Days of Infamy (Pearl Harbor) Review

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(More customer reviews)Harry Turtledove posits another alternate history, this one, if Pearl Harbor had been more carefully planned and followed up with an invasion of Hawaii. The Japanese take advantage of the surprise to land troops and, with the help of air superiority (since most US planes were knocked out on December 7), take control of the islands. The US is not going to take this lying down, and gears up to fight back . . .
As usual, carefully researched, and with the expected variety of viewpoints, from Japanese commanders to US soldiers to civilians caught in the middle. These characters are often very solid, though sometimes less so (the Japanese fisherman seems like something out of a Japanese version of "Flower Drum Song"!)
Things progress through months of occupation and food shortages on the island, and conclude with a climactic sea battle, the equivalent of Midway (the first real carrier-to-carrier battle). It's Turtledove's look at how the war would have progressed if the Japanese had had Hawaii as an advance base, rather than the US.
Although this book is marked as a "novel" on the front cover, and two of Turtledove's stand-alone books are reviewed on the back cover, this is clearly part 1 of at least a three (most likely four) part series. Several of the US characters (flyboy trainees, for example) never see combat. At least three Japanese characters mull over the question of how they can defeat a country so wealthy that even their trivial leavings make things easier for the occupiers. If one believes Turtledove's foreshadowings (and when he's so blatant, I'm inclined to believe him) the answer will be--they can't. To say nothing of how he dwells on Japanese habits of suicide, execution, and disgrace for those who through little or no fault of their own, are defeated or captured, as well as Japanese military infighting. While he nowhere actually says so (and therefore, I don't think I'm giving anything away) expect a Japanese implosion in future books.
It's good, but it's a limited idea, and the primary purpose seems to be to refight World War II--again--with a little more brains on the Japanese side, but with a safe American victory at the end of the day. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I don't think I'm going to be.

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