Dislodging Japanese troops from their island fortresses was a ferocious and bloody undertaking. Iwo Jima is particularly notable in this regard – of the 20,000 Japanese troops stationed on the atoll, all but 200 died because they preferred death to surrender. James Bradley’s Flags of Our Fathers (with Ron Powers, Bantam Books, 2000) focuses on the famous flag raising on Mt. Suribachi. But it also illustrates how the savage fighting affected the American soldiers who fought there after they returned home. Unsparing and deeply moving, Bradley’s book reminds us that post-traumatic stress syndrome was a serious – if little recognized – danger long before it had a name.
