At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor [Paperback]

Gordon W. Prange (Author), Donald M. Goldstein (Afterword), Katherine V. Dillon (Afterword)

Book Description

Release date: December 1, 1991

At 7:53 a.m., December 7, 1941, America's national consciousness and confidence were rocked as the first wave of Japanese warplanes took aim at the U.S. Naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. As intense and absorbing as a suspense novel, At Dawn We Slept is the unparalleled and exhaustive account of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is widely regarded as the definitive assessment of the events surrounding one of the most daring and brilliant naval operations of all time. Through extensive research and interviews with American and Japanese leaders, Gordon W. Prange has written a remarkable historical account of the assault that-sixty years later-America cannot forget.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

ea. vol: Penguin. 2001. photogs. bibliog. index. pap. $20.95.HIST Prange's twin volumes offer everything you always wanted to know about Pearl Harbor but were afraid to ask, plus pictures! Together, these tomes comprise an exhaustive study of the day that will live in infamy. Prange takes a long, hard look at President Roosevelt's relationship with Japan and implies that FDR all but goaded the empire into bombing the Hawaiian base. With the 60th anniversary of the attack approaching, there no doubt will be many volumes released and rereleased, but these are among the best.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Prange's exhaustive interviews of people on both sides enable him to tell the story in such personal terms that the reader is bound to feel its power....It is impossible to forget such an account. —The New York Times Book Review

Diligent, thorough, and evenhanded...At Dawn We Slept is the definitive account of Pearl Harbor. —Chicago Sun-Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 912 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; 60th Anniversary Edition edition (December 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140157344
• ISBN-13: 978-0140157345
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 116 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive work on Pearl Harbor? Perhaps it is... July 6, 2000

By Alan R. Holyoak

Format:Paperback

While science is my area of expertise, I have a continuing interest in history. That interest lead me to pick up Prange's book. Gordon Prange has devoted years to accumulating information about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That information includes interviews and military and government information from the USA and Japan. That accumulated information was then boiled down into this final work -- completed after Prange's death.

While there have been many books and theories proposed about why and how the debacle at Pearl Harbor took place, Prange's approach is well documented, and includes details of the pre-attack politics of the USA and of Japan. His book also includes detailed information about the attack itself, gleaned from interviews with those on both sides who actually participated in the event. But, even with that level of detail, I must admit that the most compelling part of the book for me is the section that follows the actual attack -- when the US government and the military were trying to figure out what actually happened, and who was to blame.

The final series of chapters of the book provide insight into the thoughts and tactics of Adm. Kimmell (CincPAC) and Gen Short (Commanding General of army at Hawaii), the two primary "interested parties" in the event.

Before reading the book, I had a tendency to believe that there may have been something of a conspiracy by the Roosevelt administration to get us into WWII, but after reading this account of Pearl Harbor, I am more likely to believe that the great success, including complete surprise by Japanese naval aviation was the result of a series of ill-advised decisions by the commanders at Hawaii rather than by any entity in Wash DC.

The sticky point in the whole affair was "magic" the US's code-breaking machine that allowed us to monitor coded diplomatic messages sent between Tokyo and some of its embassies. While "magic" was the source of a great deal of information that may have resulted in a different outcome at Pearl Harbor if the commanders there had access to it, we will never really know.

If you are interested in looking in repurcussions from the attack at Pearl Harbor, or if you have an interest in thinking about the whys and hows of the US entry into WWII, I urge you to read this book.

The writing is passable, though sometimes quite dry. The information is well documented, and is believable. This is not, however, a quick read -- there is a lot of meat in this book to be digested as you go along.

All in all an outstanding contribution to the telling of a sensitive piece of American history.

5 stars for content and believability.

