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Title: The Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans by Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon ISBN: 0-02-881001-5 Publisher: Brassey's Inc Pub. Date: 01 August, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent appendix to At Dawn We Slept
Comment: This book can be considered an appendix to Gordon W. Prange's "At Dawn We Slept, the untold story of Pearl Harbor." As an appendix, it is not a story but a collection of whatever significant material was found in the Prange archives related to the Pearl Harbor attack. As a result, it contains maps, diaries, comments, naval statistics, and so on, which are very helpful for the military specialist. Goldstein and Dillon, the co-editors, include a number of diaries, ship logs, or journals of commanders of the Japanese fleet covering the period from their departure from Hitokappu Bay to arrival day at Pearl Harbor, and these are in some cases very routine but do allow for a look at how the Japanese fleet dealt in a day-to-day way with the long and dangerous North Pacific trip and how they handled obstacles, such as refueling, morale and heavy seas.
However, the MOST IMPORTANT and significant part of this book, in my opinion, is at the very end of the book, and consists of an in-depth analysis of the Japanese military -- their planning, their methods, their ideas, their traditional beliefs -- by Masataka Chihaya. This critical analysis -- which should be read by all students of military history -- alone is well worth the price of the book for the student of the military and military tactics. But for the reader looking for battles, maneuvers, and other such action this book would be a disappointment. I give it 5 stars for the military student, 3 stars for others...
Rating: 5
Summary: Essential primary sources
Comment: Gordon Prange, the dean of Pearl Harbor researchers, and his assistants Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, produced the essential trilogy on the before-during-and-after of the attack, "At Dawn We Slept" (1981), "December 7, 1941" (1988), and "Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History" (1986). In this book, Dillon and Goldstein produce some of their essential primary sources, key Japanese documents about the planning, execution, and aftermath of the attack.
One of the key distinctives of Prange's research and writing was that, unlike so many other writers about the attack, he never forgot the Japanese half of the equation. In fact, the Pearl Harbor attack was a massive tactical undertaking, and the Japanese carried it off brilliantly. Focusing entirely on, for example, how much FDR knew and when, means ignoring the magnitude of the Japanese accomplishment.
Prange never made this mistake. And it's his research and interviews in Japan that produced this important work, assembled and published by his two assistants. While "The Pearl Harbor Papers" may be too esoteric for casual students of the Day of Infamy, people with a more serious interest in the attack, or the Pacific War generally, will find much here to keep themselves occupied.
Of particular interest are several papers and affidavits by Minoru Genda, the key planner of the attack. Also very interesting is "An Intimate Look at the Japanese Navy," by Masataka Chihaya, a former officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who shortly after the end of the war cataloged his services' successes and failures. It's a very clear-eyed document, and deserves a close reading.
On the whole, this is a very good book to add to your shelf of Pearl Harbor books (and anyone who has such a shelf unquestionably needs this).
Rating: 4
Summary: insight into Japanese plans
Comment: The Pearl Harbor Papers is a great body of insight into the planning of the Dec 7, 1941 attack. Although some of the charts breaking down the unit compositions are redundant (due to the same information in several different accounts), a look into the mind of Minoru Genda, the brilliant planner of the strike, is invaluable. Another interesting account is the battle diary of the destroyer Akigumo, which offers a unique view from that of a screening vessel. A real good supplement to the three volumes authored by Gordon Prange about the "Day of Infamy".
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Title: Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision by Roberta Wohlstetter ISBN: 0804705984 Publisher: Stanford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1962 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy by Hiroyuki Agawa ISBN: 4770025394 Publisher: Kodansha International (JPN) Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 (Modern Library War Series) by John Toland ISBN: 0812968581 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham ISBN: 0375505008 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward ISBN: 074325547X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 19 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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