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Countdown to Pearl Harbor : the twelve days to the attack / Steve Twomey.
Author
Twomey, Steve
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Published/Created
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2016.
©2016
Description
xiv, 365 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : maps, illustrations ; 24 cm
Availability
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
D767.92 .T86 2016
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Details
Subject(s)
United States Navy
—
Officers
—
History
—
20th century
[Browse]
Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
[Browse]
World War, 1939-1945
—
Causes
[Browse]
Military intelligence
—
United States
—
History
—
20th century
[Browse]
World War, 1939-1945
—
United States
[Browse]
United States
—
Politics and government
—
1933-1945
[Browse]
United States
—
Foreign relations
—
Japan
[Browse]
Japan
—
Foreign relations
—
United States
[Browse]
Summary note
"A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter chronicles the 12 days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, examining the miscommunications, clues, missteps and racist assumptions that may have been behind America's failure to safeguard against the tragedy,"--NoveList.
"In Washington, DC, in late November 1941, admirals composed the most ominous message in US Navy history to warn Hawaii of possible danger--but they wrote it too vaguely. They thought precautions were being taken, but never checked to be sure. ln a small office at Pearl Harbor, overlooking the battleships, the commander of the Pacific Fleet tried to assess whether the threat was real. His intelligence unit had lost track of Japan's biggest aircraft carriers, but assumed they were resting in a port far away. Besides, the admiral thought Pearl was too shallow for torpedoes; he hadn't even put up a barrier. As he fretted, a Japanese spy was counting the warships in the harbor and reporting to Tokyo. There were false assumptions and racist ones, misunderstandings, infighting, and ego clashes. Through remarkable characters and impeccable detail, Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Twomey shows how careless decisions and blinkered beliefs gave birth to colossal failure. But he tells the story with compassion and a wise understanding of why people--even smart, experienced, talented people--look down at their feet when they should be scanning the sky. The brilliance of Countdown to Pearl Harbor is in its elegant prose and taut focus, turning the lead-up to the most infamous day in American history into a ticking-time-bomb thriller. Never before has a story you thought you knew proven so impossible to put down."--Dust jacket.
Notes
Maps on lining pages.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 344-353) and index.
Contents
Preface: the boys at Opana
An end, a beginning
Hitokappu's secret
The Admiral Chief of the Pacific Fleet
Betty
It doesn't mean us
Machine gun short
Ambassador Joe and President Frank
Their mail, opened and read
The talents of Nippon
The ships that were not there
The smoke of secrets
A time to look
Out of their depth
Your Majesty
Dinner at the Halekulani
From the vacant sea.
Show 14 more Contents items
ISBN
9781476776460 ((hardcover))
1476776466 ((hardcover))
LCCN
2016019080
OCLC
953164642
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Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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