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WORK TITLE: Countdown to Pearl Harbor
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Montclair
STATE: NJ
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-twomey-98553423/ * http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Steve-Twomey/452154442
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2016047077
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016047077
HEADING: Twomey, Steve
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670 __ |a Countdown to Pearl Harbor, 2016: |b ECIP t.p. (Steve Twomey)
PERSONAL
Married Kathleen Carroll; children: Nick.
EDUCATION:Northwestern University, B.A., 1973.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, fourteen years; Washington Post, Washington, D.C., thirteen years.
AWARDS:Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
WRITINGS
Contributor to the Smithsonian and other periodicals.
SIDELIGHTS
Steve Twomey is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author who spent fourteen years working for the Philadelphia Inquirer and thirteen years with the Washington Post. In 2016, Twomey published Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack, which chronicles the mistakes and the miscommunication that occurred during the twelve days leading up to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.
In his book, Twomey reveals that the admirals in Washington suspected Pearl Harbor of being in danger of attack and sent a message to the commander of the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. However, the message was vaguely worded and did not get across the seriousness of the situation. As a result, they thought that precautions were being taken but never bothered to check to see if they were. The commander also felt that the waters in the harbor were too shallow for torpedoes and did not construct a barrier. Racist leanings also played a part, with the Americans assuming that the Japanese were not good aviators and would not have the skill or the courage to strike a target far from home. Those were just some of many situations that were overlooked, causing the United States to suffer terrible losses at the hands of the Japanese.
Reviews of Countdown to Pearl Harbor were positive, with BookPage contributor Devorah Hopkinson writing that “Twomey creates a dramatic, page-turning narrative that feels both fresh and suspenseful.” Hopkinson added that the book “offers a new and fascinating look at one of the defining events in U.S. history.” Booklist reviewer Gilbert Taylor wrote: “Touching on communication miscues and American complacency about Japanese naval capability, Twomey ably captures the tragic element in the Pearl Harbor saga.” A Publishers Weekly contributor observed: “This sad story reads like a thriller, thanks to the authors’ evocative prose and careful use of detail.”
In a review in Library Journal, John Rodzilla wrote: “Twomey’s highly recommended exploration of the miscommunications and racist assumptions of the U.S. military sheds light on the missteps of military leadership and provides much-needed context for why the American fleet was unprepared for Japan’s devastating raid.” Washington Independent Review of Books online contributor Lawrence de Maria commented of Countdown to Pearl Harbor: “Twomey, a consummate storyteller, spices his tale with personal accounts on both sides before, during, and after the battle. He also does a good job explaining tactics and weaponry.” De Maria continued: “But as this excellent book makes abundantly clear, Pearl Harbor, despite the human costs and shock to national pride, was a lucky day for the U.S. The three American aircraft carriers based at Pearl Harbor were not in port and came in handy the following July at Midway, when they helped sink the very same Japanese carriers that struck Hawaii.” De Maria added: “I hope Twomey’s fine book achieves wide popularity. It may remind Americans of a time when they got off the floor and worked together.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviewer Harry Levins called Countdown to Pearl Harbor “a splendid book.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2016, Gilbert Taylor, review of Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack, p. 15.
BookPage, November, 2016, Devorah Hopkinson, review of Countdown to Pearl Harbor, p. 39.
Library Journal, September 15, 2016, John Rodzvilla, review of Countdown to Pearl Harbor, p. 98.
Publishers Weekly, September 26, 2016, review of Countdown to Pearl Harbor, p. 81.
ONLINE
New York Times Online, https://www.nytimes.com/ (November 18, 2016), Jonathan Martin, review of Countdown to Pearl Harbor.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com/ (December 7, 2016), Harry Levins, review of Countdown to Pearl Harbor.
Washington Independent Review of Books Online, http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/ (December 27, 2016), Lawrence de Maria, review of Countdown to Pearl Harbor.
