by Jeff Shaara
In 1969, Genda is invited to speak at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Though he is welcomed by his audience, there is substantial opposition to his appearance among members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, as well as among family members of many of the veterans. Genda offers a forthright and enlightening talk, though he unwisely offers the opinion that had the Japanese developed the atomic bomb more quickly than the Americans, they would have used it without hesitation. The audience seems to accept that view as a legitimate one, but not so in Japan, where the uproar over his remarks forces him to resign from his own political party (the Liberal Democrats), though he continues to hold office.
A staunch advocate for Japan’s re-militarization, in 1974 he speaks openly about Japan’s potential need for its own stockpile of nuclear weapons. It is not a popular position.
He dies in 1989, at age eighty-five, on the anniversary date of Japan’s surrender, August 15.
ADMIRAL KICHISABURO NOMURA—AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.
Immediately after events are clarified from Hawaii, Nomura is taken into custody by U.S. law enforcement. Released in August 1942, he returns to Japan. Publicly shunned, he is nonetheless privately popular, and is offered a discreet position as an unofficial advisor to the government, though he is never clear on just what he is to advise. Near the war’s conclusion, he is selected as a member of the Privy Council, but with Japan’s defeat and its government virtually in tatters, few positions have meaning.
Despite the stain of his service as ambassador, he is still considered to rank as an admiral in the Imperial Navy. That respect opens the door to a position with the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company (now Panasonic), one of many companies working to rebuild Japan.
In 1954, he runs for office and is elected overwhelmingly to a seat in the House of Councillors. He strongly resists invitations to join with those who favor a re-militarized Japan, insisting that any military should be controlled by a civilian government.
He remains in political office until his death in 1964, at age eighty-six. Throughout his life he strongly disputes any suggestion that he was aware of the attack on Pearl Harbor prior to December 7. “I myself became acquainted for the first time with the attack upon Pearl Harbor by the radio news.” There is no hard evidence to support a contradiction of that statement.
TAKEO YOSHIKAWA
Yoshikawa can best be described as Japan’s most efficient, and thus most damaging, spy in Hawaii. As a member of the Japanese Consulate, he is arrested shortly after the attack, along with several others. He is then included in a routine prisoner exchange and returned to Japan in August 1942. The U.S. authorities have no idea what his role has been, and when he reaches Japan he makes every effort to avoid notoriety.
With the American occupation of Japan in 1945, Yoshikawa develops a healthy paranoia, believing he is under threat of arrest yet again, this time as a war criminal, and subject to lengthy imprisonment. He disguises himself in various ways, including as a Buddhist monk and as the nameless proprietor of a candy store.
As the years pass, the danger of reprisals by the Americans decreases, and he emerges from hiding to open a gas station, but those who know him are aware he served as a spy, and he is always under suspicion, even among his friends.
In 1960, he opens up his life in a book, detailing his activities in Hawaii as a master spy. He revels in the newfound attention, and negotiates a position teaching espionage to corporate managers. But he is never officially acknowledged by his government, the label of “spy” carrying far too much dishonor. As one high-ranking official states, “The Japanese government never spied on anyone.”
He dies in a nursing home in 1993, at age seventy-eight.
Even if most Americans are never aware of Yoshikawa’s unquestionable importance to Pearl Harbor, they are treated to a revealing interview of him on television, openly discussing his role in the attack. The interview is part of a CBS News documentary that is broadcast on the twentieth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, December 7, 1961. The interviewer is Walter Cronkite.
ADMIRAL ISOROKU YAMAMOTO—IJN
“Pearl Harbor was more than one of the most daring and brilliant naval operations of all time. It was one of the turning points of history.”
—GORDON PRANGE, HISTORIAN
“I don’t see what there is to get so excited about somebody’s sinking a handful of warships.”
—ISOROKU YAMAMOTO, LETTER TO HIS SISTER, DECEMBER 18, 1941
Ever the gambler, Yamamoto accepts the success at Pearl Harbor for what it is. The gamble had been extraordinary, and the results outstanding, based on the lack of damage to the Japanese fleet and the minuscule number of downed aircraft. But overall, Yamamoto understands that an enormous opportunity has been lost, potentially the most important result of the attack. The inability to locate and destroy the U.S. aircraft carriers is the one failure he laments above all the success. As a champion of the evolution of the airplane as a key weapon, he knows that the Americans are still as strong as they ever were. As Yamamoto has predicted, the great victory at Pearl Harbor is a temporary one.
