82 Days on Okinawa: One American's Unforgettable Firsthand Account of the Pacific War's Greatest Battle

Thankfully, I just got this book from the library today and didn't pay money for it! The manuscript based on interviews was started when Shaw was 97. His recollections, while somewhat interesting, really makes one wonder if they are factual. Many inconsistencies between his stated actions and "SOP" on the battlefield. Also, their is no explaination of how he made Major in a stateside instructor's billet at Ft. Sill before his first combat experience during the Leyte landing. Without battlefield experience/promotion(s) can't imagine how he'd make Major in the field artillery at 21-22 years of age??? The choppy down home style of writing/dialog jumps all over the place and is hard to follow. No disrespect intended Col. Shaw, Thank You for your service!!!

This book was a big disappointment for me. Did any one do any fact checking for his "eye witness" stories? 1st off a Major is not an XO in a battery. He also only hangs around 1 gun/crew during the time on Okinawa. And just seems to wonder around the battle area like he has no other job. In 1 of his stories he talks about a Lt leading his Plt and then getting killed, but about 10 pages later he talks about the same officer still leading and fighting. I think they just took after action reviews from other sources and put them in this book to fill it up.

Finally had to put it down and realize I had wasted money on a poorly written novel that might have the title of a real battle, but this book, or at least what I read, was contrived fictional dialogue that was really un-believable.

As soon as I saw this title at my local library, I checked it out. But I quickly realized I was fortunate that I didn’t buy the book. It has countless factual flaws and is a huge disservice to the memory of the nominal author, the late Colonel Arthur Shaw, US Army (ret.). I lay the blame for that on Robert L. Wise, the ghost writer. Throughout, he exhibits very limited understanding of military affairs, units and procedures, which detracts greatly from this book.

My interest was piqued because two other family members and I served in Okinawa in very different circumstances over a half century. My late Uncle Maynard Nohrden, then a Marine lieutenant colonel, commanded the 1st Amphibian Tractor Battalion throughout the 82-day battle. In late 1968, my next younger brother was assigned there as a Navy Seabee. After two months, he volunteered for Viet Nam where I was serving as an Army infantry officer. Much later, as a Foreign Service officer, I was the US consul general in Okinawa from 1994 to 1997. My time there included the top-level US-Japan commemorations in June 1995 of the 50th anniversary of the battle.

In 1945, Col. Shaw was a major with the 361st Field Artillery Battalion in the Army’s 96th Infantry Division. Make no mistake. I am certain that then-Major Shaw, the 361st FA Battalion and the 96th Infantry Division fought with great bravery all through that bloody battle. They had to combat a fanatical enemy, rough terrain and often appalling weather to prevail. But the many flaws in the book undermine their story. If Robert Wise had been even reasonably careful, he could have avoided most of his numerous mistakes about things military.

In late 1944, Major Shaw had just served in the invasion of Leyte, the Philippines. Next was the gigantic amphibious invasion of Okinawa, which is Japanese territory. At several points in the book, Major Shaw is described as a “unit commander” in the 361st, but deciphering his actual position was one of the book’s numerous mysteries. In an artillery battalion, a major is usually either the Executive Officer (XO) – the second in command – or the operations officer (S-3), the battalion’s senior staff officer. Was either of those Major Shaw’s slot? In a real oddity, at various points in the book, Shaw is described as the XO of an artillery “battery.” A battery is commanded by a captain and in what army would a major be a captain’s subordinate? That’s just one example of Robert Wise’s sloppiness and lack of understanding of military basics. Only after page 200 is Major Shaw identified as the battalion’s operations officer or S-3. In that position, he would have spent most of his time very close to the battalion commander.

Was Major Shaw the first US officer ashore on Okinawa? So the book claims. But four divisions – two Army and two Marine – landed in line abreast on Easter Sunday April 1, 1945 on an eight mile wide invasion beach. According to the US Army’s official history, in the first hour of the invasion, 16,000 soldiers and Marines came ashore. How could anyone identify the first officer ashore? The book says Shaw landed as the only passenger in an amphibious tank that had just one crewman. Odd, but again, why was he not right beside his battalion commander, heading into the biggest invasion of the Pacific campaign? Just makes no sense.

Saluting! I’ve never read about so much battlefield saluting in any book on modern war. Repeatedly, men are described as saluting Major Shaw and other officers. You’d think his NCOs and enlisted men were trying to pinpoint the officers for the Japanese snipers who were all over the front lines. Again, this makes no sense at all.

Shaw recounts innumerable details of infantry unit actions, down to platoons commanded by lieutenants. As an artillery major, he would not have been with infantry units. Presumably he was relating accounts he heard later or maybe Robert Wise found those stories in other sources and just attributed them to Colonel Shaw. Those stories take up much of the book.

Regrettably, near the end of the book (pp. 304-6) there is a story that is simply not to be believed -- because it didn’t happen. That tale has Major Shaw and one of his men at the very southern tip of Okinawa, apparently on June 16, watching through binoculars as the two top Japanese generals, Ushijima and Cho, stood above ground in their best uniforms to commit suicide (hara kiri or seppuku) in front of their soldiers. In fact, the two generals killed themselves about 0330 on June 23, in their headquarters cave. This was confirmed by Colonel Hiromichi Yahara, their senior surviving staff officer. There was no way any US soldier could have witnessed that act in the dark, as the fighting continued. I would not speculate on how this false story made it into the book.

Although Robert Wise says Col. Shaw’s memory was still sharp as ever at 97 when they started collaborating, it is hard to escape the conclusion that his memory had naturally faded a lot in the seven decades since the war.

Finally, in the acknowledgements at the end, Robert Wise refers to a 96th Division cemetery on Okinawa, which he says still stands as a testament to the division’s valor. In fact, all US battle dead were reburied in the US in the years soon after the war. The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) has no cemeteries in Okinawa, in contrast to Manila, where it operates our largest overseas cemetery, with 17,000 WWII graves. A simple check of the ABMC’s web site would have saved Mr. Wise from that gratuitous error.

Got this book from the library...have to agree with the other 1-star postings. First of all, I do not wish to denigrate a WWII veteran and assume he was there and served honorably, maybe even heroically and would assume and grant that the bare bones of his being in combat during the Okinawa battle is accurate...but the way the book is written by Robert Wise is ludicrous...the dialogue that the author recreates is too detailed to be accurate, has details about the exact number of casualties in a given moment that are likely suspect if not fabricated, author has men saluting each other under fire which other accounts of combat in the same theatre state never happened...and the list goes on and on...have ready 89 pages, do not intend to waste any further time

Written by a hero of America no doubt

But just not a well written book

Book sucked dont waste your money

I found this collection of memories from the Battle for Okinawa quite fascinating. It was a page turner. Not your usual history of battle type of book, but more personal and engaging.

The author is simply making up dialogue, and creating events that did not and could not happen the way he described. This is the worst account of Okinawa ever written, and possibly the worst account of any battle in the entire Pacific War!

Shaw was an artillerist and probably only saw some or a little of what he relates but it’s a decent enough account. Wise—who apparently put Shaw’s words to paper—says, “While some of the dialogue is imagined, the events occurred as described.” Indeed. I noticed on occasion we get the thoughts of a soldier who died—and couldn’t have passed on his experience! Hard to see how Shaw could leave his command to see how things were going at the front. Dialogue is “updated” with Shaw saying “Don’t turn into a soap opera on me”—a good trick since soaps didn’t become a thing until the fifties. That said, reader gets the feel of the grinding ordeal that was Okinawa. Maps are borrowed from some other work and contribute little because the places on the maps and those mentioned by the author barely overlap.