''The Final Storm'' (2011) is a historical novel by

Jeff Shaara Jeffrey M. "Jeff" Shaara (born February 21, 1952) is an American novelist and the son of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Shaara. Biography Jeffrey Shaara was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. He graduated f ...

based on the

Pacific Theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It follows roughly chronologically after his European World War II trilogy ending with '' No Less Than Victory''. It was published on May 17, 2011. The story opens in February 1945 when an American submariner witnesses the shock of getting ambushed by two Japanese ships. The story then cuts toward late March and early April, where the novel covers the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...

, the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

. The first part of the narrative is told primarily from the viewpoints of Admiral

Chester W. Nimitz Chester William Nimitz (; February 24, 1885 – February 20, 1966) was a fleet admiral in the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in C ...

, Private Clay Adams (brother of Jesse Adams, a character in '' The Rising Tide'' and ''

The Steel Wave ''The Steel Wave: A Novel of World War II'' is a historical novel written by Jeff Shaara about Operation Overlord. The book is the second book in a trilogy written by Shaara. The novel begins in January 1944, nearly six months before the invasi ...

''), and Japanese General

Mitsuru Ushijima was a Japanese general who served during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. He was the commanding general of the 32nd Army, which fought in the Battle of Okinawa during the final stages of the war. Ushijima's troops were defeated, ...

. The second part of the narrative is told primarily from the viewpoints of President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

, Colonel

Paul Tibbets Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. (23 February 1915 – 1 November 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the aircraft captain who flew the B-29 Superfortress known as the '' Enola Gay'' (named after his mot ...

, and Dr. Okiro Hamishita, a doctor living near

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

Reception

The book did well upon its release, reaching ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' bestseller list on June 5, 2011 top 15 for 4 weeks.

References

2011 American novels Novels set during World War II Novels by Jeffrey Shaara Fiction set in 1945 Ballantine Books books {{2010s-WWII-novel-stub