Customer Reviews

Days of Infamy: A Novel of Alternate History

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Harry Turtledove posits another alternate history, this one, if Pearl Harbor had been more carefully planned and followed up with an invasion of Hawaii. The Japanese take advantage of the surprise to land troops and, with the help of air superiority (since most US planes were knocked out on December 7), take control of the islands. The US is not going to take this lying down, and gears up to fight back . . .

As usual, carefully researched, and with the expected variety of viewpoints, from Japanese commanders to US soldiers to civilians caught in the middle. These characters are often very solid, though sometimes less so (the Japanese fisherman seems like something out of a Japanese version of "Flower Drum Song"!)

Things progress through months of occupation and food shortages on the island, and conclude with a climactic sea battle, the equivalent of Midway (the first real carrier-to-carrier battle). It's Turtledove's look at how the war would have progressed if the Japanese had had Hawaii as an advance base, rather than the US.

Although this book is marked as a "novel" on the front cover, and two of Turtledove's stand-alone books are reviewed on the back cover, this is clearly part 1 of at least a three (most likely four) part series. Several of the US characters (flyboy trainees, for example) never see combat. At least three Japanese characters mull over the question of how they can defeat a country so wealthy that even their trivial leavings make things easier for the occupiers. If one believes Turtledove's foreshadowings (and when he's so blatant, I'm inclined to believe him) the answer will be--they can't. To say nothing of how he dwells on Japanese habits of suicide, execution, and disgrace for those who through little or no fault of their own, are defeated or captured, as well as Japanese military infighting. While he nowhere actually says so (and therefore, I don't think I'm giving anything away) expect a Japanese implosion in future books.

It's good, but it's a limited idea, and the primary purpose seems to be to refight World War II--again--with a little more brains on the Japanese side, but with a safe American victory at the end of the day. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I don't think I'm going to be.

Days of Infamy (2004) is the first novel in the Pacific War series. On December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier planes attacked the US installations at Pearl Harbor. They sank all the US battleships in the Pacific and destroyed most of the Army Air Corps planes at Hickam Field. They could not sink the three carriers stationed at Pearl Harbor since these ships were at sea.

In this novel, the Japanese send a third wave of planes to bomb the tank farms and repair facilities. Then the Japanese army lands on the north shore of Oahu. Since the Japanese carrier planes are supporting the invasion, the nearby US carriers send planes to protect US troops; then the Japanese planes find the US carriers and sink or disable all three.

The US army fights back as best it can, but is disorganized, outnumbered, and then defeated in detail. Eventually most of the soldiers surrender to the Japanese. Of course, the Japanese consider surrender to be dishonorable and set out to work the prisoners to death. By the way, Fletcher Armitage is an artillery officer in the US Army, not an aviator.

The Japanese army takes Oahu and then the rest of the nearby islands. The Japanese set up an occupation government under Army command. They punish infringement of their orders with death; the high school principal is beheaded for keeping a radio despite Japanese orders to turn it in to the occupying troops.

The Japanese now have a forward base within flying boat range of the continental US. They bomb Los Angeles and other sites and fly recon on the west coast. Their biggest problem is the US use of radar, which they don't yet have despite positive advances in their laboratories.

Since most food stores in Hawaii were shipped in from elsewhere, the Japanese convert some commercial farms to food production and encourage the residents to plant gardens. The fishermen convert their boats to sail and keep on fishing.

Older Japanese residents in Hawaii identify with the invaders, but find that most of their children consider themselves to be Americans. Some Japanese residents are designated as village overseers by the occupying army, but are often more sympathetic toward their neighbors than the occupation troops. However, the haoles still consider themselves to be superior to any colored races; nevertheless, they quickly learn that the Japanese also have racial prejudices.

This novel is basically fiction, but the habits of Japanese occupation armies in the Phillipines and elsewhere have been well documented. The attitudes depicted herein are truly characteristic of the Japanese at all levels. The Japanese still exhibit racial prejudices toward their own minorities and other nationalities. Then, too, other races and nationalities return the favor; the Okinawans were less than pleased about their return to Japanese rule in 1972. And many Filipinos, Koreans and other nationalities still hate the Japanese.

