Customer Reviews

God Isn't Here: A Young American's Entry into World War II and His Participation in the Battle for Iwo Jima

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A real lifesaver

Richard Overton writes in a style that's true to his generation. The words are his. The drawings are his. This is neither a Hollywood adaptation nor a New York-edited (and censored) story. This is as genuine a tale as you'll find anywhere.

If you read "Flags of our Fathers," you've got to read "God Isn't Here." In "Flags of our Fathers," James Bradley does a magnificent job of telling the stories of six young men who just happened to appear in the most famous picture in the history of photography. James Bradley's father, John, was a Navy Corpsman who had the fortune (or misfortune) of being assigned to the Marines. Richard Overton followed a path that must have been similar to John Bradley's, so, for the big picture, read "Flag of our Fathers," but for the inside, first-person account of what it was like to be a Navy Corpsman serving with the Marines, read "God Isn't Here."

My review of this book is somewhat biased. In 2000, as my father, brother, and I toured the island of Iwo Jima, my father became convinced that the man who just happened to ride up to the top of Mt. Suribachi with us was the corpsman who had saved his life fifty-five years earlier when he was shot in the leg while carrying a stretcher. The man's name was Richard Overton, and while Richard didn't remember my father, my father sure remembered him. After my father recounted his story of how a corpsman ran out into enemy fire, picked him up, threw him over a shoulder, and carried him to safety, Richard agreed that he must have been the corpsman -- simply because all of the other corpsmen had been killed.

After the trip to Iwo Jima, my father sent Richard Overton copies of some of the letters he had written home to his mother. These letters, most of them censored by the government, were the only written documentation that my father had of the war. In return, Richard sent an entire manuscript to my father. Richard indicated that the manuscript was private, and that it was not intended to be published. After several of us read the manuscript -- all of us laughing and crying and turning the pages as fast as we could -- my father urged Richard to at least share the manuscript with a museum. Richard's story was just something that shouldn't be lost to history!

Fortunately, Richard later decided to allow the public to read his very detailed and personal manuscript.

In "Flag of our Fathers," there's a rather incredible story of how Ira Hayes hitch-hiked to Texas to tell Harlon Block's mother that it really was Harlon who was in the famous flag-raising photograph. Well, I think Richard Overton did Ira Hayes one better. After being evacuated from Iwo Jima and taken to a hospital on Guam, Richard Overton escaped from the hospital and then stowed away on ships to get back to his group, which by then had returned to Hawaii. It seems he made it just in time to leave again for Okinawa.

What a story! From enlisting in the Navy to appease his parents, who absolutely, positively did not want him to join the Marines, to training to be a Corpsman, to being assigned to the Marines, to training for amphibious landings at Camp Pendleton, to training on Hawaii specifically for the assault on Iwo Jima, to the actual battle of Iwo Jima, to a hospital on Guam, to stowing away to rejoin his group on Hawaii, to occupying Japan after the surrender, Richard covers it all. And it's all with the first-hand attention to detail that you're just not going to get from any historian who wasn't actually there.

I came upon this book as part of my research about Navy Corpsman on Iwo Jima. Frankly I didn't expect too much, having read many personal accounts that were rehashing information that was available elsewhere. I was pleasantly surprised to read how well the author explained the gritty details of his Iwo Jima experience.

Never have I read with such detail how the Marines survived the night after night Japanese infiltrations, or the emotional toll it took on the American combatants.

My father was a WWII vet, and I recommended that he read it. He is a voracious reader, and has read most every WWII book he can get his hands on. He has always been a stoic man reluctant to show his emotions, but he admitted he openly wept after reading this book.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know what combat is like. It is not an easy read, as he describes quite explicitly what he saw, heard, smelled, tasted and felt. It's not a perfect book, but one I would recommend, and certainly worth the $15 I paid for it.

If you've read "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge, this book is very similar, with two exceptions. First, Sledge appears to be more comfortable expressing himself in writing. (He was a professor of Ornithology after the war.) Overton doesn't seem as comfortable using the written word to describe his experiences, but is still able to convey in his journey through what would be his involvement in one of the bloodiest battles in WWII. Second, Overton is not shy at all about describing EXACTLY what he saw and experienced. He describes in detail everything he saw. Sledge seems to have either on his own, or from somebody else, edited the most horrific parts of war out of his book. Overton, either in himself, or in his editing office, hasn't done this.

My Father was injured on Iwo Jima, and I have tried to learn more about that battle, so I could better understand what he endured. I just recently purchased this book from Amazon and couldn't put it down. I think now, I have a pretty good understanding of what it was like.

This book is not perfect (typos abound) but if you look past it, its a very descriptive, heartwrenching and frightening book. It has an intensity that gave me a small glimpse of what Iwo Jima vets endured. I would highly recommend it, if you are curious about the combat experience.

Mr. Overton's Recollection of his participation during WWII as a US Navy Corpsman, landing on Iwo Gima is unbelievable! From his High School years, to Boot Camp, Corpsman School, Field Medical School, Iwo Gima, and afterwards kept me glued to this book until I was finished! Mr. Overton was a hero, but don't expext that to come from his mouth. His admiration and respect he had for all the Marines he served with is admirable. A tribute to any US Navy Corpsman that ever served with the Marines. A true and accurate account to the best of his recollection, at times admitting that he did not remember certain events, due to Battle fatigue and the confusion of war. At times I found myself laughing, other times crying. A Must Read!

It's really a shame this book wasn't published years ago because it's quite possibly one of the best, if not the best, first person account of the battle for Iwo Jima. There aren't a lot of books written about the war in the Pacific (at least not as many as are apparent in Europe) and that's what makes this book so special. It's also the only one I know of that was written by a medic.

