Attack on Pearl Harbor: Japan Awakens A Sleeping Giant

Detail & Scale

Reviewed by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

HyperScale is proudly supported by Squadron

This digital publication has come out to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Having previously reviewed the soft bound version of this book I was excited to see what a difference a digital book would be to its printed counterpart.  All I can say is its amazing.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Thumbnail panels:

For those of you not familiar with digital publications I have to say that the potential of this type of medium is impressive.  First off you can use a book then this is even more convenient.  There is a Table of Contents to help you navigate the book.  You can get to it anytime by ‘pinching’ the page on any non photographic portion of the page.  Then it is just a matter of selecting the chapter you want to go to.  Once in the chapter, there is a section portion that you can access or there are thumbnail pages displayed at the bottom of the page, you can pick any of them.  Also on the bottom of the page are ‘pips’ to go to the Table of Contents for that section.

One of the biggest benefits of a digital book is that you can enlarge any photo in the book up to 200 times simply by tapping the photo.  You can rotate it to get a bigger view as well.  The other big benefit of a digital book is that you can store a significant number of books on your iPad. 

Why the digital publication when there is a softbound version?  Is Bert getting greedy?  Hardly.  There was just so much information that was collected for the original publication for the USS ARIZONA Memorial Foundation that couldn’t be included because of the constraints of page and the requested pricing restriction.  Now with the digital book the whole story can be told. 

What does that mean?  Let’s see what is special about the digital book.  First off the cost is significantly less than the printed copy.  This ‘book’ is greatly expanded from the original format, from 80 pages to 460 pages, with 200 pages dedicated to the actual aerial attack.  These 200 pages also feature almost 200 photos of the attack.  Then there are over 440 photographs, all of which can be enlarged, 12 maps that can be brought up and studied, and 58 illustrations.  These reasons alone are enough to make me embrace the digital book, but wait there is more.

There are additional chapters, four to be exact.  The first is “Why Pearl Harbor?”.  This covers both the Japanese and American points of view.  It explains why the Japanese felt there were no other options by war and why they chose Pearl Harbor. 

Another new chapter profiles the senior military leaders and includes the leaders that planned the attack.  It also covers the Americans that were caught unprepared. 

The six aircraft carriers were covered in the previous release, however, the ability to expand in the digital version allow the battleships, cruisers, and various other ships that are often overlooked from the attack plan. 

Another chapter deals with the Japanese weapons that were employed and why.  Many of these weapons were developed to meet the specific requirements of the attack. 

The actual air battle is broken down into separate sub-sections on different targets, ie Battleship Row and Ford Island.  This allows the author to concentrate the information on specific events.

There are of course chapters dedicated to the Japanese aircraft types, units, commanders and the carriers they operated from.  This chapter is a wealth of knowledge for the modeler alone. 

There is a chapter on the Americans, including the B-17s that flew into the war unarmed and out of gas. 

The most interesting chapter to me was the US Losses, Damage and Recovery.  IT is amazing how many of the ‘destroyed’ battleships actually were repaired and able to fight the war.

Japanese losses are covered.  In the history of each ship that participated it is interesting to note that most did not survive the war and were sunk or put out of action as combat ships. 

The final chapter concludes with Pearl Harbor Today. 

This digital book is really the only resource that you will need to study Pearl Harbor.  The writing is interesting and well thought out.  The photographs are impressive, especially when you blow them up.  The illustrations are extremely well done and will aid the modeler immensely.  The maps illustrate the whole attack. 

Overall this is a superb publication.  It is inexpensive, comprehensive and informative while not being text book dry.  Of course you’ll have to have an iPad or Kindle App but don’t let this stop you. This publication needs to be on your work bench.  This is another excellent book by Detail &* Scale.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Detail & Scale or the sample.

Review Copyright © 2016 by Floyd S. Werner Jr.
This Page Created on 1 February, 2017
Last updated 2 February, 2017

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page