Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific. Cet article n’est pas disponible.Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from World War II in the Pacific

The classic photo book about the battlegrounds of the Pacific Theatre then and now

Pacific Legacy offers an unprecedented record of the relics of World War II that have survived on the islands of the Pacific: American landing craft rusting on the reefs where they were stopped by enemy fire; shell-pocked Japanese fortifications; fallen aircraft overgrown by jungle; packed-coral landing strips still as good as new.

These evocative colour images are paired with archival photographs that show the same tropical battlegrounds as they appeared in wartime. The text covers the entire war in the Pacific, from the attack on Pearl Harbour to Japan's surrender in Tokyo Bay. The principal battles are recounted hour-by-hour, drawing heavily on first-hand accounts. This vivid narrative helps the reader visualise what it was really like to be at war in the Pacific, doggedly island-hopping to victory.

Rex Alan Smith and Gerald A. Meehl are also the editors of Pacific War Stories: In the Words of Those Who Survived (Abbeville), an oral history that serves as a companion to Pacific Legacy. Smith (1921–2010), who served three years in the Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific, was the author of several well-received books of history, including The Carving of Mount Rushmore (Abbeville), the standard work on its subject.