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D-Day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan. By Harold Goldberg. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0253-34869-2. Illustrations. Maps. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xv, 276. $29.95.
The battle for the island of Saipan from 15 June to 9 July 1944 during the Pacific war was a unique experience for the US marines spearheading the invasion as, for the first time, they faced an enemy defending a large island in depth, on which there were thousands of civilians - around 25,000 Japanese and Korean setders in addition to some 4,000 local Chamorros and Carolinians. Towards the end of the book under review, Harold Goldberg makes useful comment on the dreadful effects of the battle on the civilians- 10-12,000 perished as 'collateral damage,' to employ an awful euphemism- in a chapter dealing with the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at the end of the battle at Marpi Point. The thrust of Professor Goldberg's volume is with the conduct of battle, covering the strategic level of the Pacific war, but focused especially on the operational and tactical 'sharp end.'
To compare the invasion of Saipan to 'D-Day' in Europe is, perhaps, overworked, but Goldberg makes the...