Graveyards of the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Bikini Atoll Review

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(More customer reviews)Whenever I see a revolving globe, I always wait for that brief moment when it appears as though planet Earth is nothing but sea - a momentary illusion created by the vast size of the Pacific Ocean. Not even the mighty Atlantic comes close to creating the same effect. Such a great Ocean will, of course, have more than its fair share of shipwrecks and it would be fair to assume that the majority of these are far too deep for modern scuba diving techniques, even beyond those of the deeper venturing technical diver. It would, therefore, take a team of pioneering oceanographers led by a man of the calibre of Dr. Robert D. Ballard to bring images of many of these long-lost ships to the surface. With him working closely with National Geographic to produce a book about that very subject, the results were never likely to disappoint - and they don't.
Add to the foregoing the greatest naval and carrier force encounters of all time between Allied Forces and the Japanese - though largely between US and Japanese fleets, and not only do many of those newly discovered wrecks have striking and courageous stories to tell, but they form part of an underwater fleet of some of the most exciting ships ever to have been launched - and their like will never be seen again.
The Pacific Ocean and the lost ships of WW2 form the background to this book. As an example of how many ships were lost, on page 133 is a small map measuring some 3 in. x 3 in. on which are depicted 14 symbols for sunken warships within a very small area which came to be known as "Iron Bottom Sound." One of those ships is Australian, three are Japanese and ten are American. Incidentally, their individual stories are more fully recounted in Ballard's "Lost Ships of Guadalcanal." Even before I got to that page, I had already encountered that amazing painting by Ken Marschall of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown - 3 miles down, sitting upright on the seabed, seemingly intact and lost during the battle of Midway. Looking serene and peaceful and out of reach of those who plunder such graves, her story is also more fully recounted in another of this author's works entitled "Return to Midway."
Commencing with the atrocity that was Pearl Harbour - a day which really "does" live forever in infamy, Dr. Ballard and his team take the reader through those magnificent yet bloodiest of sea battles that was the War in the Pacific during WW2. Just as each new battle followed the last, we experience; Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Truk Lagoon and Philippine Sea before we encounter a complete change of mood in time to witness the post-war Atomic Bomb experiments which became synonymous with the remote Pacific coral isle they so easily destroyed - Bikini Atoll.
Over 250 pages in large format and with a well researched and carefully chosen selection of historic and modern photographs, works of art and maps, this is a work the reader can be proud to own - and even more proud to have read! It really is an outstanding work worthy of the names of both the author and the publisher.
NM

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From Pearl Harbor to Saigon: Japanese American Soldiers and the Vietnam War (Haymarket) Review

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(More customer reviews)He knows what he is talking about, and It seems that american history did not want us to know about these parts of the war, all an all it is a great peace of history missing, and found and told by a great writer in this book...

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Paul, Betty, And Pearl Review

