Saturday, July 26, 2014

Air Raid Pearl Harbor an impressive book

Today, June 30th, I finished another book.  This one was a young adult book titled Air Raid Pear Harbor, the Story of December 7th 1941.

The book is by Theodore Taylor who was involved in the production of the motion picture of "Tora Tora Tora"  which was released in 1970.  Taylor in part took the movie script and condensed much of it into this book, but added his own elements to the book.

One thing he did through out the book, was keep it balanced in how he presented the information on both the American and Japanese point of view.  In the book Taylor manages to present the diverse views between Tojo, the military ruler of Japan, who had more power than the emperor and Admiral Yamamoto who commanded the combined fleet for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Yamamoto was opposed to the attack, and stated that this would be a disaster for Japan, because the United States would rise for the ashes and eventually defeat Japan.

Taylor also in a section at the end of the book titled The Heroes and The Scapegoats, allows both Admiral Husband E Kimmel and General Short to speak and express in their own words, taken from transcripts from the investigation in 1946.  Kimmel does not mince words and expresses in blatant terms how he felt he was hung out to dry to cover for errors by other officers and leaders who were even more to blame for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Air Raid Pearl Harbor, is a tightly written book that gives a fresh look at the events of this day and is a book that you will find fascinating whether you are 17 or 70.


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