Jungle Sniper

NOTE TO READERS

When I started working on Jungle Sniper, I thought that this would be the last novel set in the Philippines before Deke and Patrol Easy moved on to the next adventure. However, I soon found that I was mistaken. There was too much to squeeze into one story. I haven’t even gotten into the fight for Ormoc or Manila, the liberation of POW camps, or the daring raid on Leyte by Japanese paratroopers. What about Father Francisco and his guerrilla fighters? Did I mention typhoons? To do these aspects of the Pacific campaign justice, Deke and Patrol Easy will be returning to the Philippines in the next book.

That said, there are plenty of adventures here. What I found to be a fascinating aspect of the Leyte invasion was the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur on Red Beach. Although the moment was highly orchestrated right down to arranging for photography and a film crew, the long-range planning and the efforts that made this moment possible should not be underestimated. MacArthur’s “I have returned” speech remains inspiring today for encapsulating many of the ideals for which the WW2 generation fought.

As noted in other books, the language and slang used by the soldiers reflect their era, although we find these terms distasteful today. The Japanese people remain our close allies. The scene with Yoshio’s mother and her teapot was inspired by Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir that recounts one Japanese American family’s experience in the internment camps.

This story is just that — a story — and it falls short of the actual events endured by our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and uncles while fighting in the Pacific. Many of the events and even the small scenes described in Jungle Sniper have been adapted from the memoirs of these individual soldiers. I hope that this book helps their memory live on in some small way.

Finally, I want to thank the advance readers and “armchair generals” who gave advice and corrected some of my factual errors. Their help was deeply appreciated. Hopefully I won’t keep them waiting too long for the next book.

— DH