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(More customer reviews)"Paul, Betty, and Pearl" is a love story played out against the backdrop of World War II. The story begins with Lieutenant Paul Van Vliet's arrival in Hawaii a few months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Paul is with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. A single man, he is reunited with his sister Dottie, who has lived in Hawaii with her husband for several years. Through Dottie, Paul meets Betty, who is married to Naval officer Eric Lundstrom. At a party a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Paul and Betty realize they have a strong mutual attraction, and one thing leads to another, resulting in an adulterous relationship that lasts throughout the war. To say any more about the outcome of Paul and Betty's relationship would be a spoiler.
In the first few chapters, the story was somewhat reminiscent of James Jones' novel "From Here to Eternity," but that book ended shortly after Pearl Harbor. "Paul, Betty, and Pearl" covers the period from mid-1941 to early-1946. In most fictional WWII stories, the central character is a fighting man, either an infantryman, a flyer, or a sailor. Paul Van Vliet, however, is in the Army Signal Corps, which was tasked with such functions as battlefield telephone and radio communications, and radar warning of air attacks. It was interesting to me, a WWII junkie, to read about the role that the Signal Corps played in military operations. This is not a techno-war story, and the reader isn't buried in arcane technical details and jargon, but it was a nice departure from most war stories. In any case, the story focuses on Paul and Betty and the events around them, not the hardware.
"Peter, Paul, and Pearl" isn't the colossal soap opera that Herman Wouk's "War and Remembrance" was with its dozens of characters and action spanning the globe. It's a smaller, more intimate story that follows Paul's assignments in Hawaii, the U.S., North Africa, and Europe. Paul and Betty stay in touch with each other during the war, although they must be careful not to raise suspicions that would cause a scandal in that more decorous era. And Paul and Betty are not bad people, they're struggling to be honorable while at the same time being deeply in love with each other.
The major characters are finely drawn and well developed. Paul and Betty and their family members are real flesh-and-blood people with both strengths and weaknesses. Some of the characters are not always admirable, but there are no real villains, just ordinary people caught up in events beyond their control and trying to make the best of things. In telling their story, the author very skillfully recreates the wartime era with its customs, music, and language, which gives a realistic feel to his writing.
In the story, Paul is involved in the radar warning system that actually detected the Japanese planes approaching, but whose operators assumed that the planes were American B-17 bombers flying into Hawaii. In the aftermath of the attack, Paul and a number of ranking officers come under much scrutiny for the failure to alert the military forces on Hawaii. Combined with other issues like torpedo nets not being in place and watertight doors not being closed on the warships anchored in Pearl Harbor, historians have been debating for almost seventy years whether there was a political or military conspiracy to ensure that the attack was successful, thus forcing the U.S. into war. After the war ended in 1945, these allegations continued, leading to Congressional investigations as both political parties tried to smear each other with the blame. The author does a fine job of exploring the conspiracy theory and weaving it into his novel as an intriguing element of the story.
My only negative comment about "Peter, Paul, and Pearl" is that in a few sections, the formatting for the Kindle was off, leaving some lines of text very short. This was a bit distracting, but not enough to affect my enjoyment of the book.
"Peter, Paul, and Pearl" is the first book of a trilogy, and I'm definitely planning to read the other two novels. However, the book isn't one of those "to be continued" sagas where you have to keep reading the series to get any resolution to the story. It could easily be read as a standalone story, since it has a very satisfying ending that ties up all the loose ends.
The bottom line: Two thumbs up for some first rate historical fiction.

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The central theme of this novel is an adulterous love affair during World War II; it is about the maturation of the main characters. Paul is a young Army officer;Betty is the wife of a naval officer, Eric; they have a six-year old daughter, Rosalie.Paul and Betty witness the attack on Pearl Harbor.Betty then goes to Washington, D.C., to work as a civilian for the Navy, learning self-reliance.Eric goes into combat.Paul is stationed in D.C.; he and Betty continue their tortured love affair.Paul then takes part in the Normandy D-Day landing and the Battle of the Bulge, maturing as an officer. As the War ends, the Republican Party tries to bribe or coerce Paul into joining in its attempt to blame the Democrats for the surprise at Pearl Harbor.A mysterious colonel in the Pentagon sides with Paul.At the same time, Paul and Betty risk his career and her custody of the child (and the child's happiness) by revealing their love. T

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Yamamoto: The Man Who Planned the Attack on Pearl Harbor Review

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(More customer reviews)Hoyt does a alright job detailing the life of Admiral Yamamoto.
I felt the book dragged at points, but the author does a satisfactory job detailing the life of the person who planned the Pearl Harbor attack. Hoyt kept strictly to the professional life of the Admiral, and only made passing references to the Admiral's family, passion for geishas, and gambling. I think you don't get the full story of Yamamoto's success, unless you delve into the personal life. Hoyt doesn't do this, he strictly keeps to the military aspect of the Admiral's life, like his biography of Tojo. I think you miss something here.
Another aspect missing from the Admiral's life in his killing by American flyers. The killing is briefly detailed in a chapter, so again an interesting aspect of Yamamoto's life is left out. As I stated, the book could have been more interesting if it included more on his life, rather than the focus on the military aspect.

