Japanese Destroyer Captain - Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through Japanese Eyes
(2007)
|
Front Cover |
Book Details |
Back Cover |
|
Genre |
Non-Fiction |
Subject |
Hara, Tameichi, 1900-; Ship captains - Japan - Biography; World War, 1939-1945 - Naval operations, Japanese; World War, 1939-1945 - Personal narratives, Japanese |
Publication Date |
4/2/2007 |
Format |
Hardcover (8.9
x
6.3
mm)
|
Publisher |
Naval Institute Press |
Language |
English |
Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
|
|
Personal Details |
Store |
Alibris |
Purchase Price |
$32.43 |
Condition |
Very Good/Very Good |
Rating |
0 |
Links |
Library of Congress
|
|
Product Details |
LoC Classification |
D777 .H313 2006 |
Dewey |
940.545952092 |
ISBN |
9781591143543 |
Cover Price |
$27.95 |
No. of Pages |
310 |
First Edition |
No |
Rare |
No |
|
Notes/Review |
$29.94 + 3.99 shipping - 1.50 coupon
----------------------------------------------------------
My favorite kind of WW II book is the personal narrative. I'm much more interested in what happened to the average Joe than the stories of generals and admirals. It's pretty easy to find first person stories of Americans, Brits, and Germans. It was tougher to find Russian stories, but more of these have become available since the fall of the Soviet Union. Japanese stories, on the other hand, are still quite difficult to find.
Destroyers played a bigger role in the war for the Japanese than cruisers and battleships and Hara was one of the few survivors. As the cover says, we follow him from Pearl Harbor and Midway (sort of) to Guadalcanal and the Solomons.
To survive the war, a man in Hara's position had to be both lucky and skilled. It's understandable, then, that a survivor's tale has a touch of ... arrogance isn't the word I'm looking for ... cockiness, perhaps? Hara does a fair amount of Monday morning quarterbacking, and I found his critiques of his superiors' strategies interesting. He says early on that America's industrial might would likely defeat Japan, but I get the sense that he feels things might have turned out differently had fewer mistakes been made.
The book is well written and has several maps that aid in following the action. Includes an index and appendices. |
|