Book Review: God Isn't Here
A Unique World War II Memoir About Surviving Combat Fatigue
Iwo Jima veteran Richard Overton's memoir describes his sickening combat experience despite his break with reality. This gruesome memoir is both compelling and stirring.
God Isn’t Here: A Young Man’s Entry Into World War II and his Participation in the Battle for Iwo Jima
By Richard E. Overton
American Legacy Historical Press
432 pages • © 2008 • $19.95
Shortly after being evacuated from Iwo Jima in 1945, 20 year-old corpsman Richard E. Overton recognized the battle he had just survived was not only historically significant, but a major milestone in his life. Determined to record his experiences for posterity, he spent weeks writing highly detailed notes of his experiences during the greatest battle of the modern era.
He faithfully safeguarded these journals for decades, until recently when he was mentally prepared to face the troubling demons of his combat experience. His memoir is titled God Isn’t Here: A Young Man’s Entry Into World War II and his Participation in the Battle for Iwo Jima.
Overton paints an unvarnished, but highly believable picture of the characters making up “D” Company, 2nd Battalion, 26th Regiment. After enduring an unusual year-long training period, Overton quickly plunges into the fierce combat action on Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945. ?
Thrust into the ferocity of Japan’s complex subterranean defenses, Overton was conflicted by receiving direct orders to ignore the countless casualties calling for his help, and instead stay near his commanding officer at all times. Faced with this confusing moral dilemma, the intensity of the battle began taking its toll.
Although the battle raged furiously during daylight hours, Overton’s horror-filled nights are the most disturbing. With the constantly shifting front lines, both Americans and Japanese were often unwittingly dug-in for the night within feet of each other. Living in constant fear of having the Japanese lob a grenade at their positions, the darkness was agonizingly long and suspenseful.
Bayonet-wielding Japanese infiltrators repeatedly attacked and disrupted the Marines in their rifle-pits, and prevented them from regrouping and getting much needed rest. On one occasion, Overton was knocked unconscious when Japanese soldier struck him with the butt of a rifle. Amazingly, Overton survived another attack because a dead Marine was laying on him, shielding him from further injuries. The mental fog that resulted from that injury further clouded Overton’s reasoning.
What may set this book apart from others is Overton’s superb descriptions of his functional psychosis, and how he survived the battle although suffering from “combat fatigue.” Afflicted by sleep deprivation, adrenalin overload and repeated ingestion of Benzedrine tablets, Overton managed to survive in the face of seeing violent death all around him. His platoon was decimated within the first few days after landing, and he entertained a bizarre belief that he was impervious to enemy fire. How he remained coherent enough to avoid being killed defies reason, despite his obvious break with reality. Each advance brought new challenges, new casualties, and critical decisions, and he deftly describes his predicaments in rich detail.
Overton’s willingness to describe his mental break is unique for his generation, and certainly among many hardened combat veterans who often believe mental illness is a character flaw, rather than a legitimate medical condition.
God Isn’t Here is not your typical battle memoir. It is neither a narrative glorifying the Iwo Jima heroes, or a retrospective questioning combat strategy or tactics. What it lacks in providing detailed historical context, it makes up in being a highly personal account that resonates with those who survived the bloodiest battle of World War II. It’s an intense and forceful story that is singular in its description of the internal battle many combat veterans still confront, many years after the final shot was fired.
