The History Book Club discussion

This seems to be another provocative act which led to war and should have its own thread for discussion.

This thread will be dedicated to the discussion of the Attack on Pearl Harbor.

Many members of families who were significantly affected by this act on that day have passed on; many are still with us and our thoughts and prayers still go out to the families who lost dear members so needlessly.

Two good, but slightly dated books that I have read on the Attack on Pearl Harbor have been; "At Dawn We Slept" by Gordon W. Prange and "Day of Infamy" by Walter Lord.

by Gordon W. Prange
Description:
At 7:53 a.m., December 7, 1941, America's national consciousness and confidence were rocked as the first wave of Japanese warplanes took aim at the U.S. Naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. As intense and absorbing as a suspense novel, At Dawn We Slept is the unparalleled and exhaustive account of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is widely regarded as the definitive assessment of the events surrounding one of the most daring and brilliant naval operations of all time. Through extensive research and interviews with American and Japanese leaders, Gordon W. Prange has written a remarkable historical account of the assault that-sixty years later-America cannot forget.

Reviews:
"Diligent, thorough, and evenhanded...At Dawn We Slept is the definitive account of Pearl Harbor." - Chicago Sun-Times

"Prange's exhaustive interviews of people on both sides enable him to tell the story in such personal terms that the reader is bound to feel its power..." - The New York Times Book Review

by Walter Lord
Description:
Sunday, December 7, 1941, was, as President Roosevelt said, "a date which will live in infamy." Day of Infamy is a fascinating account of that unforgettable day's events. In brilliant detail Walter Lord traces the human drama of the great attack: the spies behind it; the Japanese pilots; the crews on the stricken warships; the men at the airfields and the bases; the Japanese pilot who captured an island single-handedly when he could not get back to his carrier; the generals, the sailors, the housewives, and the children who responded to the attack with anger, numbness, and magnificent courage.

In piecing together the saga of Pearl Harbor, Lord traveled over fourteen thousand miles and spoke or corresponded with over five hundred individuals who were there. He obtained exclusive interviews with members of the Japanese attacking force and spent hundreds of hours with the Americans who received the blow -- not just the admirals and generals, but enlisted men and families as well. He visited each of the Hawaiian bases attacked and pored over maps, charts, letters, diaries, official files, newspapers, and some twenty-five thousand pages of testimony, discovering a wealth of information that had never before been revealed. Day of Infamy is an inspiring human document and the best account we have of one of the epic events in American history.

Reviews:
". . . the surprise assault an Pearl Harbor . . . as engrossing as the story of the sinking of the Titanic and more harrowing." - The Atlantic

"A behind-the-scenes story that is utterly fascinating." - Chicago Sunday Tribune

"Stuns the reader with the weight of reality." - James Michener, (The New York Times)

"There have been many books on Pearl Harbor . . . but none of them have ever equaled Lord’s in telling the story of Pearl Harbor." - Stephen E. Ambrose

"The carefully planned hour-by-hour recording of the surprise assault on Pearl Harbor . . . is as engrossing as the story of the sinking of the Titanic and more harrowing." - The Atlantic

"The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that precipitated U.S. involvement in World War II is described here by the participants themselves. Author Lord performed an enormous amount of research, some of which is described at the recording's end, and spent considerable time locating and interviewing survivors from both sides of the battle. Tom Parker gives an excellent reading of the text. His narration is paced to the rapid sequence of events, uncertainty, confusion, and suspense experienced by those caught in the great battle. The listener who is not a student of the battle will be carried along by both the astonishing acts of courage and the incredible instances of denial that persisted even while the attack was underway! Recommended for all history collections, wherein it can be enjoyed by folks of all ages." - Library Journal

One book that I am yet to read and covers a different aspect of the attack on Pearl Harbor rather than the aerial assault is; "First Shot" by John Craddock.

by John Craddock
Review:
"Sent ahead of the air assault on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese mini sub was destroyed, nearly destroying Japan’s deadly surprise. If we had only known even a bit of what John Craddock tells now, our own history could have been so very different." - Sherry Sontag, (co-author of Blind Man’s Bluff; The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage)

Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation Into War

Steven M. Gillon

Synopsis

Franklin D. Roosevelt famously called December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.” History would prove him correct; the events of that day—when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor—ended the Great Depression, changed the course of FDR’s presidency, and swept America into World War II. In Pearl Harbor, acclaimed historian Steven M. Gillon provides a vivid, minute-by-minute account of Roosevelt’s skillful leadership in the wake of the most devastating military assault in American history. FDR proved both decisive and deceptive, inspiring the nation while keeping the real facts of the attack a secret from congressional leaders and the public.

Pearl Harbor explores the anxious and emotional events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor, showing how the president and the American public responded in the pivotal twenty-four hours that followed, a period in which America burst from precarious peace into total war.

As our generation can remember exactly what we were doing on 9/11, the greatest generation remembers where they were when they heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack on the radio. My Mother told me many times that she was not quite sure what was happening (kind of an Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" reaction) but then all the neighbors ran out into the street and she realized that it was not a hoax.

So true, Jill. It must have been a scary time.

My dad used to describe how he felt that day. He was 17 at the time, and like many other boys in the US, he lied about his age and joined the fight. That truly was the greatest and bravest generation. Patriotism was so strong during those war years. I miss my dad terribly and his discussions with me. So proud of his 33 years of service to our beloved country.

Great story, Francie. I have heard about the men who lied about their age to serve. Did he stay on in the service after WWII?

Thank you, Bryan. Yes, he was in the Air Force for 33 years. He was my hero in uniform.

Wow, impressive.

Pearl Harbor certainly was a wake up call and big motivator for people to enlist.

Bless you Francie.

Thank you, Jill. Bless my dad and all our wonderful soldiers.

Amen to that.

Written by a Japanese American author whose parents were re-located to an internment camp in the United States, this book gives us a civilian's eyewitness account of the "day that will live in infamy". Note: This is a book for the younger reader and will help the pre-teen or young adult understand the incident that drew the USA into WWII.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

by Shelley Tanaka

Synopsis:

As thirteen-year-old Peter Nottage stood in the yard, watching in disbelief, a group of Japanese fighter planes swooped down, spraying machine-gun fire across thee water. Then the first bomb dropped - and in minutes, Kaneohe Bay was a sea of smoke and flames. To the south, at Pearl Harbor, the huge ships of the American feet were ablaze. This was no drill. This was war!

Through vivid eyewitness accounts, Attack on Pearl Harbor re-creates the dramatic moments of the unforgettable day that America entered World War II. With compelling photographs and memorabilia, and a gripping text that draws on the recollections of American and Japanese civilians, sailors, and airmen, Attack on Pearl Harbor evocatively recreates this tragic day.

Day of Lightning, Years of Scorn: Walter C. Short and the Attack on Pearl Harbor

by Charles Robert Anderson (no photo)

Synopsis:

Walter C. Short is remembered as the U.S. Army general who parked his airplanes wingtip-to-Wingtip making them easy targets for Japanese pilots attacking Hawaii on December 7, 1941. History's harsh indictment of his actions as commander of the Army's Hawaiian department is the result of a series of investigations that placed blame for the disaster on General Short and his Navy counterpart, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel. Over the years various books on Pearl Harbor have presented Short and Kimmel as either fools or scapegoats for Washington officials attempting to hide their own errors. In this long overdue first biography of Short, the general emerges as an honorable man who made some errors. Charles Anderson's balanced portrayal acknowledges that Short bore responsibility for certain charges made against him, but it also provides ample evidence that Short's superiors worked hard to blame him and Kimmel as a way of avoiding their own culpability. Anderson's through research offers readers a new understanding of the larger issues involved, including the glaring lack of interdepartmental cooperation and coordination, particularly in regards to intelligence sharing. The study examines the general's entire career, placing Short in the context of the early twentieth-century Army, and describes his conduct in the face of blistering, often unfair, criticism in the years after the Japanese attack. As the title suggests, a single day undid an exceptional career, but as readers discover it did not undo Short's personal sense of dignity, honesty, and loyalty to the institutions and leaders who shared responsibility for the debacle. This biography is published in cooperation with the Association of theUnited States Army.

