Pearl Harbor Books

On May 21, 1944, a series of explosions and fires aboard several Navy ships in Pearl Harbor led to the deaths of 163 men, with nearly 400 wounded, and six ships destroyed. For operational reasons, the Navy reported this as a 'small mishap,' and, amidst the larger war, the incident was largely forgotten.

Nearly 40 years later, William L.C. Johnson, a survivor of the explosions, asked another Navy man a by-the-way question about the event. One thing led to another, as they say, and within a few years, Johnson had collected dozens of first-hand accounts and photographs from eyewitnesses of the disaster. Out of those accounts comes this book.

William Johnson is no David McCullough, and this book will never be considered for a Pulitzer. It's not highly polished history -- it doesn't even, for example, get to the bottom of what really triggered the explosions in the first place. What this book is, however, is a very personal, and moving, labor of love, both for the author himself and for the many other men whose stories are told here.

In fact, the second half of the book is made up entirely of personal accounts from Marines, Army soldiers, and Navy and Coast Guard men who were there that day. Johnson also includes records of the Navy Board of Inquiry on the disaster, and the logs of several of the ships involved. These latter, especially, help illustrate the scope of the event, while the personal accounts demonstrate the chaos on the scene.

The West Loch disaster was, in the grand scheme of the war in the Pacific, a relatively minor event. It didn't even delay 'Operation Forager,' the invasion of Saipan for which the ships and men were being readied. But it wasn't minor for the men who experienced it, or for the families and friends of those who died. As the era, and the men who lived it, fade from view, this small book helps remember the men who gave their lives in action in May 1944.

The author is a former American soldier who was stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked. He was among those who retreated to the Bataan peninsula and he eventually moved out to the fortress on Corregidor Island. Captured by the Japanese, he spent the rest of the war as a POW. After his initial stay in the Philippines, he was transported to the Japanese main island where he remained until the Japanese surrender ended the war.
His account is very matter-of-fact and unlike most other stories of American captives under the Japanese, he often speaks highly of his captors. At first the treatment was very brutal, but later there were acts of kindness from the Japanese guards and some civilians. He received fruit and extra food in exchange for work favors and was impressed by many aspects of Japanese culture. His account of how the Japanese guards piled their weapons in an orderly manner and then marched out in military precision when the war was over is recounted with grace. He seems to have little animosity towards those who were once "the enemy."
The bulk of his wrath is reserved for President Roosevelt and the highest members of the American military. He believes that Roosevelt deliberately allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked, citing the widespread notion in the military that it was where the Japanese would attack if it ever came to war. He also will never forgive Roosevelt's deviousness in telling the American defenders on Bataan to fight on because "help is on the way", when he knew that there was no way that they could be rescued or reinforced. It was a cynical ploy by the American planners to keep them fighting so that the Japanese would be delayed as long as possible.
I don't believe that Roosevelt deliberately allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked. At the time, few people believed that a task force the size that the Japanese mustered could sail all the way across the Pacific without being detected. In fact they were, the people on the ground just didn't recognize it for what it was. However, I give Sabotta his due, he did his duty and fought till it was useless to fight on, so his right to bitterness is earned.

Interesting book, and worth getting if you want another side of the Pearl Harbor story. I am a big FDR fan, so it is hard for me to consider that he wanted this disaster to happen to get us involved. I do think there is more of a chance that Churchill knew in time to alert us. However, he knew it would be a benefit in the longrun as England needed our help. As for FDR and the USA - the writing was on the wall, and FDR (and others should have seen it) However, one thing we usually forget. The US does not make policy for Japan. Japan had trained very hard for this mission. They should be given credit where it is due. They caught us with our paints down, and they out smarted us, and they had been forced in a corner, because they knew in the end they would be the ones that would pay. Sorry didn't meant to preach, but the book brings up points in which I find in conflict with my views. But a good book can do that. I do suggest to read both sides of the story though, before making your final decision. I'd buy this book but also get another to balance.

A very powerful expose at the top of our nation,and the the man who would
eclipse benedict arnold(in my opinion)as the greatest traitor in American history. "FRANKLIN D.ROOSEVELT. Ask the 'SOULS OF 3,OOO AMERICAN
SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN. AN ACT THAT WILL LIVE IN"INFAMY". very well written. Eric S-New Orleans

Negative reactions to this book here reiterate the enormous capacity that Americans share for abject denial.

Human behavior is as simple and uncomplicated as it could be. People have left reviews here who have not read this book, so horrified are they that they may be forced to accept that this country is not, and hasn't been since 1776, the Disneyland Main St. USA that they so cherish.

It's a nasty world, and we're right at the center of it.

Why would the US government need to keep military documents from Congress and the American people if `they' had nothing to hide from us? Mr. Stinnett provides these military documents to support his conclusion.
This book examines:
"1 - The US Navy's eight point Overt Act of War strategy adopted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that lured Japan to attack Pearl Harbor.
2 - The 1941 Japanese naval radio intercepts.
3 - Presidential and U.S. Army and Naval dispatches ordering American Pacific commanders to stand aside and let Japan commit the first overt act of war.
4 - Discover six years of Pearl Harbor hoaxes intended to deceive the American public and congress.
Follow the Japanese naval spy who was allowed carte blanche to spy on and prepare bomb plots of Pearl Harbor."

