The Color of War: How One Battle Broke Japan and Another Changed America

521 Pages·2012·3.29 MB·English

by  James Campbell

ALSO BY JAMES CAMPBELL
The Final Frontiersman
The Ghost Mountain Boys

Copyright © 2012 by James Campbell All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campbell, James.
The color of war: how one battle broke Japan and another changed America / James
Campbell. —1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Port Chicago Mutiny, Port Chicago, Calif., 1944. 2. Port Chicago Mutiny Trial, San
Francisco, Calif., 1944. 3. World War, 1939–1945—Participation, African American. 4. United
States. Navy—African Americans—History—20th century. 5. World War, 1939–1945—
Campaigns—New Guinea. I. Title.
D810.N4C36 2012
940.54’5308996073079463—dc23 2011023913
eISBN: 978-0-30746123-0
Maps by Joe LeMonnier
Jacket design by Gabriele Wilson
Jacket photographs: (top) W. Eugene Smith/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; (bottom) Schomburg
Center, NYPL/Art Resource, NY
v3.1_r1
In memory of my mother-in-law,
Elaine DeGaetano Harvey
Show me the two so closely bound
As we, by the wet bond of blood.
— ROBERT GRAVES
I believe as long as we allow conditions to exist
that make for second-class citizens, we are making
of ourselves less than first-class citizens.
— DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
A GUIDE TO THE BOOK’S MAJOR CHARACTERS
MAPS
FOREWORD
PROLOGUE
1. “Another Sunday, Another Pearl Harbor Attack”
2. Big Dreams
3. Leaving Texas
4. Mosquitoes, Mud, and Mayhem
5. Semper Fi
6. Eleanor Roosevelt’s Niggers
7. The Right to Fight
8. The First
9. Port Chicago
10. Bombs for the Black Boys
11. Like a Dog on a Bone
12. A War of Their Own
13. A Desolate Place
14. Whom Are We Fighting This Time?
15. Waiting for War
16. Broken Promises
17. Ernie King’s Beloved Ocean (the Strategic Picture)
18. Baptism by Fire
19. Paradise
20. Camp Tarawa
21. Ernie King’s Victory
22. Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
23. Where Young Men Go to Die
24. The Terrible Shore
25. A Long, Bitter Struggle
26. A Healthy Spirit of Competition
27. The Devil’s Backbone
28. Valley of the Shadow of Death
Photo Insert
29. Tapotchau’s Heights
30. Gyokusai
31. Red Flags
32. Island of the Dead
33. Hot Cargo
34. End of the World
35. Down the Barrel of a Gun
36. Proving Mutiny
37. Putting the Navy on Trial
38. Punishing the Seamen
39. The Sins of a Nation
EPILOGUE
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A GUIDE TO THE BOOK’S MAJOR CHARACTERS
U.S. COMMAND STRUCTURE
Admiral Ernest King: commander in chief, United States Fleet and Chief of Naval
Operations Admiral Chester Nimitz: commander of the Pacific Fleet Admiral
Raymond Spruance: commander of the United States 5th Fleet (originally the
Central Pacific Force) Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner: commander of the Joint
Expeditionary Force and Northern Attack Force and commander of the amphibious
landing General Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith: commander V Amphibious Corps
and commander of all expeditionary troops General Douglas MacArthur:
commander in chief Southwest Pacific Area General George Marshall: U.S. Army
chief of staff
Frank Knox: secretary of the Navy
James Forrestal: secretary of the Navy following Knox’s death Vice Admiral Randall
Jacobs: chief of naval personnel
SAIPAN
Second Lieutenant Carl Roth: E Company, 23rd Regiment, 4th Marine Division
Gunnery Sergeant Emberg Townsley: E Company
Robert Graf: E Company, from Ballston Spa, New York
Dick Crerar: E Company, Graf’s buddy
Bill More: E Company, Graf’s buddy
Lieutenant James Stanley Leary Jr: G Company, 23rd Regiment, 4th Marine Division,
from Ashokie, North Carolina Sergeant Jack Campbell: G Company, platoon
sergeant
Carl Matthews: G Company, Gold Dust Twin, from Hubbard, Texas Richard Freeby: G
Company, Gold Dust Twin, from Quanah, Texas Wendell Nightingale: G Company,
from Skowhegan, Maine Sergeant John Rachitsky: “Bastard” Battalion, 29th
Marines Frank “Chick” Borta: “Bastard” Battalion, 29th Marines, from Chicago
Glen “Pluto” Brem: “Bastard” Battalion, 29th Marines, from Gilroy, California
Richard Carney: “Bastard” Battalion, 29th Marines, from Bronx, New York Milt
Lemon: “Bastard” Battalion, 29th Marines, from Texas Panhandle
MONTFORD POINT
Edgar Lee Huff: One of Montford Point’s first black recruits, from Gadsden, Alabama
Colonel Samuel Woods: commanding officer of Montford Point
PORT CHICAGO
Black Seamen
George Booth: carpenter striker, Division #4, from Detroit Sammie Lee Boykin:
carpenter striker, ammunition handler and winch operator, Division #1, from
Bessemer, Alabama Percy Robinson, Jr.: hold boss and winch operator, Division
#4, from Chicago Spencer Sikes: boxcar inspector and shore patrol, from West Palm
Beach, Florida Joe Small: cadence caller and winch operator, Division #4, from
Middlesex County, New Jersey
White Officers
Lieutenant Ernest Delucchi: head of Division #4
Captain Nelson Goss: commanding officer at Mare Island and Port Chicago Lieutenant
Commander Alexander Holman: head loading officer and officer in charge of
training Captain Merrill Kinne: officer-in-charge of the Port Chicago Naval
Magazine Lieutenant Commander Glen Ringquist: assistant loading officer
Lieutenant Richard Terstenson: assistant loading officer Lieutenant James Tobin:
head of Division #2
Lieutenant Raymond Robert “Bob” White: junior officer in charge of Division #3
KEY FIGURES OF ALLEGED MUTINY AND TRIAL
Black Seamen
Ollie Green: witness for the defense
Joseph Gray: witness for the prosecution
Edward Longmire: witness for the defense