Customer Reviews

Long Day's Journey Into War: Pearl Harbor and a World at War-December 7, 1941

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Stanley Weintraub has written a fascinating book about the beginning of World War II in the Pacific. The story begins on "the day before" (December 6, 1941), then turns to an hour-by-hour narrative that covers the thoughts and actions of leaders and ordinary people in Tokyo, Washington, London, North Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Pearl Habor, Manila, the Russian Front and other places. The action builds towards Japan's attacks on British and American positions in the Pacific, giving some sense of the brilliance of Japan's military planning, the racism and unpreparedness of both America and Britain, and the foolhardiness of taking on a country as powerful as the United States.

Equally interesting is Weintraub's treatment of the hours that followed the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many of us remember where we were when JFK was shot, or when Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, or when the Challenger exploded. For the generation that preceded us, the world was divided into "before Pearl Harbor" and "after Pearl Harbor." Weintraub describes the reactions of many when they first heard the news.

He also discusses at length the inexplicable failure of MacArthur and the American leadership in the Philippines to understand that the war had really begun. Not that the inexcusable loss of American aircraft at Clark Field seems to have affected MacArthur's career--as Weintraub puts it, "few generals have profited so spectacularly from their own failures."

This book brought me as close as any of us Baby Boomers are likely to come to understanding what people around the world were thinking just before and just after America entered World War II. It is really enjoyable, and I couldn't put it down. If you can find a copy (easier said than done), buy it and read it.

In LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO WAR author Stanley Weintraub dissects December 7, 1941 hour by hour as it occurred around the globe. Relative to one's geographic location on the planet, December 7th occupied parts of three days, December 6, 7, and 8 (Hence the "long day" of the title). But December 7, 1941 was also a "long day" in the sense that it was a watershed of history. A vast chasm separated the world of the day before and the world of the day after, and that chasm had it's fault line at Pearl Harbor.

Weintraub uses both historical documentation and personal reminiscences to describe the occurrences of December 7th, and does so in a creatively novelistic manner that holds the reader's unflagging interest. Pearl Harbor Day is thus described from the standpoint of military men, diplomats, and the ordinary people who found themselves caught up in the extraordinary events recounted here.

Weintraub uses a bank of clocks at the head of each chapter to illustrate the relative time in, let's say, Tokyo, Manila, Washington D.C., and Stalingrad. Part of his thesis is that December 7, 1941 was the high-water mark of the Axis Powers. Although the Axis-dominated portion of the globe did geographically expand after this date, the edifice had begun to crack. Weintraub makes a convincing argument that this day in December was the Beginning of The End for Japan, Germany, Italy and their smaller satellites, as in retrospect it seems to have been.

Filled with accurate historical data and interesting personal stories, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO WAR is a fascinating presentation of a day which deserves the unique treatment this book provides.

As has often been observed, to write history is to choose. Similarly, to read history is to choose. Should we read a history covering thousands of years, or a history limited to a single historical actor, or the annals of a single campaign, and so on?

With Long Day's Journey into War, Weintraub contributes a valuable innovation to historical writing. The history covers a brief period -- December 7, 1941 -- the 48 hours that it takes for the earth to complete a single date. During this time, Weintraub assembles a seamlessly woven montage from all parts of the globe as they experience the preceding tensions and subsequent ripple effects of Pearl Harbor. Cairo, Moscow, Washington, Pearl, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and other key locations. Weintraub includes anecdotes from "lowly" privates running for cover, to worried diplomats, to America First isolationists, to a certain overrated general, to presidents and prime ministers.

The overall effect is successful and powerful. The reader becomes immersed and rooted in time and place, emerging with a sense of having experienced the fateful day on a global scale.

A splendid and unique history worthy of any bookshelf.

This book is far too long. Made up of hundreds of unrelated stories, many of them only a paragraph long, this book reads like a post-modernist novel and took me ten years to read (I read a couple of hundred pages and tucked it away for a decade until I could muster the fortitude to finish it).

