Pearl Harbor Papers (H)

Edited by the coauthors of At Dawn We Slept (with the late Gordon Prange), this is an invaluable collection of Japanese primary source material pertaining to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Included are monographs by Commander Minoru Genda, the tactical genius behind the attack; letters of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who conceived the operation and pushed it through to acceptance; plus detailed war diaries that cover shipboard activities throughout the voyage to Hawaii, the December 7, 1941, attack itself, and the return voyage home. Perhaps the most remarkable document is an extended report titled ``An Intimate Look at the Japanese Navy,'' in which ``official'' Japanese historian Masataka Chihaya reviews the imperial Navy's successes and failures, assesses tactics and weapons used in the war and concludes with a devastating critique of leadership blunders. The volume sets to rest the argument that FDR knew of an imminent attack because American code-breakers monitored the task force's messages; the documents establish unequivocally that radio silence was maintained. A veritable treasure trove for scholars and Pacific War buffs, this collection also includes the after-action map prepared for Emperor Hirohito, which has only recently been recovered. (Nov.)