The McCollum Memo alone provides evidence that this was no surprise attack; well no surprise to the higher levels of the US government and military.

Does anyone use plain ole common sense anymore? Are we really to believe that the president of the United States would deliberately let thousands of Americans be killed, let half of our Pacific Fleet be crippled, and leave the west coast of America open to attack, all for the sake of winning support for a war that we would eventually be dragged into anyway? And this from a president that loved the Navy? What a bunch of hogwash. There is no doubt many things things about Pearl Harbor have been left out of history, but c'mon folks, use your brains..

Turtledove does a great job of showing what an occupation of Hawaii by Japan would be like. I also liked how he showed the culture class between the different nationalities. Other reviews don't like that this is going to be a series, but I can't wait to read more about the different characters.

There's almost 150 pages of interesting story in this novel. Unfortunately the book is more than 500 pages long. Everyone keeps going on about how carefully researched this book is but I fail to see it. He gets some of the basic facts right, he beats the reader over the head with the fact that the Zero is more maneuverable than the Wildcat (he repeats it more than TEN times through the course of the book)but he leaves out important facts that would deeply affect the story. He has no mention of how the aliies had broken the Japanese Naval Code (JN25) as well as their diplomatic code. He also completely ignores the ceaseless struggle by the Japanese Navy to force the "Jutland style" battleship to battleship battle that all the experts predicted. Perhaps some of this will be covered in the many volumes to come but I just don't have the money or the patience to see it through.

The plot moves at a glacial pace. He introduces more than a dozen characters and few of them do anything interesting. One plotline is the riveting story of a woman growing sweet potatoes! This is obviously the beginning of a many book series and Turtledove has no intention of getting to the point until he's wrested every dime from the reader. This is part of the "every story must be at least a trilogy" trend. It would be interesting to see a good editor take the series and condense it down to a single book. Then, even with all the flaws it might make for an passable read.

This was my first Turtledove book and I found it to be an enjoyable read. It isn't a first class read like some of Tom Clancy's work is, but it's a pleasant way to pass an evening or two. The premise is believable as many people have wondered why Japan didn't try to invada Hawai'i in 1941 and Turtledove presents a decent invasion scenario. Where he falls short is on the subject of Japanese brutality. The Japanese of 1941 were, if anything, brutal and then they were excessive in their brutality. It is likely that Turtledove's editor or publisher would not like the politically incorrect depictions of Japanese soldiers raping and marauding and predating on the civilian population, but such a thing would have been representative of Japanese behavior in lands they really did conquer. Also, the prisoners of war who were held by the Japanese suffered a 30% mortality rate and the depictions of death in the Hawai'ian prison camp didn't quite come up to the measure of camps typical of Japan. Other than this 'hole' in reality, this is a good book about people dealing with an impossibly challenging circumstance and it is not just a mere flight of fancy. I recommend it.

This is the first of a pair of gripping alternative history novels which explore the possibility that Japan might have backed up the air strikes on Pearl Harbour with a land invasion.

The sequel is called "End of the Beginning."

This is the fourth alternative version of World War II which Turtledove has written. He has previously done stories with aliens from Tau Ceti invading in 1942, (the Worldwar series) a parallel history following pretty much the real track, in a world where technology uses magic rather than engineering (Darkness/Derlavi/World at War series) and an alternative World War II in a history following a Rebel victory in the US Civil War, hwich has the same roles as in the historical WWII carried out by different people (Settling Accounts).

Having done so many alternative versions of World War II, you would think he would find it impossible to say anything new about them or maintain the reader's interest. Judging by other reviews, some readers do indeed have that problem, and I expected to be one of them, but from the moment I picked up this book I found myself hooked.

Turtledove suggests that the Imperial Japanese forces would have treated the inhabitants of Hawaii with the same ruthless cruelty they dealt out to other people who fell under their control, such as the luckless people of Nanking. This is all too plausible. He weaves a story of how this might have affected the people who lived under their regime, from American Prisoners of War, U.S. and Hawaiian civilians, to Hawaiian residents of Japanese origin.

Turtledove's account of how the conflict might have left this latter group torn between conflicting loyalties is presented through the story of a family in which the father, who was born in Japan, welcomes the invasion and blames the death of his wife (killed by a Japanese bomb) on the Americans for resisting: his sons continue to identify with the American side and blame the Japanese attackers for their mother's death.

For the reasons hinted at above, I nearly didn't read this book, but I'm very glad I gave in to the temptation to do so. If you liked most of Turtledove's other books, you will almost certainly like this one.

First I must admit to some surprise at the differing reviews for "Days of Infamy". I loved it.
Yes, it is WW2 but a quite different scenario than his other books in this time. In this book, Japan follows up her attack on the `sleeping giant" with an invasion. He looks at a reaction from the shattered U.S forces and a hasty response from the main land later.

