Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II [Paperback]

John Prados (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2001

Written in the style of a thriller but solidly based on an array of sources, this study reinterprets the entire sea campaign in the Pacific, using intelligence as the missing key to the Allied success. It examines every aspect of the secret war of intelligence -- from radio dispatches and espionage to vital information from prisoners and document translation -- showing how U.S. intelligence outsmarted Japan nearly every step of the way. The resulting assessment is a virtual rewriting of history that challenges previous conceptions about the Pacific conflict.

John Prados relates the growing intelligence knowledge on both sides to the progress and outcome of naval actions. Along the way he offers a wealth of revelations that include data on how the United States caught the superbattleship Yamato and the impact of intelligence on the initial campaigns in the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies and the escape of American codebreakers from Corregidor. He also provides colorful vignettes of personalities who shaped the secret intelligence war. This ambitious work is not simply a rundown of code-breaking successes, but an astonishing demonstration of how the day-to-day accumulation of knowledge can produce extraordinary results. Its accounting of Japanese intelligence is unprecedented in detail. Its reassessment of battles and campaigns is presented not just in terms of troops or ships but in how the secret war actually played out. Lauded as a major new study when published in hardcover in 1995, the book remains the most comprehensive study written. For sheer drama and gut-level operational practicality, it ranks with the very best.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The most authoritative and revealing examination yet of the way intelligence--of all kinds--was instrumental in defeating Japan. Prados gives a new picture of the war in the Pacific, one which will challenge many previous conceptions about that conflict, and one which will be irresistible to those readers who find histories of that period fascinating. 16 pages of photos. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

John Prados is a historian of national security affairs and director of the Vietnam Documentation Project of the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. He is the author of ten books, four of which are on intelligence, including Presidents' Secret Wars and The Soviet Estimate.

Product Details

• Paperback: 862 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press; 1 edition (November 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557504318
• ISBN-13: 978-1557504319
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,208,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent detail -- but a great narrative too, May 24, 2002

By 

Andrew Czernek (Mukilteo, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II (Paperback)

The detail in examining all aspects of intelligence in the Japanese and American navies during WWII -- from fleet recognition, to traffic analysis, to wartime production information, to the role of Ultra and decryption -- make Prados' book an excellent study. Those familiar with WWII issues will find lots of fresh material.

Prados is wise enough to limit the topic to just naval intelligence issues, but still fills 735 pages with detail and skill. The pleasant surprise is that it's so well-written, building each issue to its climax in the wartime theater. And, with 50+ years of perspective, you can feel the tide of the war shift after Guadalcanal.

The art of intelligence-gathering increased dramatically during this war because of radio intercepts, so Prados covers the topic chronologically. He has an excellent analysis of Japanese Naval strategy at Pearl Harbor, during the Pacific conquest period, and the shift to a "defensive" strategy of the homelands.

Prados does an excellent job comparing the structure of Japanese and American intelligence-gathering; also in indicating both opportunities and limitations of intelligence in war-time. The reader also sees the dramatic impact that war-time propaganda has in mis-leading military leaders.

Surprisingly low-tech intelligence issues are important at various points during the war: such as the absence of photo-reconnaissance early in the war for Americans. For the Japanese navy, poor ship-recognition skills by Japanese pilots and skippers leads to assumptions that American carriers present no threat because they've been reported as sunk -- or that destroyers were cruisers or even battleships.

The book is closed by an excellent post-war period which does two things: follows the careers of major intelligence participants and discusses social aspects of military training.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Combined Fleet Decoded, March 13, 2006

By 

Mark Wisneski (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II (Paperback)

Combined Fleet Decoded taught me more new material regarding the Japanese navy and the U.S. Intelligence surveying that Japanese navy than I had learned in the past 15 years of reading Second World War books and watching documentary-type DVDs such as the History Channel. That is not a crack at other books, DVDs and the History Channel. Instead, it is support for the depth which Prados examines the conflict - from its genesis twenty years before Pearl Harbor right up through the hostilities.

The conflict is examined in detail. For example, Prados notes that Pearl Harbor strategist Genda's inspiration for a massed carrier attack on Pearl Harbor came from watching an American newsreel in Tokyo. Quantitative support is offered throughout. He writes that Japanese Captain Tomioka's estimate based on experience in China was that a 3-to-1 ratio was necessary to ensure success against the American aircraft in the Philippines in 1941.

Of course, Prados' great advantage is time. Written in 1995 (I believe), he was able to research the combined memoirs of people like Edwin Layton and Japser Holmes a decade after each had written their memoirs and after they had passed away. After comparing notes, he makes some of the most perceptive analysis of the Pacific War. For example he provides the detail to support the notion that Macarthur had as much reason to be dismissed after the disastrous events of December 7, 1941 as Husband Kimmel. Yet Kimmel was relieved and Macarthur remained. Additionally, the Japanese trained for the "Decisive Naval Battle" instead of preparing for a prolonged naval engagement and were never really to turn the tide of battle. And for that, we are thankful.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and riveting, March 5, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of: American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II (Hardcover)

Other reviewers have commented on the breadth of information and the contribution this book makes to our understanding of intelligence in the Pacific war. I also want to note the wonderful way it is written. Personalities, on both sides of the conflict, are fleshed out. Battles, as large as Leyte Gulf and as small as individual submarines attacks, are vividly described. The reader is made to feel the emotions of the participants. Buy the book for the information, read the book for the sheer enjoyment of it.