A first-person account of the horrific hand-to-hand fighting at Okinawa, where 12,500 Americans died, memories of which have haunted Roland Glenn for all his life. The book is a development of Glenn's dramatic presentation of his wartime experiences and their psychological effect on him in civilian life. His presentation is part of the Veterans' History Project based at the Library of Congress. Glenn was awarded both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
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Editorial Reviews
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"World War II combat veteran Roland Glenn is one of the best story tellers I've come across in a long time. These richly textured stories - complete with love, sex, friendship, loyalty, and betrayal - are the bookends that frame the tale of close combat with a mortal enemy. The Hawk and the Dove asks that we face the full human toll of war: the military and civilian casualties and the psychologically wounded as well. This book demands our attention." Army Colonel Jack Jacobs (retired), recipient of The Congressional Medal of Honor, CNBC military analyst and author of his Viet Nam war memoire, If Not Now, When with Douglas Century. -- Colonel Jack Jacobs (ret.) CNBC Military Analyst, author
"The Hawk and the Dove is the reality most soldiers don't want to talk about when they come home. That is why this is such a special and important book." Digby Diehl, former book editor of The Los Angeles Times, is the author of more than twenty books, including the recently published Soapsuds. -- Digby Diehl, author
"By turns humorous and tragic, Roland Glenn's richly detailed and compellingly written memoir of war and peace vividly recreates a small-town youth's transformation into a man and leader of men on the horrific killing fields of Okinawa. His fascinating account of involvement in the repatriation of thousands of Japanese soldiers from Korea sheds light on a significant but little-known chapter in postwar U.S. military history." Paul Siff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Sacred Heart University -- Paul Siff, Assocaite Professor of History
The Hawk and the Dove is the first hand account of a WWII combatant who fought in Okinawa and Korea. The author vividly describes his transformation from an innocent Pennsylvanian young lad to a fully flagged combatant. During the War the author undergoes numerous traumatic battle events and comes home as a hero but with the horrendous memories of the war. After coming home his second battle begins and he fights the next enemy - combat related PTSD which he overcomes with his will and determination and innate love for the humanity.
"The Hawk and the Dove is the reality most soldiers don't want to talk about when they come home. That is why this is such a special and important book." Digby Diehl, former book editor of The Los Angeles Times, is the author of more than twenty books, including the recently published Soapsuds. -- Digby Diehl, author
"By turns humorous and tragic, Roland Glenn's richly detailed and compellingly written memoir of war and peace vividly recreates a small-town youth's transformation into a man and leader of men on the horrific killing fields of Okinawa. His fascinating account of involvement in the repatriation of thousands of Japanese soldiers from Korea sheds light on a significant but little-known chapter in postwar U.S. military history." Paul Siff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Sacred Heart University -- Paul Siff, Assocaite Professor of History
The Hawk and the Dove is the first hand account of a WWII combatant who fought in Okinawa and Korea. The author vividly describes his transformation from an innocent Pennsylvanian young lad to a fully flagged combatant. During the War the author undergoes numerous traumatic battle events and comes home as a hero but with the horrendous memories of the war. After coming home his second battle begins and he fights the next enemy - combat related PTSD which he overcomes with his will and determination and innate love for the humanity.
One marvelous thing about this book is throughout the book the author has not lost the human touch and his feelings for the fellow soldiers and for the enemy. Even after 50 years of the War, he still recalls the upsetting event in which he was compelled to put a bullet through the head of an enemy soldier.
If you think that the Hawk and the Dove is an anti war book you may have not grasped the very essences of it. It is a book that describes the true nature of the man made disaster - the war and the genuine human reaction to it.
The Hawk and the Dove is one of the best books on war experience that I have read after Erich Mariya Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front." -- Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. The Author of PTSD Sri Lankan Experience
Roland Glenn's wartime memoir, The Hawk and the Dove: World War II at Okinawa and Korea, lifts the code of silence that many veterans have been known to keep, from the World Wars through Vietnam. Even though World War II was a popular war where soldiers received an overwhelmingly positive reception upon returning home, the casualties were great, and Glenn sheds a great deal of light on the torment he endured after serving as an infantry commander. . . . . The Hawk and the Dove is a revelation, and a philosophical read that should not be passed up --The Weekly Sentinel, Chip Scrader, Jan. 15, 2010
The Hawk and the Dove is the first hand account of a WW2 combatant who fought in Okinawa and Korea. The author vividly describes his transformation from an innocent Pennsylvanian young lad to a fully flagged combatant. During the War the author undergoes numerous traumatic battle events and comes home as a hero but with the horrendous memories of the war. After coming home his second battle begins and he fights the next enemy - combat related PTSD which he overcomes with his will and determination and innate love for the humanity.
One marvelous thing about this book is throughout the book the author has not lost the human touch and his feelings for the fellow soldiers and for the enemy. Even after 50 years of the War, he still recalls the upsetting event in which he was compelled to put a bullet through the head of an enemy soldier.
If you think that the Hawk and the Dove is an anti-war book you may have not grasped the very essences of it. It is a book that describes the true nature of the man made disaster - the war and the genuine human reaction to it.
The Hawk and the Dove is one of the best books on war experience that I have read after Erich Mariya Remarque `s "All Quiet on the Western Front." --Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D., Author of " PTSD Sri Lankan Experience"
World War II veteran Roland Glenn knows that combat soldiers face unimaginable challenges both on the battlefield and when they return home following service. With his new book, The Hawk and the Dove, Glenn hopes that his own life will illuminate those challenges.
