Allan Seiden

What can I say? This is a bad book. At least I didn’t spend my ow money to acquire it; it was a gift from a relative who brought it back from a vacation trip to Hawaii as a souvenir.

The attempt to cover the complete history of Pearl Harbor wasn’t particularly successful in such a short book. The vast majority of people who picked up the book did so because they were interested in one thing — what happened at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Fortunately, nearly half of the book is devoted to that topic. Unfortunately, although I do not consider myself an expert on the Pearl Harbor attack by any means, I spotted at least four errors in the text:

1. Admiral Yamamoto did NOT accompany the Japanese fleet when it attacked Pearl Harbor (p. 35).

2. The author was a little too certain that the Japanese mini-subs were totally ineffective. A full page photos on p. 43 shows what may very well be the “rooster tails” of one mini-sub after it launched its torpedo at Battleship Row and momentarily broke the surface.

3. The Japanese air armada was not identified on U.S. radar “screens”. There was only one radar (p. 45).

4. That’s not the bow of the West Virginia flying the U.S. flag, it’s the stern (p.46).

Anyone wanting a good book on the Pearl Harbor attack should look elsewhere.

CORRECTION: There were, in fact, six radar sets on Oahu when the war began. On the morning of Dec. 7th, they were manned and in operation from 0400 to 0700. Three of them picked up two Japanese observation planes that preceded the first attack wave, but this was disregarded. The set at Opana, near the north shore of the island, was a little slow to shut down and picked up the Japanese attackers at 0702, but unfortunately they were considered a squadron of B-17’s flying in from the West Coast, and so that sighting, too, was disregarded.… (mehr)