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Yamamoto is an exhaustively researched and compelling biography of the Japanese Naval genius and war hero Isoroku Yamamoto, "the Architect of the Pacific War." Drawing on a wealth of untapped Japanese sources, noted historian Edwin P. Hoyt demonstrates both his flair for dramatic battle accounts and his penetrating eye for personal and political motivation. He offers a thorough and engaging portrait of the dauntless Admiral and, from that vantage point, provides a revealing new view of the events of World War II.Though he stood a mere five feet three inches tall, Admiral Yamamoto rose to become one of the towering figures of the twentieth century. This biography details his life from his youth in Nagaoka and his early military successes, to the dynamic leader's orchestration of the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, his subsequent naval victories, and his eventual assassination by American fighter planes in the Solomon Islands at the order of President Roosevelt himself.

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Murder at Pearl Harbor (Mysteries in Time Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)I began this book with great anticipation, but ended with much disappointment. I thought the book had a good premise; however, it just didn't work for me.
In this story everything that happens before Gwen goes to Pearl Harbor could be left out, or summerized in a sentence or two because none of it is explained or really makes any difference in the end.
Who is Charlie Bauer and what is his connection to Gwen's friend Jill? We never find out.
Who exactly did Gwen beat over the head with her unbrella? Don't know.
How did anyone find out that Quon had given the intercepted message to Sammy and Sammy in turn to Gwen? No telling.
Who ran down Sammy and Quon, and whatever happened to Sammy? The list of unanswered questions goes on and on.
But perhaps the biggest question of all is: Why would Gwen wear a NAVY skirt with BLACK pumps?
All kidding aside, I would give this author another chance. The parts of this story that were good were very good. It was clear the author researched his subject and for the most part it was well thought out and clear. I just wanted all the loose ends tied up by the end.

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It is a routine November day in 1941 at the United States Office of Naval Intelligence in San Francisco for 28-year-old graduate student Gwen Williams, until she intercepts an alarming Japanese message. When her discoveries are dismissed by her superiors, she begins her own investigation and finds that the British embassy has intercepted Japanese communications detailing plans for an attack on the American naval base in Hawaii. Gwen's Hawaiian counterpart, a woman of Japanese ancestry, Aki Kawa, has uncovered the same plot, and Gwen sets out for Hawaii to disclose what she and Aki have discovered. After meeting Washington reporter Sam Diamond, Gwen soon discovers Aki has been murdered. Can Gwen find Aki's murderer and will the information she has make any difference to the American commanders in Hawaii?

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Pearl Harbor Betrayed: The True Story of a Man and a Nation Under Attack Review

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(More customer reviews)It's hard to tell from the title, but this is neither a conspiracy book nor (entirely) a whitewash of Adm. Kimmel but a fairly good overview. The book covers the comprehensive blind spots, especially those in Washington, that lead to the surprise at Pearl Harbor. Gannon writes entertainingly and covers detail well. However I think his (deserved) admiration for Kimmel leads him to soft-pedal the parts of the evidence that suggest his culpability. The admiral deserves, although not the whole blame for being unprepared, a sizeable amount of it. Gordon Prange's relatively hard to find "Pearl Harbor: the Verdict of History" covers much the same ground as Gannon but does not hesitate to point out Kimmel's and Short's mistakes alongside everyone else's. And Prange (himself a WWII vet) knew and liked Kimmel personally. I don't regret buying Gannon's book but I would hate to use it for my sole resource on the subject.

