The Things Our Fathers Saw

‘I hope you’ll never have to tell a story like this, when you get to be 87. I hope you’ll never have to do it.’
Marine veteran of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, to his teenage interviewer

THE THINGS OUR FATHERS SAW Series

THE UNTOLD STORIES OF THE
WORLD WAR II GENERATION
FROM HOMETOWN, USA

The Things Our Fathers Saw- VOL I: War in the Pacific [2015]

The Things Our Fathers Saw- VOL II, Book One: War in the Air [2017]

The Things Our Fathers Saw- VOL III, Book Two: War in the Air [2017]

The Things Our Fathers Saw- VOL IV, Up the Bloody Boot-The War in Italy [2018]

D-Day and Beyond: The Things Our Fathers Saw—The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation-Volume V [2019]

27th Infantry Division. Saipan, July, 1944. ‘An abandoned Japanese baby is adopted by front line medical unit of the 27th Div. The baby was found with a scalp wound, in the arms of its dead mother,by a tank crew during the fighting below Mt. Tapotchau.’ Courtesy New York State Military Museum. — 27th Infantry Division. Saipan, July, 1944.
‘An abandoned Japanese baby is adopted by front line medical unit of the 27th Div. The baby was found with a scalp wound, in the arms of its dead mother, by a tank crew during the fighting below Mt. Tapotchau.’
Courtesy New York State Military Museum.

LOOK Magazine photo, WW II. 'Children pledging allegiance to the flag at Broad Street School'. Courtesy Crandall Public Library, Folklife Center, Glens Falls N.Y.. — *LOOK Magazine* photo, WW II. ‘Children pledging allegiance to the flag at Broad Street School’. Courtesy Crandall Public Library, Folklife Center, Glens Falls N.Y.

At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small upstate New York community for a series of articles over six issues to a national audience, portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. More than 5000 photographs were taken.

Seventy years later, a high school history teacher and his students track down over two dozen veterans residing around “Hometown, USA” who fought the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. They rescue and resurrect firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood, of captivity and redemption, and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed.

Here are the stories that the magazine could not tell, from a vanishing generation speaking to America today.

Available in digital,paperback, hardcover format at https://matthewrozellbooks.com/

Some Maps and Notes, Vol. I

Extent of Japanese Control in the Pacific, 1942, featuring battles and locations in the book. Drafted by Susan Winchell-Sweeney, after Donald L. Miller.

Route of Pvt. Joseph G. Minder in the Philippines, Oct. 1941-May 1942. Drafted by Susan Winchell-Sweeney,

Route of Bataan Death March; hellship transports. Drafted by Susan Winchell-Sweeney,

Japanese Invasion of Corregidor, May 1942. Drafted by Susan Winchell-Sweeney,

Guadalcanal, Sept. 1942. Drafted by Susan Winchell-Sweeney,

~MEET THE STORYTELLERS~

***

THE THINGS OUR FATHERS SAW Vol. 1
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION: HOMETOWN, USA
TWILIGHT
‘A NIGHTMARE LIKE WORLD WAR II’
HARDWIRED TO HISTORY
A HIGHER PURPOSE
I. A SUNDAY MORNING
‘WHERE THE HECK IS PEARL HARBOR?’
THE DAY OF INFAMY
II. THE DEFENDERS
RETREAT TO BATAAN
RETREAT TO CORREGIDOR
THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH
THE FALL OF CORREGIDOR
III. CAPTIVITY
‘FIFTY MEN TO A BUCKET OF RICE’
IV. INTO THE FRAY
PRACTICING FOR THE DOOLITTLE RAID
INTERNMENT
MIRACLE AT MIDWAY
V. A TURNING POINT-GUADALCANAL
22 MILES WITH A PACK AND A RIFLE
THE LANDINGS
‘CONFUSION TO THE EXTREME’
THE BATTLE OF THE TENARU
EDSON’S RAIDERS COME ASHORE
THE BATTLE OF BLOODY RIDGE
THE BATTLE OF THE MATANIKAU RIVER
MALARIA
STRIKING AT THE SERPENT’S HEAD
VI. SEA ACTION
THE VAST PACIFIC
THE DESTROYER ESCORT
RESCUE
VII. CAPTIVITY-YEAR 2
‘SOMEONE IS GETTING A CRUEL BEATING’
‘MADE TO DIG THEIR OWN GRAVES’
‘THE MOTHERS BACK HOME’
VIII. ISLANDS OF THE DAMNED
TARAWA
THE MARSHALL ATOLLS
THE MARIANAS—SAIPAN, GUAM, AND TINIAN
THE HELL OF PELELIU
IX. CAPTIVITY-YEAR 3: THE HELLSHIPS
THE HOLDS OF HELL
TORPEDOED
39 DAYS IN THE HOLE
X. THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA
FLAG OF OUR FATHERS
‘I’VE GOT A GOOD ONE FOR YOU, DOC.’
THE GUYS LEFT BEHIND
XI. CAPTIVITY-YEAR 4: THE COPPER MINE
HELL, REVISITED
MITTENS MADE OF GRASS
XII. A RAIN OF RUIN
THE FIRST MISSION
INTO THE AIR
THE BOMB RUN
PERDITION
THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT
INFERNO
THE 15TH MISSION
INTO THE OCEAN
THE UNWRITTEN RULE
THE MORALITY OF WAR
XIII. THE KAMIKAZES
‘CROSSING THE ‘T’
ULITHI
SETTING SAIL FOR OKINAWA
‘WE’RE GOING TO BE THE TARGET’
‘I LOST MANY FRIENDS’
XIV. TYPHOON OF STEEL-OKINAWA
‘MUD AND TOTAL EXTINCTION’
THE CHILDREN IN THE CAVE
EVACUATING THE WOUNDED
‘YOU’VE GOT NOTHING TO WORK WITH, JIMMY.’
XV. REDEMPTION
UNBROKEN
‘A QUESTION UNTIL THE END OF TIME’
BUNDLES FROM HEAVEN
THE VIEW FROM TOKYO BAY
THE REDEEMED CAPTIVE
‘LOST IS THE YOUTH WE KNEW’
EPILOGUE: RESURRECTION
FINDING RANDY
ABOUT THIS BOOK/ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES