Review of a Matter of Honor Pearl Harbor

Sheila Gazlay

Though I was born twenty-one years later on the attack by Japanese forces on the U.S. Naval Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, I accept always been aware that it was the reason that the U.S became engaged in World War II. I have heard President Franklin D. Roosevelt's address and seen the footage. This, though, this is my first take chances reading an unabridged book near the assail, and I picked a proficient one.

A Affair of Honour: Pearl Harbor: Expose, Arraign, and A Family's Quest for Justice, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, details the days leading up to the set on on Pearl Harbor. The authors show readers how, despite their all-time efforts to keep those at the base of operations rubber, Admiral Married man Kimmel and General Walter C. Short were fighting a losing boxing. Their requests for equipment and intelligence were all only ignored due to ignorance and the mislaid hope of those in Washington that the Japanese would not attack Pearl Harbor.

The authors accumulated vast amounts of information from individual documents in separate folders, resulting in a book a quarter of which is notes.

Detailed descriptions of Kimmel's and Short'due south actions prior to the attack provide the backdrop to December 7^th and what followed.A Affair of Honor is a book mainly about how the actions of ii men may or may non accept led to more destruction during that initial attack on Pearl Harbor, the probability that both were used as scapegoats, and the effects on Kimmel and his family.  The narrative has been recreated so well the book reads similar a well-written thriller

A Matter of Honour definitely is a story virtually war, and governmental failure. Still, at the heart of it is the business relationship of a good human trying to do his best at his job, and so how he and later on his family did all they could to restore his laurels and his and General Curt's highest wartime ranks.

Afterward a brief investigation into the attack, the Roberts Commission was created and the military stripped Admiral Kimmel and General Short of their rank.  The Commission was convened to expect into the failures of the Ground forces and/or Navy which led to the attack, but it ignored armed forces and legal protocol. During the proceedings, no oaths were taken, no one was sworn in, and no notes were transcribed. Kimmel was not afforded the rights to counsel, or to cross examine witnesses, or to correct his transcribed statement which was only a garble of misinformation

Though later the war the military  admitted he was non in dereliction of duty on the mean solar day of the attack, they never did restore either human being's ranks.  After Kimmel's death, his two surviving sons found new energy to plead his example for reinstatement of his rank.

Once Kimmel finds a squad of lawyers, the last six or so chapters of the volume reads like a actually skillful legal thriller.  The book alludes to the possibility many people in high places knew  that both Kimmel and Short were thrown nether the coach by Roosevelt.

The Admiral's sons, Ned and Tom Kimmel, were turned down by both Bushes and President Clinton. All the rejections seem to convey basically the same sentiment. Dick Cheney wrote, advising them to "… seek aid from the voices of that time." Even more than telling was when President George H. W. Bush said by way of rejection that restoring his rank "…would do no laurels to the admiral and might very well tear the tapestry that fourth dimension and history accept then thoughtfully woven." An interpretation of this might read: "It would ruin the story that was created, requite abroad data, and threaten the peace."

At its center, this book is a story of how difficult circumstances and being concerned with appearances can adventure non merely friendships merely lives. If one of the reasons it was not admitted that Kimmel did non receive adequate notification of what was going on was to brand the Administration look good, or, worse, if it was to sacrifice Pearl Harbor, the furnishings of that decision and the secrets kept were terrible and volition linger forever.

Swan'southward and Summers' enormous body of research reflects their respect for the Kimmel family.  But it also shows respect for those in the military machine who made bad calls earlier and subsequently the attack.

Every reader of A Matter of Award will have his or her own opinion most the part the attack on Pearl Harbor played in the history of our country, nigh what actually happened and how the whole outcome was handled.  What all readers volition concord on, though, is that this book is a well-told business relationship of historical events put together in a riveting, folio turning fashion and a book that is an of import historical document.

Sheila Gazlay has a degree in journalism and has been a author for more than 20 years.  She has contributed book reviews to The Literary Hatchet equally well as other online journals.  She enjoys writing book reviews and fiction.

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Source: http://www.south85journal.com/issues/spring-summer-2017/reviews/a-matter-of-honor/

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