Pearl Harbor Amazing Facts!

This delightful book is more than just "facts" about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 DEC 1941. Besides presenting an almost "minute by minute" chronology of the attack, it advances several months ahead of Dec 7 in presenting various surveys and defense-planning conferences that noted the weaknesses of Pearl's defenses. It quotes Pearl's two main defenders ADM Kimmel (Navy) and GEN Short (Army) as to how well they thought they were ready to defend Pearl from unexpected attacks. Sadley, while these defenders were aware of their weaknesses, they seemed to do little to remedy the weaknesses, and seemed to fail to plan any effective drills to coordinate all their "alert" plans. This book is not meant to be any serious study of the battle; instead, it educates through 240 pages of trivia "snippets." It lists all major U.S. & Japanese ships involved in the attack. It details where the attacking Japanese warships (and their commanders) were sunk in later battles. It has FDR's full "Date which will live in infamy" speech. Lists all the names of those killed aboard the USS Arizona. Lists other WWII trivia, such as the top 50 fighter "aces" of WWII, names the fastest fighter planes, and the largest and heaviest tanks. Lists the current stateside bearthing sites of numerous WWII battleships. It has short biographies of the major participants in the battle, both U.S. and Japanese. It discusses the various "bomb plot" messages, and how some of the many important messages regarding the Japanese military's interest in the defenses of Pearl Harbor were not given to ADM Kimmel. It reveals how the U.S. was able to "break" and read the secret, coded Japanese political-messages being sent from Tokyo to its embassy in Washington, D.C. It highlights some of the anti-FDR "conspiracy" theories. (A nice companion paperback to this is "Pearl Harbor Fact & Reference Book" by T. McComas.) A very revealing, and easy reading trivia book.

I'm a WWII history buff.I think I have just about everything written on the subject.When I show my books to people who are not as excited about WWII as I am, they usually yawn. This book is different, although it is full of facts it is not wordy or dry.The hype from the new movie has got everyone very interested in Pearl Harbor. It has become my favorite book to introduce my grandchildren as well as friends to WWII.

Bought this book for both a birthday and a father's day present...big hit...great gift idea...lotsa photos and interesting tidbits.

I like trivia type books and I really enjoyed this book because it presented hundreds of very interesting facts in short, easy to read items. I never knew that President Roosevelt used Al Capone's bulletproof car for protection after the Pearl Harbor attack or that the first ship sunk was not an American ship, but a Japanese submarine. This book is the way they should teach history in school. More kids would pay attention. It is very interesting and entertaining at the same time.