Summary

Chapter 1 begins on Peleliu in the Caroline Islands in September 1944. By this time the United States is winning in the Pacific Theater, retaking territory the Japanese Empire conquered prior to and after their attack on America at Pearl Harbor. Peleliu has become by this time a heavily militarized, fortified piece of land as the Japanese, in retreat in the face of the American push, seek to either hold their territory and force their enemies to expend tremendous lives and resources to retake it. The invasion is told from the perspective of Marines during the invasion, who recall the Japanese blending both themselves and their munitions in with their surroundings, booby-trapping the entryway with mines and camouflaged machine-gun nests. The chapter also discusses Japanese wartime ideology, telling them that to fight until death rather than surrender and that Japanese racial superiority assures them of...