Kimmel, Short, and Pearl Harbor: The Final Report Revealed

by Frederic L. Borch (no photo)

Synopsis:

In late 1995 amidst heated debate over the blame placed on Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short for the devastation of the attack on Pearl Harbor and their subsequent demotions, the department of defense ordered its own investigation into the matter. This investigation was the only official inquiry made into the appropriateness of posthumously promoting Kimmel and Short to the ranks they held prior to the attack. As the first investigation to be conducted outside the Army and Navy establishments, it took a fresh look at the controversy. This book reproduces the complete report issued by the investigators with added commentary and an explanation of what it all means by coauthors Fred Borch and Daniel Martinez. Borch was the Army's representative on the team conducting the investigation, and his firsthand knowledge contributes significantly to the analysis presented. Martinez, an acknowledged expert on the attack, gives an important historical perspective to the study. A foreword by Donald Goldstein, part of Gordon Prange's research-writing team for many years, gives further insights in what happened and why on that fateful December day.

For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, the Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor

by Douglas T. Shinsato (no photo)

Synopsis:

Daniel Martinez, Chief Historian at the Pearl Harbor National Monument, states that, "Mitsuo Fuchida is a remarkable man." Commander Fuchida plunged Japan into war with the United States when he led the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. His autobiography was "discovered" in 2007 in his son's basement library in New Jersey, nearly 66 years after the event that changed the world. This Imperial Japanese Navy officer was also at the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Leyte Gulf and in Hiroshima the day before and the day after the atomic bomb was dropped.

Through a chance encounter in Tokyo, he converted to Christianity, and his first testimony in the US was with Billy Graham. During his travels through the US, he met ex-President Truman, President Eisenhower, and many of his former military foes--Nimitz, Halsey, Doolittle, Spruance. He tells a fascinating story of his life in war, peace and religious transformation. Among Pacific War enthusiasts, it is well known that there are a number of "disagreements" and "disputes" surrounding what actually happened at Pearl Harbor and Midway and, in Japan, in the days leading up to the surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri. In his autobiography, Japan's top aviator gives his perspective as an enemy and how, after total defeat and occupation of his country, he embraced America as a friend.

Although there is a film with the same name, this is not the script but, instead, an in-depth history of the how and why of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Recommended.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

by Mark Stille (no photo)

Synopsis:

The Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor is one of the most famous raids in history, if not the most famous. In the early hours of December 7, 1941, the carriers and aircraft of the Japanese First Air Fleet launched a sudden and unexpected attack on the US naval forces anchored in Pearl Harbor, hoping to cripple America's naval capabilities in one decisive blow.

This new study by Mark Stille will address the build-up to, execution of, and fallout from the Pearl Harbor operation. Putting the raid in context, the political and military background will be addressed - Japanese expansion in the Far East, and American responses to it, and the steady increase in tensions between the two powers. The Japanese decision to launch an assault on Pearl Harbor will be considered in detail, from the time constraints faced in planning the raid, alternative operational possibilities, and the bold, stubborn leadership of Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, who was the driving force behind the concept and planning, to the final adoption of the operation, and its place in Japan's national strategy. It is an illuminating new look at one of the most infamous events in modern history.

Jill wrote: "Although there is a film with the same name, this is not the script but, instead, an in-depth history of the how and why of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Recommended.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

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The movie came out long before this book was published. I remember watching Tora, Tora, Tora as a kid. Osprey publishes a lot of histories of units and equipment. Their books are very popular as reference material for model soldier enthusiasts and fine scale modelers. I was a member of a model soldier society club with an artist that has a number of credits with Osprey. It was amazing to listen to him talk about his research.

It was the feared Japanese fighter plane, the Zero that brought the US into the war through their ferocious attack on Pearl Harbor. This book contains interviews with Zero pilots who were there and in other battles in the Pacific.

