wreichel's review
4.5
What intrigued me the most about this book was the reaction of the residents, military personnel and tourists on Oahu during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Most people were so sure that such a thing could NEVER happen that most of them continued with their daily activities like having breakfast or swimming in a hotel swimming pool while ships and buildings exploded and burned in the visible distance. When military personnel were summoned for duty, many thought it was a prank or a mistake. Even civilians and military personnel who saw the Japanese emblem on low-flying planes or were actually shot at or strafed by those same low-flying airplanes refused to believe what they were seeing and insisted instead that they were witnessing an elaborate simulation by the American military. The bombing of Pearl Harbor is a cautionary tale of the “failure of imagination” to be sure. This was an excellent book about the recollections of people on Oahu shortly before, during and even years after the attack, and a vivid description of life on Oahu then compared to now.
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