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Allen skillfully blends background information and eyewitness accounts from Japanese pilots, American servicemen, and nurses in this copiously illustrated addition to the canon of books commemorating December 7, 1941. Japanese pilots and submarine crew recall their intensive training in the months prior to December. Americans on board destroyers and battleships remember where they were when the first explosions ripped apart their ships. An army nurse talks about the smell of burning oil on a base previously scented with gardenias and hibiscus. Allen also writes briefly about the memorials on Hawaii, the American internment of Japanese, and the Americans of Japanese ancestry who fought so gallantly in Europe. Detailed physical and political maps and a timeline help readers follow the events of the day and of WWII. While Allen refers to issues relating to codes, code-breaking, and delays in delivery of messages, his focus is primarily on providing a “you-are-there” feeling for readers and a connection to the pervading sense of bewilderment, fear, and courage exhibited by those whose lives were threatened. A handsome title that will appeal to WWII buffs. Includes Web sites, bibliography, index, and a foreword by the diver Robert D. Ballard. (Nonfiction. 8-12)
