This is an innovative approach to military history which specifically links battlefield dynamics of the Pacific War to cultural, social and institutional myth among US marines of the First Division. Although it has elements of each, the book is neither a detailed campaign history nor a traditional unit history. It moves in roughly chronological order, but it is organized thematically to explore how myth and imagination shaped the marines actions. It blends a humanistic approach of letting the actors speak for themselves in letters and memoirs with insights from the social sciences.

Events on the battlefields of the Pacific War were not only outgrowths of technology and tactics, but also products of cultural myth and imagination. American Samurai offers a bold and innovative approach to military history by linking combat activity to cultural images. Marines projected ideas and assumptions about themselves and their enemy onto people and events throughout the war--giving life to formerly abstract myths and ideas and molding their behavior to expectations. This fascinating book concludes by considering what happened to the myths and images and how they have been preserved...