Local author Chas Henry will give a presentation based on his book, Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U. S. Marine Corps Tragedy.  

The presentation will introduce participants to a disaster about which many — even those deeply interested in military history — have never heard. On October 19, 1979, remnants of the largest, most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded battered a U. S. Marine Corps training camp in Japan. Along the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, the Super Typhoon prompted a fuel spill at the ramshackle encampment. More than 5,000 gallons of gasoline flowed atop floodwaters into corrugated steel huts occupied by Marines and Sailors. The huts’ open-flame kerosene heaters sparked flash fires. Amid tumultuous wind and rain, burning fuel flowed from structure to structure. Seventy-three were injured in the mishap at Camp Fuji — 54 of them suffering burns. Thirteen lost their lives. The Marine Corps commandant, who had served since 1942, termed the tragedy “the most serious peacetime disaster we’ve had in the Marine Corps during my time.” Drawing on a four-year, two continent investigation, the presentation — and the book on which it is based — details the complex series of naturally-occurring and man-made circumstances that led to the fire at Camp Fuji; how thousands of people, American and Japanese, sprang to the aid of the burn-injured Marines; and the resulting mix of grief, questions, fortitude and inspiration.

Books will be available for sale and signing. Adults.