Of course, the perseverance and creativity of the Japanese are also well documented. Fortunately, the US army of occupation in Japan was considerably less harsh and rewarded these and other positive aspects of the Japanese culture. Now the Japanese are teaching us the same lessons.

In real history, the Japanese didn't attack the tank farms, didn't invade Hawaii, and didn't sink or disable the US carriers. The destruction of the tank farms does more harm than good to the Japanese; the Japanese are already short of oil and now the invading force is really short of petroleum products. The invading army hinders the return of US forces, but also takes these troops away from other areas where they were needed. The final difference drastically hurts the US efforts to regain the islands; carriers have to be diverted from other theaters of operation and this takes time.

Highly recommended for Turtledove fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alternate histories and foreign cultures.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Any adolescent who has read one book about Pearl Harbor should be able to tell something about the tremendous logistical and political difficulties the Japanese Navy faced at the beginning of the Pacific Campaign, and the incredible risks they ran in mounting a raid, let alone an invasion. So when I picked this book up, I hoped to find some clever scheme by which the Japanese might have handled those problems. No such luck. The logistics of attack are never discussed: the scarcity of oil, the scarcity of troops, the lack of a fleet train, the lack of specialized amphibious ships, the vulnerability involved in operating at the extreme limits of supply range.... Similarly, the intense political conflict between army and navy is glossed over. Mr. Turtledove simply ignores all military reality and proceeds directly to the humiliation of stereotyped Americans suffering under occupation. The result is a book with a completely implausible and juvenile premise.
Here is the planning scene: Genda bops in to see Yamamoto and says: "Say, as long as we are attacking Pearl, how's about landing a division of troops!" Yamamoto responds: "Neat idea, lets use two divisions." Genda: "But how will we get the Army to agree?" Yamamoto: "Leave that to me." And that is it. No discussion of the fact that Yamamoto was appointed to the fleet command so that young Army officers would not assassinate him. No hint that Yamamoto had less influence with Tojo than Ghandi. No expression of Army derision at the idea of diverting two of the eleven divisions used in Operation Iai from the effort to take over Dutch oil fields (the reason for the war) to a strategic side-show. No discussion of where to get the 50+ transports needed to carry such a force, or the fuel to operate and escort them. No clue that grouping all Japanese carriers together to form the Kido Butai was a radical and unproven concept that no other naval power had yet attempted. The landing occurs the day after the attack, which means that a 12 knot transport force would have to precede the 25 knot carrier force, the naval equivalent of leading with one's chin. Air cover is steadily maintained, even though the Japanese carriers would have had to retreat to re-fuel, and were urgently needed for other operations....
Alternate History implies some relation to Actual History, with just a few reasonable changes to illustrate the fluidity of history as it happens. Even a fantastical premise, such as the time machine in "Guns of the South", minimizes the changes to the realities of the times. If the premise of "Guns" had been that Lee acquired two more divisions, without any attempt to explain how they were raised or where they came from, it would have been a far less interesting book--really just infantile power obsession. That failing is at the heart of "Infamy"--it fantasizes fictional Japanese superiority without any attempt to explain how such vastly improved capacity for operations might have been managed.

Harry,
Where did you learn military history? Japan in 1941 was rolling the dice with Pearl Harbor and it's campaign in the Pacific. You even admit it in the first 4 pages! They had a hard enough time supplying the Pearl Harbor attack force with enough fuel to make the trip, launch the attack and come back. And, considering the various operations the Japanese were conducting IRL, which operations got canceled to make troops available for the Operation versus Hawaii?

Also, what of the costal defenses on Hawaii? They made the ones in the Phillipines look like child's play. Trust me. Get the Osprey on Coastal Defenses on Oahu 1917-50. It's enlightneing to say the least. Plus, though BB row was a mess, most of the Pacific fleet was intact...you're telling me they could not have sortied one night and raised all kinds of hell among the transports?!? Also, there were other bases on Kauai and Mawi. In short, Hawaii was a tough nut to crack, even after Pearl Harbor. One division, even with air superiority and naval gunfire...was not going to beat two dug in divisions defending their own base of supplies. Japan knew it as well, which is why Onishi vetoed any such operation IRL. Furthermore, read the histories on the campaign in the Philipines...Baatan held out till April 1942. Corriagdor, May. Hawaii fell faster??? I don't think so.

