The USS Arizona: The Ship, the Men, the Pearl Harbor Attack, and the Symbol That Aroused America

If you get the notice in your cart that you can get the book cheaper or faster, 9 out of 10 times my experience is that $0.10-$0.20 cheaper or delivered a day earlier, it is a library reject. I'm willing to pay a bit extra to NOT get something thrown out by the local library.

I am glad I didn't read all the reviews on this book before reading it,as I might not have read it at all. There are a lot of good things about this book,but it seems there are a lot of things that prevent it from becoming a great book. The attack on Pearl Harbor has been covered in many books and films. It was an event that had so much to it that one wonders whether it can ever be covered perfectly. Even people who were there that terrible day;would have seen it very differently. The thing about this book that is different, is that it concentrates as much as possible,on the USS Arizona;but not entirely.The fact that this ship's story has to be seen in its relationship to what went on around it that day. The book does a good job of showing what it was like to sail on the Arizona from its earliest days and what it was like to be part of the crew the day she was destroyed. As much as possible,the book concentrates on the personal experiences of several survivors who were lucky enough to live to tell their stories. The book also tells what efforts were made to retrieve the bodies of the victims ,salvage operations,visits to the wreck by divers;and the decisions and things that were done to create the memorial that now exists. Complete lists of all the casualties,as well as survivors is included in appendix B & C.Also included in appendix D are all the funeral services held at the memorial for Arizona Men who were aboard the Arizona that fateful day,but have since died and requested it be the final resting flace of their remains with their friends. The book includes 33 B & W photographs. No one book can say everything that needs saying about the Attack on Pearl Harbor,so this book should be taken in that light. I don't know ,nor do I imagine does anyone else,what details are correct and what are errorerous or simply careless researching.It seems others have critizied the book on these points,so I guess many of the details must be taken with caution.

The USS Arizona by Joy Waldron Jasper, James P. Delgado, and Jim Adams was great. Granted to the perfectionist this is not a flawless. This isn't a detailed, stats filled book. It is more of a holistic view of a ship that has become an icon of America told by 3 people. I believe this book is perfect for your everyday person wanting to learn about the Arizona and not meant for your core historian. I have read many books and seen many shows about Pearl Harbor and the ships, sailors and battle of December 7th. This book takes these 3 individuals, a journalist, a historian and a Marine, who all have been connected in some way to the Arizona and tell the ships story from a Ship of War to a Symbol of America. The interviews of the survivors and history that covered the time before December 7th was something new for me in that it gave me a new perspective of life on the Arizona. I did not really think about the fact that battle ship was over 20 years old and been around the world. It was good to be reminded of the daily routine of the sailors and how much the ship was their life and home. It gave me a new appreciation of the impact her loss and the other ships' of Pearl Harbor had on the sailors that served in them. The part afterwards about the memorial and the ship today was a good conclusion. Understanding the Navy's attempts at salvage and finally settling on leaving her as a memorial shed new light on how she got the way she is. I really appreciated the accounts of the burial of survivor's ashes back aboard the sunken ship. All in all I felt a certain closure with this book and have a better understanding of what the USS Arizona means to me and other Americans.

The combination of the authors' perspectives, the subject matter and its historical perspective, and the eyewitness accounts were very interesting and moving.The book has drama, history, and personality......a rare combination!

What a wonderful experience! Reading this book was like being drawn into the living room to sit around the fireplace with the authors and survivors to hear their stories. Crying, feeling, hearing for the first time, learning, and even a laugh or two with my newfound treasury of friends. How refreshing it is to hear the stories told by those who were there as they remember it. I write this as someone who knows nothing about tactics or war and wasn't even a glimmer in my mother's eye at the time, as she was only a few months old at the time. I've tried to read those books with "true historical accuracy" yet got only a distant sterile factual (and boring) understanding. This book has brought the Arizona alive to me. The Arizona is not just a sunken ship. The Arizona is a living breathing bleeding screaming crying brave and courageous part of who we are as Americans. If I may be so bold as to embrace the men and their families as my own. We, Americans, are who we are because these men and their families have deeply empacted their corner of the world, which has become ours. Thank you survivors, authors, publisher, you have awakened an important part of my history in me. Now to live in a way that honors their memory. review by: The Rev. Pam Feeser

One reviewer commented on the accuracy of this book - "I found this book written on a very basic level, with well known facts wrong (i.e. on Dec 7 people were 'watching the Dodgers play the Giants in late season football'. I always thought the Dodgers were a baseball team." I checked this out, there was also a NY Dodgers FOOTBALL Team in the NFL in the 1930s and early 1940s. On December 7th, 1941, they were playing football against the NY Giants in New York City. There is a famous radio broadcast on CBS of this game as the announcer had to break in to announce that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.