Based on years of research and countless unpublished diaries and letters, Peter Schrijvers tells the real story of the attitudes and behaviour of American fighting men in the war against Japan. Sweeping across the battlefields, from the desperate stand at Guadalcanal to the tragic sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the fortress islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Bloody Pacific brings to life the GIs' epic struggle with suffocating wilderness, debilitating diseases and Japanese soldiers who chose death over life --Book Jacket.