Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th

Pearl Harbor #1

by Newt Gingrich

From the bestselling authors of the beloved American Civil War series, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen launch an epic adventure by applying their imaginations and knowledge to the "Date of Infamy"―the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor covers the full spectrum of character and events of that historic moment, from national leaders and admirals to the views of ordinary citizens caught in the chaos of war. From the chambers of the Emperor of Japan to the American White House, from the decks of aircraft carriers to the playing fields of the Japanese Naval Academy, this powerful story stretches from the nightmare slaughter of China in the 1930s to the lonely office of Commander James Watson, an American cryptographer, who suspects the impending catastrophic attack. It is a story of intrigue, double-dealing, the horrific brutality of war, and the desperate efforts by men of reason on both sides to prevent a titanic struggle that becomes inevitable.

A compelling, meticulously researched saga, Pearl Harbor is also a novel of valor about those who took party in this cataclysmic moment in world history. It inaugurates a dramatic new Pacific War series that begins with the terrifying account of the day that started it all.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Alternate History, Historical, World War II, War, Military Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2007

About the author

Newt Gingrich is well-known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. After he was elected Speaker, he disrupted the status quo by moving power out of Washington and back to the American people. Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, the first balanced budget in a generation, and the first tax cut in sixteen years. In addition, the Congress restored funding to strengthen defense and intelligence capabilities, an action later lauded by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

Today Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. He is a Senior Advisor at Dentons, the world’s largest law firm with more than 6,500 lawyers in 50 countries and offices in more than 125 cities. He advises the firm’s world-class Public Policy and Regulation practice. He is also a Senior Scientist at Gallup.

From May 2011 to May 2012, Newt Gingrich was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, winning the South Carolina and the Georgia primaries. The campaign was especially notable for its innovative policy agenda, its effort to bring new coalitions into the Republican fold, and for Newt’s debate performances. His $2.50 a gallon energy plan set off a nationwide discussion about the use of America’s energy resources.
But there is a lot more to Newt Gingrich than these remarkable achievements. As an author, Newt has published twenty-nine books including 14 fiction and nonfiction New York Times best-sellers.
Non-fiction books include his latest, Breakout, in addition to A Nation Like No Other, Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny, To Save America, Rediscovering God in America, 5 Principles for a Successful Life, Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less, Real Change, A Contract with the Earth, Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America, To Renew America, Lessons Learned the Hard Way, Saving Lives & Saving Money, Window of Opportunity, and The Art of Transformation. He is also the author of a series of historical fiction books including, Gettysburg, Grant Comes East, Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant the Final Victory, 1945, Pearl Harbor, Days of Infamy, To Make Men Free, To Try Men’s Souls, Valley Forge, and Victory at Yorktown. These novels are active history studies in the lessons of warfare based on fictional accounts of historical wartime battles and their aftermaths. His latest novel, Treason, is the sequel to Duplicity and is a thriller of Washington intrigue and international terrorism.

Newt and his wife, Callista, host and produce historical and public policy documentaries. Recent films include The First American, Divine Mercy: The Canonization of John Paul II, A City Upon A Hill, America at Risk, Nine Days That Changed The World, Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny, Rediscovering God in America, Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage, and We Have the Power.

In his post-Speaker role, Newt has become one of the most highly sought-after public speakers, accepting invitations to speak before prestigious organizations throughout the world. Because of his own unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Newt is able to share unique and unparalleled insights on a wide range of topics. His audiences find him to be not only educational but also inspirational. For more information about Newt’s speaking engagements, please visit the Worldwide Speakers Group.

Widely recognized for his commitment to a better system of health for all Americans, his leadership in the U.S. Congress helped save Medicare from bankruptcy, prompted FDA reform to help the seriously ill and initiated a new focus on research, prevention, and wellness. His contributions have been so great that the American Diabetes Association awarded him their highest non-medical award and the March of Dimes named him their 1995 Citizen of the Year.
To foster a modern health system that provide