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Scapegoats: A Defense of Kimmel and Short at Pearl Harbor Review

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(More customer reviews)As an analyst and historian of the Pearl Harbor attack, Ned Beach brings to the table qualifications few others can match: a career as a highly-decorated Navy commander and combat veteran. That makes this look at America's on-scene military leaders on the Day of Infamy particularly insightful, and Captain Beach's opinions particularly worthy of respect.
Almost from the moment the bombs stopped falling, the rush was on to hold someone responsible for the catastrophe. Anxious to draw attention away from errors (or, according to some, deliberate policy decisions) by senior officials in Washington, D.C., government investigators and their defenders fingered Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and General Walter Short, the commanders in Hawaii, as the men to blame.
Beach sees this as accusation as a slur on the memories of two competent and dedicated officers. Kimmel and Short, Beach argues, did the best they could with the incomplete information and insufficient tools they were given. Beach does not subscribe to the 'Roosevelt knew' school of thought, though he does argue that Roosevelt's policies regarding Japan made war inevitable. Beach's main criticisms are directed at America's military and diplomatic intelligence services, short-sighted budget priorities, and political pressure to 'make someone pay' for what happened.
Very useful in its own right is Beach's concluding 'References' section, in which he shares his thoughts on nearly three dozen books, articles, and government reports on the Pearl Harbor attack. Toland, Prange, Clausen, George Morgenstern, and other key pillars of Pearl Harbor historiography are all covered in this chapter.
Author of the classic navy story 'Run Silent, Run Deep,' Captain Beach is a skilled writer as well as a keen observer, and the prose in this relatively short book never lags. 'Scapegoats' helped start the movement, still ongoing in Congress and elsewhere, to rehabilitate Kimmel's and Short's reputations, and clear their names of six decades of tarnish and shame. Beach ably makes a strong case for righting this wrong as soon as possible.

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The author presents proof that authorities in the Army, Navy, and State Departments, as well as the White House, knew through special intelligence that Japan was planning an attack on December 7th, and blames these agencies for not informing field commanders. He argues that the official findings ag

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Fortnight of Infamy: The Collapse of Allied Airpower West of Pearl Harbor Review

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(More customer reviews)Having studied World War II in the European and Asian theatres I had never studied in detail the general reasons on the collapse of Allied Forces air power in the first month of the Japanese attack on US and Commonwealth Forces, in and around S.E.Asia and the Pacific during December 1941. The book by John BURTON filled in the gaps dealing with the airforces of the US and British Commonwealth and that of the Imperial Japanese Forces. I found his book to be easy reading without going into such detail that the text became tedious.
It was interesting that in the chapters the author generalised on a particular area/action and then identified individuals involved with that particular event explaining details and reasons why those events occurred. He jumped between what was occurring in Malaya to that of the Phillipines in the same time frame without losing the storyline. He also outlined in detail the other side of the story, namely what occurred with the Japanese, linking that information with the Allied version.
It was well researched and informative from both sides of the combatants without becoming bogged down in unnecessary detail that would have made the text a boring read.

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Visions of Infamy: The Untold Story of How Journalist Hector C. Bywater Devised the Plans That Led to Pearl Harbor Review

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(More customer reviews)William Honan has done history buffs and strategists alike a signal service in presenting this exciting biography of Hector C. Bywater. Not content with a biography of this journalist, spy and prophet, Honan attempts to do more: understand Bywater's intellectual development--a transformation which led him to foresee what others felt was absurd: a trans-Pacific war between the U.S. and Japan. Honan unearths Bywaters public debates with none other than Franklin D. Roosevelt--at that time a naive pacifist--as well as coming close to proving that Japan's Admiral Yamamoto seized on Bywater's ideas to create the Japanese strategy that culminated in Pearl Harbor and the rout of MacArthur in the Phillippines. For strategists, Visions of Infamy carves a statue to what it really takes to think with vigor and independence.

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Steady Nerves and Stout Hearts: The Enterprise Cvg Air Group and Pearl Harbor, 7 December, 1941 Review