I found the book to be a "page turner", i.e. a book that I could not put down. I read it in a week and constantly enjoyed the different viewpoints from Japanese and U.S sailors, army and aviators. As a bonus the civilian population, both Japanese and "haoles", provided a great contrasting viewpoint.
Sam Hendricks, author of "Fantasy Football Guidebook: Your Comprehensive Guide to Playing Fantasy Football".

i have just finished reading this book it was awesome alot more detaled then the movie. if your are interested in history with a little "KICK" then this is the book for you.

"I got em Danny!" Rafe said joyfully as he shot down one of the Japanese fighter planes. For those of you who don't know what book this is out of don't feel too bad. This section is based on a book that tells an event that is down in history to this day. This book is called Pearl Harbor. This book is about two country boys named Rafe and Danny that have known each other since they were young and all they ever wanted to do is fly planes. When these young boys got older they joined the military as fighter pilots but they made a promise to each other that if one went to war then the other one would go with that person so they have someone there to talk to. This promise stayed true until Rafe was chosen to go to Germany and fight. When Rafe didn't return Danny felt lonely so he started to hangout with Rafe's girlfriend. After hanging out with her they started to like each other and she ended up pregnant. Then when all this occurred Rafe shows up. Everyone celebrates his coming home so they stay up late and party. The very next day Rafe and Danny wake up to the sound of a ship being bombed. This was known as the attack on Peal Harbor. Will Rafe and Danny be able to bring back revenge on the Japanese?

While reading this book I enjoyed lots of sections but the one I enjoyed most was when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and when the U.S. attacks Japan not because of the casualties but because they explained with detail and it was easy to understand and get pictures in my mind. It was very easy to tell what was happening at the bombing.

Even though there's so much going on in this book I think that if you really think about it that every book has either a theme or moral. In the book of Pearl Harbor I think that the moral/theme of the book is friendship because when Danny and Rafe need each other they are there for each other to talk to and to lean on too because they are so close.

What I liked most about this book is that it's a non-fiction so I learn part of history at the same time just reading. The main thing I would change is not have Danny die so I could see what would happen between him Rafe and Evelynn (Rafe's girlfriend). I think that this book is for older people because kids won't really understand what's going on in war so they will be all confused and the older people might have a clue.

Most people don't know this, but the book, "Pearl Harbor," by Randall Wallace was the original screen-play of the motion picture. Needless to say, it's not just any old novelization--It's the original! If you liked the movie, you owe it to yourself to sit down with this book and read it. Wallace's writing style makes the story very rivetting and keeps the reader in constant anticipation.

Some people say the love story was a bit excessive and far-fetched. I agree. However, it does not take away from the extravagancy of the story of the bombing of Pearl.

The book Peal Harbor is a great Inspirational and meaningful story that I've ever read in which the story touched me deeply. It is a story that follows Rafe and Danny from their child hood in Tennessee through there courageous battles. The suspense of the story is unbelievable. Rafe has trouble reading and spelling but the bond between the tows of them prevails over all. Later in the story Rafe goes to war will he make it out alive or will the battle over seas take his life? This book is also an action filled story, from the battles over sea, to the dreadful battle in our very own Pearl Harbor, and the bombing over Japan. This is a great book that teaches you how war can effect you and what it does to people in war or some how connected to it. This is the best historical fiction book that I've ever read.

By: Chris M.

I enjoyed the movie, Pearl Harbor, and expected to find the book just as entertaining. Randall Wallace's imagination is amazing, but way the words were written and formed brought down my overall liking for the book. Pearl Harbor had a wonderful plot and story, but would've been far better if not for the lack of vocabulary and word usage.

The approach, with the main character a bit battle-damaged, is a little different and I found it refreshing. Thomas Wall is a rather messed up, is single-minded in his desire to find his brother with the apparent intent to kill him, and is being used by almost everyone. I thought the plot interesting but understandable. I think if you liked John Lawton's "Blackout" you would also like this.

***SPOILERS GALORE### Tom Wall was cool, John Wayne could have played him and I laughed each time at Simon's bad American accent. I loved the Sondegger character and especially his warm soothing voice which Vance nailed but especially pleasing was how realistic the book was - how SPOILER ALERT*****...how i main characters randomly just die like Rupert Davis Franks or the invincible supremely confident Duck Blind...just like in real life. The setting in Wartime foggy ol Londontown was superb.Harriet was the real double crosser and who saw that coming? No one I bet! I did predict the second microchip showing up iwhen Tom got his little "Hand out" however and was quite proud of myself.

I think this is a story much better heard by a Brit like Simon Vance than read on your own, although Highcastle and Hariet's Dad sounded identical! Really enjoyed the 9 disc package!

This is very minor league Ken Follett or Frederick Forysth. The plot moves because it has to, the german is a shadow of Hannibal Lecter and the hero, while physically suffering, somehow finds the ability to continually escape from the mental institution he finds himself in. There are so many good WW2 spy novels around there is really no reason to devote much time to this. Very disappointing and it did not make me want to read any more of his titles.