Steve Twomey began his career in journalism as a copyboy at the Chicago Tribune when he was in high school. After graduating from Northwestern University, he began a fourteen-year career at The Philadelphia Inquirer, during which he won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, and then worked at The Washington Post for the next thirteen years. More recently, he has written for Smithsonian and other magazines and has taught narrative writing at the graduate schools of New York University and the City University of New York. The ghostwriter of What I Learned When I Almost Died and author of Countdown to Pearl Harbor, Twomey lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife, Kathleen Carroll. They have an adult son, Nick. - See more at: http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Steve-Twomey/452154442#sthash.O1HvizP4.dpuf
STEVE TWOMEY BIO
Steve Twomey began his career in journalism as a copyboy at the Chicago Tribune when he was in high school. After graduating from Northwestern University, he began a fourteen-year career at The Philadelphia Inquirer, during which he won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, and then worked at The Washington Post for the next thirteen years. More recently, he has written for Smithsonian and other magazines and has taught narrative writing at the graduate schools of New York University and the City University of New York. The ghostwriter of What I Learned When I Almost Died and author of Countdown to Pearl Harbor, Twomey lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife, Kathleen Carroll. They are the parents of an adult son, Nick, and a spoiled Brittany Spaniel.
The heroes and failures of war
Devorah Hopkinson
BookPage.
(Nov. 2016): p39.
COPYRIGHT 2016 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
This year marks the 75th anniversary of America's entry into World War II. While the major events of the war have been extensively chronicled,
this anniversary is a reminder that many untold stories remain. Two books focusing on the Pacific war represent a great start for digging deeper.
In Countdown to Pearl Harbor (Simon & Schuster, $30, 384 pages, ISBN 9781476776460), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Twomey uses
his impressive research and storytelling skills to recreate the dozen days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Drawing
on a range of resources, including public investigations and interviews conducted by legendary Pearl Harbor historian Gordon Prange, Twomey
creates a dramatic, page-turning narrative that feels both fresh and suspenseful. Events, missteps and, most importantly, the human players leap
off the page. Among others, we get to know Husband E. Kimmel, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet; Harold Stark, chief of naval
operations; and Isoroku Yamamoto, bold mastermind of the Japanese attack.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
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Overconfidence, poor communications and complacency at all levels played a part in the tragedy. While Kimmel kept a laser focus on training
and offensive readiness, he underestimated Japan's capacity and never mounted sufficient defensive reconnaissance. As Twomey notes in his
conclusion, "Assumption fathered defeat." Countdown to Pearl Harbor offers a new and fascinating look at one of the defining events in U.S.
history.
'BORN TO FLY TOGETHER'
When Tom Brokaw coined the term "the greatest generation," he might well have been describing Medal of Honor recipients Jay Zeamer Jr. and
Joe Sarnoski, the heroes of Lucky 666 (Simon & Schuster, $30, 368 pages, ISBN 9781476774855). The resourceful, independent Zeamer was a
renegade who was transferred after falling asleep as a co-pilot on a B-26 combat mission.
Redeployment to the Port Moresby-based 43rd Bomb Group put Zeamer right where he wanted to be--at the controls of a four-engine B-17
Flying Fortress. In early 1943, Zeamer was reunited with an Army bombardier named Joe Sarnoski. Zeamer remembered that the two were "close
enough to feel that we were born to fly together."
The unconventional pilot and bombardier set out to pull together their own handpicked men to undertake dangerous reconnaissance missions.
One commander wrote that Zeamer recruited "a crew of renegades and screwoffs. ... But they gravitated toward one another and made a hell of a
team." With Zeamer's engineering talents, the team "Zeamerized" a broken down B-17, dubbing it Old 666.
