Sea of Thunder climaxes with the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle ever fought, over four bloody and harrowing days in October 1944. We see Halsey make an epic blunder just as he reaches for true glory; we see the Japanese navy literally sailing in circles, torn between the desire to die heroically and the exhausted, unacceptable realization that death is futile; we sail with Commander Evans and the men of the USS "Johnston" into the jaws of the Japanese fleet and exult and suffer with them as they torpedo a cruiser, bluff and confuse the enemy -- and then, their ship sunk, endure fifty horrific hours in shark-infested water.
Thomas, a journalist and historian, traveled to Japan, where he interviewed veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy who survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf and friends and family of the two Japanese admirals. From new documents and interviews, he was able to piece together and answer mysteries about the Battle of LeyteGulf that have puzzled historians for decades. He writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures.
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Background Information
The Empire of Japan started its war against the United States by attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941 and eventually was driven back to the home island in 1945. Cherokee Indians populated much of the American southeast before white settlement but were gradually expelled and eventually confined to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. From the Spanish-American War to World War II, the Philippines were governed by the United States, which fought to retake them from the Japanese after losing them in the early months of combat.