Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945: The Secret Diary of an American Sailor [Paperback]

James J Fahey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2003

Throughout the World War II campaign in the Pacific, an ordinary seaman defied navy regulations by surreptitiously compiling a diary on scraps of paper. One of the most extraordinary personal documents to emerge from the war, James J. Fahey's diary presents a vivid picture of an average sailor's daily life -- from the first battle to the typhoons and food shortages to the final desperate attacks by kamikaze pilots and Japanese suicide ships.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fahey conveys [what] thousands of his fellows have never managed to convey to wives or friends back home: this is what it was like.
Time Magazine

About the Author

James J. Fahey (1918-1991) was a seaman first class on the USS Montpelier. He kept his secret diary from October 1942 to December 1945. He lived in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 061840080X
• ISBN-13: 978-0618400805
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #461,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is what it must have been like, June 11, 2005

By 

P. Duggan (Truckee, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945: The Secret Diary of an American Sailor (Paperback)

I was given a beat-up Avon paperback from 1963 and became thoroughly engrossed. Often repetitive but never dull, this day-by-day account by a Seaman First Class of three years of action on a light cruiser in the Pacific afforded me a new appreciation of what my father endured in the same places at the same time. Highly recommended to any American.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Books about World War II Navy Life to be Found, November 24, 2007

By 

Frederick S. Goethel "wildcatcreekbooks" (Central Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945: The Secret Diary of an American Sailor (Paperback)

I, too, have a copy of the 1963 Avon paperback that I have been lugging all over the country for the past 30+ years. I read this in a high school history class in the early seventies, and immediately realized it was one of the best true war stories I had ever read. I have read my very tattered copy several more times since then, and have enjoyed it more with each reading.

The book is the diary of a young seaman aboard the USS Montpelier during action in the Pacific from 1942 through 1945. He kept the diary a secret because it was against Navy regulations to keep such a document and it was only printed years after the war ended.

Written in the language of a sailor, it is gritty and real. It does, at times become repetitive, but then again, life aboard a ship during the war was just that....days of sheer terror followed by weeks on endless boredom.

Read this book if you want to get a great perspective of the war from a sailors point of view. And, just read it if you want a fantastic read!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One-of-a-kind account of naval war in the Pacific, January 26, 2010

By 

William S. Grass "Military history enthusiast" (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945: The Secret Diary of an American Sailor (Paperback)

Pacific War Diary is the diary of James Fahey, an ordinary sailor from Waltham, Massachusetts, who served aboard the light cruiser Montpelier from the time it left the U.S. east coast in December 1942 until its return in December 1945. I first became aware of this diary when reading Paul Fussell's book Wartime, wherein Fussell uses many quotes from Fahey and numerous other firsthand accounts of WWII.

Fahey's diary is highly educative in revealing what life was like for a U.S. sailor aboard a warship in the Pacific theater of WWII. Most of the entries involve standing watch, getting sleep whenever possible, letters from home and making do with whatever food is available. When not at sea, there are the constant work parties and unloading and loading supplies and ammunition. At battle stations, Fahey helped man 40 mm antiaircraft guns. There is a particularly gruesome account of the aftermath of a Japanese kamikaze attack where Japanese body parts litter the deck of Montpelier.

As far as combat history, Fahey's account starts at the tail end of the Guadalcanal campaign at the Battle of Rennell Island. Then, the Montpelier participates in the slugging matches in the remainder of the Solomons: bombarding New Georgia, and at Bougainville, the brutal battle of Empress Augusta Bay. Finally, after the Solomons are secure and Rabaul is bypassed, Fahey and Montpelier join the task force invading Saipan, which also confronts the Japanese task force in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944. Later, Fahey and Montpelier participate in the Philippine campaigns of Leyte, Mindoro, Luzon, Corregidor, Palawan and last of all Balikpapan in Borneo.

Fahey's experience of day-to-day routine, and even his participation in battles vary little from thousands of other sailors from WWII. The value of Pacific War Diary, therefore, lies in its uniqueness since there is to my knowledge no other published personal account of the war written by an ordinary seaman. The main reason for this is that diary keeping was banned and considered a security breach. Fahey even mentions once that he is probably the only sailor in the fleet keeping a diary.

Whether you have a relative who served as a sailor in the Pacific in WWII, or are interested in a first-hand account of several of the important naval actions in the Pacific, I highly recommend Pacific War Diary.