The book takes place mostly in London in the first week of December 1941.The war is not going well for the Allies -which do not yet include the USA as the attack on Pearl Harbour is yet to take place .London is subject to nightly air raids from the Germans and has recently lost Crete to the German army.Its one asset lies in "Operation Double Cross"by which the German spy network in Britain has been "turned" and is feeding misinformation to the Germans .A German agent ,Sonndeburg,has been sent from German intelligence to London and seems on the verge of exposing this .He is captured but manages to escape
The protagonist is an American Tom Wall ,who has enlisted in the British Army and believes his brother has betrayed the Allies in Crete .he is searching for his brother aided by his sister in law ,Harriet Wall who is a British agent at odds with her father a prominent British Fascist who sets his own men against Tom

The plot is over complicated and takes too long to get going resulting in a sense of mounting impatience on my part .The scenario -which also revolves around the impending Japanese attack on the USA -is intriguing but the signs of a tyro novelist are everywhere and it just dfrags when it should be getting into top gear

There is promise here and I would assume the faults common to a debut novelist will be ironed out in subsequent books -I sincerely hope so at any rate becuase Mr Ross is a good stylist and shows a gift for suspense which bodes well for any futire books

A "classic spy tale," DOUBLE CROSS BLIND is a thriller in pre-World War II England, and the author obviously performed intense research on that historical era. The story line (which includes a number of flashbacks) is loosely based on a real-life event ... a network of German spies that the English turned into counterspies. RAF Pilot Tom Wall is dragged into the espionage when his brother (an MI-5 agent) disappears. The story also provides engaging insight into the political intrigue with which England initially tried to entice America into the war.

This is the author's first novel, and his writing is intelligent, but it also incorporates the idiomatic vocabulary and grammar of 1939/40 London, which modern American readers may find a bit difficult. However, the author's character development is a particularly strong part of the book, and his story's love interest between the brothers and the heroine (Harriet) quickly grabs the reader's interest. In fact, all the book's characters (including the German spies and Harriet's diplomat father) are fully-developed and believable. The reader's imagination is piqued from the opening chapter all the way to the end.

Ross has launched a promising career with this book. He paced the story well, and the plot lines finally dovetail into an entertaining ending that is a real "aha!" moment.

I recommend this book to any reader with an interest in the espionage genre.

Toland is an excellent historian. He's put together a lot of different lines of evidence to insinuate that the United States was indeed aware of the Pearl Harbor attack before it happened. That's the gist of this book.

Does he prove it? No. There is no absolute evidence that proves FDR and the State and War Departments knew that Pearl Harbor was about to be hit. Toland's circumstantial evidence IS very strong, though, and if what he writes here is true (and he documents it all), then it is very difficult not to reach the same conclusions he does. I've always found it difficult to believe that, with the threat of war obviously hanging over the United States and Japan, we had no idea where the Japanese Navy was. But, again, there is no absolute proof, no documents that say "FDR knew." But no other historian, not even Prange, brings up the evidence that Toland does.

FDR apologists will hate this book. FDR haters will believe Toland has proven his case. Fair readers will wonder. Historians (and that's the way I make my living) will conclude Toland hasn't proven his point. Not absolutely. But he does do very good investigative work. We'll probably never know for sure what FDR knew or when he knew it.

John Toland was an excellent writer. 'The last Hundred days' 'But Not In Shame' are both excellent books and are highly recommended. 'The Rising Sun' is good, very good in spots but the author was already losing his objectivity, clearly and sometimes blatantly. Toland was 'spinning' the story i.e trying to protray the Japanese as good intended ( the war was anti-communist not really imperialistic, yeah, right)culturally indoctrinated 'wrongheaded'( beheading POW's fits into Shinto, how exactly?). Even then He was trying to shift blame over unto the Americans as if the 'poor' Japanese had been duped by the manipulative Americans into war. But this book is almost a farce, come on, Roosevelt would let 'His' beloved navy get massacred so the American Public would permit us to go to war to save Europe? Sure there were hints clues signs there that the 20-20 vision of hindsight of history allow us to say that they could or should have been picked up on. Read Gordon Prange exhaustive series of books on Pearl Harbor for the real truth about the attack. Or read John Costello's book 'The Pacific War' for a very objective and much shorter recount of 'they knew what when' game that Toland weaves out of discredited and, in some cases, imaginary bits of psuedo facts. A good summation from that book is "The Japanese didn't want war, they just wanted Asia. And they were willing to go to war to get it." Toland has clearly lost his ability to to distinguish betweens facts and 'belief as fact'.

Due to his impressive body of work including "The Last Hundred Days" and "Adolph Hitler," John Toland will always demarcate the gold standard in history writing.

Thorough going in his research, dogged in pursuing surviving sources for their versions of meetings and moments and recollections, Toland's work shows what really good history writing can be.

In this way, it should probably be equal parts troubling for Roosevelt supporters and detractors that Toland has taken up the gauntlet that Roosevelt knew and allowed the Pearl Harbor diasaster and that even with his considerable talents he still makes a case that in the end amounts to such thin soup.

Spoiler alert! Those wishing to let Toland makes his own case should pick up his book so that this author does not make it for him.

For those still reading, Toland's case essentially boils down to his assertions that US code readers had received and deduced the significance of a one line message from Japan being "East wind, rain." Apparently code for "war with US is on," the message -- according to Toland -- boded additional significance based on prior intelligence reports indicating the likelihood of an attack on the US.

