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DEATH IS LIGHTER THAN A FEATHER. IF the U.S.A. had invaded Japan instead of dropping the bomb in 1945... A meticulously researched novel about the INVASION OF JAPAN by the author of Von Ryan's Express.
DEATH IS LIGHTER THAN A FEATHER. A novel by David Westheimer, author of Von Ryan's Express.
On May 25, 1945, while American and Japanese forces on Okinawa were locked in bitter struggle, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff sent out plans for an amphibious invasion which would subjugate Japan. "Operation Olympic" was to seize Kyushu, while "Operation Coronet" was to strike directly against the Tokyo area.
Westheimer's meticulously researched novel about this plan startled readers in the 1970's. Reviews and comments about the original:
" . . . one begins to understand the Japanese and to feel nearly the same relief when the wish to die for the emperor is full satisfied...[They] appear in the same variety as the Americans, as sensitive or obtuse, as rustics or academics . . . Westheimer has admirably fulfilled his intention, dramatizing Sherman's utterance that war is hell."—Paul Theroux, Book World
"The author presents in masterly detail...the points of both attackers and defenders . . . [T]he author of My Sweet Charlie and Von Ryan's Express has reached a new high point in his career."—Publisher's Weekly
"Westheimer is a craftsman who seems to outdo himself each time he constructs a novel . . . a splendid . . . example of the suspense, war and anti-war novel."—Christian Science Monitor
"This is a poignant and incredibly interesting fictional rendering of the Allied invasion of Japan which might have occurred had the U.S. not dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . . . The strategy and tactics employed by both sides make fascinating reading."—Air Force Times
DAVID WESTHEIMER is author of fifteen novels and a nonfiction World War II POW memoir. A retired lieutenant colonel, recipient of an Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross, graduate of Rice Institute, he currently lives with his wife Dody in Los Angeles.
