
by Captain Tameichi Hara with Fred Saito and Roger Pineau
Used paperback edition
311 pages, 13 black and white photographs, 9 maps
Used $19.95
Fair + + + Cond. --- $19.95
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Aircraft Carrier and Cruiser Losses
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"Captain Hara discusses how he commanded a Japanese destroyer in all of the major Pacific sea conflicts during World War II: Empress Augusta Bay, Coral Sea, the invasion of the Philippines, Guadalcanal, Savo Island, and Midway. While on a re-supply mission through Blackett Straight in August 1943, upon noticing a fire-ball explosion near the destroyer "Amagiri" in front of his destroyer "Shigure", he ordered for his ship's crew to shoot at Lt. John F. Kennedy's sinking PT-109. He provides a most harrowing description––as commander of cruiser Yahagi ––how he barely survived its sinking alongside the ill-fated battleship Yamato on their suicide mission to attack the U.S. forces invading Okinawa. He details his training of the pilots of suicide motorboats (Shinyo: "ocean shaker") that were designed to ram Allied warships approaching Japan. After I wrote to him, he sent me an autographed photograph of himself in 1968––a fine keepsake from one of the luckiest Japanese destroyer commanders to have survived so many desperately fought WWII sea battles. His 312-page book was initially published by Ballantine Books in 1961." William Garrison Jr.
"Hara is the last
samurai. He objected to compulsory suicide as official doctrine, because he
saw this as a violation of bushido values. He turned pacifist BEFORE the
Bomb. His personal doctrines demonstrate why the Japanese lost the war––they
were inflexible; he wasn't. His doctrines were "Never ever do the same thing
twice" and "If he hits you high, then hit him low; if he hits you low, then
hit him high," the latter a maxim of MacArthur's, too. Hara criticizes
superiors for using cavalry tactics to fight naval battles; never
understanding the implications of air power; dividing their forces in the
face of enemy forces of unknown strength; basing tactics on what they
thought their enemy would do; and accepting a war of attrition with a foe
more capable of maintaining it. His technical discussions are superb. What
gives the book significance is his explication of strategy/tactics and their
implications. Hara is a brave man who knew WHY he did what he did. This puts
him in a minority, in any navy." James H. Sutton
