Extraordinary Leaders

About the Book

Extraordinary Leaders is an account of the author’s uncle, Alfred Vernon Jannotta, Jr., who commanded a Landing Craft Infantry Large (LCI L) in multiple campaigns—first in the Solomons and later in the Philippines where he earned a Navy Cross, a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and a Purple Heart. After the war, Uncle Vernon retired from naval service as a Rear Admiral. Juxtaposed with Uncle Vernon’s wartime service, recounted through numerous letters to his wife, is the wartime experience of Ensign Kotarō Kawanishi who was posted to Bougainville in the Northern Solomons. Kawanishi’s wartime service is based on diaries he wrote throughout the war. This work is different from most World War II memoirs because of the juxtaposition of the written accounts of two combatants, an American naval officer and a Japanese naval officer posted to fight for control of the Solomon Islands. In particular, the main body of the book focuses on what it was like, both offensively and defensively, to fight for the island of Bougainville. This is a first-hand account that lasted throughout the war, between 1942 and 1945, by two of the opposing officers who fought there. This is that rare account of combatants explaining in their own words what it was like to be sent to fight in the Pacific until one side defeated the other.

About the Author

Joseph E. Jannotta, Jr., a US Navy aviator veteran of the Korean War, discovered that he had to set aside stereotype notions about Japanese military leadership in terms of style and quality. He learned that Kawanishi’s actions as a junior officer on Bougainville took an entirely different form in response to the missions he was ordered to undertake on Bougainville. The decisions he made reveal the humane style of his leadership. Jannotta’s account of his Uncle Vernon’s Pacific War, featuring a lot more direct com-bat than Kawanishi encountered, provides a strategic and tactical backdrop to how the war had to be fought on a day-to-day, month-to-month basis. In studying the writings of these two combatants “during a war that is now more than 70 years behind us, the anger, prejudice, and preconceptions can be stripped away.” Lieutenant Commander Vernon Jannotta and Ensign Kotarō Kawanishi both showed a concern for the well being of their men, which adds a human factor to their leadership. Kawanishi in a difficult moment between Japanese soldiers and the Buka natives became transformational for the parties in confrontation—a learning experience for the author and the readers.