In June 1943, Zeamer and Sarnoski volunteered for the heartbreaking "impossible mission" that forms the core of this remarkable account of
friendship and bravery. Authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin not only tell the inspiring story of these two young airmen, they also provide a
cogent, absorbing analysis of the air war in the Pacific. Lucky 666 is highly recommended for WWII and aviation history buffs alike.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Hopkinson, Devorah. "The heroes and failures of war." BookPage, Nov. 2016, p. 39+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469503144&it=r&asid=d8584173468281caa5fbafc6952fd245. Accessed 21 June
2017.
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Pearl Harbor: 75 years later
Gilbert Taylor
Booklist.
113.4 (Oct. 15, 2016): p15.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
As we approach the 75th anniversary of the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor L on December 7, 1941, two books reach opposite
conclusions about why the U.S. was unprepared.
Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack. By Steve Twomey. Nov. 2016.416p. Simon & Schuster, $30 (9781476776460).
940.54. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Pulitzer Prize winner Twomey offers a thoroughly researched and freshly dynamic narrative covering the activities of key officers, diplomats, and
politicians in the immediate prelude to the surprise Japanese air strike on Pearl Harbor. At the center of Twomey's telling of the story are the
American commanders in Hawaii on whom officialdom pinned responsibility for the disaster, General Walter Short and Admiral Husband
Kimmel. A summary of their careers sets up Twomey's depictions of their reactions to information received from Washington about Japanese
strategic intentions during the diplomatic crisis of 1941. Highlighting a central controversy about Pearl Harbor, the intelligence that army chief
George Marshall and navy chief Harold Stark did and did not supply to Short and Kimmel, Twomey nevertheless adheres to conventional
conclusions that the latter pair were negligent in not preparing to meet an attack. Touching on communication miscues and American
complacency about Japanese naval capability, Twomey ably captures the tragic element in the Pearl Harbor saga.--Gilbert Taylor
A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor; Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice. By Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan. Nov. 2016.494p.
illus. Harper, $35 (9780062405517). 940.54. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Over the course of the 75 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, government investigators and historians have sought fault for the
debacle. The first official inquiry, in early 1942, pilloried the army and navy commanders in Hawaii, and no others, for dereliction of duty.
Conducting their own research, Summers {The Eleventh Day, 2011) and journalist Swan consider the validity of the accusations against the
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admiral involved, Husband Kimmel. Their route to the truth goes through the intelligence on Japanese intentions and capabilities that Kimmel
received. They show incontrovertibly that Kimmel was privy to very little of the secret information available to Washington, including important
facts about weaponry and what Japanese diplomatic and espionage messages revealed after their codes were broken. Analyzing how the
decryptions were handled, Summers and Swan imply that the preponderance of responsibility for the Pacific Fleet's vulnerability to surprise air
assault lay with Washington officials. Kimmel himself believed that, and his efforts to reverse the original verdict of his culpability, now
continued by his descendants, conclude a levelheaded and persuasive presentation of the Pearl Harbor affair.--Gilbert Taylor
YA RECOMMENDATIONS
* Young adult recommendations for adult, audio, and reference titles reviewed in this issue have been contributed by the Booklist staff and by
reviewers Poornima Apte, Michael Cart, Laura Chanoux, Joan Curbow, Kristine Huntley, Eloise Kinney, and Mary Ellen Quinn.
* Adult titles recommended for teens are marked with the following symbols: YA, for books of general YA interest; YA/C, for books with
particular curriculum value; YA/S, for books that will appeal most to teens with a special interest in a specific subject; and YA/M, for books best
suited to mature teens.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Taylor, Gilbert. "Pearl Harbor: 75 years later." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2016, p. 15. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468771218&it=r&asid=d1d79d339c2ebc82ef55b6992e2f8017. Accessed 21 June
2017.
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Remember, remember the seventh December
Publishers Weekly.
263.39 (Sept. 26, 2016): p81.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 75 years ago; two new books explore what happened and who was responsible.
