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A decent respect for the Japanese-American position

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BOOK REVIEW

Among the many attempts to piggyback on the movie "Pearl Harbor," this revised version of Thurston Clarke's 10-year-old book is among the most interesting.
First written for the 50th anniversary, most of "Pearl Harbor Ghosts" has worn well. But the lengthy section about islanders' resentment against the Japanese conquest of Hawaii by yen in the late '80s sounds odd in the 21st century, when most of those yen investments have been wiped out.
Clarke comments that it seems strange that a defeat, rather than a victory, should be so deeply engrained in America's consciousness, but we also remember the Alamo, as the British do Dunkirk. But it is remarkable that after six decades, the shock of that moment retains such force.
Clarke expresses the feeling in many ways, but his most pungent comment is that the islands' "beauty must have unhinged the purpose of their defenders." The contrast between the putative paradise and the flaming immolation of Pearl Harbor, Hickam, Kaneohe and Wheeler is easy to feel even at this distance -- easier, probably, than the shock of German tanks rolling across the sandy plains of Poland in 1939.
Also, Clarke notes, Oahu's military bases have changed little since 1941, compared with the rest of the island, so a visitor can more easily imagine the extraordinary calm of the opening hours of Dec. 7, 1941.
Or perhaps it is just that great events set all perceptions at higher resolution. Accounts of the Battle of Britain mention that the weather in southern England in June of 1940 was exceptionally sweet. Perhaps it was, but perhaps that is mostly an artifact or trick of memory, contrasting the usual with the unanticipated.
Though it was not unanticipated by all. Admiral Husband Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter Short were culpably lax in the last weeks of 1941, but real fighting men, like Vice Adm. William Halsey, were not. Clarke has nothing to say about Halsey on that day, but on Dec. 7, Halsey's planes and guns were armed and his commanders had orders to shoot the Japanese on sight. They were in the wrong place, though.
Clarke spends much time investigating the complex attitudes of and toward the Japanese and Japanese-Americans in Hawaii.
Clearer sighted than most, he critically evaluates the claim -- now inviolable PC doctrine -- of their total loyalty to the United States. It is true that no "acts of sabotage" were recorded, but this view of uncomplicated patriotism practically devalues the remarkable attitude of Hawaii's (and the Mainland's) Japanese. Clarke does them the credit of understanding that they were pulled in both directions and had a moral choice to make.
The suspicion directed against the Japanese (and what is usually forgotten but which Clarke properly takes into account, against Germans and Italians) is usually treated today as a compound of racism, blindness and stupidity. It was all of those, but there was more to it than that.
The government of Japan, equally with many in the government of the United States, expected many or most Japanese in America to side with their ancestral country. For white Americans, the fact that they had refused Japanese immigrants the chance to become American citizens made such speculations logical.
That logic was trumped, it turned out, by a loftier conception. Though the Japanese who came to America had not enjoyed all the benefits implicit and explicit in the Constitution, they believed in them anyhow.
Clarke does a better job than most of untangling this issue, but it was even more complex than he lets on. In the 1930s, many responsible people (among them, President Franklin Roosevelt) seriously feared that the United States was on the verge of revolution.
And there were plenty of real subversives around to lend credibility to their fears. Hundreds of thousands of traitors lived in the United States and were supporting Axis war aims during most of the 21 months after September 1939. Only they were not, for the most part, Japanese, Italian or German, but Communists and Popular Fronters taking orders from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Popular history has given them an undeserved pass.
To a degree, the Pearl Harbor ghosts have been laid. On a sunny day at Pearl Harbor, long lines of visitors wait patiently to enter the overcrowded USS Arizona Memorial. Americans and Japanese stand quietly together.

A vivid picture of Honolulu in December 1941

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This book is more anecdotal than historical. The book doesn't dwell on the minutiae of military history, but it does perfectly set the scene of Honolulu during the days leading up to the attack, Dec. 7, and the days immediately after the attack. We learn about the complex ethnic mix on the island of Oahu; how military leaders were more concerned about internal sabotage than external attack; how people from all walks of life -- soldiers and civilians -- responded to the attack. I had a greater appreciation for the people and place of Honolulu after reading this book.

Too Much Sensationalism.

