Answers decades in the making about the shocking surprise attack on Pearl Harbor In the predawn hours of December 7, 1941, a Japanese carrier group sailed toward Hawaii. A few minutes before 8:00 a.m., they received the order to rain death on the American base at Pearl Harbor, sinking dozens of ships, destroying hundreds of airplanes, and taking the lives of over two thousand servicemen. The carnage lasted only two hours, but more than seventy years later, terrible questions remain unanswered. How did the Japanese slip past the American radar? Why were the Hawaiian defense forces so woefully underprepared? What, if anything, did American intelligence know before the first Japanese pilot shouted "Tora! Tora! Tora!"? In this incomparable volume, Pearl Harbor experts Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, and Katherine V. Dillon tackle dozens of thorny issues in an attempt to determine who was at fault for one of the most shocking military disasters in history.
"This excellent book confirms that the story behind the attack on Pearl Harbor . . . can match a good detective yarn for suspense and complexity. . . . The authors of Pearl Harbor are first-rank historical gumshoes."
Chicago Tribune
"Vast, precise, and satisfying."
Houston Chronicle
"History of the very best kind: thorough, judicious, and restrained."