Harry Turtledove's latest alternate history asks what would have happened if the Japanese had followed their air attack on Pearl Harbor with a full-scale invasion. Denying Hawaii as a US base of operations, the Japanese could not only threaten the mainland, but more easily take over southeast Asia and islands without the US to stop them.

I had higher expectations, perhaps because this was the same publisher as his better novels Rule Brittania and In the Presence of Mine Enemies. This reads more like the serials, and Turtledove has already done WWII TWICE. That means he could write 90% of this book in his sleep, and some of it reads that way.

We're back to multiple viewpoints, military advances and retreats, civilians caught in the cross-fire, and strategy sessions. Yep, it's WorldWar without the aliens, Darkness without the magic. For local color we have a surfing society dropout, a nisei teen and his immigrant dad who react oppositely to the developments, a racist schoolteacher forced
into a career change, plus the usual grunts and generals. Pilot trainees on the mainland who don't see any action are what suggests this book is merely the first of another three or four volume sprawlathon (and remember Derlevai took six books...)

A couple of anachronisms jarred. Turtledove's characters use the word quisling repeatedly. Yet the word comes from an actual person, Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian who collaborated with the Nazis and headed a puppet government from 1940 until 1945 (when he was executed by firing squad).

Since this book takes place in 1941-42, how likely are the various characters to use this term as a synonym for traitor? (actually the word has a more specific meaning, one who betrays ones country to act as a puppet for another) Not one person mentions the actual Quisling, who was alive and taking orders from Germany at this time.

The other anachronism is while the schoolteacher character is first presented as a racist, her point of view is not shown as common as that sort of thing was in the early 1940s. Moreover, there is little mention of miscegenation laws, which were common throughout the mainland, despite the mention of at least one white/Asian marriage in passing.

Other than that, an enjoyable read. Without giving away any
spoilers, I'm disappointed that the ending is so ambiguous, neither promising a sequel nor leaving me happy enough to not need one.

Having plundered World War II three times already, Harry Turtledove decides to go to the well once again with Days of Infamy. This time, he goes to the Pacific Ocean, and wonders what would have happened if the Japanese had followed up their attack on Pearl Harbor with an invasion of Hawaii. It's an interesting concept, but Turtledove is uncharacteristically dull in the exploration. This book was an active chore to get through.

The attack on Pearl Harbor happens much the same way as it did in the real history, so much so that Turtledove basically ignores it except in broad strokes. The only change in the beginning of the book is that Japanese Commander Genda persuades Admiral Yamamoto to convince the Army generals that an invasion force should accompany the task force. Once the attack has happened, though, things start to get interesting. Hawaii is quickly captured as the Americans are unable to muster much of a defense. They do make a heroic stand, however, before finally surrendering. The rest of the book details life on the occupied islands, as well as introducing two characters further on in the book who give us the viewpoint of Americans who will be involved in the eventual re-taking of the islands. In the course of the plot, Turtledove gives us a pilot who was shot down in the initial attack and is now a prisoner of war, a soldier who is also a POW, his estranged wife who has to live in an occupied city on Oahu, a surfer bum, and a Japanese family who have been living on the island for many years.

The father, Jiro Takahashi, is an older Japanese man who will always consider himself Japanese. He welcomes the invasion. His sons have been Americanized, which causes a lot of family tension. We are also given an assortment of Japanese military characters who are in various positions, though interestingly all of them are in the navy or are pilots from aircraft carriers. We do not see the Japanese army point of view at all (though, in wonderful Turtledove fashion, we are told many, *many* times that the navy and the army don't get along).