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(More customer reviews)As this book contains recently declassiifed information regarding the US aircraft carrier USS Enterprise from the ship's logbooks, as well as diaries of the pilots who flew her planes, it is an excellent source document for military historians with much important new information on the role and military actions of this carrier during World War II.
And all readers should find interesting the little-known story of an unexpected gale which developed some 300 miles west of Hawaii on December 5, 1941 as the Enterprise was returning to port at Pearl Harbor from a training exercise and which probably saved this carrier.
This unexpected storm caused Admiral Halsey to cut the speed of this 13-ship task force in half, delaying their scheduled arrival back at Pearl Harbor for 24 hours until Sunday afternoon of December 7th (after the Japanese attack had occurred at dawn that morning).
Many WWII history buffs will appreciate the fact that if the Enterprise had been in port that Sunday morning as scheduled (and as the Japanese expected) , it would almost certainly have been sunk with all of the US battleships there. And the Japanese Admirals would have probably been emboldened enough to dare make a second strike against the fuel storage tanks and other important military targets on the island.
Since the US only had three carriers in the Pacific at that time (and the Japanese had eight) , the situation for the American fleet would have extremely serious and could have put the entire Southeast Pacific area (including Australia) at grave risk of occupation by Japanese forces.
The documented story of the miraculous gale which probably saved the Enterprise (and which has not been widely disseminated before) in itself makes this book well worth buying.

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Pearl Harbor in the Movies Review

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(More customer reviews)Exellent & informative overview of various movies set in, around, or nearby Pearl Harbor (and of course, the infamous attack on December 7, 1941.)
However, the book does detail some movies that aren't necessarily tied into Pearl Harbor per se (such as the b-movie "Battle At Bloody Beach", which is set during the Pacific War in the Philippines, but makes no mention of the attack at Pearl.)
It also fails to detail other movies that do indeed directly deal with the attack at Pearl Harbor.
For instance, the film "Bridge To The Sun" (1961), which starred James Shigeta as a Japanese diplomat & Carol Baker as his white-American wife, who are caught up in the anger & fear following the December 7 attack, is conspicuously missing from the book! (This movie, which is very much tied into the legacy of Pearl is not detailed, while films such as "Radio Days" & "Swing Shift", which only mention Pearl in passing, are.)
Oh well...it's still a good read, with lots of information on films, tv shows (such as the Pearl Harbor episodes of "Time Tunnel", "Hawaii Five O", & "Hawaiian Eye"), and various documentaries.
There's even a mention of Elvis, and his 1961 benefit concert that helped raise funds for the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.

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"Pearl Harbor": The Movie and the Moment Review

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(More customer reviews)I just bought this book and it totally blew me away. Contrary to another review here, I find almost every page of this book to be extremely informative and jam-packed with information on the real attack and the making of the movie, with LOTS of movie photos and a lot of historical photos too. Also included are short bios of movie characters, quotes about the movie and the event from cast and crew, and storyboards and a timeline of the events of that day. I HIGHLY recommend this!

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"Pearl Harbor", produced by Jerry Bruckheimer ("Top Gun", "Gone in 60 Seconds") and funded by Disney/Buena Vista to the tune of $145m (making it the highest-budgeted film in history) is set to be a summer 2001 blockbuster. Starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Alec Baldwin, it tells the story of a classic love triangle set against the backdrop of a devastating day in US history. "Pearl Harbor: The Movie and the Moment" captures the movie and the history it celebrates with 160 images, movie stills, storyboards, sketches and maps. The text reveals the stories of the Pearl Harbour naval base and the daily lives of its officers. Interviews with survivors, accounts of bombing raids and outlines of military strategies bring to life the drama and heroism of that fateful day.

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Advance Force Pearl Harbor Review

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(More customer reviews)"Advance Force Pearl Harbor" by Burl Burlingame. Trade paperback-481 pages from Naval Institute Press in 2002 from the original in 1992.
. This book is outstanding and is the only book detailing the attack on Pearl Harbor by the submarine force of Japan in December of 1941 and specifically by the 5 mini-boats carried there by the larger I boats.
. The detail and the research are superb. From the letters written by the crewmembers to their families in the days immediately proceeding the attack to their life stories. The lone survivor's story is detailed. He did spend some time in a camp in Wisconsin during the war. He was still alive in 1991 after having spent many years in Brazil as an executive for Toyota.
..The book also tells the stories of the USS Ward's attack on the mini submarine outside the harbor entrance and of all the other destroyers and smaller craft that plied those waters during that period.
..In addition, the book is full of pictures of both U.S. and Japanese ships, submarines and personnel. It is strange that the book was released in this edition just before one of the boats was found in the waters off Pearl Harbor this year.
..I rate the book 4 of 5 and recommend it. It is also very easy to read because of its unique columnar format.