However, and this where the devil gets into the details, one of those prior intelligence reports reportedly went to J Edgar Hoover, then FBI Director, who according to Toland, sat on the message without forwarding it to Roosevelt. Such a state of affairs would have been believable because, at least in one other World War II case, Hoover's FBI sat on potential evidence of Axis wrongdoing. Certainly, to be complicit, it would have been better for Toland's thesis if there was some assertion that Roosevelt himself had gotten word.

Toland's thesis also stops at the level of indictment and not conviction because even if his evidence is taken at face value and given the weight intended it by Toland, it still fails to make any other argument than that because Roosevelt should have known that he did in fact know and that because it seems like Roosevelt intended and intentional loss of US forces that he was in fact complicit in the purposeful loss of US forces.

Still the same, Toland seems incapable of bad writing and like his other works he manages to produce a story complete with almost novel like nuances and character development.

The only problem is that in this book he may have finally succeeded -- albeit inadvertantly -- in writing fiction.

I agree with those who have already noted John Toland's superior research and writing skills, which are very much in evidence in this gripping, masterful account.

But as a lawyer I wanted to highlight how enjoyable and fascinating are the behind-the-scenes accounts of the various Pearl Harbor tribunals, which pinned guilt perhaps wrongly on some of the accused. I was particularly interested in famed Boston attorney Charles Rugg's defense of Admiral Kimmel, and the legal tactics employed to best make use of the otherwise secret cables and testimony that Rugg assembled on Kimmel's behalf.

A great account, and an inside look from a master historian of WWII, this one is a no-brainer for anyone interested in WWII history.

John Toland has done an excellent job in punching holes in the U.S. cover-up about Pearl Harbor. While it is still unproven that FDR positively knew, it is becoming harder to believe he did not. The Japanese did not maintain radio silence as Toland proves, and Robert Stinnett's "Day of Deceit" leaves no more doubt on this subject. Why people here appeal to the "authority" of Gordon Prange is beyond me. His stonewalling is simply unconvincing and written before much of the Pearl Harbor material was de-classified. Not to mention the fact that Gordon Prange was dead before his books were published! Or even finished! Ghost writers helped that project out. We'll know more when the government finished de-classifying. And if they have nothing to hide, WHY is so much material about Pearl Harbor still classified? The mere fact that Roosevelt moved the Pacific fleet from its normal anchorage on the west coast to Hawaii in 1940 (over the objections of some admirals) has got to make you wonder too.

This very slender book is based on the premise "what if an American battleship had escaped from Pearl Harbor during the attack and given chase to the Japanese fleet?" The writing is actually very good, and the naval dialogue is well-done. There are a number of typos, and a small line drawing of a scantily-clad woman appears a couple of times for some inexplicable reason. There are the obligatory sex scenes which are not explicit and which are well-written, but not very well staged, if that makes any sense. It's as if a sixteen year old, hormones raging, decided what would happen, and a novelist were commissioned to draft the text. The naval action is well-designed to camouflage some factual problems in the story, i.e. how does a 15-20 knots battleship succeed in catching a 30 knot carrier task force, or engaging it, but the books ends far too abruptly. In my opinion, what the book really needed was a far broader plot that (1) paid far more attention to the loss at Pearl as a motivating factor for revenge, and (2) ended the book with the battleship's return. The carnage at Pearl - even what the ship's crew could have seen as they exited the harbor before the second wave - should have been gone into a little more, and served as a white-hot motivating factor for getting revenge on the carriers. As written, the chase is a pretty cool, bloodless affair, and I really missed a good ending wrapping it up.

Great story and action, we needed a 400 page book to complete the story. The ones who complain about the ladies,,,,,,, they were there and history will not print it. The book is a very good read to the ones that know,remember,and wish. The editor needs work as well as the cover artist. Dan needs to be cautious of this reception and remember that a few that were there read his book. As I said before, this story needed 400 pages or a sequel or a scenario of another ship making the sortie out to sea.

There seems to be some confusion on how a twenty-knot U.S. Battleship could catch a thirty-knot Japanese Fleet after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I became interested in this scenario after reading "The Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans," by Donald M. Goldstein & Katherine V. Dillon where I found evidence of the Japanese withdrawal to Kure Naval Base after the attack.

The Imperial Japanese Navy steamed north at twenty-six knots, to avoid the (remote) possibility of air attack, up to approximately forty degrees North latitude. Once in the clear they turned east and slowed to fourteen knots their ordinary cruising speed (to conserve fuel), sometimes slowing to nine knots due to heavy weather. Six oil-tankers accompanied the Japanese fleet and refueling, especially for their escorting destroyers, was an on-going concern. The fleet typically slowed to twelve knots for this maneuver which took most of the day, the Japanese didn't have alongside refueling as the U.S. fleet did, but the tanker dragged the oil-hose astern for the destroyers to pick up. So, the Japanese didn't steam home at thirty knots, it was more likely fourteen knots.

Their route home must also be considered, they did not steam straight for Japan, but went up and around Midway Island, again to avoid the possibility of air attack. So, while the Japanese took a circuitous route home at fourteen knots a U.S. battleship could, upon exiting Pearl Harbor after the attack, steam directly for a point some seven hundred miles north of Midway Island at twenty knots (this class of battleship had a cruising radius of 6,800 miles at that speed) and indeed make an interception, especially as it carried four scout planes.

Was this scenario likely? No, but it was possible. So, too, was the dawn attack that caught the Japanese completely by surprise, which was not at all improbable given that a confident victor was halfway home unmolested. It is entirely possible that they would drop their guard at that point.

The final question, once the battle commenced why wouldn't a thirty-knot Japanese fleet simply come up to speed and disappear over the horizon out running their twenty-knot opponent? Well, it takes time to work an aircraft carrier up to flank speed and if a battleship was within range it would only take a few minutes and a few sixteen-inch salvos to set it alight (this happened during the battle of Midway when Japanese carriers were dive bombed). Also, the Japanese night formation used in this attack was their actual steaming formation described in "The Pearl Harbor Papers." So, if you're interested, read the book.

Daniel L. Houston

I was hoping this book would be plausible alternative history, after all the Nevada did get under way at Pearl during the attack but I was most disappointed. How the 21 knot West Virginia could overhaul the 30 plus knot Japanese carrier force and then outfight them at night is absolutely out of this world impossible. While Mr. Houston provides excellent deck plans and side views of West Virginia, as well as some excellent side views of various Japanese units, he fails to chart West Virginia's course to explain how a much slower vessel (max speed 21 knots-cruising speed 15 knots) could catch Nagumo's force. The women on board ship subplot, with the obligatory sex and innuendo scenes, stretches credulity altogether. The editor was busy doing something else when this item crossed his desk because the book is chock full of errors. Finally, how one US battleship with no screen could defeat the Japansese striking force which was trained especially well for night battle and 24-inch torpedo tactics takes believability right into the Twilight Zone. I don't know whom we need more, Rod Serling or Joan Collins.

Looking for a good book to read this summer while you're lounging around the pool? Look no further if you're a fan of naval sagas. (This was my first.) At just over 200 small pages of large print, "On a Blood-Stained Sea" is an enjoyable read for a lazy afternoon, especially if you're tight with Evelyn Wood.

Mr. Houston has crafted his novella around an intriguing premise: What might happen if an American battleship had escaped the Japanese onslaught at Pearl harbor and then chased the Japanese fleet as they sailed home? Like the dog that chases a car down the street, the logical next question is what do the Americans do if they catch the Japanese fleet? For the answer you'll have to read the exciting, action-packed climax.

By the way, did I mention the gratuitous sex? Although the four female castaways presented an interesting dilemma to the crew, Mr. Houston could have played it more PG-13 than R. Speaking of which, all the ingredients are there for a better-than-average made-for-TV movie. But, don't wait for the movie - read the novel now.

The author has done an excellent job of explaining himself. There is so much information presented in this book that people who get bogged down in minutae may never finish the book!

I own many of the books cited by the author. His quotes are correct. His conclusions are good too! Some reviewers have become all tangled up in the Japanese Naval Codes and when were they broken. The offical documents do not mean that much to me. The reason these offical documents fail to interest me very much is because I have another book that I do not believe the author has!

Radio Magazine, May 1941. This is a little booklet type of magazine popular in the 1930's and 40's. It is geared for the radio hobbiest. Back then, radio was still new and millions of people enjoyed building their own radios from parts or even kits. This magazine was for the people to read, learn, and discuss topics of interest. In this issue is an article showing the home hobbiest how to listen to the Japanese coded transmissions at home. It teaches you how to understand the codes and it even shows you how to break the Japanese Navy Codes at home. So to me much of the arguement over when could our Navy read the Japanese Codes becomes irrelavent with the solution published in a hobby magazine seven months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Regarding the question: Did they use their radios on the way to Pearl Harbor; the answer is a resounding YES! They had to!
The Japanese Navy took a northern route just below the Alutian Islands then turned south to Pearl Harbor. During the third week of November this large convoy was hit by a severe winter storm. These big storms are common in the northern Pacific this time of year.
The Japanese convoy was scattered over a huge area of the Pacific Ocean. The commanders had to use radio to form up their convoy again. When ships are thiry and sixty miles away it is not possible to signal them by semephore (signal flags). Radio was the way it had to be done. And yes indeed our West Coast radio amatuers were listneing closely as the Japanese convoy found one ship after another. It was quite time consuming and once the ships gathered around they had to sail into a protective formation taking even more time.
Station CAST knew this convoy was coming when small groups began meeting outside several Navy bases and then sailed at random up to the very northern Japanese Islands. Then the time came to sail east. Station CAST was in Corrigador Island. This is why the men and files were smuggled out by PT boat and submarine. These men knew too much to let them be prisoners.
As you read more about Pearl Harbor you will also want Stinnets book: Day of Deciet. These two books go hand in hand and both are available at Amazon.
Whatever you do read! Let it be a passion in you. Learn and love to learn. Never stop regardless of your age. Some of the Pearl Harbor books are written with a liberal slant. It is too bad because I like a book without a political slant. There are enough politics involved when author Stinnet tries and tries to get informatiom through the Freedom of Information Act. An American law to keep govt records open. The unexpected part of this FOIA is to de-classify SECRET documents.
Some authors such a Stinnet have done very well with this, Willey has not done as well. However, Willey has done very well in planting the reading and learning seed in others. Willey helps the student of history learn what it means to be hungry for information. Be sure to Read Willey's book along with Stinnets book. You will have fun for sure! George Morgenstern write an excellent book and never forget Crocker's book : Roosevelt's Red Road to Russia. There are about eight or ten books to read that will shatter your thoughts of how it was. Now you graduate into a small group who know. Harry Elmer Barnes wrote several books and edited one named after a phrase he (Beard) coined himself. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. This is a group of eight authors driven to tell the truth just like Stinnett and Morgenstern did. A chapter in Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace deals with George Orwells 1984. This is the real back story for the book or movie. If you read this then the rest you read will fall into place. No more confusion taking place. As you read more you learn that the conspiracy is put forth by our govt, and the anti-dote is given by folks like Wiley who are quiet, sincere information sources. When thinking of Pearl Harbor it is fair to ask yourself ........... why in the world are any Pearl Harbor papers still marked secret after 67 years? Read! Read more! Have fun and fill your mind with thoughts! Travel to far away countries in your mind. Have fun and never leave your couch!!!