A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor; Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice
Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan. Harper, $35 (464p) ISBN 9780-06-240551-7
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The married investigative team of Summers and Swann (The Eleventh Day) make an airtight case that Adm. Husband Kimmel, "the man with
overall responsibility for America's Pacific fleet" at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, should not have been blamed for the catastrophe.
Through the extensive use of primary sources, including some previously unavailable materials from the National Archives, the authors delineate
who in the U.S. government and military knew about Japan's intentions in 1941. Tragically, there were dots that American intelligence did not
properly connect that would have informed Kimmel of what was to come. But even had he gotten such an alert, the limited resources available to
him--despite frequent requests, he lacked tools of defense such as a radar warning net--would have been insufficient. In the wake of the disaster,
Kimmel was scapegoated and slandered without basis by people as eminent as then-senator Harry Truman. Eventually, a naval commission of
inquiry found that Kimmel had not been derelict, but that exoneration came too late for his reputation. Even today, his grandchildren are fighting
to have his rank posthumously restored to four-star admiral. This sad story reads like a thriller, thanks to the authors' evocative prose and careful
use of detail. (Dec.)
Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack
Steve Twomey. Simon & Schuster, $30 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4767-7646-0
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Pulitzer-winning journalist Twomey teases readers with his subtitle before delivering a fine account of the players and events in the years leading
up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Twomey churns up plenty of minor characters and little-known incidents over the course of 16
unchronological chapters, but he emphasizes the major figures on both sides, including such star-crossed commanders in Hawaii as Adm.
Husband Kimmel and Gen. Walter Short; their superiors in Washington, Adm. Harold Stark, Gen. George C. Marshall, and Pres. Roosevelt; and
Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto and ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura. These are lively, astute portraits that rock no boats. No longer
considered scapegoats, Kimmel and Short come across as intelligent commanders, aware that war was imminent--if only because of repeated
warnings from Washington--but hampered by the widespread feeling that a Japanese attack would be suicidal and stupid. Twomey's admiring
portrait of Adm. Yamamoto is outdated: plenty of colleagues shared his reluctance to provoke the U.S., attacking Pearl Harbor did turn out to be
foolhardy, and Yamamoto's subsequent career was unimpressive. The story of Pearl Harbor has been done to death, but Twomey's vivid work
rates high nonetheless. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Remember, remember the seventh December." Publishers Weekly, 26 Sept. 2016, p. 81. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA465558257&it=r&asid=86dd5e4f978107a7fe1b0bfae1b7a071. Accessed 21 June
2017.
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A quartet of histories that will live on Pearl Harbor, 75 years
later
Library Journal.
141.15 (Sept. 15, 2016): p98.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Harding, Stephen. Dawn of Infamy: A Sunken Ship, a Vanished Crew, and the Final Mystery of Pearl Harbor. Da Capo. Nov. 2016. 224p. notes.
bibliog. index. ISBN 9780306825033. $24.99. HIST
Japan's declaration of war, the attack on Pearl Harbor, started just before eight o'clock in the morning (Hawaii-Aleutian Time) on December 7,
1941. With this latest work, Harding (The Castaway's War) investigates whether a Japanese submarine may have fired some of the first shots of
the day, between Seattle and Honolulu. The book, originally published in the UK as Voyage to Oblivion, traces the history of the freighter SS
Cynthia Olson from her origin as a military cargo ship built too late to be used in World War I up to her final voyage carrying lumber for the U.S.
