Hugh Ambrose - The Pacific

Table of Contents

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First published by NAL Caliber, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, March 2010

Copyright (c) 2010 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

HBO and related service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Ambrose, Hugh.
The Pacific/Hugh Ambrose.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-18584-1

1. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Pacific Area. 2. Marines--United States--Biography. 3. United States. Marine
Corps--Biography. 4. United States. Marine Corps--History--World War, 1939-1945. I. Pacific (Television program)
II. Title.
D767.9.A46 2010
940.54'59730922--dc22 2009041530

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STEPHEN E. AMBROSE

IN MEMORIAM

1936-2002

HEY DAD,
I WAS LUCKY
TO BE YOUR SON
AND PROUD
TO BE YOUR PARTNER.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE STORY OF HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE WRITTEN BEGINS WITH MY FATHER, the historian Steve Ambrose. He called me in 1992, as I completed the course work for my master's degree in American history, asked if I "could do some research for him," then said the magic words "I'll pay you." In the course of that research, for a book entitled Undaunted Courage , we were both surprised and delighted to find we enjoyed working together. As the years passed and the number and variety of projects increased, my father generously allowed me a greater role as his researcher, agent, and fund- raiser for nonprofits. We had a ball.

After we completed his book on America's first transcontinental railroad, I suggested a book on the D-days of the Pacific War. It was hardly an original idea, given the enormous success of his book on D-day in Normandy. He said, "Let's do it." In the course of developing a new collection of original stories, our work came to the attention of my father's friend the director Steven Spielberg. Steven was also interested in developing a story on the Pacific War. Working in tandem with this great filmmaker led to a number of exciting and unanticipated developments, chief of which was the documentary Price for Peace . Dad and I were both so proud of our involvement in this film, directed by James Moll.

When my father became ill, he decided he could not finish a book on the war against Japan. "It's just too big," he said. He asked me to finish it. After he passed away in 2002, I was not sure how I would accomplish such a feat until I received a call from Steven Spielberg in early 2003. Steven and his friends Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman had decided that the Pacific War needed to be told in a manner similar to their miniseries with HBO, Band of Brothers. It needed to be representative of the entire experience and it needed to connect the greatest battles. Steven (through his company DreamWorks) and Tom and Gary (through theirs, Playtone) had engaged the screenwriter Bruce McKenna to develop the story of the war in Japan. I was hired to help Bruce, who had written episodes of Band of Brothers , and his team of writers find the stories for the miniseries. Once again, great good fortune had called me, and I gratefully accepted, with alacrity. We faced a big challenge. The war against Japan was more complex than the one in Europe. All of America's military services played key roles in many different battles in different countries. Finding a narrative thread to connect a representative sampling of those battles was not easy.

Bruce already had begun to do some reading and spoke to me about two books that he loved: E. B. Sledge's With the Old Breed and Robert Leckie's Helmet for My Pillow . I took this as a good sign. He had identified two of the most important memoirs about the Pacific War. They differed not only in where and when the authors had served, but also in how the men had responded to their experiences. Upon request, I put him in touch with the Sledge family. The Sledges expressed interest in the project and put Bruce in touch with Dr. Sidney Phillips. By the time Bruce called me back, he was ecstatic. Dr. Sidney Phillips had served in the same company with Robert Leckie and was one of Eugene's best friends. Bruce had found a way to connect the first battle in the war with the last battle. Dr. Phillips had already written a splendid memoir of his service entitled You'll Be Sor-ree! The story of John Basilone was added to the mix later, when we found the moment of happenstance that connected John Basilone to Phillips and Leckie. That connection allowed the miniseries to include "Manila John," a unique individual with a different set of important experiences.

DreamWorks and Playtone brought their vision of a miniseries, covering a vast sweep of the war as seen through the eyes of a few fascinating men, to the only place to realize their vision, HBO. With HBO on board, "the stars had aligned," so far as Bruce and I were concerned. While the show's producers supervised Bruce and his team as they developed the miniseries, I continued to conduct original research on those aspects that needed further illumination. Many other stories were explored during the course of several years as we strove to leave no stone unturned. Working for the writers and producers of The Pacific has been a fabulous experience for me. Their love for the men and women who served America so magnificently was apparent from the first day. One part of a huge process, I learned so much about storytelling from Steven, Tom, Gary, and Bruce, as well as from other key figures of the project, like Tony To and Tim Van Patten.