But Not in Shame: The Six Months After Pearl Harbor

by John Toland

Currently being serialized prior to publication in Look magazine, John Toland's But Not in Shame is a compelling, candid appraisal of one of America's most controversial periods, the 1st 6 months of warfare after the Pearl Harbor attack. Big & sweeping, hotly recalling & recording many sensationalized episodes, often igniting all the powderkeg suspense of a thriller, this appears to be a work of popular punch & persuasion, undoubtedly destined for some best-seller notchings. Based on documents, manuscripts, private diaries, letters, hundreds of interviews in 8 countries with generals & admirals, privates & civilians, including Homilo, Nimitz & Akirn Nara, But Not in Shame has both the aura of authenticity & the sting of a not-till-now-could-it-be-told disclosure. It tackles much of the sub-rosa political intrigue & hysteria of American & British policy, the agonizing early Pacific defeats, Singapore's shocking downfall, MacArthur's escape to Australia, the unplanned, gratuitous barbarism of the average Japanese soldier towards American & Filipino prisoners on the infamous Death March, the brutal Java Sea battle, Bataan's tragic surrender & the ultimate Midway victory. It analyses Japanese tactics, our own shortsightedness, unpreparedness & confusion, along with many telling portraits of Roosevelt, Wainwright, Colin Kelly, Doolittle, Colonel Hattori, Halsey, Tom Dooley & all the other famous figures & the myths & tales that rose around them. This is hard-hitting, snappy, gripping & gritty set-the-record-straight reporting, a major addition to the coverage of the Pacific WWII campaign, one which will hardly go unnoticed.--Kirkus (edited)
Part I - Timetable for Conquest
Part II - The Defenses Crumble
Part III - Battle for Bataan
Part IV - Death of Two Empires
Part V - The Battling Bastards of Bataan
Part VI - From Humiliation to Victory
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Military History, War, American History, Military Fiction

479 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John^Toland - 17th century theologian, Philosopher & Satirist
John^^Toland - American writer and historian (WWII & Dillinger)
John^^^Toland - Article: "The Man who Reads Minds"

John Willard Toland (June 29, 1912 in La Crosse, Wisconsin - January 4, 2004 in Danbury, Connecticut) was an American author and historian. He is best known for his biography of Adolf Hitler.[1]

Toland tried to write history as a straightforward narrative, with minimal analysis or judgment. This method may have stemmed from his original goal of becoming a playwright. In the summers between his college years, he travelled with hobos and wrote several plays with hobos as central characters, none of which achieved the stage.[2] At one point he managed to publish an article on dirigibles in Look magazine; it proved extremely popular and led to his career as a historian.

One exception to his general approach is his Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath about the Pearl Harbor attack and the investigations of it, in which he wrote about evidence that President Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance of plans to attack the naval base but remained silent. The book was widely criticized at the time. Since the original publication, Toland added new evidence and rebutted early critics. Also, an anonymous source, known as "Seaman Z" (Robert D. Ogg) has since come forth to publicly tell his story.

Perhaps his most important work, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, is The Rising Sun. Based on original and extensive interviews with high Japanese officials who survived the war, the book chronicles Imperial Japan from the military rebellion of February 1936 to the end of World War II. The book won the Pulitzer because it was the first book in English to tell the history of the war in the Pacific from the Japanese point of view, rather than from an American perspective.

The stories of the battles for the stepping stones to Japan, the islands in the Pacific which had come under Japanese domination, are told from the perspective of the commander sitting in his cave rather than from that of the heroic forces engaged in the assault. Most of these commanders committed suicide at the conclusion of the battle, but Toland was able to reconstruct their viewpoint from letters to their wives and from reports they sent to Tokyo. Toland died in 2004 of pneumonia.

While predominantly a non-fiction author, Toland also wrote two historical novels, Gods of War and Occupation. He says in his autobiography that he earned little money from his Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Rising Sun, but was set for life from the earnings of his biography of Hitler, for which he also did original research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tol...