Also, the author has strong emotions and does not hesitate to color his narrative to suit his prejudices. For instance, he paints the America Firsters as a sinister group of anti-semitic, Hitler lovers. No doubt there were a few mixed in there, but most of them were sincere if misguided people who were afraid that if we got involved in World War II, we would become an imperial power with an enormous military industrial complex. They may have been wrong, but most of them were not Nazis. I am very much against the protestors of the war in Iraq, but I recognize that only a small minority of them are in favor of genocide and the restoration of a Saddam-like strongman. The America Firsters deserve more sympathy than the current raft of protestors since we are currently in a war and the protestors want us to lose, rather than keep us out as the AFers did. Also, we were not aware of the Nazi genocide until 1942, whereas we have found the bodies in Iraq to prove that Saddam has been a practitioner of genocide for many years.

Or MacArthur, another bete noire of Mr. Weintraub, who gets a lot of blame for losing his planes on the ground, even as the author shows how much it was the fault of Gen. Brereton, the Air Force Chief in the Philippines. Since Brereton went through the war going from blunder to blunder (while always procuring for himself the fanciest HQ, liquors and women) - he presided over the one of the costliest and least effective bombing raids of the war, the most disastrous friendly fire incident in history and the only Allied airborne assault failure in the war - you would think that some of the snide remarks that Mr. Weintraub has for Gen. MacArthur could have been spread to the real culprit.

Occasionally, the author's hatreds catch him telling tall ones. Chiang Kai-Shek was receiving aid from the Soviets (which was one of the causes for the postwar Sino-Soviet rift), so Chiang's Nazi sympathies must have been muted if they existed at all.

OK, so the book is too long and somewhat untrustworthy. Why four stars? Because the author attempts something rarely seen, which is valuable in its own right. A reader of a book like this would be foolish to actually think he's learning about the events. The narrative is too choppy for that. The value here is in reminding us that history ISN'T a smooth narrative, that events are happening around the world, some of them relevant, some of them not, two steps forward and one step back. The author made a great and largely successful attempt to find events happening simultaneuously around the globe, all on a single day. Breaking 12/7/41 into the 47 hours of the sun's movement around the globe (from midnight 12/7 on the western side of the International Date Line to midnight 12/8 on the eastern side) and moving from Orson Welles in a train heading to Chicago to General Rommel in a conference with an Italian general in the Egyptian desert to Cordell Hull in DC waiting for Japanese diplomats to the withdrawal of a Spanish division in Russia to a football game in Manhattan to the aircraft carriers steaming toward Pearl Harbor, the story is compelling.

John Ellis wrote a book about a day in October, 1944 and there is an excellent book about a day in the middle of the American Civil War, but those books focused on their respective wars and told their stories on a theater by theater basis. You had a feeling that you were the President being given an intelligence report the first thing in the morning. They were exciting books because of that, but they had a different purpose than Mr. Weintraub's book, which is, ultimately, an impressive acheivement.

This book reminded me of Manchester's The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, but on a much larger scale. It's an hour-by-hour, and in some cases minute-by-minute, account of events around the world on the Day of Infamy, December 7, 1941. Each hour receives its own chapter, with a graphic at the start of each chapter indicating the time in various cities around the globe.

Weintraub, an excellent biographer and storyteller, does not break new ground attempting either to exonerate or assign blame. Instead, he places the day's events into the larger context of global war, showing how news of the attack was received and acted on in various locations. This is a valuable reminder that war had been raging for more than two years when the Japanese attack launched America into the conflict.

This book is not the most comprehensive look at what happened at Pearl Harbor itself, but there are many other books with that focus (I recommend Prange's December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor). "Long Day's Journey..." helps recreate the confusion, the "fog of war," that surrounds great events, and helps us understand how the attack affected lives worldwide.

I think this is useful and rewarding addition to the Pearl Harbor student's reference shelf.

I am currently re-reading this book for the third time! An excellent narrative of the hours before Pearl Harbor. My father served on the USS Colorado in the Pacific during the war, & allowed me to give him some of the highlights. We were both particularly interested in Gen. MacArthur & his weaknessess (or sins, if you prefer). How shameful were his actions, even during that period of time, much less now under the scrutiny of history. Professor Weintraub has done this country in particular & history in general proud with this work. I was fortunate to purchase a hardback edition for $5 (true!) at a mall in Charlotte, NC about a year & a half ago. THIS book should be required reading for every high school student--if it were, we would not lose our understanding of what it takes to be a great nation.

