num_pages: 544
description: Published in time for the 75th anniversary a gripping and definitive account of the event that changed twentieth-century AmericaPearl Harborbased on years of research and new information uncovered by a New York Times bestselling author.The America we live in today was born not on July 4 1776 but on December 7 1941 when an armada of 354 Japanese warplanes supported by aircraft carriers destroyers and midget submarines suddenly and savagely attacked the United States killing 2403 menand forced Americas entry into World War II. Pearl From Infamy to Greatness follows moment by moment the sailors soldiers pilots diplomats admirals generals emperor and president as they engineer fight and react to this stunningly dramatic moment in world history.Beginning in 1914 bestselling author Craig Nelson maps the road to war beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt then the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (and not yet afflicted with polio) attending the laying of the keel of the USS Arizona at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Writing with vivid intimacy Nelson traces Japans leaders as they lurch into ultranationalist fascism which culminates in their insanely daring yet militarily brilliant scheme to terrify America with one of the boldest attacks ever waged. Within seconds the country would never be the same.In addition to learning the little understood history of how and why Japan attacked Hawaii we hear an abandoned record player endlessly repeating Sunrise Serenade as bombs shatter the decks of the California ; we feel cold terror as lanky young American sailors must anxiously choose between staying aboard their sinking ships or diving overboard into harbor waters aflame with burning ship fuel; we watch as Navy wives tearfully hide with their children in caves from a rumored invasion and we understand the frustration and triumph of a lone American teenager as he shoots down a Japanese bomber even as the attack destroys hundreds of US airplanes and dozens of ships.Backed by a research teams five years of work which produced nearly a million pages of documents as well as Nelsons thorough re-examination of the original evidence assembled by federal investigators this page-turning and definitive work provides a thrilling blow-by-blow account from both the Japanese and American perspectives and is historical drama on the grandest scale. Nelson delivers all the terror chaos violence tragedy and heroism of the attack in stunning detail and offers surprising conclusions about the tragedys unforeseen and resonant consequences that linger even today.
language: English
title: Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness
publisher: Scribner