Army. Harding's thorough research reconstructs the Cynthia Olson's last days through military records and personal narratives of the crew of the
I-26, the Japanese submarine that sunk the ship. While the story of the Cynthia Olson often appears as a side note in other histories about Pearl
Harbor, this harrowing account brings it to the fore, telling how a Japanese submarine was able to sail close to the U.S. mainland and sink an
unarmed ship in the hours before America entered World War II. VERDICT Harding's detailed history of the Cynthia Olson and her connection to
Pearl Harbor will appeal to nautical and military historians alike--John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston
* Nelson, Craig. Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness. Scribner. Sept. 2016. 544p. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781451660494. $32; ebk. ISBN
9781451660517. HIST
Nelson (Rocket Men) combines first-person accounts with evidence from more than 60 volumes of federal reports to tell the story of the attack on
the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor from the point of view of both American and Japanese forces. Based on over five years of research by Nelson,
this exhaustive account weaves time lines from Tokyo, Washington, DC, and the Hawaiian island of Oahu to present as close to a complete
history as possible of the events leading up to the December 1941 bombing. Roughly half of the book focuses on the planning, diplomacy, spying,
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and miscommunications that happened in the months and days leading up to the attack. While Nelson doesn't demonize Japanese actions, he does
present the savagery of war, including the Japanese aggression in China, in graphic detail. Later chapters outline the response from the U.S.
military, including a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942, and the overall effects of World War II on the American psyche. VERDICT This
comprehensive account doesn't shy away from the horrors of war, successfully providing an even-handed chronicle of the events that led up to
Pearl Harbor. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]--John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Summers, Anthony & Robbyn Swan. A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor; Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice. Harper. Nov. 2016.
544p. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780062405517. $35; ebk. ISBN 9780062405531. HIST
On December 7, 1941, Adm. Husband E. Kimmel commanded the Pacific Fleet. He stood in his office and watched the attack on Pearl Harbor
destroy battleships, planes, and buildings--and the lives of more than 2,400 military personnel. When a spent bullet bounced off his chest, he
muttered, "Too bad it didn't kill me." Within hours, the race to find someone to blame for the catastrophe was in effect. Kimmel became the
subject of several Congressional inquiries and was demoted in disgrace. At the time, he insisted that he'd been denied crucial information and was
being scapegoated by the U.S. Navy. He, his sons, and grandsons worked for years to clear the admiral's name, eventually gaining some measure
of success but failing to have his rank restored. Pulitzer Prize finalists Summers and Swan (coauthors, The Eleventh Day) attempt to make sense
of the decades-long saga of missed messages, faulty memories, long-classified documents, and official inertia--with some success. VERDICT
Casting light on a controversial episode in history, this difficult yet important human interest story is likely to be of interest to large World War II
collections. [See Prepub Alert, 5/2/16.]--Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS
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Twomey, Steve. Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack. S & S. Nov. 2016. 384p. illus. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN
9781476776460. $30; ebk. ISBN 9781476776507. HIST
Smoke could be seen coming out of the Japanese embassy in Washington, DC, on December 3, 1941, as employees followed the latest
instructions from Tokyo to burn their codes, ciphers, and any confidential documents. The same scene was playing out in Japanese consulates in
Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, and London. The smoke was one of several indicators of an imminent attack by the Japanese, but American
military leaders assumed the Japanese were planning to attack the Asian continent. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Twomey charts the decisions
and actions of U.S. government officials and military leaders in a chronological retelling of the 12 days leading up to the early morning attack in
Hawaii. VERDICT Twomey's highly recommended exploration of the miscommunications and racist assumptions of the U.S. military sheds light
on the missteps of military leadership and provides much-needed context for why the American fleet was unprepared for Japan's devastating raid.
[See Prepub Alert, 5/2/16.]--John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A quartet of histories that will live on Pearl Harbor, 75 years later." Library Journal, 15 Sept. 2016, p. 98. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463632566&it=r&asid=296a9970d7f2230f306d7362187d72b4. Accessed 21 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463632566
BOOK REVIEW | NONFICTION
On the 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, a Look Back
By JONATHAN MARTINNOV. 18, 2016
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COUNTDOWN TO PEARL HARBOR
The Twelve Days to the Attack
By Steve Twomey
Illustrated. 365 pp. Simon & Schuster. $30.
As we approach the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the story of how America could have been caught by surprise on Dec. 7, 1941, remains one of overly vague warnings, bureaucratic breakdowns and, as with the equally audacious attacks that came 60 years later, a failure of imagination.