As usual, Turtledove does very well with the battle scenes. When the fighting is going on, Turtledove is hard to beat, though he does include a very silly scene where two surfers are caught out in the water between the American defenders and the oncoming Japanese invasion force. Don't worry, that scene is not included gratuitously. It's an ongoing character moment for the surfer bum, Oscar Van Der Kirk, who talks many times of how he had an accident in his shorts during the incident. The rest of the battle scenes are vivid and exciting, and even tragic as the Japanese wave just continues to wash over the islands with the American soldiers trying desperately to halt it, at least for a little while.

Unfortunately, this battle ends fairly early in the book, giving us many interminable scenes of life on the occupied islands. With the exception of the rare occurrence, all of these scenes are almost exactly the same. We see Jiro and his sons, who argue (or fume silently) about their disagreement over whether the invasion was a good thing. If we see Jane Armitage living in an occupied city, we're going to hear about how they have to grow what little they can to supplement their meager rations (we may read her thoughts on the execution she witnessed, too). The scenes of the two POWs are almost the same, except the navy pilot's scenes also include repetition of how one man who only cares about himself has to be watched because he might sneak away from the work team, despite the Japanese promise to kill the rest of the team if anybody leaves. Otherwise, they all talk about how hungry they are.

Yes, Harry, we *get* it! Life under occupation really stinks and it's almost impossible to survive on what little food you are given. It's a valid issue, but come on! Let's get the story moving, please? The only time the story moves forward at all is when the Japanese characters are on the page, planning either the attack or how to defend the islands from an imminent attack. That could be why they are also the most interesting characters in the book. The Americans are given a couple of hooks to place a story on and then sent on their way, but the Japanese are pretty well done. I could have done without the constant repetition (yes, I know this is getting repetitive) of how the POWs were sub-human and had no honour because they had surrendered, so they should consider themselves lucky for what meager supplies they received. Again, a valid point, driven into the ground.

Finally, I do have to give Turtledove credit for two things. First, he mostly avoids the embarrassing sex scene (there is one, but it's not too bad and it actually builds a character a little bit). Secondly, there's a bit of misdirection that I had to laugh at. At the beginning, Fletch Armitage is introduced by saying he's extremely pale and he burns easily in the tropics. I almost threw the book against the wall because we had yet *another* character like this! However, there is only one other mention of this throughout the entire book. You got me, Harry. Good job.

Days of Infamy is a great concept for a novel, but it is tedium interrupted by a few good battle scenes. I usually blaze through a Turtledove book no matter how bad it is because the plot, at least, keeps me moving through it. This one, I felt I was running in place throughout the book. Only the page numbers told me I was getting anywhere. That's not a good way to keep somebody reading.

David Roy

Alternate History offers a rich field for science fiction authors. But one curious thing is that this book appears to be the first major novel in English to speculate about a successful Japanese capture of Hawaii during World War 2. Some 60 years after 7.12.1941. One might wonder why, given the number of American SF authors in the postwar years, and the creative talent of this group.

Well, for whatever reason, we have it now, in this novel. Solidly researched, which is one of Turtledove's strengths. Certainly, this is a far more serious read than his juvenile Gunpowder Empire series.

But speaking of speculations - S M Stirling, in "Marching Through Georgia", posited a history where the Japanese captured Hawaii. But in his novel, it was just a few remarks in a historical outline. Those of you who might have enjoyed his book, but wished for more details can turn here. A metalevel look, across different authors.

There is an ironic point about this book. Turtledove first shot to fame with an alternate history of the US Civil War, "The Guns of the South". And he then wrote several series of books around the two World Wars. Likewise, this book might also be the start of a new series. But this book shares something else with many of those books. While set in wartime, its depictions of battles is not that good. Compared to Stirling's General series, Pournelle's Janissaries, or Weber's Harrington. Turtledove concentrates on the multiplayer view; often of low ranking characters. But at the level of how a battle unfolds, there is often an unsatisfying incompleteness to his writings. Even when we see a battle through the lens of one of the commanding officers.

