ATTACKED!

A fresh account of Pearl Harbor through the eyes of those who experienced it.

The “ ‘official’ story of Pearl Harbor cast a long shadow,” writes Favreau, erasing many other ways the events could have been remembered. Here, he includes American, Native Hawaiian, and Japanese experiences, rounding out readers’ understanding. For example, there are the stories of Black mess attendant Doris Miller, who received a Navy Cross for heroism, only to drown in 1943, when a Japanese torpedo sank his ship; nervous Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa, 28; and the Japanese American Watanabe family of Honolulu, who lost their father when he was shot by U.S. fighter planes while working on his fishing boat. The book also includes Japanese perspectives, from Emperor Hirohito to Kazuo Sakamaki, who left Japan for Hawaii on his 18th birthday, knowing, as he put it, that he “was saying good-bye to all things to which a normal person clings.” The multitude of voices straddling national, political, and hierarchical boundaries reveals the tremendous cost to all. Favreau reminds readers that this was a crisis on American soil that, like others, has led to racist responses. His measured tone successfully conveys that in times of tragedy, we must avoid scapegoating. He accessibly and engagingly shows readers that with Pearl Harbor, the real story is “more complicated—and much more interesting, tragic, and heroic—than the simplified version.”

An inclusive, expansive take on a pivotal historical moment.