James Campbell - The Color of War: How One Battle Broke Japan and Another Changed America

ALSO BY JAMES CAMPBELL

The Final Frontiersman

The Ghost Mountain Boys

Copyright 2012 by James Campbell

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campbell, James.
The color of war: how one battle broke Japan and another changed America / James Campbell. 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Port Chicago Mutiny, Port Chicago, Calif., 1944. 2. Port Chicago Mutiny Trial, San Francisco, Calif., 1944. 3. World War, 19391945Participation, African American. 4. United States. NavyAfrican AmericansHistory20th century. 5. World War, 19391945CampaignsNew Guinea. I. Title.
D810.N4C36 2012
940.545308996073079463dc23 2011023913

eISBN: 978-0-307-46123-0

Maps by Joe LeMonnier
Jacket design by Gabriele Wilson
Jacket photographs: (top) W. Eugene Smith/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; (bottom) Schomburg Center, NYPL/Art Resource, NY

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In memory of my mother-in-law,
Elaine DeGaetano Harvey

Show me the two so closely bound

As we, by the wet bond of blood.

R OBERT G RAVES

I believe as long as we allow conditions to exist

that make for second-class citizens, we are making

of ourselves less than first-class citizens.

D WIGHT D. E ISENHOWER

U.S. COMMAND STRUCTURE

Admiral Ernest King: commander in chief, United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations

Admiral Chester Nimitz: commander of the Pacific Fleet

Admiral Raymond Spruance: commander of the United States 5th Fleet (originally the Central Pacific Force)

Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner: commander of the Joint Expeditionary Force and Northern Attack Force and commander of the amphibious landing

General Holland Howlin Mad Smith: commander V Amphibious Corps and commander of all expeditionary troops

General Douglas MacArthur: commander in chief Southwest Pacific Area

General George Marshall: U.S. Army chief of staff

Frank Knox: secretary of the Navy

James Forrestal: secretary of the Navy following Knoxs death

Vice Admiral Randall Jacobs: chief of naval personnel

SAIPAN

Second Lieutenant Carl Roth: E Company, 23rd Regiment, 4th Marine Division

Gunnery Sergeant Emberg Townsley: E Company

Robert Graf: E Company, from Ballston Spa, New York

Dick Crerar: E Company, Grafs buddy

Bill More: E Company, Grafs buddy

Lieutenant James Stanley Leary Jr: G Company, 23rd Regiment, 4th Marine Division, from Ashokie, North Carolina

Sergeant Jack Campbell: G Company, platoon sergeant

Carl Matthews: G Company, Gold Dust Twin, from Hubbard, Texas

Richard Freeby: G Company, Gold Dust Twin, from Quanah, Texas

Wendell Nightingale: G Company, from Skowhegan, Maine

Sergeant John Rachitsky: Bastard Battalion, 29th Marines

Frank Chick Borta: Bastard Battalion, 29th Marines, from Chicago

Glen Pluto Brem: Bastard Battalion, 29th Marines, from Gilroy, California

Richard Carney: Bastard Battalion, 29th Marines, from Bronx, New York

Milt Lemon: Bastard Battalion, 29th Marines, from Texas Panhandle

MONTFORD POINT

Edgar Lee Huff: One of Montford Points first black recruits, from Gadsden, Alabama

Colonel Samuel Woods: commanding officer of Montford Point

PORT CHICAGO

Black Seamen

George Booth: carpenter striker, Division #4, from Detroit

Sammie Lee Boykin: carpenter striker, ammunition handler and winch operator, Division #1, from Bessemer, Alabama

Percy Robinson, Jr.: hold boss and winch operator, Division #4, from Chicago

Spencer Sikes: boxcar inspector and shore patrol, from West Palm Beach, Florida

Joe Small: cadence caller and winch operator, Division #4, from Middlesex County, New Jersey

White Officers

Lieutenant Ernest Delucchi: head of Division #4

Captain Nelson Goss: commanding officer at Mare Island and Port Chicago

Lieutenant Commander Alexander Holman: head loading officer and officer in charge of training

Captain Merrill Kinne: officer-in-charge of the Port Chicago Naval Magazine

Lieutenant Commander Glen Ringquist: assistant loading officer

Lieutenant Richard Terstenson: assistant loading officer

Lieutenant James Tobin: head of Division #2

Lieutenant Raymond Robert Bob White: junior officer in charge of Division #3

KEY FIGURES OF ALLEGED MUTINY AND TRIAL

Black Seamen

Ollie Green: witness for the defense

Joseph Gray: witness for the prosecution

Edward Longmire: witness for the defense

Alphonso McPherson: witness for the defense

Edward Stubblefield: witness for the prosecution

Joe Small: witness for the defense

Thurgood Marshall: chief counsel of the NAACPs Legal and Educational Defense Fund

White Officers

Lieutenant Commander Charles Bridges: executive Officer Mare Island Naval Barracks

Lieutenant Commander James Coakley: head of the prosecution team

Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Flowers: chaplain, Mare Island

Rear Admiral Hugo Osterhaus: head of the seven-member general court martial

Lieutenant Gerald Veltmann: head of the defense team

Rear Admiral Carleton Wright: commandant of the Twelfth Naval District

T he inspiration for the African American portion of this story dates back to 2005 when I began writing The Ghost Mountain Boys. While researching that book, I first found out about the 96th Engineers, a group of black laborers that braved snakes, malaria, endless rain, and some of the roughest terrain on the planet to build roads, airfields, and piers throughout New Guinea. En route to the island, their ship docked in Brisbane and Townsville, Australia. In both places they were refused entrance to the city. The story of the 96th is told by one of its white officers, Captain Hyman Samuelson.