First Shot: The Untold Story of the Japanese Minisubs That Attacked Pearl Harbor - Softcover

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John Craddock, an author of several books and ajournalist, helped launch a series of guidebooks for The History Channel.

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"Sent ahead of the air assault on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese mini sub was destroyed, nearly destroying Japan's deadly surprise. If we had only known even a bit of what John Craddock tells now, our own history could have been so very different." --SHERRY SONTAG, co-author of "Blind Man's Bluff; The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage"

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF PEARL HARBOR AND THE JAPANESE WORLD WAR II NAVAL STRATEGY

America's first shot of World War II was fired by a worn-out World War I destroyer. An hour before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S.S. Ward hit its mark--a tiny but lethal Japanese submarine--but no one heeded the captain's report. Before the morning was out, more than 2,400 people were dead, thousands more were wounded, and more than 100 American warships were destroyed or crippled.

What became of the Ward's message? Why didn't Pearl Harbor command sound a general alarm? And what was the mission of the midget submarine and four others like it--deemed critical enough by Admiral Yamamoto, mastermind of Japan's Pacific naval war, that he was willing to risk the element of surprise on which his entire plan depended? "First Shot" is the compelling examination of a missed opportunity and the role of midget submarines in Japan's Pacific war strategy.