Pearl Harbor Extra: A Newspaper Account of the United States' Entry into World War II Horror Book Review

Summary:

Provides great understanding of the American emotions and perceptions to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  The newspaper articles illustrate what was known, feared, supposed, and not known to the everyday person.

Recommendation:

Highly recommended for those who wish to understand yesterdays actions and ramifications so as to not repeat history’s mistakes. 

Review:

Includes US newspaper clippings, as well as Japanese newspapers. Begins with a San Francisco Examiner front page from June , 1926 reading: “Secret Plans of Japanese General Staff Preparing for War with a Western Power”.

Today, we can read that same headline in Bejing, siting war to be waged in the year 2022.

Later, after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese Times and Advertiser newspaper front page reads:  “Brilliant War Results Revealed”. Further, note the spin by the Japanese: “It is the unshakable policy of the Japanese Empire to preserve stability in East Asia and to contribute towards world peace…”  This was the excuse for initiating war with the US, for the purpose of waging peace!

Today, we could hypothetically replace these words with, a Saudi Arabian newspaper reading, “Bin Ladin’s Brilliant Results Revealed”, “It is the unshakable policy of the Al Qaida to contribute to Muslim world peace in the name of Allah….”

Each of the 93 pages is essentially a front page but, sometimes (two pages make up the entire front page.  With the exception of the 1926 front page, and a December 7, 1945 front page, the book provides 46 newspaper articles date from December 1, 1941 to March 7, 1942.

Negative:

Some of the articles have very small print, and are therefore more difficult to read.

Also, the author allows the newspapers to speak for themselves.  However, it would have been better to have had some comments, or ancillary information provided.