I am a big fan of Harry Turtledove and read most of his alternate history novels. I won't get into the plot as you can read the description on that. I have enjoyed Harry Turtledove's alternate history novels in the past because of the way he shows how one event can alter everything around it. He then generally mixes real people in with fictional people and show how the events have changed them. Unfortunately in Days of Infamy he almost completely excludes anyone you may have heard of on the Allied side (other than a brief and inpersonal appearance by Admiral Halsey). He also fails to give any big picture details of the war. Do the events he imagines change the European theater? Does it cause Roosevelt to stray from the "Germany first" policy?
I also have some problems with the history. In the first year of the war he portrays the Allies as inept in planning and execution. However in real history the US showed its superiority in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway in May and June 1942. WHy then does Turtledove have the US being so badly defeated...he never does explain the disconnect from real history and his alternate.
I love the concept, and believe due to past experience with Turtledove that he will have some great sequels, but I am not reviewing the series, just this first book and so I can only give it two stars.

"Days of Infamy" is so similar in structure and style to Turtledove's series based on the South having won the Civil War, that it's clear the author is just coasting through the writing process. There will obviously be a follow-up or two, but I'm not sure if I have the inclination to read them. The writing style is just getting so tedious.

Admittedly, I find the alt-history genre totally fascinating... and Turtledove is very talented at formulating an interesting concept. But it's in the carrying out of that concept that things go astray. I agree with the previous reviewer that the nitty-gritty of strategy and logistics are unfortunately glossed over. But it's the story-telling style that makes me so frustrated. As in his South-won-the-Civil-War series (which is, coincidentally, now up to the same stage of World War II as this book) Turtledove alternates among a large cast of military and civilian characters on both sides of the struggle. That's not a problem, but he takes a few points about each character (or character grouping) and repeats that point over, and over, and over, and over.

It is so incredibly annoying to read numerous repetititions of an individual characters' motivations and beliefs... so many scenes that are basically just repeats of a scene 50 pages before. How many times, for instance, do we need to read about the Japanese-born Hawaiian fisherman going out fishing, having the same argument with his sons, coming back and having the same dialogue with Japanese soldiers on the dock, going to the Japanese Consulate to deliver a fish and having the same dialogue with the guards, and delivering the fish to the Consul with... you guessed it... the same dialogue with the Consul or his assistant? How often does it need to be repeated that America is more prosperous than Japan, or that Japanese fighter planes are more maneuverable (though more vulnerable to bullets) than their American counterparts? I can't for the life of me understand why Turtledove does it, or why his editor lets him get away with it. Here's an example of a pair of characters having virtually identical dialogue, 50 pages apart. An American surfer dude, who had settled in Hawaii, and his stranded-American-tourist girlfriend say on page 141:

"I wish I'd never come here."
"Yeah, well..." Oscar shrugged. "A little too late to worry about that now, don't you think?"

Then on page 191:

"I wish to God I'd never come here!" she sobbed.
"A little to late to worry about it now."

*Sigh*

The Japanese plan to bomb Pearl Harbor when Commander Genda persuades Admiral Yamamoto to also occupy Hawaii. That would enable the Japanese to extend their territorial base and make for ease to bomb the American far west and cut the enemy off from allies like Australia and New Zealand. His superiors approve the daring plan.

Whites control Hawaii with Japanese treated as third class citizens. When the attack occurs, the Americans are taken by surprise and react in a disorganized manor, even the soldiers.. Their weaponry is destroyed. The bombardment is followed up with precise military action and the Japanese Army force the Americans to surrender. POWs are treated with contempt and abuse while those Japanese who have lived on Hawaii for years collaborate with their conquering brethren. The local Americans on bended knees to the invaders look to the forty-eight states hoping they will make a move to liberate them.

Harry Turtledove, the grandmaster of alternate history, has written an exciting military thriller that answers the what if question of what would happen if Japan invaded and occupied Hawaii not just bombing Pearl Harbor? Most readers will believe after an early bout of skepticism that the events in DAY OF INFAMY could have happened. Most interesting is the outlook of Japanese living in Hawaii as the parent generation believes they are Japanese while their children feel American. This is another triumph from Mr. Turtledove.

Harriet Klausner