BOOKS; Day Of Infamy

Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”__ the words of Franklin Roosevelt before Congress on the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. What book to read? There have been so many chroniclers of that day. If you intend to read only one book on Pearl Harbor, the best choice would be, Walter Lord’s 1957 book, “The Day of Infamy.” Lord’s book reads like a novel because it is based on personal accounts and the detail needed to make it read like a novel is what under girds his account. Lords research was deep and comprehensive and it shows. Lord interviewed 577 particpants bith Japanese and American. As such this book that puts the reader there at Pearl Harbor on December 7^th 1941. It is extraordinarily intimate. You learn what it felt like, looked like and smelled like. You experience the chaos, the pain and the anger. captures a sense of the violation that Americans felt after the attack. Lord uses the same storytelling skills in this book as were so evident in his riveting account of the sinking of the Titanic in “Night To Remember.” The reader also experiences what it was like on the Japanese side planning and executing the attack. That day the US lost 2345 military and civilians personnel, plus 4 battleships and 4 destroyers. Luckly the US carriers, Enterprise, Lexington, Saratoga and Yorktown were out to sea and would return to cripple the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Midway. Today the battleship the USS Arizona remains the permanent watery grave for the 1,102 men who perished on board that ship that day. Lord’s book is a fitting tribute. No finer account has been written.