Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island
by admin on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 | 5 Comments
Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island
To be published in the 60th anniversary year of the infamous bombing of Pearl Harbor, Graveyards of the Pacific is Dr. Robert Ballard’s compelling survey of the major WWII Pacific battlefields and graveyards including Midway, Guadalcanal, and Truk Lagoon. This authoritative overview of the Pacific war begins with a thrilling account of Ballard’s search for an elusive midget sub sunk just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and ends with the American Nuclear tests on Bikini Island, where capture
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(out of 10 reviews)
List Price: $ 45.00
Price: $ 3.24
Review by Christopher P. Cavas for Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island
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This book purports to take the reader “on a tour” of Pacific warship shipwrecks. What a complete crock.
There are probably not a dozen wrecks covered here; all the photos save one are very small and mostly boring (unless you’re really keen to see portholes underwater). Two photos come from the Japanese merchant wrecks at Truk, some of the most-photographed wrecks in the world (and offered in exceptionally better quality in other publications). The only large wreck illustration is a lovely Tom Freeman painting of the YORKTOWN wreck. Nice, but by no means worth the space on your bookshelf.
If you’re someone who knows nothing about the Pacific war, then this is a reasonably good primer of some of the major actions. If you already know what the Battle of Midway was and have some idea that the Americans and Japanese each had aircraft carriers, this book will tell you nothing about the war you don’t already know, and the photos, while nice, are available in dozens of other books. If you’re looking for some interesting views of the shipwrecks Ballard has made his reputation on finding, you will find nothing of interest here.
Save your money, and pass this one up.
Review by Mark Seitz for Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island
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Having purchased everything ever published by Dr. Ballard, I eagerly awatied this release. Upon first glance, the book appears to be every inch what his previous volumes have been, with the exception of the mediocre “Explorations”.After reading this though, I can’t call it more than a short compilation of his previous works on Midway and Gudalcanal, with short side trips to Pearl Harbor, Truk, and Bikini.There are very few photogrpahs of wrecks, certainly not anywhere near the amount in previous volumes…AND WHERE ARE KEN MARSCHALL’s PAINTINGS? Overall, I felt rather underwhelmed. Bikini has been done better in “Ghost Fleet”, and the Submeged Cultural Resource unit did a bettr job at Pearl Harbor. On the up side, there is one haunting internal photograph from the Arizona…hardly enough to recommend full retail for this book. Wait for it to be $4.99 in a few weeks if you simply must have it.
Review by Umbral X for Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island
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When I recieved a letter from a seller of this book asking for an order for it I thought: “Wow, shipwrecks… especially ones from WWII!” As a student in an oceanography-themed high school, I was right away interested in this book. The excerpts and details from the preview made it sound great.
However when the book came in, it wasn’t what I thought. The book was nicely writen by Dr. Ballard, but the detail of each section was nothing to brag about. The book shows each area as a section. Beginning with Pearl Harbor, each section describes a certain battle scene involving the Navy. From Midway to Guadalcanal, each battle is shown with photos and diagrams. However these pictures and maps are not really enough to satisfy your thirst for WWII information. The text ends off in a way and talks about something else, and the lack of good photos make each section seem empty.
When I opened to the Midway chapter I expected more in-depth information on the battle. Instead I got a lot less than the National Geographic article on Midway from ’99. None of the planes were mentiond much, and when they mentioned a PBY, they did not show what this scout plane looked like, making you have to use your imagination to picture the Catalina plane.
This book is supposed to mention salvage oeprations for the wrecks and exploration expeditions to them as well. However most of the text is a history lesson rather than a step in Marine Affairs. Out of the entire book I would say about 20% is actual expedition info.
As an owner of many of Dr. Ballards works, I would have to say this one is not one of his best.
Review by for Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island
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Graveyards of the Pacific falls just short of being one of Dr. Robert Ballard’s classic books. I have not read the book completely yet. But I have skimmed through it and some of the text is rather detailed. Ballard talks about the battle, the participants, and the outcome and, if anyone’s been to them, what the “Graveyards” are like at the bottom of the Pacific. Ballard even describes as to what he thinks some of the graveyards yet to be found should look like. He also tells as to why he hasn’t explored these “Graveyards” yet. As usual, there are photographs of both past (The battle as it was when it happened) and present. As always, the photographs of the ships on the bottom of the sea are the book’s best. So where does this book fail? There is some artwork, but not much is of the shipwrecks. Also, the book has fewer wreck photos then Ballard’s previous works. I especially wanted to see more photos of Guadalcanal, Truk Lagoon, and of Bikini Island. I also would have liked to have seen more photos of the ships as they appeared before they were sunk. So people who liked how Dr. Ballard’s previous works were populated with photographs might be disappointed by this recent work. But Graveyards of the Pacific is packed full of information and would make a great present for the Naval Historian in your home. Let’s hope that Dr. Ballard next produces a book on his recent expedition to Pearl Harbor.
Review by for Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Island
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This is the first book which I have purchased concerning shipwrecks. I expected many photographs with information concerning the wrecks. What the book actually contained are sappy attempts to tell stories of the battles and Ballard retelling how he has found previous wrecks. This book was more about Ballard blowing his own horn, and less about the ships which went down during WWII. Save your money!