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The late John Toland has to have been the best writer on World War II subjects. His prose is easier to read than anyone's. He knows just the kind of incident and detail to include that pulls a reader along. His books all read like rattling good novels, not like dry recitations of dates and places and arms positions and so on. I hope someday to read all of this books. This particular one starts with Pearl Harbor and details the disastrous series of defeats endured by the American and British forces in the Pacific rim until the breakthrough at Midway. The Philippines standoff that ended in the infamous Bataan Death March is amazingly told here. Escapes by sea and tragic sinkings and losses of life are evocatively detailed. This is a great book. I am a huge Toland fan. His bio of Hitler is a masterpiece.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this and many other books about WWII primarily because of my father and mother. Dad had served as an army cryptanalyst attached to the navy in both theatres, having been drafted out of Northwestern University. He'd been in Oran after the invasion of North Africa, off the coast of Sicily during its invasion, on the command ship during the battle of Leyte Gulf and was staging for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. Although awarded a sharpshooting medal, he never fired a gun at anyone and raised my brother and myself as virtual pacifists. He'd hated the service. In four years he'd had one weekend home with the family. Mother, five years younger than Dad, had grown up in Oslo, Norway during the war. Her parents' home, a duplex, was appropriated for German boarders--"officers and their women" as the family put it. Some of her friends had been shot by the occupiers for acts of resistance. Mother herself was a smuggler of resistance materials as were many of her friends from gymnasium.

Most of my reading about WWII had been about Germany and the war in Europe. I picked up the Toland book after reading his two volume biography of Hitler, wanting a simple introduction to the war in the Pacific. A popular history, I got what I expected.

[Hatuxka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as a juvenile, fascinated me for some reason how the Japanese defeated the european colonial powers at the outset of WWII. The ease of it foreshadowed how quickly their colonial hold in these various places would fall.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history book clearly and succinctly explains how the Japanese were able to expand their empire in the Western Pacific so rapidly after their successful attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Essentially, European colonial powers (Britain, France & the Dutch) were too weak in the Pacific due to losses they suffered at the hands of Germany in Europe, or as with the British, their forces were concentrated on still defending their homeland against Germany. Now, with the U.S. Fleet severely limited by their losses at Pearl Harbor, the Western Allies collectively were too weak to stop the Japanese Armed Forces from capturing their former colonial possessions. So, French Indochina fell without a fight, British Malaya and Singapore was poorly defended and even with the help of allies, the Dutch could do little to defend the Dutch East Indies. There is good detail on how the Philippines fell despite courageous resistance by Fil-American forces. For the first time, I learned about General MacArthur and later General Wainwright being given false hope by FDR and General Marshall about help coming to the Philippines. This material is a little dated as it was published in 1961 and more records about the Japanese behavior in the war as well as more U.S. information being declassified has broadened history’s analysis of this phase of the war. But still, it is an excellent overview of this time period in the Pacific during World War II and it may help spark the reader’s interest in a particular battle or campaign and inspire them to dig deeper and read a more detailed account of specific battles or campaigns.

[I’m a Paula too… Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pearl Harbor’s aftermath…

I believe I originally read this in the ‘60’s when I was in high school. The attack on Pearl Harbor was still significant in history. Honestly, I don’t believe today’s generation understands or even thinks about how impactful this was on the United States at that time. The attack was roughly 20-25 years old at that point, and there were still people who had been in the war as soldiers, or had been exposed to the major indignities against Japanese Americans. Those of us who live on the West Coast especially know what was done. People become complete idiots when paranoia sets in…

But I digress slightly. I already knew a lot about some of this because my dad was in the Pacific during the war. I was able to trace his journey that included being basically rescued from Corregidor and setting up camp in Adelaide. He was gone for three years according to my mom. Obviously, it was a totally different world.

The author, John Toland, wrote several books about the war, and I believe he’s a Pulitzer prize winner. I’m planning to read the rest of his books, as this stretch of history is very interesting to me. This is not light reading. But if you find history as interesting as I do, I highly recommend this book.

