Fahey was a 24-year-old garbage-truck driver when he enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 3, 1942, and became a seaman first class on the USS Montpelier. During almost three years of battle in the Pacific Ocean, he defied Navy rules against keeping a diary by writing copious notes on loose sheets of paper that appeared to anyone watching to be ordinary let

PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL.

This new, illustrated edition of Pacific War Diary preserves, in abbreviated form, Fahey's vivid narrative. A selection of photographs, drawn from both Navy and Army sources, follows the course of events described by Fahey.

This is a modified version of the original April, 1942, Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet War Diary. Beginning in April, Enclosures are no longer included in the CinCPac War Diary. All War Diaries are now submitted separately. Also in April CinCPac became an expanded command which encompassed all military forces in the Central, South, and North Pacific - this command was called Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinC-POA). However at that time, the War Diary was still listed as that of CinCPac. One casualty of this change is the comprehensive "Summary of the Situation" outline format that had been in use, with minor changes, since January 1, 1942. It was replaced with an abbreviated 10-point outline form. While the previous Summary of the Situation and the current Daily Distribution of Operating Forces had at times been redundant, they had complemented each other. The new form is more streamlined (albeit less detailed), and makes the Daily Distribution of Operating Forces the War Diary's center-piece.

Long out of print, these wartime diaries of a key admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy, provide a revealing inside look into the Japanese view of the Pacific War. Matome Ugaki was chief of staff of the Combined Fleet under Admiral Isoroki Yamamoto until both were shot down over Bougainville in April 1943, resulting in Yamamoto's death. He later served as commander of battleship and air fleets, finally directing the kamikaze attacks off Okinawa. Invaluable for its details of the Japanese Navy at war, the diaries offer a running appraisal of the fighting and are augmented by editorial commentary that proves especially useful to American readers eager to see the war from the other side. When first published in 1991, this dairy was hailed as a major contribution to World War II literature as the only firsthand account of strategic planning for the entire war by a Japanese commander. -- Publisher's Description.