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Under Wraps: One Soldiers Hidden Diary Of WWII

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Under Wraps: One Soldier's Hidden Diary of WW II is collected diary of Jay Coffman, recorded during his service in the US Army Infantry in the South Pacific throughout World War II. Since keeping a diary in combat zones was a court-martial offense, Coffmen hid his diary among his personal effects until the war ended. Though he survived the war, his untimely death at age 48 was partly due to the malaria he had contracted on Guadalcanal. Editor Tom Fulks has added notes to Coffman's diary, clarifying passages or mentioning appropriate historic references. Fulks also contributes a seventy-page overview of World War II, to refresh the reader's familiarity of the war and the politics surrounding it. Under Wraps is not only a hands-on first-person account of the war, but also a love story, and a fond remembrance of home and family. A welcome addition to firsthand testimonies of the Pacific conflict, and an absorbing true story that will appeal to readers of all persuasions.

Jay Coffman was an ordinary foot soldier who voluntarily served his country in World War II, delaying the start of his career and married life for some four years. His recorded his acitivities, thoughts, and feelings in his diary, and those observations that the censors would not allow him to mail home in letters. It reveals how different that war was from all the wars that followed. Only a handful of people have ever seen or known about the diary until now; Jay's lifelong love Dot did not want it published during her lifetime as it was "too personal." Parts of the diary are as slow-moving as certain periods of Coffman's service but, due to his comfortable writing style, it is always very easy to read. As editor, I researched the diary and added information to clarify it and put Jay's observations in their historical perspective.