Tennozan Battle of Okinw CL

Tennozan: a decisive, all-out stand. Thus did the Japanese characterize the vicious, sprawling struggle for the island of Okinawa in the spring of 1945. Feifer ( Moscow Farewell ) relates events throughout the campaign from American, Japanese and Okinawan viewpoints, disclosing the grotesque reality of the battlefield so vibrantlyin first review that one ultimately accepts his startling comment that famed correspondent Ernie Pyle ``prettified'' his coverage for the American public. One horror Feifer reveals is that more civilians died on Okinawa during the three-month campaign than from the atom bombs loosed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the island was secured, the Americans faced the dreadful prospect of invading the Japanese home islands. In his detailed analysis of what the cost might have been, Feifer sympathetically explains why President Truman, six weeks after the capture of Okinawa, decided he had no choice but to order the dropping of the two bombs. An accurate and painstakingly detailed chronicle of the last great battle of World War II, the book is also a powerful anti warok that the word ``war'' ends this sentence?/yeah, war is war, so hard to find a sub word.gs statement that takes an unblinking look at the monstrous waste, pain and horror of modern war. Photos. (May)