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The Pacific War Papers: Japanese Documents of World War II

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This is the second volume of the unpublished research papers of the late Gordon Prange, the pre-eminent American historian of the Pearl Harbor attack. Working papers are not usually published, but the situation is not usual.

Navies generate vast quantities of documents, but many of the Japanese papers were destroyed during the war or deliberately right at the end. Prange was a historian on the staff of the Supreme Allied Commander after the peace, and he was able to get Japanese officers, notably Chihaya Masataka, to collect remaining records and interview survivors.

These papers were used in "At Dawn We Slept" and other books. Prange was notoriously dilatory about finishing a book. His associates Goldstein and Dillon have made a cottage industry out of repackaging the papers Prange left.

That's not unheard of, but "The Pearl Harbor Papers" (1993) and this volume presumably take it about as far as it can go.

The most interesting and important document in this volume is the diary of Ambassador Nomura for the last half of 1941. It appears that Nomura has been overpraised by American historians as a peacemaker and a reasonable man.

Part of the diary of Marquis Kido also holds interest. He appears to have been one of the few levelheaded men in Japan at the time, or perhaps this is just an artifact of the reserve of the high-placed courtier.

Statements by Admirals Ozawa and Kondo do nothing to dispel the notion that they did not know what they were doing.

The editors say that these documents will serve "scholars and buffs." Mere buffs are not likely to make it through the whole volume, though serious students will be instructed. It is interesting, for example, that as late as 1947, the Japanese navy still did not know when it sank the carrier Lexington.

The editing is marred by hundreds of "(sics)," most of them not needed and scores of them (especially in Nomura's diary), betraying the fact that somebody doesn't understand English grammar.

It seems that the release of secret, or at least previously unknown, documents about World War II will never end. At least not in our lifetimes. These documents were collected by Gordon Prange while working for the Military History Section of the American forces that occupied Japan. Afterwards Prange with the assistance of Goldstein and Dillon wrote several books on World War II.

In this book, Goldstein and Dillon have collected various papers from various Japanese sources. These included the C-in-C of the Japanese Navy to Naval Commander Chihaya who worked for Prange in Japan and wrote several essays on the war.

As you would expect the quality of the documents quoted here vary from excellent to rather terse. Admiral's Kondo's report on the sinking of the Repulse and the Prince of Whales says simply "...our planes succeeded in catching the enemy fleet in sight off Kuantan just through a slit in the clouds. And they succeeded in sinking them!" On the other hand he tells what he and the rest of the second fleet were doing at the time.

These are the original documents, or as close as we will get, they are the basis for a lot of the books written on the war. It's interesting to see what the people involved were thinking.

The Pacific War Papers: Japanese Documents of World War II provides any collection serious about World War II coverage with an annotated collection of rare Japanese primary-source documents translated into English. While this won't be a pick for your casual history collection, it's an invaluable, unique addition for any more serious holding: these documents come from the collection of the late Gordon Prange, scholar of Pearl Harbor, who obtained them from Japanese naval leaders while working for the Military History Section of the American forces that occupied Japan. It's quite simply a 'must' for any in-depth World War II holding.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch