Pearl Harbor 1st (first) edition Text Only Review

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(More customer reviews)Anyone interested in World War II in the Pacific around the time of Pearl Harbor should enjoy this book and the prequel, Days of Infamy. The two books speculate what might have happened had the Japanese lingered long enough to send a third wave attack against Pearl Harbor.
Some critics of Days of Infamy have postulated that the Japanese may have not had enough fuel to linger too long around Hawaii and do battle with the two American carriers. But they certainly could have launched a third wave attack and still escape undetected. However, this books deals with the former scenario; a three day battle around the waters of Hawaii where 2 American aircraft carriers take on the strike force of 6 Japanese carriers.
Other critics of the prequel (and no doubt this book when they get around to it) have given poor reviews because the equipment and tactics described did not exist at the time of the battles. There is an explanation for this. The authors describe this as "active history" and not "alternate history". Gingrich announces at the beginning (I have the audiobooks) that they made considered judgments they thought the commanders were likely to make. They obviously borrowed liberally from the later Battles of The Coral Sea, Midway and the Battle Off Samar (for the DD and DE attack) to construct their narrative. As such, they tripped over weapons and tactics used in those later battles that were not available at the time of Pearl Harbor. This does not excuse these errors but rather explains them. I consider the tradeoff reasonable in order that the authors produce believable battle scenarios around the time of Pearl Harbor.
Other interesting aspects of this book are the relations between the native Hawaiian-Americans and those of Japanese ancestry. One of the main characters is married to a half-Japanese woman and there relationship is used as a vehicle to describe what happened to the Japanese-Americans around Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the attack. Interestingly, while Nisei (American born people of Japanese descent) were eventually interned on the mainland, no such action was ever taken in Hawaii.
Mix a bit of history and some imagination with a knowledge of the times, the major military players and a dose of speculation and you have the makings of a pretty good novel. All very interesting and entertaining for the World War II buff. Just don't take it too seriously!
John E. Nevola
The Last Jump: A Novel of World War II

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