Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway

Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through ... | Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito, ... | The Pacific Naval War thru Japanese eyes

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Japanese Destroyer...

	Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through ... Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito, ... Naval Institute Press, 2007 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Naval Institute Press is pleased to make available for the first time this cloth edition of a now-classic war memoir that was a best seller in both Japan and the United States during the 1960s. Originally published as a paperback in 1961, it has long been treasured by World War II buffs and professional historians for its insights into the Japanese side of the surface war in the Pacific. The book has been credited with correcting errors in U.S. accounts of various battles and with revealing details of high-level Imperial Japanese Navy strategy meetings. The author, Captain Tameichi Hara, was a survivor of more than one hundred sorties against the Allies and was known throughout Japan as the Unsinkable Captain. Called the workhorses of the navy, Japanese destroyers shouldered the heaviest burden of the surface war and took part in scores of intense sea battles, many of which Captain Hara describes here. In the early days of the war victories were common, but by 1943, the lack of proper maintenance of the destroyers and sufficient supplies, along with Allied development of scientific equipment and superior aircraft, took its toll. On April 7, 1945, during the Japanese navy s last sortie, Captain Hara managed to survive the sinking of his own ship only to witness the demise of the famed Japanese battleship Yamato off Okinawa. A hero to his countrymen, Captain Hara exemplified the best in Japanese surface commanders: highly skilled (he wrote the manual on torpedo warfare), hard driving, and aggressive. Moreover, he maintained a code of honor worthy of his samurai grandfather, and, as readers of this book have come to appreciate, he was as free with praise for American courage and resourcefulness as he was critical of himself and his senior commanders. The book s popularity over the past forty-six years testifies to the author s success at writing an objective account of what happened that provides not only a fascinating eyewitness record of the war, but also an honest and dispassionate assessment of Japan s high command. Captain Hara s sage advice on leadership is as applicable today as it was when written. For readers new to this book and for those who have read and re-read their paperback editions until they have fallen apart, this new hardcover edition assures them a permanent source of reference and enjoyment.

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Excellent view from the other side

Probably one of the two books anyone interested in the Pacific naval war simply MUST have in his libraray (the other the brilliant 'Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy' by the unfortunately named Paul S. Dull). True experts and affecionados should overlook the occasional mis-identification of ship types (undoubtedly a result of either negligent editing or translation problems), but otherwise a superb recollection of the Pacific war from the point of view of a famous Japanese destroyer captain.

Having studied this war and its naval campaigns, one thing that always struck me was the peculiar paradox of the near-deification of Admiral Yamamoto (engineer of the Pearl Harbor attack) by the Japanese at the time, and many foreign historians as well. Frankly, from any objective point of view, it was Yamamoto who almost single-handedly ensured the disasterous defeat of the Japanese navy, first, by not in fact taking out the most important targets at Pearl Harbor (the enormous fuel tank farm, and the even more important ship-repair facilities and machine shops), and secondly, by repeatedly committing vastly insufficient forces at the places of most importance, and invariably sending these elements through the most convoluted and tortuous separate routes to get there (each element could be easily defeated one at a time).

Further, it appears that at no time during the war did the Japanese have the slightest interest in obtaining or using intelligence, by either method or desire, and this led them into one catastrophe after another. Guadalcanal is probably the best exemplar of this failed strategy, where neither the Japanes Navy, nor the Japanese Army had any idea of the strength of the American presence there, apparently weren't even interested, and instead committed and lost battalions, regiments, whole divisions of troops and squadrons of ships again, and again, and again, until both the Army, and Navy were bled white.

The Japanese submarine fleet was even more useless, not because of any real defect in the subs themselves, but the ridiculous manner in which they were used. This is even more stunning when you consider that not only was the Japanese submarine fleet largely founded by German engineers and specialist after the First World War, but the Japanese maintained close communications with the Germans throughout the war, even sending submarines to Germany and back several times, as well as German U-Boats sailing to Japan and being used by the Japanese Navy. Yet despite the continued availability of the very finest in submarine expertise, the Japanese apparently never bothered to discuss the topic of strategy and/or tactics with the Germans. Incredible!