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't generally read a lot of fiction, partly because, well, truth is often more interesting than fiction. I make exceptions occasionally for good science fiction including alternative history. Pearl Harbor by Newt Gingrich isn't very sciency but deals instead with what if scenarios. He attempts to show how one change can make a huge difference in an outcome. That change that he introduces here is that Japanese Admiral Yamamoto decides to personally lead the Japanese fleet replacing Admiral Nagumo, who in reality launched two waves of attacks destroying or damaging many of America's Battleships, aircraft, other ships, and facilities. There was a planned third wave that was to have followed up to target oil storage tanks and dry dock facilities that, if done, would have crippled the Americans' ability to repair and fuel the fleet locally. Nagumo decided that enough damage had been done with the first two attacks with minor losses on their part so he turned and headed back towards Japan. This allowed the US to recover months and maybe years sooner than would have been the case if the repair facilities and fuel supplies had been destroyed. In the alternative history, Yamamoto (who was much more of a risk taker) would likely have pressed on with the third wave of attacks and potentially have set back recovery by the US many months at a minimum. The alternative history runs from there with quite divergent results and a prolonged Pacific war. The author makes use of some fictional characters to interact with historical ones to produce dialog to explain the logic behind their assessments and decisions. If you've read much about the Pearl Harbor attack, you should find this quite engaging. I had to immediately follow this book with Days of Infamy, the next stage in the alternative history to play out by this author. I thought overall it stayed close with historical facts except where it likely would have been impacted by the changes introduced.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is...yeah you know what I'm going to say...interesting.

I've read other alternate histories by the author(s) and while I go 4 stars on this one I think it doesn't quite reach the quality level of some other of their works.

Why? Well the book is on a subject that fascinates me (at least some what) as I'm a long time history buff and find WW2 one of the most interesting times in history as so much hung in the balance and it set up so much of what has come since. What would have happened had the Japanese flown the 3rd sortie which was planned. They also include other "what ifs" here in the day to day and political realms.

So far so good...the problem comes in the "set-up". The book takes forever to get anywhere as we follow the day to day lives of some of our people.

Now I approach this advisedly as I know this/these will be the favorite part(s) for some readers. So...subjective. I prefer more plot driven books and was quite often in the "get on with it frame of mind". I know some readers will enjoy the "interpersonal" parts most and you'll note i did go 4 stars. So maybe the writers hit that happy medium that will appeal to most readers. I'd say alternate history fans, historical fiction fans, some history and WW2 buffs...and for all i know others will like this(these). I'd say try it (them).

Recommended.

[Carol Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty run of the mill alternative history, the sort of thing Harry Turtledove could do in his sleep. The best writing for some reason focuses entirely on the Japanese point of view. Genda and Fuchida, the brilliant young pilots, are historical figures -- and are about fifty times more compelling than Watson and Cecil, the two stick-figure good guys from the allied side. Paging Pug Henry!

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a work of FICTION. So, I read it as such. Interesting storylines in this story about Pearl Harbor. However, I'd rather read NON-FICTION stories about WW11 so, this wasn't really my cup of tea. There was a mixture of the actual stuff that took place but the FICTION took over quickly and well, it became confusing and messed my train of thought. At times it was a bit difficult to separate the fiction and nonfiction stuff that was inserted in the story and that's why a TWO. Again I know it was FICTION.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

With joint author William R. Forstchen. I thought this was a novel of historical fiction. Turns out it's "active history" (authors' description) - or what most people would call "alternate history." Much of the story is based on the normal, documented facts; but then at some point they choose to diverge and play the "what if" game. So you have to be sure you know what's "real" in order to play along. I suppose the "December 8" in the title is a clue; the actual attack was on December 7 in Hawaii, but date in Japan was Dec. 8. So much of this is from the Japanese viewpoint. Also, a fictional "third wave" of attack occurs a day later in this book which is part of the non-historic part.

Most of the book is setup for the last few sections, which document the actual attach on Pearl Harbor. I found the writing style in the earlier sections uninspiring at best, forced and amateurish in many places (didn't they have an editor??). Some of the political overview for the story is laid out in conversations between a character and Winston Churchill, in which the fictional character gives long detailed briefings. Ugh.

The attack itself was interesting reading. But the book drops off abruptly - obviously preparing for a sequel (I think it's intended to be a trilogy). But I doubt I'll read any more from these authors. Just not my style.

[Christian D. D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“PEARL HARBOR: A NOVEL OF DECEMBER 8TH” by Gingrich & Forstchen

Mr. Gingrich, former Speaker of the House who ushered in the GOP’s historic recapture of Congress in 1994, and Mr. Forstchen, bestselling author of the harrowing One Second After (the John Matherson trilogy) dystopian post-EMP attack fiction series, have combined their talents to produce an first-rate and highly engrossing alternate history (“Active History,” the authors call it) of the Pearl Harbor bombing and the world events leading up to it in the preceding 7 years, skilfully mixing real-world historical figures (FDR, Churchill, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Mitsuo Fuchida, Minoru Genda, “Bull” Halsey, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel) with fictitious ones such as co-protagonists Cecil Stanford and James Watson (officers in the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy respectively).

