Customer Reviews

The USS Arizona

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this book as a gift for an uncle who was an ARIZONA survivor who had preceeded me in my Naval career. He survived to serve twenty more years in the Navy after the sinking of his ship, including surviving having another ship sunk beneath him. Unfortunately he died before I had the chance to give it to him--though prehaps not so unfortunate in one respect. He was a stickler for details and he would probably have been disappointed in the story of his ship as told in this book.

The book is a dramatic story of a dramatic event that shaped world history. Having said that, there's not much else to say about it. It is the result of collaboration by three authors, one of whom is a retired U.S. Marine. It reads as though they each took one part of the story to write and the book was hurriedly cobbled together to meet a publishing deadline without adequate reconciliation of the different parts. Other than the personal accounts of the individual survivors quoted, I can find little new material in the book that isn't published elsewhere. I was disappointed in the inconsistant data in the books--such as calling ADM H.E. Kimmel an Admiral (4 stars), a Rear Admiral (2 stars) and a Fleet Admiral (5 stars) in the space of a page and a half. That part was obviously not written by the Marine, who would never make such a mistake in rank. There was also a discription of one of the surviors who, also in the space of a couple of pages was referred to as a "chief warrant officer", a "warrant officer" and "eligible for warrant officer" (a chief petty officer). Other similarly discordant data jangled the attention of a reader. Nautical terminology was sometimes used, sometimes misused, sometimes disregarded entirely. Many of the scenes were decribed repetatively and inconsistantly, not just from the different viewpoints of the different survivors but from the narative matrix connecting the stories. Details about the ship and the people were erratic and kept the reader off balance, trying to construct a picture of the events. The pace and feel of the book was inconsistant throughout and not of the caliber I'd have expected of a book recording events from the perspective of sixty years later.

This poorly written book reads in part like some dollar tourist brochure available at any Honolulu newsstand. And those are some of the better parts. This is all said in respect to the ship and its men, more respect than they are shown between the covers of this book.

THE USS ARIZONA was written by three authors (Jasper, Delgado and Adams), and was obviously written in haste with little collaboration and less intelligent editing. As it reads it is almost an affront to the memories of the men who fought and died on board, and to those who lived to tell about it. It gets two stars in their honor. The oral histories of that terrible December day are worthy of remembrance.

The memoirs of Regular Navy swabbies who called the ARIZONA home in the late 1930's and early 1940's are priceless. They give the reader a fine sense of what being a sailor on a battleship in peacetime was like: A spartan man's world of honest hard work punctuated by liberty calls in one of the world's most exotic ports of call.

The terrible and sorrowful recollections of the men who lived through Sunday, December 7th are likewise to be treasured. They are a testament to an America that was blasted out of a dolorous drowse of peace and yet immediately showed its best side. ARIZONA men tried to defend Hawaii, protect their ship, save their buddies, and turn back the invader. That the ship and her crew died in the doing takes nothing away from them at all.

Unfortunately, the book's flaws are so glaring that they detract from these finer points. The seams of the story, where one author left off and another began, stand out like scars. The tense shifts from third to first person, depending on who is writing. The changes in tone and changes in pace are jarring. So is the repetition of information. For example, we are told five times (and three times in two pages!) of the same modification made to Japanese aerial torpedoes.

It's a shame the authors were not up to their task. The book's recounting of the early history of the ARIZONA is spotty. We find out that the ARIZONA once ferried President Hoover, but we never find out where or why. Technical information on the ship is virtually nonexistent. The ship underwent several major refits in her career but almost nothing is said about them. Likewise, relatively little is actually said about Pearl Harbor, the ARIZONA's role there, the attack, or the damage to the ship.

Much of this is probably not so much the fault of the authors (whose qualifications to write this book are exemplary) as much as of the editors who simply did a BAD job, unworthy even of a high school "alternative" newspaper, such as:

"At 7:55 AM the sky was dark over Oahu...the sun glinted off the wings of the Japanese planes."