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Pearl Harbor as History: Japanese-American Relations, 1931-41 Review

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(More customer reviews)This work--a collection of essays published in 1973--remains one of the best in its field, and is still of great value to serious students of the catastrophic maelstrom of events leading to WWII in the Pacific. The topics covered are wide-ranging and make excellent use of Japanese source materials; Asada Sadao's essay on the Imperial Navy's contorted path to war was a seminal piece of research, and has lost none of its value over the years.
Highly recommended, and worth the modest cost many times over.

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Pearl Harbor: Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal Review

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(More customer reviews)Having just visited Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial last week[December 9th,2004] I recalled reading this book several years ago. I went over it again and recommend it highly. In crisp, no nonsense prose, Admiral Wallin tells us his view of the attack, and how he directed the salvage of 5 of the 8 battleships sunk on December 7,1941. For me, seeing the shattered remnant of the Arizona, tomb to 1177 Sailors and Marines[about 900 bodies remain]with Admiral Wallin's poignant description of the salvage and rescue efforts, delivered powerful reminders of the evil act of that first day of the war between Japan and America. There is the stirring saga of the rebirth of those shattered dreadnoughts, 5 of which fought successfully in the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944 to repay the enemy for treachery.
This book is not well known to history buffs, since it contains some technical details of how to refloat a 35,000 ton sunk battleship; nonetheless the author provides an insight into the tragedy not available easily even in other sources.

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Pearl Harbor will long stand out in men's minds as an example of the results of basic unpreparedness of a peace loving nation, of highly efficient treacherous surprise attack and of the resulting unification of America into a single tidal wave of purpose to victory.Therefore, all will be interested in this unique narrative by Admiral Wallin.The Navy has long needed a succinct account of the salvage operations at Pearl Harbor that miraculously resurrected what appeared to be a forever shattered fleet.Admiral Wallin agreed to undertake the job.He was exactly the right man for it – in talent, in perception, and in experience.He had served intimately with Admiral Nimitz and with Admiral Halsey in the South Pacific, has commanded three different Navy Yards, and was a highly successful Chief of the Bureau of Ships.On 7 December 1941 the then Captain Wallin was serving at Pearl Harbor.He witnessed the events of that shattering and unifying "Day of Infamy."His mind began to race at high speeds at once on the problems and means of getting the broken fleet back into service for its giant task.Unless the United States regained control of the sea, even greater disaster loomed.Without victory at sea, tyranny soon would surely rule all Asia and Europe.In a matter of time it would surely rule the Americas.Captain Wallin salvaged most of the broken Pearl Harbor fleet that went on to figure prominently in the United States Navy's victory.So the account he masterfully tells covers what he masterfully accomplished.The United States owes him an unpayable debt for this high service among many others in his long career.

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Eyewitness Pacific Theater: Firsthand Accounts of the War in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to the Atomic Bombs Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a relatively large book at 11 in by 9 in with 272 pages. Along with the photos is a running dialog giving a brief summary of the key engagements. Nestled in the dialog are many firsthand accounts of the sailors, soldiers or marines that were there. Though this album is predominately American oriented, a few Japanese give testimony as well. The coverage starts with Pearl Harbor and ends with the bombing of Hiroshima and the Indianapolis incident. A few paragraphs discuss Operation Downfall. After extensive coverage of Pearl harbor, Coral Sea, Midway, Bataan, Guadalcanal, island hopping in the Central Pacific, Mariana Turkey Shoot, the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa and more is presented. Most of the key engagements and key people like Nimitz, Halsey, MacArthur, King, Spruance etc are included so the book would be a good training aid for a new student. Most pages have photos; they're good photos, some even spectacular but many can be seen in other albums. And the dialog is similar to those other photo albums.
While Mr Kuehn claims to be critical even reversionary in his dialog, I saw only modest evidence of it. I would have been more critical for the intelligence and communication gaffs before December 7th, obstinately choosing to invade Peleliu and Luzon, or Halsey's poor judgment at Leyte, the conflicts between King, Nimitz, FDR and MacArthur, the conflicts between Army and Marines or a dozen other situations.
A CD is included if you would like to listen to other first hand experiences which is a nice extra. A Bibliography and Index completes the book.
If you're looking for your first album or are still eager to add to your collection, this one is worth your consideration.