Chock full of historical facts, intense combat scenes, and engaging character development alike, the authors also cover the mindset of both sides of the conflict with open-mindedness, balance, and respect, reminding the reader that there were in fact cooler and rational heads in both the West AND Japan alike that wanted to avoid conflict, but were alas OBE (Overcome By Events, to use a present-day military acronym).

Very enjoyable read overall, with just a few minor nitpicks that keep me from giving you the novel a perfect 5 stars:
(1) Several punctuational typos with commas and quote marks alike, the latter of which sometimes make it difficult to discern which particular character is actually uttering a given snippet of dialogue;
(2) A slightly skewed description of the dogfighting tactics employed by the pilots famed Japanese Mitsubishi Zero fighter plane (from what I understand, they would start off with the faster-firing 7.7mm machine guns to soften up their aerial opponents, and then use the slower-firing but more powerful 20mm cannons to apply the coup de grace).

That nitpick aside, definitely a worthwhile read, and I very much look forward to the sequel, Days of Infamy.

RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS:
—pp. 35-36: Then-LT Fuchida praising both the then-new Devastator torpedo bomber and Gen. Billy Mitchell; oh, the irony!

—pp. 39-40: Fuchida discussing a hypothetical US-Japanese alliance against the Soviets; oh, what might have been. And ah yes, the IJN’s disdain for the Imperial Japanese Army (the feeling was evidently mutual).

—p. 41: Haha, “bawdy chanties,” aaarrr matey, aye!

—pp. 41-42: Ah yes, cool air and proper ventilation goes a long way in mitigating motion sickness (whether on land, sea, or air).

—p. 42: “‘It always feels better when you are in control.’” True of driving as well (especially, once again, when mitigating motion sickness; a psychosomatic thing perhaps?).

—pp 51-52: Churchill!! “‘Good man, can’t see why anyone would water down a proper single malt.’” Haha, my Dad (God rest his soul) would wholeheartedly agree! And ah yes, the cigars!

—p. 57: gekokujo = insubordination

—p.67: WTF?!?! Churchill **inhaling** a cigar?!?!

—p. 69: “Genda Minoru?” Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

—p. 75: “Lieutenant Fuchida” should be “Lieutenant Commander Fuchida.”

—p. 85: Ahem, it is not technically correct to refer to a chief petty officer (or ANY petty officer) as simply an “officer.”

—pp. 89-98: An absolutely harrowing description of the Rape of Nanking.

—p. 120: “One damn bullet...” Ah, yes, the proverbial “golden BB” (the shoot-down of the F-117 Stealth fighter during the Kosovo air campaign [Operation Allied Force] comes to mind).

—p. 144: “‘limb memory,’” or as we usually call it nowadays, “phantom limb.”

—p. 148: aahh, the glamour days of air travel, when they actually served cigars aboard the plane.

—p. 156: Typo/Freudian slip, i.e. “Cecil” instead of “Spaatz.”

—p. 191: Wow, information sharing problems within the Intelligence Community, especially the FBI...just like 9/11, history indeed has a way of repeating itself!

CENTRAL CASTING (hypothetical): David Hedison as Commander (USN)James Watson, Sir Roger Moore (R.I.P.) as Captain (RN) Cecil Stanford

[Wenzel Roessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well done "what if" book of historical fiction, diven by a cast of interesting and well written characters.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting and compelling.

[BJ Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This alternate-history telling of the bombing of Pearl Harbor is mainly from the Japanese viewpoint - thus the December 8th in the title. Much of the book focuses on Japan's Manifest Destiny mindset - that this was their time in history to take control of the Orient, and therefore the United States needed to be neutralized as a fighting power so it could not interfere in Japan's plans. A big message here seems to be that wars do not just happen - Japan had meticulously planned every detail of their systematic takeover in China, in Indonesia, etc. - but as happens throughout history, signals are misread or ignored by others.

