The Path of Infinite Sorrow
The Path of Infinite Sorrow

Author: Craig Collie

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Published: 2012-03-01

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1742698204

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'We were all skin and bone, as if our stomachs were stuck to the inside wall of our back.' Two armies, Japanese and Australian, each in turn pushing the other back along a muddy, precipitous track over the mountainous spine of New Guinea. Few prisoners were taken, most were shot. War conventions were routinely flouted, by both sides. Troops were reduced to a primal level, such were the inhuman conditions in which battles were waged. This was the Kokoda campaign of 1942. The Australian experience of Kokoda has been told often and told well. The Japanese, however, remain the shadowy enemy lurking in the dense undergrowth, better known for atrocities than their participation in battle. The Path of Infinite Sorrow tells for the first time the story of the campaign from the Japanese point of view. Based on personal accounts and the recollections of six Japanese soldiers, captured diaries and the unit diaries of the Australian forces, this powerful re-examination of Kokoda brings a new perspective to one of the most brutal conflicts in Australian war history. Craig Collie has been a television producer for over 35 years. Hajime Marutani is a translator-interpreter and was a researcher for the Australian War Memorial's Australia-Japan Research Project. They met when working on the production team of Beyond Kokoda, the award-winning documentary series screened on The History Channel in Australia. Craig and Hajime live with their families in Sydney and Tokyo respectively.

Kokoda
Kokoda

Author: Karl James

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-03-27

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1108101585

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Courage. Endurance. Mateship. Sacrifice. These values, engraved in stone at the Isurava war memorial, have become synonymous with the Australian experience during the Kokoda campaign of 1942. The story of Kokoda and of the fighting in Papua has been told and retold in books, films and documentaries, but these popular narratives rarely explore beyond this one campaign. Kokoda: Beyond the Legend critically assesses not only the campaigns in Papua and their context in the wider lengthy Pacific war, but also the actions of senior Australian, American and Japanese military leaders. Moving beyond the legend, this book addresses the central question of why Kokoda holds such a significant place in Australian military history. In this book, Karl James brings together eminent military scholars to reassess the principal battles from both Allied and Japanese perspectives, providing readers with a more complete understanding of one of the major turning points in the Second World War.

Australia 1942
Australia 1942

Author: Peter Dean

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 110703227X

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This book explores the way in which Australia confronted the challenge of the shadow of war in 1942.

Journey to Infinite Mindfulness
Journey to Infinite Mindfulness

Author: Satya Narayana Sarma Rupenaguntla

Publisher: Panchawati Spiritual Foundation

Published: 2020-03-01

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13:

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The world has witnessed many seers and saints till now. Among them all, Lord Buddha stands tall with his unique meditation method. He found it out with his search. He stated it to be the right method to overcome sorrow and taught it to his disciples in very clear terms. Since then, thousands of seekers walked in this path and reached enlightenment. Buddha’s method is intended to overcome sorrow here and now. Tripitakas abound in Buddha’s teachings on this meditation technique and method. ‘Maha Smruti Prasthana Sutra’ is best among them all because, in this Sutra, Lord Buddha explained the practical method of his meditation step by step. We can find these teachings in the ‘Mahavarga’ section of ‘Dirgha Nikaya’ book of the Tripitakas.

War at the End of the World
War at the End of the World

Author: James P. Duffy

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2023-12-05

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 0593471725

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A harrowing account of an epic, yet nearly forgotten, battle of World War II—General Douglas MacArthur's four-year assault on the Pacific War's most hostile battleground: the mountainous, jungle-cloaked island of New Guinea. “A meaty, engrossing narrative history… This will likely stand as the definitive account of the New Guinea campaign.”—The Christian Science Monitor One American soldier called it “a green hell on earth.” Monsoon-soaked wilderness, debilitating heat, impassable mountains, torrential rivers, and disease-infested swamps—New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the Empire’s strategy to knock Australia out of the war. Allied Commander-in-Chief General Douglas MacArthur committed 340,000 Americans, as well as tens of thousands of Australian, Dutch, and New Guinea troops, to retake New Guinea at all costs. What followed was a four-year campaign that involved some of the most horrific warfare in history. At first emboldened by easy victories throughout the Pacific, the Japanese soon encountered in New Guinea a roadblock akin to the Germans’ disastrous attempt to take Moscow, a catastrophic setback to their war machine. For the Americans, victory in New Guinea was the first essential step in the long march towards the Japanese home islands and the ultimate destruction of Hirohito’s empire. Winning the war in New Guinea was of critical importance to MacArthur. His avowed “I shall return” to the Philippines could only be accomplished after taking the island. In this gripping narrative, historian James P. Duffy chronicles the most ruthless combat of the Pacific War, a fight complicated by rampant tropical disease, violent rainstorms, and unforgiving terrain that punished both Axis and Allied forces alike. Drawing on primary sources, War at the End of the World fills in a crucial gap in the history of World War II while offering readers a narrative of the first rank.