With all my various studies of this war, I never came across any real recognition of these fundamental flaws, until I read this book, and it is apparent that not only were these flaws as real as i thought, but that many members of the Japanese Navy itself were fully cognisant of these same mistakes, and yet, were unable to convince their own senior command of the need for changes, and so went down together. Starting to sound familiar?

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The Pacific Naval War thru Japanese eyes

Japanese Destroyer Captain by CAPT Tameichi Hara

Japanese Destroyer Captain (JDC) is CAPT Hara's tale of his service in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). CAPT Hara divided his story into five parts; Born a Samurai, Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, The Tokyo Express, Against the Odds, and the Last Sortie. Each section details CAPT Hara's experiences at that time and provides insight into the Japanese naval officer in WWII.

My Likes:
Captain Hara has a take no prisoners with his writing. He's very critical of Japan going to war against the US and is very critical of other naval officers actions (both Japanese and allied). While CAPT Hara's perspective is that of a small vessel's captain, he provides excellent insight into his leaders and what he believes they should have done. This is best shown in the Tokyo Express part where he discusses Yamamoto's actions in the South Pacific and failure to develop a schwerpunkt.
The battle descriptions are excellent. CAPT Hara provides a first person view of the actions with excellent details on what his ship (or ships) did along with significant contributions by crew members. Most (if not all) of the actions have maps showing the general movement of ships and the actions they took. Favorites for me were the Battle of the Java Sea, the Battle of Guadalcanal, and the Battle of Vella Gulf (there's an excellent tribute from CAPT Hara to the Americans during his description of Vella Gulf).
My last like is how critical CAPT Hara is of himself and his actions. Whether it's when he's dating a geisha, forgetting to pay his tab, or mistakes he made in battle, CAPT Hara is his own worst critic. All of this is focused to making him a better officer and person. It's excellent to see a person who's telling their story of themselves and admitting they made mistakes (how many of us could learn from this).

My Dislikes:
Only one, CAPT Hara ended his book with his rescue during Operation Ten Go. I wish he would have included what he did after this point for Japan (you can read it on Wiki) and after the war.

The Rating:
Five stars all the way. CAPT Hara wrote an excellent book describing his actions in WWII and being critical of the IJN's actions, his own performance, and that of his opponent. The writing is direct and to the point, CAPT Hara doesn't mince words, if he has problems with something he calls it out. Interestingly he also is prepared to acknowledge his mistakes in character judgment and his actions. There are some excellent things one can learn from this book, particularly how IJN officers felt about going to war with the US and a little on the early actions against the Chinese. There are nice photos and good maps that support the battle sequences. I highly recommend this book to people interest in WWII naval actions or those interested in seeing how a man leads others.

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one of the best Pacific war books

Hara gives an unusual and frank insight in the workings of the Japanese Navy during WWII. He describes in great detail how he fought many battles as a destroyer captain and what he, his colleagues and enemies did right or wrong: many battles were stacks of blunders and were won by who blundered the least or simply was the luckiest.

Couldn't put it down: had to keep reading which cost me some sleep....

Great book

If you, like I, have an interest in WWII, this book is for you. I've read many books on submarine and destroyer actions from WWII and this is the first one from the Japanese point of view. It was riveting and hard to put down.

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Excellent Book-Patriots Can Enjoy it Too!

I was hesitant to buy this book at first; war stories from the Japanese captain's eyes? He is just gonna bad mouth the Americans and say a bunch of non-sense as to why the war wasn't Japan's fault I suspected.

But it turns out he is acutally pretty fair in his descriptions and most of his opinions of the war. He appears to be highly competent and realistic; traits not often seen amoung his fellow commanders. Description of the actions are very good and his career through the war is very interesting.

I would certainly recommend this as an addition to your war book colection.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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