If you are not a WWII scholar, it could be easy to miss when the factual becomes alternate-history, but I am one of those readers who are glad that the book is not full of footnotes that would flag those points. The Internet is full of instant information, and thus becomes an informative history lesson. I am now moving on to Days of Infamy to see how these authors use the revised results of the Pearl Harbor attack to tell an alternate story of the remainder of the war with Japan.

This would have been a 5* review but for the abominable editing in the first part of the book - either it got better as the book progressed, or I got used to it. I convinced myself after a while that I could tell, by the sentence structure (or lack of it!), which author was writing. In any case, it was pure laziness in the editing department - and really an insult to the reader that more care was not taken.

All that said - on to Book Two!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and Sweet: I could not put this novel down. It is just as good as the trilogy the authors wrote about Gettysburg. In those books, the writers changed history so that Lee won at Gettysburg and what happened after that.

In this two-book series (of which this is the first), the writer basically one thing: Instead of sitting in Japan during the attack, Admiral Yamamoto sailed with the Japanese fleet.

***Spoiler Alert***

In the real battle of Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nagumo called off the third wave of the attack and sailed back to Japan. Here, Yamamoto launches the third wave which inflicts some additional terrible damage. Then, because the American carriers were not at Pearl and he knows the huge importance of carriers, he stays on station to try and find the American carriers and sink them. That is where the next book, "Days of Infamy," begins.

In real life, Nagumo was a battleship man who believe in their supremacy and the carriers were only used for support. Of course, history has shown that was not a good assumption. Carriers and their aircraft decided WWII...just look at the battle of Midway...the first naval battle where the ships never saw each other.

This was an amazing, well research novel. Gingrich and his fellow writers worked with many historians to try and work up the most plausible scenario for this what-if novel.

Highly recommended.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice "recreational read", a good way to escape after a day at the office. The literary equivalent of renting a Netflix film. But if you are looking for historical fiction ala Shaara (Dad or Son), then you'll want to stay away.... There are more than enough historical errors in this book to qualify it as pure fiction. I was surprised the Gingrich would play so lose with historical fact ex: Akagi was sunk at Midway, not Pearl; the Lexington is currently in Corpus Christi, TX, not at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. As a matter of fact, Gingrich seems to have combined the battles of Midway and Pearl Harbor into a 2 day affair that took place between Dec 7-9th, 1941 (Midway happened some 6 months later).
I am at a loss to understand why Gingrich took such historical "liberties". He could have written the same book, while honoring the historical record.
As a result, I'm not sure if I'll continue with this series, preferring the Shaara (or even Michener), for historical novels...

[D.A. Bale · Rating 1 out of 5]

No disrespect, but this novel bored me to tears. It was not engaging in any way and they "played" with history too much in my opinion. I'm a very big World War II buff and read a good deal of non-fiction on the subject, but textbook material is more engaging than this attempt at a novelization of history. Didn't even bother to pick up the second in the series. Very disappointing!

[David Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book #1 AFTER I had read the sequel book (Days of Infamy #2) ... because I was more intrigued about the aftermath of the “alternate facts” posed by the author than the buildup. I’m glad I did. But I’m sure the authors prefer the books be read in order. I liked the first book bette4 than the second. The first book reads like any historical buildup to the attack on Pearl Harbor, with the inserts of several chapters on a personal level who play all the way through both books - for two-thirds of this book, and then for the last third of this book the author changes history for a few key facts. It sends the rest of this book on a dramatic new trajectory. And it sets up the second book perfectly. These are good authors. The facts and alternate facts are well researched and laid out clearly, certainly plausible. So when reading the actual history gets a little repetitious and predictable, it is interesting to introduce the alternate facts scenario and let imaginative writers run with it. I was really getting into Midway and Pearl Harbor over these past couple months — and I liked turning it into some interesting fiction at the end of all this research. Kinda fun.

[Chance · Rating 5 out of 5]

When are first heard the term action-history I thought it just a cute way of saying alternate history genre. Then I was feeling egg on my face from the truth. The term action history is a term in of it’s self it blends a of college thesis paper on a subject of what lead to an events outcome and the creative story dislog to give depth and realism to the choices that might've been.

The first novel by Newt Gingrich starts mostly similar to how are timeline went up till the weeks leading to December 8 A day that will live in infamy. Then has the reaches the end the little things connect creating the divergent point for the secound book that builds off and how from a sneak attack to cripple US navel forces in the pacific. It leads to the second book that be the subjects man point of action-history how it might’ve endded differently but I ain’t going to spoil book 2 for you.