This book is Willey's ne plus ultra - he was clearly driven to write it and to self-publish it. While it adds much to the extant Pearl Harbor historiography; it is not recommended to the uninitiated, however. For example, those who do not know that the United States was a declared neutral country prior to Pearl Harbor and what that means will miss some of Willey's conclusions. Clearly much more editing is needed as Willey's writing is, in far too many places, severely and sadly disjointed.

But, even given the above, his text anent the Japanese Naval Operations Code (Chapter Two) and the highlighting "pre-Pearl Harbor Japanese Naval Despatches" found in SRH-406 (Appendix A) indicate just how unsettled Pearl Harbor remains even today. This is worthy of the reader's attention, with the recognition that many Pearl Harbor materials remain classified even after decades of FOIA requests.

In Chapter Two, for instance, Willey makes the connection is to British Navy Cypher No. 3 which troubles the NSA even now as the continued censorship of Safford's SRH-149 shows; further, the notes on page 168 point to the many inconsistencies about "codebook" values and their "source." In Appendix A is shown the basic and elementary linguistic forsenic analysis as to when Japanese Naval message translations actually occurred - that is, those SRNs cited were translated in 1941 via Willey.

Also found in Willey is an overview of the well-known (See Kahn's The Codebreakers) attack on codes such as JN-25B, where a detailed example is used. Explained also are the numerous "less than secure" aspects of the code itself (e.g., divisible by three), Japanese code clerks exercising a lack of proper procedures, for example, "tailing." Willey notes that the JN25B code had precisely 16,409 values; far fewer than the often quoted 33,333 or 50,000, implying a much more complicated code. Bring a pad and pencil to "follow" his examples. JN25B really was a very simple code to break.

For those untutored in the many esoteric threads of the Pearl Harbor saga - nescient, naive, and gullible absolutes remain evident. Consider Budiansky's "none" as compared with "some" from Gish and Parker (each senior NSA historians). These amply display the many gaps in the fundamental knowledge regarding Pearl Harbor.

Obviously the next Pearl Harbor chukker is still to come.

Mark's book simply fuels the fantasy world of conspiracy "fans". He routinely takes quotes out of context, ignores inconvenient facts and distorts information to promote his own program, that of hate for FDR. Compare this book with Gordon Prange's works. It's easy to tell which person did the work and gives a rational view of the events surrounding this sad day in US history. If you want to see where Wiley has distorted the original information, check out www.ibiblio.org/pha, where thousands of pages of text await the person who doesn't want to be lead by the nose.

This book is a mess of every conspiracy under the sun. It was proven false by Budiansky and MANY others. THE KEY documents that CONSPIRACY theorists (like Willey) told us the government was keeping SECRET were DECLASSIFIED in 1998 and 1999 and are at the National Archives at College Park. They state that as of December 1, 1941, only 10 percent of the code groups and 5 percent of the additive groups had been recovered in AN-1 (aka JN-25B). Also a report by OP-20-G on decrypts produced in various Japanese code systems for each month of 1941 reports the number of decrypts in JN-25 as "none" Futhermore a complete internal history of the solution of JN-25, was written at the end of WWII. This document, which provides great cryptologic detail,explains how JN-25 was broken during each period. It fully confirms the testimony of the USN personnel involved. By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, no JN-25 message had been read for intelligence value.
I'd also like to say that ALL of the Japanese officers involved including, Abe, Chigusa, Fuchida, Fujita, Genda, Goto, Ishiguro, Kusaka, Maki, Matsumoto and Yoshioka all maintain radio silence was strictly observed. Fuses were removed from the transmitters and the transmitter keys were disabled. Read ("The Pearl Harbor Papers") It was NOT possible! Willey, it seems will not engage in defending his work. More that likely he knows that it is outdated.

Its a shame this book fails in its promise to expose a conspiracy but it makes for some good fiction. The author seems to feel that FDR was a communist and the reason he allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked is to spread communisim around the world.

I was left confused and bewilderd by Mr. Willey's arguments as most of the evidence presented was taken out of order or mixed and matched to fit his argument.