The Last Zero Fighters



Synopsis:

This book is rich with firsthand accounts from interviews conducted in Japan with five WWII Japanese Naval aviators. All are veterans of the pivotal battles of the Pacific War including; the sinking of the USS Panay, Nanking, Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Rabaul, Port Darwin, the Indian Ocean Raid, Ceylon, Midway, Guadalcanal, Marshall Islands, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the advent of the Kamikaze in the Philippines, the home defense, and the dropping of the atomic bomb.

Approximately, 78 photos are included (many from the veterans' own albums), in addition to 9 original maps and illustrations. The book also includes an introduction to the Japanese pilot training system for both officers and enlisted men. Each pilot is followed from the time he joined the Imperial Japanese Navy until war's end. They explain in their own words why they joined the navy, what they thought about the war, about the aircraft they flew, how they felt about their friends and their former adversaries. The interviews were conducted in Japanese by the author, who is a linguist and Pacific War historian who spent 10 years living in Japan.

This book was put together from photos and eye-witness accounts of Associated Press journalists. Well worth reading.

Pearl Harbor: Day of Infamy

by Associated Press

Synopsis:

The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor prompted the United States to formally enter World War II by declaring war on Japan and its ally Germany. What followed was nearly four long years of worldwide carnage before America and its allies emerged victorious. Revisit the historic event that President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared would ''live in infamy'' through the articles and stunning photographs by Associated Press journalists.

Thank you Jill for getting all of these military threads current.

There are a bunch of them but you know how I love the military topic, so it is fun to keep them updated.

Terrific - there are a lot of them but I do not want to post thank yous on each one - but great job.

I was talking with a professor of diplomatic history and an expert on FDR and WWII, and they both said this is a wonderful book. So, I had to share and will put it on my TBR pile:

Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision

by Roberta Wohlstetter (no photo)

Synopsis:

It would be reassuring to believe that Pearl Harbor was just a colossal and extraordinary blunder. What is disquieting is that it was a supremely ordinary blunder. It was a dramatic failure of a remarkably well-informed government to call the next enemy move in a cold war crisis.

The results, at Pearl Harbor, were sudden, concentrated, and dramatic. The failure, however, was cumulative, widespread, and rather drearily familiar. This why surprise, when it happens to a government, cannot be described just in terms of startled people. Whether at Pearl Harbor or at the Berlin Wall, surprise is everything involved in a government's (or in an alliance's) failure to anticipate effectively.

Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision is a unique physiology of a great national failure to anticipate. Wohlstetter is at pains to show how easy it was to slip into the rut in which the Japanese found us, it can only remind u how likely it is that we are in the same kind of rut right now. The danger is not that we shall read the signals and indicators with too little skill; the danger is in a poverty of expectations—a routine obsessing with a few dangers that may be familiar rather than likely.

Alliance diplomacy, interservice bargaining, appropriations hearings, and public discussion all seem to need to focus on a few vivid and oversimplified dangers. The planner should think in subtler and more variegated terms and all for a wider range of contingencies. But, as Wohlstetter shows, the "planners" who count are also responsible for alliance diplomacy, interservice bargaining, appropriations hearings, and public discussion; they are also very busy. This is a genuine dilemma of government. Some of its consequences are mercilessly displayed in this book.

An hour-by-hour look at the "day that shall live in infamy".

Pearl Harbor Ghosts: The Legacy of December 7, 1941

by Thurston Clarke

Synopsis:

Full of gripping drama and vibrant details, here is the intimate human story of the events surrounding that fateful day of December 7, 1941–the glamorous tropical city that seemed too beautiful to suffer devastation . . . the stunned naval personnel whose lives would permanently be divided into before and after Pearl Harbor . . . the ordinary Honolulu residents who were tragically unprepared to be the first target in the Pacific war . . . the Japanese pilots who manned the squadron of deadly silver bombers . . . and the island’s community of Japanese-Americans whose lives would never be the same again.