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"Pearl Harbor Ghosts", by Thurston Clarke, sub-titled: "The Legacy Of December 7, 1941." Ballantine Books, New York, 1999 & 2001.
The extensive research by the author, Thurston Clarke, is marred, in my opinion, by a tendency towards sensationalism. Clarke's agenda is not really clear, but when a choice can be made, his writing tended towards the more popular and more sensational. For example, on page 22, Clarke writes that the Japanese spy, Ensign Yoshikawa, was not on either list of suspects to be detained in case of war. The implication, of course, being that the FBI and military intelligence were sort of incompetent in pre-war Hawaii. A very casual check on my part found in John Toland's book, " Infamy. Pearl Harbor And Its Aftermath", that secret agent Takeo Yoshikawa was burning code books during the Pearl Harbor attack, but within ten minutes of the bombs beginning to fall, "...someone shouted, `Open the door!' The door caved in and Lieutant Yoshio Hasegawa of the Honolulu police burst in with several men. They began stamping on the smoldering code books". It would seem that Yoshikawa was on someone's list, and to imply otherwise is tending towards sensationalism.

On pages 133-134, the author, T. Clarke, presents a case for calling the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the A-bomb drop on Hiroshima as "sneak attacks". The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor is obvious, but making the use of a nuclear weapon on Hiroshima "sneaky" is illogical and sensational.

Clarke let his book follow the popular movie plots, so that he tells you, on page 192, that the name of the black mess attendant (recall the movie) on the "West Virginia" was Doris Miller and that he earned the Navy Cross. For some reason, however, he does not mention that fifteen (15) Medals of Honor were awarded for the action at Pearl Harbor. For example, when the "Oklahoma" turned turtle and capsized, Ensign Francis Flaherty pushed the last sailor out of the turret, thereby trapping himself in the sinking battle ship. I wonder if Clarke missed a grand opportunity to develop more "ghosts" by interviewing the sailors who had been saved by this officer's bravery. What did those men accomplish in the remainder of the war? Did they survive? Where are they now?

Take a look at the picture of the USS Arizona's band at Bloch Arena (following page 204). On page 84, Mr. Clarke comments and sees them as ghosts already, "...sitting ... in dress whites and already a ghostly presence". Unfortunately for Mr. Clarke's comments, in the late 1930s, the U. S. Navy did away with "dress white" uniforms for enlisted men. The picture in his book clearly shows the Arizona's band in undress whites with neckerchiefs.

Finally, the group that called the Opana Radar Site as an "electrical engineering milestone" (page 99) was NOT the Institute of Electrical Engineers, which is British, but rather was the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), an American organization, which at 300,000 member engineers is usually considered the world's largest professional group.
Sincerely, John Peter Rooney, Senior Member IEEE.

Not Exactly What I Expected, But Still a Good Book

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This book is not like other books about Pearl Harbor. Most of the others deal mainly with the events leading up to the attack and the attack itself. Mr. Clarke has chosen a different path with Pearl Harbor Ghosts. He has concentrated on the evolution of Hawaii and Honolulu from the time of the attack to the present day and inserted lessons that may be learned from the attack. Before December 7, 1941, Honolulu and the Hawaiian islands were nothing like they are today. Life consisted of working shortened days so that one could go to the docks to see an ocean liner off. Lazy sugarcane fields and pineapple plantations covered the soil. Life was much simpler. But December 7 changed Hawaii from a tropical paradise into a modernized military outpost. Gone were the lazy drives up winding roads to the beach. The rule of the day now was working long hours to repair the damage done by the Japanese. Americans and Hawaiians, as explained by the author, had developed a sense of arrogance. No one in their right mind thought that a bunch of inferior people could attack the United States by surprise. We were, unfortunately, proven wrong. One partiular aspect of this book which I especially enjoyed was the discussion of the Japanese islanders and thier treatment after the attack. Many of the Japanese were rounded up and put in internment camps on the mainland. Large numbers of the nisei (second generation Japanese) had joined the American armed forces, and now faced the horrible task of fighting an enemy that looked just like themselves. Others simply left the islands altogether. Some of the nisei were simply discharged from their units after the attack and given no explanations. After time, a full nisei Regiment was developed, fought in the European theater, and became the most decorated group in the war. Still, even 60 years after that disasterous day, many American survivors still harbor ill feelings toward the Japanese. Will these feelings ever go away for these men? That is a difficult question to ask. Meanwhile, Honolulu has developed like most other American cities. Gone are many of the plantations and palm trees, having been replaced by shopping malls and skyscraper office buildings. The dirt roads have been mostly replaced by interstates. And the Pearl Harbor ghosts still linger for some of the survivors. Will they ever be completely forgotten?

What it was like to be there.

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This book is a great in-depth look at Pearl Harbor and its impact from 1941 to today.

It gives the best sense of what it was like to be on Oahu from the days leading to the attack to the days following the attack, and then it compares them to the present day.

I had a better sense of what Pearl harbor was like after reading this book than after all the other Pearl Harbor books I've read (and it's been quite a few) combined.

If you're at all interested in Pearl Harbor, read this book.