cover image God's Samurai (H)

God's Samurai (H)

Gordon W. Prange. Potomac Books, $16.95 (349pp) ISBN 978-0-08-037440-6

Mitsuo Fuchida led the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and served as air operations officer in subsequent Pacific campaigns. Based on interviews that began soon after the war and continued until Fuchida's death in 1976, this biography covers Fuchida's dazzling wartime exploits and provides insight into Japanese naval air tactics. The account of his comedown from war hero to obscure dirt farmer is poignant. The authors compare him to an unattached samurai during this period, searching for ``a liege lord to receive his ardent allegiance.'' Fuchida found a banner for his sword when he converted to Christianity and became a nondenominational evangelist, campaigning in the U.S. and Europe as well as in Japan. The story of his military career, his conversion, his first fumbling efforts as a preacher and his success as an international evangelist make for a story that is alternately exciting, moving and spiritually rewarding. Prange, with Goldstein and Dillon, wrote At Dawn We Slept . Photos. 25,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo. (Sept.)