Hawaii is an admittedly amazing place, but even there the sun does not shine at night in the morning. Nor does gloom of night last until eight bells. We are told that the ARIZONA had taken on "a million" or "millions" of gallons of oil prefatory to sailing, but in other spots we are given precise (but varying) amounts which seem far too small, such as 3,300 or 5,000 gallons, a huge discrepancy. It would seem relatively easy to find out what the oil bunker capacity of the ship was (4,630 tons, or 9,260,000 gallons according to outside sources) but the authors leave us, carelessly, not knowing. Disdaining fact-checking as a luxury, apparently the editors confused oil tonnage and gallon capacity in their rush to get this book into print for the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

The book also lacks maps and diagrams, an unforgivable oversight in any book involving Pearl Harbor and its ships. The photograph on the cover of the Mass-Market Edition is NOT that of the ARIZONA, but of a much smaller vessel. Several of the photographs within the book are also of other ships misidentified as the ARIZONA. THE USS ARIZONA is peppered throughout with this kind of editorial slovenliness. It ruins this book.

Meant to be a paean to the ship and its crew, THE USS ARIZONA fails miserably, except where ARIZONA survivors speak in their own voices. It would have been profound to write a quality history of the ship instead of this patchwork job in which so much is unremembered, half-remembered and distorted.

Someone looking for the ARIZONA is well-advised to tread cautiously amongst the memory holes that Jasper, Delgado and Adams leave behind them. A visit to the Memorial, where one can experience the presence of the ship is a far, far better thing than this overall disappointing book.

I should have followed the advice of my fellow reviewers. I was extremely disappointed in this book. I have read many books about Pearl Harbor and the Arizona, and this has to be the worst. There are many factual mistakes in this book. For example, the authors state that there was no lull between the first and second Japanese attack waves. This is simply untrue. In fact, there was about a twenty minute lull between the first and second waves. This allowed the Navy to unlock the ammunition and to fight back. Hence, the Japanese suffered their greatest losses in the second wave due to the lull. The authors also state that "luckily, no American planes were shot down" by friendly fire. Again, this is untrue. The USS Enterprise was returning from delivering fighters to Wake island and launched several SBD Dauntless dive bombers to scout ahead and land on Ford Island. Indeed, several of these were shot down and several pilots and crewmen were killed due to overanxious American gunners. Finally, the authors say that a dive bomber dropped the bomb wich ultimately destroyed the Arizona. Untrue. The bomb was dropped by a high-level bomber. The bomb was too heavy to be carried by a dive bomber.

There was also too much repetition in the book. I grew tired of hearing how many different men shined the decks or worked in the messhalls.

I did learn a few things from the book. I was unaware that both the Captain of the ship and the battleship division admiral were killed on the bridge during the attack. Also, some of the survivors did give excellent personal renditions of life aboard the Arizona and the attack itself.

However, overall, I was disappointed in this book. There are much better books available on the Arizona and Pearl Harbor than this one.

I am glad I didn't read all the reviews on this book before reading it,as I might not have read it at all. There are a lot of good things about this book,but it seems there are a lot of things that prevent it from becoming a great book.
The attack on Pearl Harbor has been covered in many books and films. It was an event that had so much to it that one wonders whether it can ever be covered perfectly. Even people who were there that terrible day;would have seen it very differently.
The thing about this book that is different, is that it concentrates as much as possible,on the USS Arizona;but not entirely.The fact that this ship's story has to be seen in its relationship to what went on around it that day.
The book does a good job of showing what it was like to sail on the Arizona from its earliest days and what it was like to be part of the crew the day she was destroyed.
As much as possible,the book concentrates on the personal experiences of several survivors who were lucky enough to live to tell their stories.
The book also tells what efforts were made to retrieve the bodies of the victims ,salvage operations,visits to the wreck by divers;and the decisions and things that were done to create the memorial that now exists. Complete lists of all the casualties,as well as survivors is included in appendix B&C.Also included in appendix D are all the funeral services held at the memorial for Arizona Men who were aboard the Arizona that fateful day,but have since died and requested it be the final resting flace of their remains with their friends.
The book includes 33 B&W photographs.
No one book can say everything that needs saying about the Attack on Pearl Harbor,so this book should be taken in that light.
I don't know ,nor do I imagine does anyone else,what details are correct and what are errorerous or simply careless researching.It seems others have critizied the book on these points,so I guess many of the details must be taken with caution.

