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by Christopher Hurst (Author)
The remarkable story of the USS Hughes DD-410 begins in the Atlantic long before America was at war. It was sent to attack German submarines and the Pocket Battleship Bismarck. After Pearl Harbor, the USS Hughes sailed into the Pacific and fought against the Empire of Japan in almost every single battle of the war. She was alongside numerous American aircraft carriers when they were sunk in battle, including the USS Yorktown at Midway Island. While she fought her way across the Pacific, Japanese Admiral Onishi was developing his Kamikaze attack forces to keep the Allies out of Japan, a weapon of terror that America was not prepared for. At the time time, Physicist Robert Oppenheimer was developing America's ultimate weapon of terror, the atomic bomb. This would be a test between the two, and the USS Hughes would play a central part in the plans by Ohishi and Oppenheimer. She would clear the Pacific so American B-29s could reach Japan with atomic bombs from Tinian Island, but would also fall victim to the ultimate Japanese terror weapon, the Kamikaze, when she was hit and almost sunk on December 10, 1944, at Leyte Gulf. She survived that attack, returned to the war, and became a central figure in the surrender and occupation of Japan. Ninety-seven-year-old Oliver Jones from Arizona joins us in this journey, as do several other sailors from the USS Hughes who left extensive journals of their time at sea that were written as the action unfolded before their eyes. After the war, the USS Hughes was sent to Bikini Atoll in the Central Pacific and used as a target for two atomic bombs, surviving both of them, but her story was far from over. The story of the USS Hughes finishes in a watery grave in 1948, but not before being witnessed by one of her surviving sailors from the war years in the Pacific. Primarily told from the actual words of the sailors who fought in WWI, this is a profoundly personal and graphic story of ordinary Americans from the heartland at war. It is also the story of the dawn of new human weapons of terror and how the USS Hughes played a central part in the development of each. The story of the USS Hughes is also the tale of two samurai swords, one used by Admiral Onishi to take his own life, which now sits in a museum in Japan. The other was given to Gunnery Lieutenant Glen Edmonson of the USS Hughes at the end of the war - it was put inside a wall in Seattle decades ago to hide the memories of December 10, 1944, and it remains hidden there to this day.
Also by author Christopher Hurst - Climbing Kilimanjaro With Africa's Top Guide & Gun Guide For Democrats - How To Prevent A Second American Civil War.
