The Storm on Our Shores - by Mark Obmascik (Paperback)

About the Book

"From a bestselling author, the heartbreaking, redemptive story of two World War II soldiers whose fateful encounter in the Forgotten War of Alaska has fascinated Americans for decades. In researching his bestselling book The Big Year, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik rediscovered a long-lost document from World War II: the diary of a Japanese surgeon, recovered from his body by the soldier who killed him. In the Cradle of Storms reveals the layered and moving story of two men bound together by a nineteen-page diary--and how its words eventually captivated American troops and changed our war-torn society. Written as one desperate man's final testament, Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi's journal revealed the medic's studies in America and his love for the US. It sent shock waves through American troops of the 1940s, shattering racist preconceptions and opening eyes to the common humanity of soldiers on both sides of the battle lines. Years later, it sent Laura Tatsuguchi Davis, the dead medic's daughter, on an intense search for the truth behind her father's life and legacy. And it drove Dick Laird--the sergeant who found the diary--to undertake a forty-year quest on two continents to find Laura, whose kindness and forgiveness offered redemption for his own tortured soul. With journalistic acumen, sensitivity, and unmatched narrative skills, Obmascik tells the unforgettable true story of a horrific battle on a barren Alaskan island, two families struggling for peace, and the unlikely road to forgiveness"--

Book Synopsis

This "engrossing" (The Wall Street Journal) national bestseller and true "heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption" (Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers) reveals how a discovered diary--found during a brutal World War II battle--changed our war-torn society's perceptions of Japan.

May 1943. The Battle of Attu--called "The Forgotten Battle" by World War II veterans--was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star-winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul.

The doctor's name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded--never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird.

Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years.

Tatsuguchi's diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi's daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik "writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view--perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood" (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls).

Review Quotes

"Here is a part of World War II that most of us not only forgot-we never knew it happened in the first place. Mark Obmascik has deftly rescued an important story from the margins of our history-and from our country's most forbidding frontier. Deeply researched and feelingly told, The Storm On Our Shores is a heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption."-Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers, In the Kingdom of Ice, and On Desperate Ground