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Eyewitness Pacific Theater tells the remarkable story of U.S. operations in the Pacific during World War II by documenting the experiences of the men and women who were stationed there. Written by award-winning author D.M. Giangreco and venerable Commander John T. Kuehn, this volume is illustrated with hundreds of contemporary photos, including wartime pictures of the veterans themselves. Bringing the full force of personal recollections home to the reader, Eyewitness Pacific Theater is accompanied by a full-length compact disc of interviews produced by Emmy Award-winning historical documentarians Rob Lihani and Rob Kirk in collaboration with First Person Productions. Listen to dramatic tales in the voices of the Allied soldiers, sailors, airmen, and medical personnel as they recount the tragedies and triumphs of life during wartime in the Pacific Theater.

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Historic Photos of World War II: Pearl Harbor to Japan (Historic Photos) Review

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(More customer reviews)I think most people know more about World War II in Europe than they do about the war in the Pacific. Yet, for America, the War began and ended in the Pacific. Maybe it is just harder to do movies about ships and island invasions than it is about ground campaigns. We always talk about Omaha Beach, and we should, but there were many invasions of islands in the Pacific that were more costly in life for us and the enemy.
This book has more than 200 well chosen photographs that show us some views of Pearl Harbor and the various battles of the Pacific that are not always shown. Obviously, some of them, such as the photo of the Hiroshima bomb detonation, are well known. I learned some new things from the photos and the captions by Bob Duncan. For example, I knew that there was tremendous loss of life during the attack on Pearl Harbor, but I didn't know about those trapped in the Oklahoma and the rescue efforts that saved some, but others lingered for two weeks until they died in the dark of the overturned ship.
The shot of the Missouri firing her guns and the water "boiling" from the concussion is simply breathtaking. While there are plenty of shots taken during the fighting and there are some shots of the dead, none are gruesome or shown for the sake of horror. But the effects of the war on those who fought it are explained quite well. We also get a humorous shot of a soldier sitting on an unexploded shell from a 16-inch gun emptying the sand from his shoes. Talk about the definition of nonchalant!
The book is in three parts: Crisis in the Pacific (1941-1942), Learning New Ways of War (1942-1944), and A Colossus Emerges (1944-1945). There are many great shots of the ships, planes, guns, and soldiers who fought in the war. Mostly American soldiers, but a few Japanese show up. Mostly we see the Americans doing their level best to kill as many Japanese as they can, which, during the fighting, was an important task.
This is a terrific book and should be viewed and read by everyone.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI


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On December 7, 1941, America s hopes of remaining neutral in World War II disappeared in the oily smoke that roiled from her battleships burning at Pearl Harbor. The nation faced Herculean tasks to strike back against the Imperial Japanese military that had attacked her. Victory demanded crossing thousands of miles of ocean, creating new weapons, and arming hundreds of thousands of young men to fight their way across a series of desolate islands that a fanatical enemy had fortified to exact the highest possible price from the American troops.Historic Photos of World War II Pearl Harbor to Japan portrays this epic story, using black-and-white photographs selected from the finest archives and private collections. From the sinking of the Arizona to the raising of the Stars and Stripes over Japan, Historic Photos of World War II Pearl Harbor to Japan depicts in a way mere words cannot the determination, struggle, and sacrifices of America s fighting men as they rose to the challenge of liberating free peoples of the Pacific from a conquering invader.

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