.
Spending time with families, relaxing and having fun seemed to be on everybody's mind on the .
day before the attack, Saturday, December 6, 1941. There is a strong indication that two or three .
possible warning signs tipping off the up coming attack might have been shrugged off or taken .
lightly for a number of reasons. One could be the unwillingness of the assigned personnel to .
carry out their duties and investigate signs any further. This would have certainly required a .
change of plans on the part of many officers who seemed reluctant to take the signs seriously. A .
second reason simply could have been that the United States forces were becoming a little cocky .
and secure in their position and just never accepted the fact that something like this could ever .
happen. Either way, warning signs were not heeded and the rest has become an important day in .
history.
The book also outlines just how much planning and training by the Japanese went into the .
attack. This was not something they decided to do one a whim. This was something that had to .
be planned for over ten months. As the author draws the reader into the attack from the first .
bomber sighting, begging around 7:55 a.m. through the final shots and bombs, somewhere .
around 10:00 a.m., he gives the reader a very good insight as to how the world could be a safe .
place one minute then realizing it isn't safe after being surprised attacked by a foreign nation. .
Through the stories of men rushing to try to save their sinking ships, only to be trapped under the .
Jones 3.
deck as their ships sink, this is what it would have been like to be on the island of Oahu or in .
Pearl Harbor on one of the most remembered days in United States history, December 7, 1941.
Walter Lord comprised this book primarily from personal interviews with some 577 .
participants, admirals, sailors, generals, privates and ordinary citizens who assisted him in .
bringing the human side of the events of December 7, 1941 to the book.
