A Sunday morning in Hawaii, and the United States would never be the same. It’s Dec. 7, 1941.
Since that fateful day, countless books have been written and films produced about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, now 82 years in our history’s past.
I Spy
Most of the action is told through the voice of the book’s protagonist, Douglas Wada, who worked for the 14th District Intelligence Office in Honolulu, Hawaii. When Wada, who was American by birth to Japanese parents, accepted a position as a language specialist, he became the first Japanese-American agent working with naval intelligence. He was commissioned as a lieutenant which makes him the first Japanese American to be commissioned as a U.S. naval officer as well.This book is well organized chronologically and shares with readers the intrigue and tensions leading up to Dec. 7, 1941. As an example, the authors write about Los Angeles on June 8, 1941:
“Their target is the apartment of thirty-eight-year-old Itaru Tachibana. He came to the United States posing as a language student in 1939, but he was actually an Imperial Japanese navy commander being groomed as an intelligence agent. He stayed in Los Angeles after graduation, landing a job with the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles.
“The Tachibana spy ring has some unlikely members, but then again, this is LA. The key players are Tachibana; a British war hero named Frederick Rutland; Charlie Chaplin’s former personal assistant, Toraichi Kono; along with Al Blake, silent film star turned double agent.”
The characters only get more intriguing as their double lives are exposed.
Wada’s nemesis was Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy, sent to Hawaii to observe the comings and goings of the American fleet. He did this often, sitting on a straw mat and gazing out the window from the Shunchoro Tea House. He had a good view of Pearl Harbor.
Yoshikawa, posing as Tadashi Morimura, had a reputation as a partier and womanizer but his hidden agenda was far more secretive and sinister.
Historical Hindsight and Revelations
Thousands of lives were lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor. In hindsight, the damage could have been even worse if the Japanese had returned for a third strike taking out oil fields near the harbor.What I hadn’t remembered from history, and which is described in the book, was the Japanese use of mini-subs. Designed like a torpedo with two men crammed inside, they could navigate shallower waters. They were basically on a suicide mission to take out certain ships in the harbor.
One of those Japanese mini-submarines was commandeered by Kazuo Sakamaki who became the first prisoner of war in the United States during World War II. The sub lost its navigational equipment and ended up hapless against a reef at Bellows Field Beach in Honolulu. Sakamaki was discovered naked and cold wearing only a lanyard with a broken stopwatch attached.
It’s descriptions such as these that will keep readers turning the pages to learn the fates of Douglas Wada, his father, wife, and daughter; the Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa, as well as many others who had a part before, during, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
As with the Nuremberg trials, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East held its own day in court for those involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Wada spent many months in Tokyo working with the prosecution team.
Many of the places talked about in the book are still around today. You can visit and stand at Diamond Head Beach Park in the same spot that Wada stood when he saw black plumes of smoke rising up on that historic day in 1941.
Spies, lies, and international intrigue are vividly detailed in this compelling read. In addition, there are many stories of ordinary lives caught in the crosshairs of a world at war.