Lauded as a great national hero in Japan, Yamamoto continues to work with Naval Ministry officials, as well as with the army and its planners, to push forward with all that must follow. While Pearl Harbor captures the attention of most of the world, Japanese forces continue to prioritize their need for petroleum and other materials.
Their original strategy of a strong invasion into Southeast Asia and the South Pacific has not changed. With the navy’s support, the army quickly invades the Philippines, after destroying most of Douglas MacArthur’s fleet of B-17 bombers in a bombing attack that rivals Pearl Harbor for its level of surprise to American commanders. In early 1942, the Japanese army and navy launch attacks against Singapore, and in the process sink two prized British warships, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the heavy cruiser HMS Repulse, a loss that deeply affects British morale at home. By the end of February 1942, Singapore is overrun and occupied by the Japanese army, as are the Dutch East Indies. A lengthy list of islands in the South Pacific are occupied, including possessions of the Americans, British, and Dutch. By May, the island of Corregidor in the Philippines is overrun, the surviving American forces there captured en masse.
For Yamamoto, the successes against the major world powers have been uncomfortably easy, with no significant damage to Japanese forces throughout the campaign area. In Japan, the high commands weigh their next options, though Yamamoto presses for an effort to negotiate some kind of peace with either the British or Americans that would take them out of the war. That effort gains no traction with either nation, who have learned not to trust Japanese entreaties.
Despite the grand pronouncements by many in the Japanese military that the war is becoming a monumental Japanese victory, Yamamoto continues to believe that these triumphs, including his own, will be short-lived. One option that he begins to champion is a return to Hawaii, possibly to capture the islands themselves, eliminating the most significant American base in the entire Pacific. But others in authority have their eyes on Southeast Asia, and are developing plans to drive into Burma, possibly all the way to India. The lure of the wealth of natural resources in that part of the world is more powerful to the planners than Yamamoto’s arguments for Hawaii.
That changes in April 1942, when the Doolittle Raid strikes Tokyo. Sixteen American B-25 bombers are launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, a one-way gamble that the planes can drop explosives on Japan, then find safe landing on mainland China. Though the raid does not result in extensive damage or significant casualties, the message to the Japanese is shockingly clear: Our aircraft can reach you. It is precisely the message Yamamoto had been preaching prior to Pearl Harbor: that Japan cannot assume the war will always be elsewhere. For the first time, the high command, deeply affected b
y the raid, begins to listen. A new priority suddenly rises—to destroy the American ability to strike from the air. While Yamamoto dives into that planning with customary energy, he is graphically reminded of the great mistake, the lost opportunity at Pearl Harbor.
Yamamoto plans for an invasion of two islands in the Aleutian chain, off the coast of Alaska. At the same time, the Imperial Navy will move a formidable force of carriers and other ships toward the island of Midway, northwest of Hawaii. The goal is to draw American forces out of Pearl Harbor, especially the carriers, assuming they will steam northward to rescue the Aleutian Islands. Yamamoto believes he can set a carefully timed trap for the Americans as they approach Midway Island. The resulting fight is described by most military historians as the turning point of the entire war.
But that is another story.
“The fact that the Japanese did not return to Pearl Harbor and complete the job was the greatest help to us, for they left their principal enemy with the time to catch his breath, restore his morale, and rebuild his forces.”
—ADMIRAL CHESTER W. NIMITZ
“The treacherous attack by Japan, and the declarations of war by Germany and Italy, instantly united us…[The United States’] spirit was no longer troubled; their soul was no longer divided; they knew at last what they must do.”
—THE NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 21, 1941
This book is dedicated to Dan Martinez, National Park Service Chief Historian for the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
His support and generosity opened the door to the extraordinary resources and research that allowed this book to be written.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following officers and crewmen from the USS Arizona lost their lives on December 7, 1941. They are listed here because they are all characters in this book, and for that, their contribution to this story is immeasurable.