When the Navy Department in Washington sent a “war warning” to the naval forces at Pearl Harbor 10 days before Japanese planes appeared over Oahu, the only direct order in the short communiqué was for the admiral in charge of the Pacific Fleet to “execute an appropriate defensive deployment.” That admiral, Husband Kimmel, had been more focused on planning for an eventual move against the Japanese elsewhere in the Pacific. He largely ignored the broadly worded instructions. After all, the assumption among government and military officials was that the Japanese would attack a United States- or British-held territory somewhere in the southwest Pacific — not thousands of miles to the east in Hawaii.
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There would be neither fully functional radar nor any reconnaissance planes to detect the raid that came early on a Sunday morning. Nor would there be any metal netting in the harbor to protect the American fleet from the torpedoes that would claim lives, ships and, for a time, the country’s self-image.
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Steve Twomey
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All of America’s assumptions proved faulty. Pearl Harbor was not too shallow to be at risk of torpedo attacks; the Japanese were not constrained by the knowledge that they were unlikely to win a long war against a greater industrial power; and no, despite the crude racial stereotypes of that time, there was nothing in the ethnic makeup of the Japanese people that somehow made them incapable of piloting planes off aircraft carriers to unleash a punishing assault. German tutors had not, as one newspaper report speculated even in the days after the attack, been needed to instruct the Japanese how to plan the attack.
“There had never been anything remotely like it in the history of naval warfare,” Steve Twomey writes of the 353 Japanese warplanes sent aloft from aircraft carriers just 38 years after the invention of flight. They would claim over 2,400 American lives.
Infusing a well-known story with suspense, “Countdown to Pearl Harbor” reconstructs the military’s glaring errors of omission, the secret American effort to intercept Japan’s encrypted communication and the fruitless 11th-hour diplomatic negotiations between Tokyo and Washington. Twomey, a former Washington Post reporter, veers between the Japanese attack fleet, Pearl Harbor and Washington while adhering to the chronological order of events.
The effect can be dizzying at times, as Twomey introduces an enormous cast of participants, at least one major new figure seemingly brought forth in every chapter. But his day-by-day narrative is gripping. He does not uncover any fresh documents or offer a revisionist account. Rather, he relies heavily on the nine official inquiries into the assault and the oral histories, diaries and other papers from the actors who were unable to prevent what Franklin Roosevelt decided to call “a date which will live in infamy.” (Roosevelt wisely altered the original draft from “a date which will live in world history.”)
The record is damning. In the week leading up to the attack, Twomey notes, “clues of something massive underway” had made their way to Kimmel’s Pacific Command. The Japanese changed their radio call signs at an irregular time, their ships were on the move and American military intelligence had lost track of four of their carriers. And by Saturday the Navy Department was conscious enough of a threat that it radioed officials at Pearl Harbor authorizing them to instruct other American military bases in the Pacific to destroy secret documents.
But the prospect of an airborne attack on Hawaii itself? Unthinkable. After all, a few days before, on Nov. 27, Kimmel had asked his war plans officer if there was any chance the Japanese would be so bold. “None,” the officer replied. “Absolutely none.”
Book Review in Non-Fiction, History, United States
Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack
By Steve Twomey Simon & Schuster 384 pp.
Reviewed by Lawrence De Maria
December 27, 2016
A riveting, page-turning addition to the WWII canon.
I have been fascinated by the Pearl Harbor attack ever since I read Day of Infamy by Walter Lord as a child. Lord, who also wrote A Night to Remember about the sinking of the Titanic, was a consummate storyteller and brought both tragedies to life.
I particularly remember one passage in Day of Infamy, where Lord described how prostitutes in Honolulu, who were told they could not give blood for wounded sailors, nevertheless volunteered to help in other ways. I was so young I didn’t know what a prostitute was, and was rather mystified why the blood of such patriotic women might be thought unsuitable for transfusion. Later, of course, I wised up, and also understood why the ladies of the night were so anxious to help. After all, their relationship with the U.S. Navy and many of its sailors was, ahem, intimate.
