KOKODA - Paul Ham

This a very easy read and tells a balanced portrayal by Paul Ham recounting both the Australian and Japanese perspectives of the Pacific WarI. Based on extensive research in Australia and Japan, and including previously unpublished documents, Kokoda intimately relates the stories of ordinary soldiers in the only war fought on Australian territory. It examines the role of commanders in sending ill-equipped, unqualified Australian troops into battles that resulted in 13,000 of 20,000 Japanese soldiers not returning home. It was a war without mercy, fought in an unrelenting jungle of river crossings, steep inclines and precipitous descents, with both sides wracked by hunger and disease, and terrified of falling into enemy hands. Defeat was unthinkable for the Japanese and the Australian soldier was fighting for his homeland against an unyielding aggressor; the Japanese ordered to fight to the death in a bid to conquer 'Greater East Asia'. Paul Ham captures the spirits of those soldiers and commanders who clashed in this war of exceptional savagery, and tells of the brave souls on both sides of the campaign whose courage and sacrifices must never be forgotten. This book has also ben written into a movie of the same name.