1962's "Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision" is Roberta Wohlstetter's meticulous reconstruction of the indications and warning process preceding the successful Japanese surprise attack of 7 December 1941. Wohlstetter's research included the results of the various Pearl Harbor Congressional investigations, interviews with key U.S. participants, and access to major portions of the archival record. Her results are intended primarily for intelligence practitioners and their operationally-minded customers, and only secondarily for historians.

Wohlstetter examines the various signals about Japanese actions and intentions received at Pearl Harbor and in Washington D.C. in the months leading up to the attack, and how those signals were processed by key players against a background of competing information. At book's end, she provides the Japanese side of the equation. She closes with an absolutely priceless perspective on the continuing challenge of the intelligence warning problem.

As Wohlstetter documents, U.S. intelligence in 1941 was fragmentary, inexperienced, and disconnected from the decision-makers it was supposed to support. No single agency had the opportunity or authority to conduct meaningful all-source fusion and analysis of the limited available information. Principals in the Executive Branch shared information poorly with each other and with Pearl Harbor. Key decision-makers were distracted by an undeclared war in the North Atlantic, a politically sensitive mobilization, and wishful thinking about Japanese intentions. At the end, key leaders in D.C. and Pearl Harbor were looking in the wrong places for the start of conflict.

Wohlstetter clearly explains how the best efforts of dedicated personnel can be defeated by bureaucracy, human nature, and a failure to communicate. Her final thought, "We have to accept the fact of uncertainty and learn to live with it", could grace any number of post-mortems of intelligence failures. Her book is very highly recommended to the intelligence professional as a cautionary work on the inescapable difficulties of warning and decision.

The latest news is that a midget submarine did in fact penetrate Pearl Harbor and launch its two torpedoes into a battleshipm and the midget supposedly sunk by the destroyer WARD was found with a shell hole exactl where the ship's gun crews said it would be. The waters in the harbor and just outside yield new clues to the Infamy every year. As more sealed documents are opened and become available to scholars,[more will be added to the most spectacular offensive against America, excluding 9/11.

Try reading "A String of Pearls" [ASIN:0971365938 A String of Pearls]] While a work of historical fiction, it provides yet another "what if" to the story of Pearl Harbor that seems all to plausible in today's context. The book moves along very well. It's a "can't put down" work.

This is the quinteissential book about the Intelligence failure of Pearl Harbor. SecDef Rumsfeld is said to have required all of his aides to read it (prior to 9/11). It is not reading for the uneducated or those unfamiliar with the attack. It is, however the best source of how the Intelligence community failed America in 1941. Unfortunately, many of the critiques from Roberta Wohlstetter are as applicable in 2001 as they were in 1941.

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 succeeded in putting a large portion of the U.S. Pacific Fleet out of action for months. The attack succeeded because of what today would be called a failure of Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, and Reconnaissance (C3IR). In this definitive history, Roberta Wohlstetter provides an extensive documentation that catalogues the C3IR failures that explain the success of the Japanese attack. From her account it is clear that these failures were caused by a pervasive mindset among the U.S. Army and Navy high commands that Japan would not and could not attack the fortified island of Oahu in then territory of Hawaii.

Wohlstetter demonstrates that this mindset was coupled with an almost complete lack of inter-service cooperation between the Army and the Navy. Not even George C. Marshall, the brilliant Army Chief of Staff, understood that to defend an island like Oahu the Army would need to cooperate closely with Navy. In fact Marshall and his naval counterpart Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Stark hardly communicated at all. This distant relationship was duplicated by the lack of cooperation between General Short, commander of the army's Department of Hawaii and Admiral Kimmel, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Thus the defense of Oahu and Pearl Harbor was not based on joint, integrated planning nor on a mutual understanding of the two services' capabilities and weaknesses.

The much discussed failure of the then U.S. intelligence system to provide warning of the Japanese attack was exacerbated by the failure of the newly established Air Warning System (AWS) to operate as it was designed. Neither Short nor Kimmel demonstrated any interest in the AWS and made no effort to ensure it was properly staffed and trained. Further the Navy chose not to provide the long range air reconnaissance patrols that were to be a part of the AWS. Finally the command and control as exercised by the Army General Staff and the CNO in Washington in the period prior to the attack was weak and badly executed. This was mirrored by the staffs of Short and Kimmel in Hawaii. In short the Japanese surprise attack on December 1941 succeeded because the U.S. C3IR systems in place failed. As Wohlsetter clearly shows Pearl Harbor was caused by multiple U.S. Military failures of concept and execution.

This book wisely does not speculate on the pre-Pearl Harbor actions of the U.S. civil government under President Franklin Roosevelt. The evidence here is much more complex and subject to interpretation.

The first two (petulant) reviews here rather miss the point. Wohlstetter's "Pearl Harbor" is a venerable classic which is still read and quoted from more than 40 years after publication. (It is, for example, referred to by historian and strategist John Lewis Gaddis in the lead article of the Jan/Feb 2005 issue of "Foreign Affairs.")

If you haven't read "Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision," then you really aren't prepared for serious discussions with well-informed people about such things as "pre-emptive" and "preventive" wars.