Into the Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat
The author ofBeyond Valoroffers a new collection of oral  histories from veterans of the Second World War, this time from the Pacific  theater. In an introduction, Patrick K. O'Donnell warns, "oral histories are  perhaps the best means available to reveal the horrors and pathos of the  foxhole." Indeed, several of the accounts he compiles on these pages are grisly,  such as the story of Tom Lyons, stabbed in the neck by a Japanese soldier on  Guadalcanal. Lyons survived, but only after being heaped on top of a pile of  dead bodies. Rumors of his death reached home: "My mother got a check from my  insurance company saying I was dead the same day she got a letter from me  written by a nurse at a hospital in New Zealand." Combat stories abound,  including a firsthand account of Gunnery Sergeant William G. Walsh jumping on a  grenade to protect his squad on Iwo Jima, a feat for which he was posthumously  awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. O'Donnell organizes his material  chronologically and introduces each chapter to help readers understand the  context of the soldiers' individual narratives. For those who enjoy real-life  war stories told from the perspective of the men who were there,Into the  Rising Sunis hard to beat.--John Miller