Which brings me to Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack by Steve Twomey, an accomplished newspaper journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing while at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Countdown is an excellent addition to the Pearl Harbor canon, and provides new insight to a subject that I thought I knew everything about.
Twomey concentrates on the days leading up to the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, giving the motives and actions of both the Japanese and American sides. He does not absolve the Japanese for being too shortsighted to understand they could never win a war against the United States, especially one begun with a stab in the back to rival all stabs in the back. The hubris of brilliant Japanese military men like Yamamoto, Fuchida, and Genda was startling.
Nor does he absolve the Americans for underestimating (mostly on racial grounds) Japanese military prowess and boldness. Franklin Delano Roosevelt also misjudged Japan’s intentions, although there is no evidence he withheld information to spark a war. FDR loved the Navy. The savaging of the Pacific Fleet hurt him deeply.
How badly were the Japanese eventually overmatched? Well, at the start of hostilities, Japan had 10 aircraft carriers; the U.S. had seven. By the time of the 1945 surrender, Japan had no carriers (actually, no fleet) and the U.S. had built more than a hundred. In fact, the U.S. 7th Fleet in the Pacific was larger than all the other navies in the world combined.
How badly did American leaders misjudge the Japanese in December 1941? The general (or, rather, admiral) consensus was that the Japanese could not sail across the northern Pacific and attack Hawaii or California undetected and do any damage. While U.S. Naval Intelligence later did brilliant work (especially at Midway), they dropped the ball in 1941, guessing that Japan’s four best carriers, which no one could locate, were in Japanese waters when they were actually launching planes off Hawaii.
With U.S.-Japanese negotiations breaking down in late November 1941, Washington knew something bad was about to happen somewhere. The War Department warned Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short, who, respectively, commanded the naval and army forces in Hawaii, that war was basically imminent.
But they were led to believe that the blow would fall elsewhere, perhaps in the Philippines. Both men were competent officers. Kimmel, in particular, was perhaps the most-respected admiral in the U.S. Navy. He was universally praised when he took the job in Hawaii and was credited with honing the U.S. Pacific Fleet to a razor’s edge of proficiency.
Unfortunately, while both men liked each other, inter-service rivalries prevented them from coordinating their defense plans. Short lined up his planes (from what was then called the Army Air Force) wingtip to wingtip to prevent sabotage, where they were sitting ducks for Japanese bombers. Kimmel assumed that at war’s outbreak he would sally forth and defeat the Japanese near Japan. He never imagined that his eight battleships and much of the rest of his fleet would be obliterated at their berths.
Twomey, a consummate storyteller, spices his tale with personal accounts on both sides before, during, and after the battle. He also does a good job explaining tactics and weaponry. The Americans said the waters of Pearl Harbor were too shallow for torpedoes dropped from planes to be effective, and, besides, the Japanese were second-rate airmen. Of course, those airmen had been fighting in China for years and had figured out that by putting special fins on existing torpedoes the waters of Pearl Harbor were perfect for sinking battleships.
In hindsight, it’s easy to be critical of many decisions (but not the courage) of the players, and, sure enough, there were many investigations and much scapegoating in the U.S. The careers of Short and Kimmel were destroyed. It is also not hard to find Kimmel a sympathetic figure. He knew he had failed. During the attack, a spent bullet hit him. Looking at the smudge on his uniform, he said of the bullet, “It would have been merciful had it killed me.” Later in the war, after he was forced to retire, his son, a submariner, was killed in combat.
Every generation seems to have a day that people say they will never forget. The JFK assassination. The 9/11 attacks. But the shock of Pearl Harbor stands out. The entire Pacific Fleet, the pride of the nation, was basically put out of action on a Sunday morning in a sneak attack that killed more than 2,000 sailors and temporarily turned the Pacific into a Japanese lake.
