Grim but compelling reading about this, the last and certainly one of the most merciless battles of the Pacific War. The battle had everything; mass sacrifice, kamikaze aircraft and ships, a massive amphibious landing and for the first time in the Pacific Campaign, huge civilian casualties. David pulls no punches while documenting this, but to his credit manages to put a human face on the Japanese defenders as well as on the more familiar Americans.
Not a fun read by any means, but a fine account of the battle that probably made the US decide to use the atomic bomb rather than risk a seaborne invasion of the Japanese Home Islands that would probably have been costlier, a point the author examines in some detail.
Recommended. ( )