Dec. 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor

This book, by the Pearl-Harbor historian Gordon W. Prange and his co-authors Donald M Goldstein and Katherine V Dillon, tells the story of the December 7th attack.  Publishers Weekly provides this review:

This is the final volume of Prange's Pearl Harbor trilogy, based in large part on interviews conducted immediately after World War II. A chronological account related mostly by eyewitnesses, it describes the hints and warning of the attack as perceived both in Washington and Oahu, covers the attack itself in starkly vivid detail, and shows the reactions of servicemen and civilians, which range from fear to heroism to bewilderment.

The narrative is particularly interesting in its depiction of the stupified incredulity on the part of many, and on the involuntary flights of imagination that rendered an extraordinary number of people temporarily aberrant. Many "eyewitnesses" saw German planes over Pearl Harbor, for instance; others saw Japanese paratroops landing on Oahu.

The riveting narrative concludes with President Roosevelt's declaration of war the following day. The first and second volumes of the trilogy (At Dawn We Slept and Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History) were highly praised bestsellers. Prange died in 1981; Goldstein teaches history at the University of Pittsburgh; Dillon was Prange's editorial assistant.

Credits

Book-cover image, online courtesy Amazon.com

Publishers Weekly review, Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. - online, courtesy Amazon.com.