Last to Die: A Defeated Empire, a Forgotten Mission, and the Last American Killed in World War II

by Stephen Harding

Overview

On August 18, 1945 -- three days after Japan announced it would cease hostilities and surrender -- U.S. Army Air Forces Sergeant Anthony J. Marchione bled to death in the clear, bright sky above Tokyo. Just six days after his twentieth birthday, Tony Marchione died like so many before him in World War II -- quietly, cradled in the arms of a buddy who was powerless to prevent his death. Though heartbreaking for his family, Marchione's death would have been no more notable than any other had he not had the dubious distinction of being the last American killed in World War II combat.

An aerial gunner who had already survived several combat missions, Marchione's death was the tragic culmination of an intertwined series of events. The plane that carried him that day was a trouble-plagued American heavy bomber known as the B-32 Dominator, which would prove a failed competitor to the famed B-29 Superfortress. And on the ground below, a palace revolt was brewing and a small number of die-hard Japanese fighter pilots decided to fight on, refusing to accept defeat.

Based on official American and Japanese histories, personal memoirs, and the author's exclusive interviews with many of the story's key participants, Last to Die is a rousing tale of air combat, bravery, cowardice, hubris, and determination, all set during the turbulent and confusing final days of World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306825187
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	784,807
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Stephen Harding is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller The Last Battle, which is in production as a major motion picture, and The Castaway's War, optioned as a major motion picture. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Military History magazine and lives in Northern Virginia.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 Son and Gunner 7

Chapter 2 The Second-String Super Bomber 33

Chapter 3 Crisis in Tokyo 67

Chapter 4 Ceasefire, Or Not? 97

Chapter 5 A Desperate Fight 129

Chapter 6 Peace, Or War? 157

Chapter 7 Homecoming 187

Author's Afterword 205

Acknowledgments 209

Bibliography 213

Notes 223

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

"In Last to Die Stephen Harding proves that even seventy years later, World War II history can still reveal 'The rest of the story.' The little-known events centering upon Sergeant Anthony James Marchione and his Philadelphia area family include an almost unknown bomber flying a largely forgotten mission following Emperor Hirohito's decision to surrender in August 1945. With exceptional attention to detail and appreciation for personal drama amid great events, Harding brings the bittersweet story of twenty-year-old Tony Marchione to life—and vividly describes the death of the last American airman to die in the world's greatest war."—Barrett Tillman, author of Whirlwind and Forgotten Fifteenth

"This poignant story reveals how important it is to track down the truth about World War II events that have become lost to history. In Last to Die Stephen Harding does his usual excellent aviation research and lively writing to tell Harding how 'last gasp' wartime efforts—of airmen and their planes—had profound consequences."—Walter Boyne, former director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution and current Chairman of the National Aeronautic Association

"A five-star military read."—Washington Times

Booklist, 6/1/15
“Harding, a military-affairs journalist, has woven together letters, interviews with family and friends, and both Japanese and American military records to provide an intense, quietly moving, and, of course, sad chronicle of a young life cut short…Harding treats the youth with admiration and affection that elicits compassion without becoming cloying or melodramatic. This is a superb look at the life and death of one young man among millions of others who loved, were loved by others, and died too soon.”

Kirkus Reviews, 6/15/15
“[Harding] seems to be making a specialty of the forgotten closing episodes of WWII…In a neat blend of military and technological history, Harding links Marchione's story to the development of the aircraft he staffed, a lumbering target called the Consolidated Dominator…A worthy sortie that explores a curtain-closing moment in history that might have gone very badly indeed.”

Publishers Weekly, 6/22/15
“[A] meticulously researched account of the days following Japan's surrender… [Harding] relates his gripping account of the fight between Japanese and American forces in breathless detail, and the tale is impressive and inspiring, as is Harding's determination to tell it.”

Praise for Last to Die

"The story of Tony Marchione and his tragic, heroic death in the skies over Tokyo a full three days after Japan had supposedly surrendered is as well told as it is heart-wrenching. Marchione reflected America's Greatest Generation perfectly, in terms of his upbringing, patriotism, and sacrifice, and he is superbly memorialized in this moving yet also scholarly book. Anyone who enjoyed Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken will love this work of history that reads like a thriller."—Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War

"This is a rarity: an entirely new World War II story. It reads like an adventure novel yet is a deeply researched work from the hand of a smart and seasoned historian. A tour de force of discovery and storytelling."—Donald L. Miller, author of Masters of the Air

From the Publisher

06/22/2015
Japanese emperor Hirohito officially surrendered to Allied forces on Aug. 15, 1945, but the message wasn’t delivered to all outposts and command centers until a few days later—a lapse that would have serious consequences for both Japanese and American forces, as Harding (The Last Battle) illustrates in this meticulously researched account of the days following Japan’s surrender. To verify that the Japanese military was complying with the peace treaty, it was necessary to confirm that military activity had ceased. This was to be accomplished by flying over key bases and installations in order to photograph them. The first of these missions was uneventful, but a subsequent mission encountered opposition from a handful of Japanese fighters and were unable to fully document all the sites. Despite this, it was decided that another mission was to be conducted the next day, with deadly consequences for U.S. Army Sergeant Anthony Marchione, the last American killed in WWII combat. Though Harding gets distracted by plane design and military minutiae early in the book, he relates his gripping account of the fight between Japanese and American forces in breathless detail, and the tale is impressive and inspiring, as is Harding’s determination to tell it. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2015-06-01
The surrender that almost wasn't: an illuminating study of the last moments of World War II. According to conventional histories, Japan lost no time in surrendering to the Allies after the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In fact, writes Military History editor in chief Harding (The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe, 2013), who seems to be making a specialty of the forgotten closing episodes of WWII, there was more than sporadic resistance. Despite Emperor Hirohito's order for a cease-fire, numerous military units committed mutiny by continuing to fight—and it was one such unit that killed American Airman Anthony Marchione, just 20 years old. In a neat blend of military and technological history, Harding links Marchione's story to the development of the aircraft he staffed, a lumbering target called the Consolidated Dominator, a "trouble-plagued super bomber" that barely took off before being scrapped—and whose very existence has been reduced, these days, to a few parts in private collections around the world. Harding also examines the episode surrounding Marchione's death in its global-implications context: had Gen. Douglas MacArthur chosen to retaliate, he suggests, the war in Japan might have raged on, since the anti-surrender elements in the Japanese military could have argued that the Allies, too, had violated the cease-fire agreement. There are some dense technical passages that will please aircraft enthusiasts but that civilians might find daunting ("The design featured a shoulder-mounted high-lift/low-drag Davis wing with a span of 135 feet, twin end-plate fin and rudder assemblies, and eighty-three-foot-long cylindrical fuselage, tricycle landing gear, and dual ‘roll-up' bomb bays") and a few moments of semidigested, tangential information ("Italy in the early twentieth century was a land of widespread economic inequality"), but in the main, the narrative is well-executed. A worthy sortie that explores a curtain-closing moment in history that might have gone very badly indeed.

Kirkus Reviews