For someone who wants a quick study of what happened at Pearl Harbor, standard version, I would suggest buying Tora Tora Tora. In less than two hours, you would be caught up in the basic facts surrounding the Pearl Harbor attack.

The issue currently at discussion among serious readers is not what happened on 12/7/41, but what lead up to it. Furthermore, I believe that the author has inserted his political views into the discussion. For example, on p2266 (Lyons Press 2001), the author cites Admiral Kimmel's decision to stop the 300 mile air patrol, instituted by his predecesor Admiral Richardson. The author also gives the impression that the AA guns of the Navy and were not in combat readiness. This is either a failure of research, or an example of bias. Admiral Richardson was removed from his command by Roosevelt, for telling Roosevelt that among other deficiences, he could not fly 300 mile air patrols on a continuous basis because he did not have enough aircraft or aircrews. Nor did he have enough trained mechanics and spare parts. Roosevelt sent the fleet to Pearl Harbor against the advice of Richardson. And then FDR removed ships and aircaft to Russia and the Atlantic. Richardson warned Roosevelt that such a move would present an inviting target to Japan. Richardson, who was a permenent 4 star Admiral had an advantage that Kimmel did not have. Richardson's rank could not be removed if he was replaced at Pearl Harbor. Kimmel, who was a 2 Star Admiral was advanced ahead of senior officers to a temporary 4 star rank.

Writing that Kimmel was responsible for ordering a stop of the 300 mile patrols is irresponsible. The writer seems exposed to a pro-Roosevelt stance when he avoids my conclusion of the facts known today. Roosevelt fired Richardson and replaced Kimmel. Blaming Kimmel for the disaster at Pearl Harbor, simply because he was the man in charge, seems to ignore where the buck really stops, and that was on Roosevelt's desk.

Another reason I give this book 2 stars is the problem I had using the index. Names and pages did not match. I also found reading about the war in Russia distracting. Had Weintraub wanted to write about someting closer to home, he should have focused on the Atlantic War, which was a full blown shooting war by December 7, 1941. It was Roosevelt's policy to keep that war secret from the American Public. It was the withdrawal of forces from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Fleet that drove Admirial Richardson to confront Roosevelt, which lead to his replacement.

How would Weintraub explain that the Atlantic Fleet was not put on a war footing, unless it was already operating under one.


In US Navy Air Combat, by Robert Lawson and Barrett Tillman, (2000), quotes a Navy Ensign assigned to the Carrier Wasp then at anchor in Bermuda, no recall was made to the ship to get underway the day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

These deceptions are the reason why there is no "Final Conclusion" to the questions behind Pearl Harbor.

Lots of historical detail included in each hour leading up to and after the attack on Pear Harbor although, there are many run-on sentences, which tended to make the storyline hard to follow at times.

This is a unique look at the events of December 7, 1941. Mr. Weintraub has taken on the enormus task of not only describing the events of December 7, 1941 in regards to Pearl Harbor, but he examines the Day of Infamy on a world-wide scale. The reader finds themselves in the frozen Soviet Union as the Germans desperatley try to hold back the counterattacking Red Army. In North Africa, Rommel is being harassed by the British at Tobruk. In Washington, the reader is taken inside the White House as Roosevelt writes his personal plea for peace to Hirohito. I thought that the chapter headings with a clock showing the time at different places in the world was a nice touch for the reader. I have read numerous books on the subject, but never on a world-wide scope such as this. I would highly recommend this book for Pearl Harbor readers. Another book that is similar to this one is Gordon Prange's December 7, 1941.

This book is organized in a unique way, telling what went on hour by hour all around the world Dec 6, 1941, to Dec 8, 1941--with two tremendous final chapters on the dropping of the Bomb. Those chapters are a fitting end, since the events in the prior part of the book are sobering indeed. While there are a minimum of footnotes, and no real bibliography, the account sounds quite trustworthy. He often mentions authors: James Jones, J. G. Ballard, Pappy Boyington (yes, he did a book: Baa Baa

Black Sheep, which I read 14 Aug 1990), Ezra Pound, Emily Hahn, etc. I found this a great book , even tho Dec 7, 1941, is now overshadowed by the newer day of infamy: Sept 11, 2001.