Islands of Destiny
Islands of Destiny

Author: John Prados

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 1101601957

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The Battle of Midway is traditionally held as the point when Allied forces gained advantage over the Japanese. In Islands of Destiny, acclaimed historian and military intelligence expert John Prados points out that the Japanese forces quickly regained strength after Midway and continued their assault undaunted. Taking this surprising fact as the start of his inquiry, he began to investigate how and when the Pacific tide turned in the Allies’ favor. Using archives of WWII intelligence reports from both sides, Prados offers up a compelling reassessment of the true turning in the Pacific: not Midway, but the fight for the Solomon Islands. Combat in the Solomons saw a series of surface naval battles, including one of the key battleship-versus-battleship actions of the war; two major carrier actions; daily air duels, including the aerial ambush in which perished the famous Japanese naval commander Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku; and many other hair-raising exploits. Commencing with the Allied invasion of Guadalcanal, Prados shows how and why the Allies beat Japan on the sea, in the air, and in the jungles.

The Kokoda Campaign 1942
The Kokoda Campaign 1942

Author: Peter Williams

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-03-02

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1107015944

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The fighting on the Kokoda Track in World War II is second only to Gallipoli in the Australian national consciousness. The Kokoda campaign of 1942 has taken on mythical status in Australian military history. According to the legend, Australian soldiers were vastly outnumbered by the Japanese, who suffered great losses in battle and as a result of the harsh conditions of the Kokoda Track. In this important book, Peter Williams seeks to dispel the Kokoda myth. Using extensive research and Japanese sources, he explains what really happened on the Kokoda Track in 1942. Unlike most other books written from an Australian perspective, The Kokoda Campaign 1942: Myth and reality focuses on the strategies, tactics and battle plans of the Japanese and shows that the Australians were in fact rarely outnumbered. For the first time, this book combines narrative with careful analysis to present an undistorted picture of the events of the campaign. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the truth of the Kokoda campaign of 1942.

The Devil Boats
The Devil Boats

Author: C.J. Skamarakas

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2023-03-01

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 0811772098

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PT boats loom large in the popular imagination of World War II. In March 1942, a PT boat evacuated Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his family, and top staff from the Philippines, which inspired the war movie They Were Expendable, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. John F. Kennedy became a war hero while commanding PT-109, which collided with a Japanese destroyer and was sunk in August 1943. But the story of PT boats has never been told in the depth and detail that their exemplary service deserves. Naval historian C. J. Skamarakas uses one Pacific PT boat squadron to tell the story of PT boats in action in World War II. Eighty feet long, PT boats were designed to launch torpedoes against enemy ships five and ten times their own size. But defects in the torpedoes and the boats’ speed and maneuverability ultimately shifted the boats’ mission to patrolling and breaking up Japanese shipping and reinforcements. In the waters of the Southwest Pacific as part of MacArthur’s offensives in New Guinea and the Philippines, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 25 completed these missions and also executed other operations for which they weren’t specifically trained, including inserting commandos behind enemy lines, air-sea rescue, raids on enemy positions, reconnaissance of potential sites for amphibious landings, coordination of air strikes in support of ground forces, meetings with guerrilla leaders, recovery of prisoners of war, diversionary activities, and psychological operations. Today we would call many of their missions “special ops.” The Japanese called PT boats “mosquitoes” and “devil boats.” The Devil Boats recounts the unique contributions of one motor torpedo boat squadron and through it tells the story of PT boats in the Pacific War. With drama and excitement, as well as careful attention to detail, the book fills a void in the history of the U.S. Navy in World War II.