MAY THEY REST IN PEACE
Commander Samuel Earle Johnson, MD
Lieutenant Clifton T. Janz
Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh
Pharmacist’s Mate 2/c Ivan Block
Pharmacist’s Mate 3/c Ernest Eugene Corey
Pharmacist’s Mate 2/c William Frank Vaughan
Machinist’s Mate 1/c Kenneth E. Cockrum
First Sgt. John Duveene—USMC
Seaman 1/c Keith H. Harrington
Chief Gunner’s Mate Orville A. Isham
PVT Woodrow (Woody) Wilson Finley—USMC
Musician 2/c Gerald C. Cox
LCDR Paul J. Register
The following have created memoirs, diaries, or other firsthand accounts that were crucial to the writing of this book.
Secy. of State Cordell Hull
Secy. of War Henry Stimson
Donald Stratton (USS Arizona)
Theodore C. Mason (USS California)
ADM William F. Halsey
ADM Husband E. Kimmel
CDR Edwin Layton—USN
LTC George W. Bicknell—USA
ADM Matome Ugaki—IJN
Seaman Stan Johnston—USN
ADM/Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura
Ambassador Joseph C. Grew
CDR Mitsuo Fuchida—IJN
CDR Minoru Genda—IJN
VADM Shigeru Fukudome—IJN
RADM William W. Drake—USN
ADM Chester W. Nimitz—USN
Harold Shimer (USS Helena)
I am deeply grateful to the following, who generously furnished material for my use, often firsthand accounts from their own families. Thank you all!
David R. Johnston—Greensboro, NC
David Palluconi—Fairfield, OH
Sam Evangelisto—Cary, NC
Tom Ellsworth—Hot Springs, AR
David Hoffert, PhD—Warsaw, IN
Ed Walsh—Alexandria, VA
The following historians have created published source material that was extremely useful in my education on this subject, and thus most helpful in the writing of this story. I am deeply grateful to all of them, and I recommend their books to anyone who seeks valid information about the Pearl Harbor attack. Listed alphabetically, they are:
Hiroyuki Agawa
Gwenfread Allen
Thurston Clarke
Henry C. Clausen and Bruce Lee
Ronald J. Drez
Donald Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon
Molly Kent
Walter Lord
Bill McWilliams
Lawrence Rodriggs
Henry Sakaida and Koji Takaki
David F. Schmitz
Michael Slackman
Ronald H. Spector
Paul Stillwell
Steve Twomey
Roberta Wohlstetter
Alan D. Zimm
When it comes to the details surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor, there is no more respected or appreciated historian than Professor Gordon Prange. His At Dawn We Slept is must reading for anyone with any interest in the events leading up to and including December 7, 1941, and provided me with enormous fuel for the factual and historical details in this story. Professor Prange passed away in 1980, and though his scholarship and attention to detail are sorely missed, his work lives on through so many other historians (including most of those listed above). To quote those who worked closely alongside him: “He knew more about the Japanese attack than any other person. He interviewed virtually every surviving Japanese officer who took part…as well as every important U.S. source. The scope of his research is without equal.”
I have saved the best for last.
I have been extremely fortunate to become well acquainted with Daniel Martinez, the National Park Service Chief Historian for the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Dan is a wellspring of substantial information and insights and, for me, a source of both knowledge and research material without which I might have severely fumbled this effort. Dan offered me a substantial amount of his time, which is a gift of generosity that cannot be overestimated, since he is one of the busiest people I’ve ever known. Thus is this book dedicated to him. Thank you, Dan.
BY JEFF SHAARA
To Wake the Giant
The Frozen Hours
A Blaze of Glory
A Chain of Thunder
The Smoke at Dawn
The Fateful Lightning
Gods and Generals
The Last Full Measure
Gone for Soldiers
Rise to Rebellion
The Glorious Cause
To the Last Man
Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields
The Rising Tide
The Steel Wave
No Less Than Victory
The Final Storm
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEFF SHAARA is the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen Hours, The Fateful Lightning, The Smoke at Dawn, A Chain of Thunder, A Blaze of Glory, The Final Storm, No Less Than Victory, The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure—two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
jeffshaara.com
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