The Last of the Old Breed: An Oral History of the Final Marines from World War II

Historian Davis debuts with an immersive collection of oral testimony from still-living vets who fought in WWII’s Pacific Theater. Calling the book “a story of memory,” Davis takes a hands-off approach to interviewing Marines in their 90s and early 100s, letting them focus on what matters to them. While every aspect of war is eventually considered, from stateside deployments to the challenges of fighting in humid conditions, a recurring theme is the subjects’ traumatized fixation on how their Japanese adversaries refused to surrender: “They would keep attacking until everyone was killed. We just couldn’t believe it”; “We were on a cliff overlooking the Japanese and delivered an ultimatum: By a certain hour, if they didn’t surrender, we were going to let them have it. They wouldn’t budge. We fired... and they all jumped off.... At that time, we considered them nothing more than just an animal, I guess. Odd, isn’t it?” Other sections record the reflections of Marines who survived a 1944 storm that sank three U.S. destroyers and the assault on Iwo Jima, as well as Marines’ conflicted feelings about the atomic bomb (many express concern that an invasion would have meant they had to fight women and children to the death) and becoming friendly with the Japanese during the occupation. The result is a raw record of a generation’s little discussed trauma. (May)