Warnings, clues, missteps, assumptions.  In late November of 1941, Washington sent an ominous message to the commander of the Pacific Fleet, warning Hawaii of possible danger. But the intel was vague; the threat was unclear. Although the commander’s intelligence unit had lost track of Japan’s biggest aircraft carriers, he assumed they were far away.  Meanwhile, a Japanese spy was counting the warships in the harbor and reporting to Tokyo. While we know what happened next, we may not know exactly why. As Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Steve Twomey unravels the twelve days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we begin to realize why even smart, experienced, talented people were looking down at their feet when they should have been scanning the sky.

 

 

Eight Cousins Books, our co-host, will have copies of this book at the talk. The book will also be available in the store at 189 Main Street in Falmouth.