The USS Arizona by Joy Waldron Jasper, James P. Delgado, and Jim Adams was great. Granted to the perfectionist this is not a flawless. This isn't a detailed, stats filled book. It is more of a holistic view of a ship that has become an icon of America told by 3 people. I believe this book is perfect for your everyday person wanting to learn about the Arizona and not meant for your core historian. I have read many books and seen many shows about Pearl Harbor and the ships, sailors and battle of December 7th. This book takes these 3 individuals, a journalist, a historian and a Marine, who all have been connected in some way to the Arizona and tell the ships story from a Ship of War to a Symbol of America.

The interviews of the survivors and history that covered the time before December 7th was something new for me in that it gave me a new perspective of life on the Arizona. I did not really think about the fact that battle ship was over 20 years old and been around the world. It was good to be reminded of the daily routine of the sailors and how much the ship was their life and home. It gave me a new appreciation of the impact her loss and the other ships' of Pearl Harbor had on the sailors that served in them.

The part afterwards about the memorial and the ship today was a good conclusion. Understanding the Navy's attempts at salvage and finally settling on leaving her as a memorial shed new light on how she got the way she is. I really appreciated the accounts of the burial of survivor's ashes back aboard the sunken ship. All in all I felt a certain closure with this book and have a better understanding of what the USS Arizona means to me and other Americans.

One reviewer commented on the accuracy of this book - "I found this book written on a very basic level, with well known facts wrong (i.e. on Dec 7 people were 'watching the Dodgers play the Giants in late season football'. I always thought the Dodgers were a baseball team."

I checked this out, there was also a NY Dodgers FOOTBALL Team in the NFL in the 1930s and early 1940s. On December 7th, 1941, they were playing football against the NY Giants in New York City. There is a famous radio broadcast on CBS of this game as the announcer had to break in to announce that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

I was expecting far more from this book than I actually found in it. As another reviewer stated, it read more like a magazine article than an actual book. Writing styles aside, however, several important statements of fact as put forth by the authors were just plain wrong with some of these facts actually being contradicted by photos included within the book itself.

Very disappointing. It read more like an ego-boost to the authors than a recitation of the ship & the men & the events leading up to (and following) that horrible Sunday morning in December of 1941........

Joy Jasper brings the individuals she has interviewded and details life on board the USS Arizona to life in words that paint a picture as if you were standing there. The people and events seem to come to life. She describes on board living, work details, gun turret life and action aboard this proud ship. Nothing is dry and boring about this vivid account of the USS Arizona and Pearl Harbor.

The combination of the authors' perspectives, the subject matter and its historical perspective, and the eyewitness accounts were
very interesting and moving.

The book has drama, history, and personality......a rare combination!

I was very disappointed in this book. I have read extensively on World War II and Pearl Harbor. I found this book written on a very basic level, with well known facts wrong (i.e. on Dec 7 people were "watching the Dodgers play the Giants in late season football". I always thought the Dodgers were a baseball team. The interviews with the survivors are interesting but limited. I have read similar and better in other books. I was expecting an in depth history of the ship in the pre wars years. These years are covered in about 4 pages. The only thing good I can say about this book is that I bought it used through Amazon and did not have to pay the new book price. If you still want to read this book get it from the library and save your money. From other readings I have done, I know that there were a number of brothers on the ship when it was destroyed, yet there is no mention of these men or their stories. This book reads like a magazine article instead of a well reseached book. For anyone interested in the prewar battleships and the Pearl Harbor attack, I would recommend Battleship Sailor which is written by a sailor on the Battleship California prior to and at Pearl Harbor.