DOC Blood in the Streets - Racism; Riots and Murders in the Heartland of America by Daniel L. Baker; Gwen Nalls in History

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The telephone rings on the hospital floor; and they tell you it is your mother; the phone call you have been dreading. You've lost part of your face to a Japanese sniper on Okinawa; and after many surgeries; the doctor has finally told you that at 19; you will never see again. The pain and shock is one thing. But now you have to tell her; from 5000 miles away.-- 'So I had a hard two months; I guess. I kept mostly to myself. I wouldn't talk to people. I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do when I got home. How was I going to tell my mother this? You know what I mean?' ~Jimmy Butterfield; WWII Marine veteran~From the author of 'The Things Our Fathers Saw' World War II eyewitness history series~How soon we forget. Or perhaps; we were never told. That is understandable; given what they saw.-- 'I was talking to a shipmate of mine waiting for the motor launch; and all at once I saw a plane go over our ship. I did not know what it was; but the fellow with me said; 'That's a Jap plane; Jesus!' It went down and dropped a torpedo. Then I saw the Utah turn over.' ~Barney Ross; U.S. Navy seaman; Pearl HarborAt the height of World War II; LOOK Magazine profiled a small American community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome; patriotic model of life on the home front. Decades later; author Matthew Rozell tracks down over thirty survivors who fought the war in the Pacific; from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. -- 'Rage is instantaneous. He's looking at me from a crawling position. I didn't shoot him; I went and kicked him in the head. Rage does funny things. After I kicked him; I shot and killed him.' ~Thomas Jones; Marine veteran; Battle of GuadalcanalThese are the stories that the magazine could not tell to the American public.-- 'I remember it rained like hell that night; and the water was running down the slope into our foxholes. I had to use my helmet to keep bailing out; you know. Lt. Gower called us together. He said; 'I think we're getting hit with a banzai. We're going to have to pull back. 'Holy God; there was howling and screaming! They had naked women; with spears; stark naked!' ~Nick Grinaldo; U.S. Army veteran; SaipanBy the end of 2018; fewer than 400;000 WW II veterans will still be with us; out of the over 16 million who put on a uniform. But why is it that today; nobody seems to know these stories? Maybe our veterans did not volunteer; maybe we were too busy with our own lives to ask. But they opened up to the younger generation; when a history teacher told their grandchildren to ask.-- 'I hope you'll never have to tell a story like this; when you get to be 87. I hope you'll never have to do it.' ~Ralph Leinoff; Marine veteran Iwo Jima; to his teenage interviewerThis book brings you the previously untold firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood; of captivity and redemption; and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed.-- 'After 3½ years of starvation and brutal treatment; that beautiful symbol of freedom once more flies over our head! Our POW camp tailor worked all night and finished our first American flag! The blue came from a GI barracks bag; red from a Jap comforter and the white from an Australian bed sheet. When I came out of the barracks and saw those beautiful colors for the first time; I felt like crying!'~Joe Minder; U.S. Army POW; Japan;1945As we forge ahead as a nation; we owe it to ourselves to become reacquainted with a generation that is fast leaving us; who asked for nothing but gave everything; to attune ourselves as Americans to a broader appreciation of what we stand for.Featuring over a dozen custom maps and never-before published veteran portraits. Extended notes and website.