Those were the days when battleships were named after states, not politicians: Arizona. Oklahoma, California, West Virginia, Nevada, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania. The destruction of battleship row hit home. Many people expected a Japanese invasion of the West Coast. One can only imagine what the effect would be today, with our social media and 24/7 news cycle.
But as this excellent book makes abundantly clear, Pearl Harbor, despite the human costs and shock to national pride, was a lucky day for the U.S. The three American aircraft carriers based at Pearl Harbor were not in port and came in handy the following July at Midway, when they helped sink the very same Japanese carriers that struck Hawaii.
(After the attack, the United States immediately realized that the era of the battleship was over and began to rely on carrier groups, and does so to this day.)
The attack united the nation, turning isolationists into warriors. And Adolf Hitler, who never met a treaty he wouldn’t ignore, incredibly honored the one he made with Imperial Japan. He declared war on the U.S., thus ensuring Germany’s defeat.
I hope Twomey’s fine book achieves wide popularity. It may remind Americans of a time when they got off the floor and worked together.
Lawrence De Maria, once a Pulitzer-nominated New York Times reporter, has written more than a dozen thriller and mysteries on Amazon.com. His most recent thriller, THAWED, is available at ST. AUSTIN’S PRESS (BOOKS BY DE MARIA).
'Countdown to Pearl Harbor' makes fascinating history
From the The 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor series
By Harry Levins Special to the Post-Dispatch Dec 7, 2016 (0)
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which shoved the United States into World War II. The attack has long since drifted from memory into history.
Given the legions of young Americans whose knowledge of WWII is fuzzy at best, journalist Steve Twomey has done a public service by writing “Countdown to Pearl Harbor,” a well-written and fascinating account.
Twomey subtitles his book “The Twelve Days to the Attack.” Starting on Wednesday, Nov. 26, he devotes a chapter to each day — and even though readers already know the ending, they’ll hold their collective breath, as if they’re watching a rerun of an Alfred Hitchcock classic.
From the beginning, Twomey says the Japanese acted irrationally in starting the war. “Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s editorial page assured nervous residents that no war was coming,” he writes. “‘The reason is Japan is in no position to fight a war with a first-class power, and her leaders realize they will be committing suicide if they start one, or let one start.’”
Even the man who planned the attack, Adm. Isoroku Yamamato, sensed that his homeland was acting in a suicidal way. But his first move caught the U.S. Pacific Fleet with its metaphorical pants down.
Yamamato had a curious ally — the American mindset about the Japanese people. Twomey writes: “Americans, as a rule, did not credit the Japanese with having deep reservoirs of logic, as Americans defined it. Usually, they fell back on race-laden stereotypes. They reduced the entire nation to ‘the Jap.’ The Jap was a creature of the mysterious East, strange and implicitly inferior. He was inept, easily led, premodern, and uncreative.”
True, most American leaders thought war in the Pacific was inevitable. But almost none of them imagined it would start at Pearl Harbor — even though British carrier planes had savaged the Italian navy in a raid at Taranto a year earlier.
In those leaders’ minds, Pearl Harbor was too far east of Japan. Indeed, Franklin D. Roosevelt had dispatched the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from the American West Coast early in 1941 to remind the Japanese that the Pacific was no Japanese playground.
They also thought Japanese carrier planes couldn’t carry bombs big enough to sink battleships.
Twomey says, “The Americans had advanced their great armada to Pearl to serve as a holstered threat, a curb on distant imperial aggression, never having wondered whether the Japanese might instead regard it as a bull’s-eye they had to hit.”
But mostly, Twomey tells his story in terms of people, Japanese as well as American, in settings ranging from the Oval Office to the bridges of warships off Oahu. These people tell their stories in retrospect, still marveling at it all.
As will readers. This is a splendid book.
Harry Levins retired in 2007 as senior writer of the Post-Dispatch.