does at roughly the same time as the Ken Burns documentary and related book might be seen as a disadvantage. However, this book takes pains as the Ken Burns documentary did not to explain with a few well chosen photographs why the war was necessary. Totalitarianism, militarism, the persecution and genocidal murder of the Jews and the subjugation and exploitation of the varied and numerous peoples of Europe are all elegantly and succinctly brought to mind with pictures.
The context having been set, the subsequent photographs of Americans in combat and on campaign are all the more evocative as we now know in a way that only powerful images can show what has set in motion the suffering, destruction and death; and the courage and devotion to duty that come with them.

While a few of the photographs are classic and familiar, most are photographs that I have not seen before. Particularly interesting are the photographs of what comes after the intense moments of combat. One picture that stands out to me is of a small group of 3rd armored division soldiers who have broken out of a local encirclement. Their faces still blackened with the camouflage used in the breakout, their faces are also marked by relief, exhaustion and elation at being free and alive. They are crowded round boxes of food and cigarettes eating, smoking and celebrating their survival.

I could go on as these photographs repay detailed study of what they depict. The home front industries and their workers, interesting weapons and equipment, the modifications and upgrades made to the Sherman tank, various historic personages and much more including scenes of combat are strikingly depicted in a well chosen selection of photographs. I really hate to say anything negative about this very entertaining and informative volume. However, it did strike me that the captions to the photographs, though very informative, occasionally lapsed into the simplistic and the cliched. This usually happened in comments that were not strictly necessary to caption the photograph. A little more editorial attention and restraint might have brought the narrative to a higher level more worthy of the photographic content.

Still, this is a handsomely produced volume and obviously a labor of love for Mr. Duncan who clearly brings a great deal of interest and enthusiasm to his topic. At 39.95 it is not for everyone. However, anyone interested in World War II or war photography and building a personal library on either should not fail to be aware of this volume. The publisher is Turner Publishing and their website is here .