The book itself is well written and starts a little slow. But by midway through the book you're convinced the author is not going to make it off the island alive. His descriptions of the battle will make any reader stand in awe of a generation of Marines and sailors that set the benchmark for their craft.

Some interesting observations are: Overton makes note of his combat experience such as missing time, time getting faster or slower, disorientation and many other similar types of physiological issues of high stress and fatigue. There is one particularly interesting point when Overton runs into Japanese solider dressed in a Marine uniform who tries to infiltrate the American lines.

Overton was a hero on Iwo. He didn't write about his decorations, I suspect he's too modest to write about it. But he's proof of what Nimitz said, "On Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."

This is probably one of the best personal accounts of WWII combat I have ever read. In my opinion two things could have been done differently that would have put this book at the top of my favorite WWII books.

1. Hand drawn illustrations? I assume, since every good photo of combat on Iwo Jima has already appeared in countless books, the author was trying to give it a more personal touch by using hand drawn illustrations. The only problem with that, is the illustrations weren't of the best quality and seemed a little high school-ish. They either should have gotten rid of them or paid for a better artist.

2. I realized that the author was probably on a tight budget but surely they could have had a few people proof read the manuscript before it was published. There were numerous grammar and spelling errors (too many to list). The author frequently neglected to capitalize 'Marine' when refering to the Marine Corps. After a few chapters I almost put the book down because the errors were too frequent and sometimes it made for a difficult read (this may have just been me) but I'm glad I read it all the way through.

Here is the part that confuses me. On the back cover it states that Gary Toyn, the author of an excellent book 'The Quiet Hero', which is also about a Navy medic in WWII on Iwo, helped with cover design and layout. Surely they could have consulted Toyn or asked him to read it once before going to the press? It just doesn't make sense to me to be collaborating with Toyn and the book turn out like it did. As i stated before this is a very excellent book, I'm just a little confused.

"God Isn't Here" by Richard Overton is perhaps the definitive first person narrative from the 5th Marine Division during World War II. Although the division was only in one battle, Overton's writing makes it clear how vicious Iwo Jima was for all who fought there, and the combat they endured makes most other campaigns pale in comparison.

This was the first book I've read about Iwo Jima and I would imagine any other work would not be able to match this book in length and intensity. The most amazing aspect was Overton's ability to recall the events of his youth with such clarity decades after the war. It is definitely an example of certain indelible memories in the mind's eye which cannot be erased under any circumstances.

I was also surprised by the rawness of Overton's style. While this book is undoubtedly a classic memoir from World War II, it contains very little in the way of official fact concerning the battle for Iwo Jima. Usually the best writers are able to mix their own experiences with an overview of sorts that allow the reader to tie in small events with larger military strategy that was created by the Generals. Overton makes no attempt to do this, yet his book has a level of recall that is above and beyond nearly any memoir, even Sledge's "With the Old Breed". He didn't need source material to jog his memory as the events of his two weeks or so on Iwo Jima were burned into his memory. Strategy is not essential to Overton. What is are the faces of his comrades and the soul wrenching effect that the fighting had on every Marine. This makes his book highly personal as it delves into experiences of such intensity that they are truly hard to comprehend. Overton is no William Manchester as his prose is quite plain, but there are very few memoirs that break down time in combat hour by hour as "God Isn't Here" does.

Besides what is perhaps the longest and most descriptive account of two weeks in combat, Overton's book contains the lengthiest section on Navy and Marine Corps training out of any memoir. He writes a book's worth (150 pages) on his time in basic training in the Navy and then his transfer to the 5th Marine Division as a medical Corpsman. I felt that these chapters dragged a bit, but it becomes clear that Overton and his fellow Marines were getting anxious with the extended period of training and wanted to "get it over with". Considering the 5th Marine Division trained for an entire year after being formed, Overton's book is accurately portraying the boredom that they felt in their reserve position.

Overton's writing in basic training is consistent with the rest of his book; he is unusually thorough as he is able to remember events and people with such clarity. I thought that he could have trimmed some of these parts down, but his writing is all relevant to his experience in the military. There are some humorous stories from his trouble making friends as it's clear that Overton and many servicemen were still immature in many aspects. Overton has a level of naiveté at first which slowly diminishes under the harsh dictates of Navy and Marine discipline.

Once the 5th Division ships out to Iwo, Overton breaks down his combat experiences by the minute. His attention to detail is amazing. On Iwo most of his writing is based on his duties as a Corpsman and the description of wounds are quite grisly. The rawness of his style really works as the chaotic and horrible combat drags on and on as days seems like months. Without any historical reference points it truly is a grunts eye view of what was arguably the worst battle of the war per square foot. An epic and raw account of the 5th Marine Division.

In his book, Richard Overton describes 12 days of hell in a manner that absolutely places you there with him, in his own mind and heart. You suffer through the combat, the stress, the fear, the guilt, the anxiety, and the anger. His descriptions of death "up close and personal" gave him a unique insight into combat and what it means to be helpless during a barrage of shelling, gunfire, and hand-to-hand combat at night. It is almost unbelievable that only a few days in combat could be so harrowing by comparison to those who fought for days and days in Europe or in other theaters but Richard Overton fought an entire lifetime of war in this book. I could not put it down and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the battle for Iwo Jima or the Pacific War.

A uniquely personal account of the hell on Iwo. Almost no overview except on questions of flank coverage. Flag raising and death of FDR were mentioned in single, short sentences. Remarkable account of how constant and violent was this man's survival, and presumably every Marine there.