Alan Holyoak

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tragic Series of Miscalculations and Misplaced Assumptions July 29, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Gordon W. Prange, et al does a superb job of collecting interview and documentary data to examine the entire aspects of the attack (he examines the inquiries in a later book) from American and Japanese perspectives. This is the single most detailed, objective and comprehensive account of the attack on Pearl Harbor ever written. The U.S. military did believe an attack was coming but assumed it would be only in the Phillipines and Southeast Asia. The assumption was made that Japan could not do both, attack in Asia and strike our fleet. We were wrong to assume and Japan made us pay a severe penalty but not one nearly so severe as it could have been, especially as our carriers were at sea and the sub base and fuel farm were unhit. History now shows it is more vital to hit bases than ships. If Pearl Harbor itself had been more damaged, the Pacific Fleet would have had to relocate back to the West Coast and being short of tankers, would have been unable to intervene in any decisive way for some months. As it was, with the base intact, our carriers were able to strike back and within six months won a miracle victory at Midway. For a complementary study, I would recommend Cpt. Homer N. Wallin's, Pearl Harbor, Why? How? Fleet Salvage and Appraisal especially for the details of the huge salvage effort.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Pearl Harbor Tragedy Relived September 5, 2003

By Alex Diaz-Granados VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Just as Cornelius Ryan's three major works about World War II (The Longest Day, The Last Battle, and A Bridge Too Far) focus on the last 11 months of the conflict in Europe, the late Gordon W. Prange and his collaborators Donald Goldstein and Katherine Dillon zeroed in on the Pearl Harbor saga and its aftermath. No less than five major books by Prange and Co. deal with the series of events that occurred before, during, and after. Of these, At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor is the first and most important volume.

At Dawn We Slept covers nearly the entire 12-month period leading up to the "day of infamy" that marked America's entry into World War II. It provides amazing insights into both the Japanese and American mindsets, and, most important, explodes the revisionists' myth that Japan's attack succeeded because President Franklin D. Roosevelt withheld critical information from Army and Navy commanders in Hawaii.

Prange researched the Pearl Harbor affair for 37 years until his death in 1980, and his posthumous books paint a tragic picture of two great Pacific nations reluctantly yet inexorably moving in a collision course. Japan doesn't necessarily hate the United States, yet since the 1920s sees it as its main rival for supremacy in the Pacific. Japan's war in China causes the rift between it and America to grow, and U.S. economic sanctions intended to end Japanese aggression against its neighbors have exactly the opposite effect on the military-dominated government in Tokyo. What once was just an abstract idea in Japan's military academies -- a transoceanic war with Britain and America -- slowly but surely comes closer to reality after Tokyo joins the Axis in 1940. It becomes inevitable after Japan moves troops into French Indochina as a precursor to Japan's strike to conquer the resource-rich Southern area (the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Singapore, and the U.S.-controlled Philippine Islands).

On the Japanese side, the book shows the intense planning and preparation for the attack. Although not flawless (the midget submarines were rather superfluous and almost gave the attack away), it was brilliant. Driven by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's steely determination, a powerful strike force is gathered, pilots are painstakingly trained, and every resource - from innovations in ordnance (adapting torpedoes to run in very shallow waters) to a spy network on Oahu - is devoted to make the strike more effective.

At Dawn We Slept also paints a sobering picture of American complacency, ignorance, and even incompetence during the months before the attack. Readers will learn, for instance, that Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short never truly understood his mission, which was to defend the Pacific Fleet when it was in port. Short failed to grasp the danger of aerial attack, focusing instead on an imaginary threat from Hawaii's 125,000 Japanese-Americans. (This mistaken notion actually caused more loss of American airpower rather than preventing it; Short ordered all planes to be lined up in the middle of their air bases so they could be more easily guarded. This just made it easier for Japanese planes to destroy or disable most of the Hawaiian Air Force.)

The Navy fares no better in its pre-Pearl Harbor activities, either. Admiral Husband E. Kimmel wasn't a meek and incompetent officer, and he did have an offensive-minded posture. Nevertheless, his failure to fully coordinate intelligence gathering, patrols, or even contingency plans with Short were factors which contributed to the success of the Japanese attack.

The book devotes much attention to the twists and turns that made December 7th, 1941 such a momentous day. As someone once said, it's all in the small details. Who knew just what impact would the typing speed of a Japanese diplomat would have on the course of history? What would have happened if Adm. Kimmel had been immediately notified of the sinking of an unknown sub in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor? What if Adm. Nagumo had launched a third wave that day?