The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers and the Forgotten Battle of WWII by Mark Obmascik is the riveting story of the battle for Attu--the desolate, relentlessly cold Aleutian island the Japanese invaded. It’s principally the story of a soldier from each side of the conflict, a Japanese surgeon trained in the US and a Marine from Appalachia. Their lives intersect in a redemptive, compassionate second half of the book. The writing on the agonizing horrors of war and subsequent efforts to find closure is amazing and heartbreaking.

Suggested additional reading: The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton, a superb novel about the only battle in WWII to take place on American soil, and The Railway Man by Eric Lomax about WWII in Asia and an act of extraordinary forgiveness.

(Non-Fiction)