[David Mc · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are an endless number of positive things that could be said about this novel. To begin with, the authors are truly magnificent writers, with the words often flowing off the page. More importantly, their “what if” take on Pearl Harbor is based on sound facts, as opposed to throwing things in from left field. In addition, I enjoyed the way the authors shifted from the viewpoint of the Americans, to that of the Japanese, and then to British. Indeed, if there is an alternate universe where Japan’s attack was flawless in its success, Gingrich and Forstchen have captured it in this novel.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice alternative history to the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. The authors call this "active" history or something like that. After reading their explanation of the difference between "alternate" and "active" history, I don't see the difference. Yet, with that minor thing aside, it IS a good, interesting book to obtain! I enjoyed the background on the characters -- both on the Allied and the Japanese sides -- which the authors then made to be somewhat instrumental in the wartime decisions that the characters make. All in all, I liked the book and encourage you to read it!

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit different from other novels I've read that concern the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor since it follows some Japanese as well as American and British characters. Also, it is a sort of alternative to what really happen since it is concerned with what might have happened had the Japanese sent in a third wave of bombers to wipe out the oil reserves and dry dock at Pearl Harbor.

[Claudia Pope · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the character development was very good. I di not like the rewriting of history. We know that Yamamota did not lead the attack, Nagumo did. We know that Halsey was not on the Enterprise as he was sick in bed. There were not three strikes on Pearl, Admiral Kimmel was not killed in the attack and the oil tanks were not hit. If someone was not familiar with the attack on Pearl Harbor, this would give a very misleading idea of what actually happened.

[Hoa Hồ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Đọc xong câu chuyện thấy mình đang mạnh mẽ hơn, tràn đầy nguồn năng lượng và phát hiện ra cái đẹp. Những chuyến bay thật diệu kỳ từ người phi công đến những chiếc máy bay tưởng chừng như vô tri vô giác ấy. Sức sống mãnh liệt đứng dậy sau những đau thương, mất mát, ý chí không thể bẻ gãy, sắc và nhọn. Tình yêu đôi lứa, tình yêu tổ quốc, tình yêu đối với hòa bình nhân loại.

[Suzi Luger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written very well. The authors do a great job of painting a descriptive picture of the intricacies of relationships and interactions that happened prior to Pearl Harbor with a focused look at Japan. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about US history even if you are not a history buff.

[Allyson Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly fascinating approach to the send up to December 8th. While considered historical fiction, I fact checked throughout and learned so much about what really led to the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor. I love historical novels that get me to put the book down to explore the history of people, places and events. I highly recommend this read.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical novel imagines the 1941 destruction of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese but including a strike that took out the installation’s dry dock and oil tanks, making a relatively short recovery almost impossible. Concludes (for a sequel) with the Japanese commander reacting to what such total destruction what likely to awaken in Americans.

[Steve Nichols · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was sort of disappointed. I learned some new stuff, but there was way too much conjecture and some parts contained blatant syntactical and grammatical errors. Whoever proofed it did a poor job, IMO.

[Ronald Rafajko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative book. Highly recommended for anyone that loves history.

So sad that the Japanese had shared their work perfecting aircraft dive bombing of ships well before Pearl Harbor - and we did very little to protect ourselves!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good depiction of Pearl Harbor from three sides.

Yes, I would recommend this book for WWII students.
I enjoyed reading viewpoints of the 3 countries.
I thought it was ended abruptly.

[James L.Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, Have Read several times over as well as listened to Audio version. It is an excellent writing in alternative history. Also provides good approach to building US - Japanese tensions that led to Pearl Harbor.

[Sarah Schuelke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love when a book can make you forget about the subject matter actually happened. I loved how the book approached from both sides of the battle. I wish it spent more time with the victims of Pearl Harbor though.

[Bob Engeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and enjoyable alternate history of buildup to Pearl Harbor and the attack. Not as captivating as their Civil War alternative history books but a worthwhile read. Will read follow-up book Days Of Infamy and hope for a bit more...

[Don Zurawski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what I expected. A very entertaining story of the events that led to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Never knew the backstory from a Japaneses perspective. One of those books that I looked forward to continuing to read.

[Michael Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love historical fiction. Jeff Shaara is the master. This book is well written, and moves quickly...it was just not my cup of tea. Besides, it has been done before by other authors, like Harry Turtledove. If you like alternative history, read this book. You will be entertained.