Blending meticulous historic recreation with lively reporting, Clarke counterpoints the freeze-frame nightmare of the 1941 bombing with the disturbing realities of present-day Honolulu, where hundreds of veterans, both American and Japanese, converge each year to relive every hour of the attack. Wealthy Waikiki landowners and native Hawaiian farmers, admirals and nurses, Navy wives and government officials–all take their part in Clarke’s rich tapestry of memory and insight. In the end, Pearl Harbor emerges as a trauma that spread from Oahu to engulf the nation and the world–an event that continues to reverberate in the lives of all who experienced it.

An eye-witness account of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

From Shaniko to Pearl Harbor

by Bob Weber(no photo)

Synopsis:

As a twelve-year old eye witness to the devastating attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Bob Weber tells the story of his Dad's journey from Shaniko, Oregon to the Naval base in Hawaii on that fateful Sunday morning.

His father, Oscar, who ran away from home at the age of 15 and became a cowboy in Eastern Oregon, was in the Navy most of his adult life. He was an enlisted man, a member of the reserves working on the base, a re-activated sailor, and finally a retired Chief, working at the Navy Base in Portland, Oregon.

Growing up as a Navy "brat" in a tropical paradise was a special life for Bob. His Dad, the Navy, and Hawaii managed to keep life exciting.

Oscar slept the night of December 6th on the submarine base, and his family came to pick him up the next morning just before 8:00 A.M, right when the bombs started falling. They had a front row seat as the planes swooped over and over, bombing and strafing
everything in their sight.

Their escape and eventual evacuation is an interesting part of history.

Trinette Weber's retelling of of her husband's experiences creates a personal memoir that captures this historic moment in time.

Fascinating!!

Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor

by Donald A. Davis(no photo)

Synopsis:

This is the story of the fighter mission that changed World War II.It is the true story of the man behind Pearl Harbor-Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto---and the courageous young American fliers who flew the million-to-one suicide mission that shot him down.

Yamamoto was a cigar-smoking, poker-playing, English-speaking, Harvard-educated expert on America, and that intimate knowledge served him well as architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next sixteen months, this military genius, beloved by the Japanese people, lived up to his prediction that he would run wild in the Pacific Ocean. He was unable, however, to deal the fatal blow needed to knock America out of the war, and the shaken United States began its march to victory on the bloody island of Guadalcanal.

Donald A. Davis meticulously tracks Yamamoto's eventual rendezvous with death. After American code-breakers learned that the admiral would be vulnerable for a few hours, a desperate attempt was launched to bring him down. What was essentially a suicide mission fell to a handful of colorful and expendable U.S. Army pilots from Guadalcanal's battered "Cactus Air Force":

- Mississippian John Mitchell, after flunking the West Point entrance exam, entered the army as a buck private. Though not a "natural" as an aviator, he eventually became the highest-scoring army ace on Guadalcanal and the leader of the Yamamoto attack.
- Rex Barber grew up in the Oregon countryside and was the oldest surviving son in a tightly knit churchgoing family. A few weeks shy of his college graduation in 1940, the quiet Barber enlisted in the U.S. Army.
- "I'm going to be President of the United States," Tom Lanphier once told a friend. Lanphier was the son of a legendary fighter squadron commander and a dazzling storyteller. He viewed his chance at hero status as the start of a promising political career.
- December 7, 1941, found Besby Holmes on a Pearl Harbor airstrip, firing his .45 handgun at Japanese fighters. He couldn't get airborne in time to make a serious difference, but his chance would come.
- Tall and darkly handsome, Ray Hine used the call sign "Heathcliffe" because he resembled the brooding hero of Wuthering Heights. He was transferred to Guadalcanal just in time to participate in the Yamamoto mission---a mission from which he would never return.

They flew the longest over-water fighter mission ever and ambushed and killed Yamamoto. After his death, the Japanese never won another major naval battle.

But the victorious American pilots seemed cursed by the samurai spirit of the admiral and were tormented for the rest of their lives by what happened that day.
Davis paints unforgettable personal portraits of men in combat and unravels a military mystery that has been covered up at the highest levels of government since the end of the war.

Another author's take on the why's of Pearl Harbor.

Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor

by Robert B. Stinnett(no photo)

Synopsis:

In Day of Deceit, Robert Stinnett delivers the definitive final chapter on America's greatest secret and our worst military disaster.

Drawing on twenty years of research and access to scores of previously classified documents, Stinnett proves that Pearl Harbor was not an accident, a mere failure of American intelligence, or a brilliant Japanese military coup. By showing that ample warning of the attack was on FDR's desk and, furthermore, that a plan to push Japan into war was initiated at the highest levels of the U.S. government, he ends up profoundly altering our understanding of one of the most significant events in American history.

An upcoming book:
Release date: September 20, 2016

Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness

by Craig Nelson (no photo)

Synopsis:

Published in time for the 75th anniversary, a gripping and definitive account of the event that changed twentieth-century America—Pearl Harbor—based on years of research and new information uncovered by a New York Times bestselling author.

The America we live in today was born, not on July 4, 1776, but on December 7, 1941, when almost four hundred Japanese planes attacked the US Pacific fleet, killing 2,400 men and sinking or damaging sixteen ships. In Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness, Nelson follows, moment by moment, the sailors, soldiers, pilots, admirals, generals, emperors, and presidents, all starting with a pre-polio Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, attending the laying of the keel at the Brooklyn Navy Yard of the USS Arizona, against the backdrop of the imperial, military, and civilian leaders of Japan lurching into ultranationalist fascism, all culminating into an insanely daring scheme to shock the Allies with a technologically-revolutionary mission in one of the boldest military stories ever told—one with consequences that continue to echo in our lives today.

Besides the little understood history of how and why Japan attacked America, we can hear the abandoned record player endlessly repeating “Sunrise Serenade” as the Japanese bombs hit the deck of the California, we feel terror as Navy wives, helped by their Japanese maids, upturn couches for cover and hide with their children in caves from a rumored invasion, and we understand the mix of frustration and triumph as a lone American teenager shoots down a Japanese bomber. Backed by a research team’s five years of efforts with archives and interviews producing nearly a million pages of documents, as well as a thorough re-examination of the original evidence produced by federal investigators, this definitive history provides a blow-by-blow account from both the Japanese and American perspectives and is a historical drama on the greatest scale. Nelson delivers all the terror, chaos, violence, tragedy, and heroism of the attack in stunning detail, and offers surprising conclusions about the tragedy’s unforeseen and resonant consequences.

She now proudly rest where she sank, as a memorial to the men who lost their lives in the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.

The USS Arizona: The Ship, the Men, the Pearl Harbor Attack and the Symbol That Aroused America

by Joy Waldron Jasper (no photo)

Synopsis:

"Remember the Arizona!" was the battle cry of American sailors stationed in the Pacific during World War II. The mighty warship, which was bombed at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, became and remains to this day a symbol and rallying point for America's sudden entrance into war.

Here, using eyewitness accounts of the bombing and the sinking, the authors narrate the compelling history of the USS Arizona before, during, and after the attack, and describe the Arizona Memorial's legacy today. This engrossing book includes sixteen pages of photographs and extensive interviews with sailors who survived Imperial Japan's attack. The USS Arizona, published on December 7, 2001, the sixtieth anniversary of the surprise attack, is the only full-length book on the great ship and its beautiful resting place.

One of the most memorable speeches of all times.....President addresses the Congress on December 8, 1941, to ask for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK8gY...

(Source: Youtube)

Memorializing Pearl Harbor: Unfinished Histories and the Work of Remembrance

by Geoffrey M. White (no photo)

Synopsis:

Memorializing Pearl Harbor examines the challenge of representing history at the site of the attack that brought America into World War II. Analyzing moments in which history is re-presented—in commemorative events, documentary films, museum design, and educational programming—Geoffrey M. White shows that the memorial to the Pearl Harbor bombing is not a fixed or singular institution. Rather, it has become a site in which many histories are performed, validated, and challenged. In addition to valorizing military service and sacrifice, the memorial has become a place where Japanese veterans have come to seek recognition and reconciliation, where Japanese Americans have sought to correct narratives of racial mistrust, and where Native Hawaiians have challenged their ongoing erasure from their own land. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork, White maps these struggles onto larger controversies about public history, museum practices, and national memory.

