Pacific Skies: American Flyers in World War II

308 Pages·2004·0.95 MB·English

by  Jerome Klinkowitz

PACIFIC
SKIES
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PACIFIC
SKIES
AMERICAN FLYERS
IN WORLD WAR II
J J J
JEROME KLINKOWITZ
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI / JACKSON
www.upress.state.ms.us
Designed by Todd Lape
The University Press ofMississippi is a member ofthe
Association ofAmerican University Presses.
Copyright © by University Press ofMississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
    
∞
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Klinkowitz,Jerome.
Pacific skies :American flyers in World War II / Jerome
Klinkowitz.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN ---(alk.paper)
.World War,–—Aerial operations,American.
.World War,–—Campaigns—Pacific Area.
.World War,–—Personal narratives,American.
I.Title.
D.K 
.'—dc 
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
FOR DICK AND SANDY
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C O N T E N T S
Preface 
Acknowledgments 
Abbreviations 
J
INTRODUCTION 3
A World Away from War
J
GOING TO WAR IN PEACETIME 33
J AN AIR WAR AT SEA AND ON LAND 78
J TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC 122
J ENDGAME 167
Kamikazes and the Bombing of Japan
J CONCLUSION 227
Dimensions Moral and More
Bibliography 
Index 
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P R E FA C E
Americans know well the pictures of their country’s air war in
the Pacific,from the battleship Arizonabillowing smoke caused
by a Japanese bomber’s hit and settling to the bottom of Pearl
Harbor on December ,,to the mushroom cloud rising over
Hiroshima on August , . Between these two events, many
know the map like the back of their hand:the enemy’s opening
thrust, halfway across the ocean toward the continental United
States, followed by the long but persistent drive of American
forces toward Tokyo.Most know the plot for this action as well,
a master narrative intoned by television documentaries such as
Air Power and Victory at Sea that explains the greater sense of
these operations even as viewers see the familiar images in
motion.
But what of the individuals who fought this war—particu-
larly from the air,where photography was often limited to gun-
camera footage and pinpoint air reconnaissance, where maps
were a business of navigational specifics and target coordinates,
and where war correspondents (with their own master narra-
tives) could only on the rarest occasion fly along? For flyers who
fought World War II in the skies over the Pacific, a medium
other than picture taking or map making would have to convey
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