As an Infantry Combat Company Commander, he saw significant action during the battle of Okinawa, the last campaign of World War II. "I was in charge of leading about 200 soldiers, an enormous amount of responsibility for someone 20 years old. The killing of fellow human beings in the name of democracy remains my most vivid memory. I was brainwashed to think of the Japanese as sub-human monkey runts. I totally believed in the mission to obliterate the Japs. I was trained to kill and that is exactly what I did on Okinawa but there is nothing in our training that really prepares us for the taking of another human life."
"I have written my book about my own recovery from the traumas of combat." Over 110,000 Japanese, 12,000 Americans and approximately 150,000 Okinawan civilians were killed during the battle.
As fate would have it, Glenn's next mission after Okinawa would not be to kill Japanese soldiers, but to help them. After Japan's surrender, following the dropping of two atomic bombs by the US, Glenn was sent to Korea to repatriate the occupying Japanese soldiers back to Japan. "I had the fortunate experience during the time I was in Korea, of getting to know the Japanese as fellow human beings rather than as the enemy. In the matter of a few weeks I went from killing the Japanese on Okinawa to collaborating with them in Korea. I was able to experience them as fellow human beings and to develop some friendships.
Asked what he hopes readers will take away from his book, the retired educator stresses "I do not think that wars solve problems. I strongly believe that more serious diplomatic efforts should be undertaken to resolve international problems. One of my major concerns right now is all the veterans returning with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disability (PTSD). This has got to be one of the biggest stories to come out of the Middle East wars. These veterans will require medical and psychological care for the remainder of their lives." I'm hoping that youth who are considering careers in the military will have the opportunity to read my book. I'm not advocating that young people not have careers in the military, but am suggesting to our youth that there are many more options to serve our country and our communities than going to war." --David Beliveau, Staff Columnist, The Weekly Sentinel
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping account of war and the aftermath of war,
This review is from: The Hawk and the Dove: World War II at Okinawa and Korea (Paperback)
I guess I should start this review by disclosing that I've known the author, Roland Glenn, for over a decade. That said, I don't think you have to know Roland to understand what's going on in this book, or to get the relevance to the world today. It's beautifully written, frequently harrowing and not for the faint of heart, with a happy ending, but an ending won through years of real life and real living.
This is Roland Glenn's account of being a young man from a small town in rural Pennsylvania who was drafted into the Army during World War II and marched bravely off to war, becoming a member of the "Greatest Generation" if not by accident, then not by design either. Through a combination of Depression-era experiences that wouldn't seem to have prepared him for combat, and his own pluck and courage, Glenn rises to the command of a small company of troops, just in time to lead them into the brutal and bloody invasion of Okinawa, just weeks before the atomic bombs fell. Glenn's eye for detail in the midst of carnage and his way with words is stunning, but he also makes you feel and understand the fact that he can recall so much precisely because the events around him were so grim. More than a war story, though, this is also a narrative about how Glenn recovered from war and found himself unexpectedly coming to appreciate the humanity of his former opponents and the beauty of their cultures. Before "post-traumatic stress disorders" were a recognized part of our vocabulary, Glenn found himself wrestling with demons and learning to overcome them. A novelist who had written this tale would get praise for creating believable, interesting characters in Glenn's life, but might leave some readers wondering how all of this could possibly have happened to one person. In Glenn's case, the improbable merely happens to be true. Although I've known Roland Glenn for years, I found myself learning a great deal I had never suspected--and not just about him, but about the idealism that leads young men to war, the realism that gets them through it, and the hope that helps them carry on and put themselves back together after they survive it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much Better Later than Before,
By
This review is from: The Hawk and the Dove: World War II at Okinawa and Korea (Paperback)
If a contributer of a blurb for THE HAWK AND THE DOVE merits listening to as a reviewer, I'd like to add to my words on the book's back cover. All great war books are anti-war books in their various ways. Roland Glenn's way is to use the wisdom of his years to inform about some of war's real costs. He couldn't have done that sixty-odd years ago, shortly after participating in Okinawa's gruesome combat. No doubt he couldn't have done it twenty years ago because he wasn't wise enough even then - nor as willing and able to be honest, as some still-with-it old men are. George Feifer, author of OKINAWA: THE BLOOD AND THE BOMB (2002)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Hawk and the Dove,
This review is from: The Hawk and the Dove: World War II at Okinawa and Korea (Paperback)
This autobiographical work focuses primarily on the author's formative years in Western Pennsylvania and on his coming of age in the U.S. Infantry in the 1940's. The Hawk and the Dove is a remarkable book on several fronts. The author, Roland Glenn, is a Purple Heart winner wounded on Okinawa during World War II. Following the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he was re-assigned to the task of repatriating the same Japanese soldiers he had been taught to hate. After V-J Day, men he had once tried to kill became his friends and allies.
Glenn's recall of events that occurred sixty years ago when he served as a commissioned "90-day wonder" first lieutenant is extraordinary. The book is at once a sociological study of the way society shapes people's values, expectations and actions as well as a deeply personal examination of one man's life. Glenn's relating his many traumatic experiences as a soldier show in literary form what films such as Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers have demonstrated in visual form. In the case of the Hawk and the Dove, what we see is the first-hand account of the damage combat does to the vanquished and the victors as well. Glenn's frank discussion of his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder will serve as a lesson for anyone who would go to war; any war; any time. The author goes from being a man who unquestioningly shot and killed Japanese soldiers to being a man who still struggles with the weight of his violent acts. While we don't learn a lot of details about his change of heart, we do know that his awareness is the product of deep introspection and years of psychotherapy. As the title suggests, the years following his largely unquestioned devotion to God and country eventually led the author to a deep realization of the futility of modern warfare. One can only hope that Roland Glenn has the interest to write another volume filling in the gaps and answering the questions thoughtful readers are likely to have about personal transformation.
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