Air Raid...Pearl Harbor! The Story of December 7, 1941

by Theodore Taylor (no photo)

Synopsis

On December 7, 1941, Americans were stunned to learn that Japanese forces had launched an attack on Pearl Harbor. In this engrossing and extensively researched account, Theodore Taylor examines both sides of the battle, taking a close look at the events leading up to it and providing compelling insight into the motives and operations of the brave men and women swept up in the fight.

I just finished this book and it is an amazing tale of the truth behind the "surprise" of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath

by John Willard Toland

Synopsis:

The controversial, best-selling investigation of the events surrounding Pearl Harbor acclaimed as "a shocking account of judgments distorted by politics & career hunger & racism... fascinating reading.

This book looks controversial but since I haven't read it, I am only going by the GR blurb. It might be worth a look.

Pearl Harbor: The Missing Motive

by Kevin O'Connell (no photo)

Synopsis:

It was an audacious attack. The Sunday morning bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy tore the heart out of the proud Pacific Fleet and dealt the Americans a stunning defeat.

It was a futile attack, made against a nation the Japanese could not defeat, and done in such a way as could only enrage the Americans. No military goal was advanced by the operation. The Japanese were well aware of all this, none more so than Admiral Yamamoto, Commander of the Imperial Fleet. Yet in 1941, against the advice of the entire Japanese naval command, this adamant opponent of conflict with the United States insisted on beginning a war against the British and Dutch with a surprise attack on the Americans.

Why? Not oil. Yes, the Americans had stopped selling oil to Japan, cutting off 80% of their supply, but the Japanese could have countered the embargo in several ways.The book details the alternative paths Japan could have taken to obtain oil without getting into a war with the United States.

Japan has been a polity for seventeen hundred years, Precedent counts for much. Getting to a good account for the Pearl attack requires a bit of background material. This includes a recapitulation of Japan's past, including relations with its neighbors. The real story behind the Pearl attack is deeply rooted in the history of Japan and East Asia. It is a result of the struggle to protect Japan's modern liberal democracy from foes both within and without. Pearl Harbor: The Missing Motive details the compelling logic that drove Yamamoto and others to this difficult choice.

Descent Into Darkness: Pearl Harbor, 1941--A Navy Diver's Memoir

by Edward C. Raymer (no photo)

Synopsis:

On December 7, 1941, as the great battleships Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah lie paralyzed and burning in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a crack team of U.S. Navy salvage divers headed by Edward C. Raymer are hurriedly flown to Oahu from the mainland. The divers have been given a Herculean task: rescue the sailors and Marines trapped below, and resurrect the pride of the Pacific fleet.
Now for the first time, the chief diver of the Pearl Harbor salvage operations, Cmdr. Edward C. Raymer, USN (Ret.), tells the whole story of the desperate attempts to save crewmembers caught inside their sinking ships. Descent into Darkness is the only book available that describes the raising and salvage operations of sunken battleships following the December 7th attack.


Once Raymer and his crew of divers entered the interiors of the sunken shipwrecks--attempting untested and potentially deadly diving techniques--they experienced a world of total blackness, unable to see even the faceplates of their helmets. By memorizing the ships' blueprints and using their sense of touch, the divers groped their way hundreds of feet inside the sunken vessels to make repairs and salvage vital war material. The divers learned how to cope with such unseen dangers as falling objects, sharks, the eerie presence of floating human bodies, and the constant threat of Japanese attacks from above.


Though many of these divers were killed or seriously injured during the wartime salvage operations, on the whole they had great success performing what seemed to be impossible jobs. Among their credits, Raymer's crew raised the sunken battleships West Virginia, Nevada, and California. After Pearl Harbor they moved on to other crucial salvage work off Guadalcanal and the sites of other great sea battles.

Yes, salvage operations with many casualties and injuries.