[Joe Hodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too many books zip through the Allied defeats after Pearl Harbor, skipping ahead to the revenge of the Doolittle Raid or the decisive victory at Midway. Toland’s book focuses on the defeats in Singapore, the Philippines, Java and elsewhere, giving these battles and their participants their due and helping show how the Allies learned from their mistakes and the Japanese fell prey to overconfidence. It would be an interesting counterfactual if Allied victories at the Java Sea or elsewhere might have caused the Japanese to be more cautious or adjust their tactics, perhaps leading to more success for them later in the war.

[Bill V · Rating 5 out of 5]

While not perfect, this is a great book, even if it is limited to the first six months of the war. I learned more about the Philippines campaign, which is a section of this book, than I knew from books devoted to the campaign.
There aren't that many maps, there are a few minor factual errors and some facts are omitted (presumably for the sake of brevity) but the book belongs in any history buff's library.

[Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy to read account of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle in the Java Sea and the Battle of Midway. I found the Dutch translation (called "Zonder waarschuwing viel de vijand aan") by Ton van Beers below average. He lacked the knowledge of correct naval terminology. The pictures and the drawings add to the quality of the book. The author adds his well balanced and fair conclusions. Overall I can recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in the battles in the Pacific during WW2.

[Rudy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typically Toland, like a screenplay. Having first read the Rising Sun, the scope of which is much more broad, I was reluctant to cover the same ground. However, these first 6 months are indeed the crux of the gamble of the Japanese at the time; the scope is narrow to the war concept of the Japanese Naval staff. Remarkable how the span of 15 minutes in Midway changed the entire course of the Pacific.

[Mark Mears · Rating 5 out of 5]

But Not in Shame:
The Six Months After Pearl Harbor

By: John Toland

I highly recommend this book. Toland does an excellent job of humanizing and highlighting the heroic professionals who left with few options because their country was not ready for war. Wake, the Philippines, combat at sea. Toland demonstrated the successes amongst the defeats.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic study of the period from Pearl Harbor to Midway, blending the perspectives of the high command with the experiences of the men and women on the shifting front lines.

[Jeff J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coverage of the Pacific war during the period between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up an original 1961 version at a used book story, excellent Buy on an Excellent story. Many first hand interviews are cited relative to the events of the first 6 months of WWII with focus on the Philippine battles over Clark and at Bataan and Corregidor with the infamous Death March. Alos covered are the early naval engagements of Java Sea, Coral Sea and Midway. An excellent overview and orientation to those early dark days of WWII, based on first hand accounts and experiences.

[Robert Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

How America slowly turned defeat at Pearl Harbor to victory in six months. It's all here from its fleet at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, its Army holding out against all odds on Bataan, then the Death March, a daring raid on Tokyo and two great naval battles that would check Imperial Japan advance in the Pacific. This book really shows how unprepared America was from war in the Pacific. A very good read of the first six months of the war with Japan.

[Chris Langer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished up "But Not In Shame" by John Toland. What a fantastic, fantastic book covering the 6 months following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. From the fall of the Philippines to the pivotal Battle of Midway, Toland was excellent in his narrative detail. Easily one of my favorite books. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone interested in the Pacific Theater of WWII.

[Ruth Bingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tells the WW2 story of the bombing of Pearl Harbour & battles of the Pacific from both sides. Covers the fall of Singapore, Hong Kong, Phillippines, Java, finishes with the battle of Midway which the America won

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Call it 3.5 stars. Good, very anectdotal account of the Pacific war during the first six months after Pearl Harbor (Duh! Maybe I thought I should mention that in case you couldn't understand the subtitle). Goes up to the Battle of Midway. Uses many personal interviews.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 6 months of WW2 in the Pacific - from defeat to victory

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First good history focused on the first six months of the pacific war.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of the events following the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II. Although somewhat dated, Toland's work still offers a solid recounting of the disasters that befell the Allies throughout the Pacific as Japan's army and navy strung together an almost uninterrupted string of victories. Toland covers the events in the Philippines and Bataan in detail, but also gives good coverage of the battles in Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Wake Island and the Java Sea. A very good historical read that is still worth giving a read.