"An unusual book, filled with fascinating photographs, diagrams, maps and illustrations that bring the destruction back to life. The real soldiers and sailors had it all over Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett."--"Playboy " "Especially good for its maps."--"Houston Chronicle " "Engrossing. Get this superb read, which will answer many of the questions that are bound to pop up. Recommended."--"Library Journal" ""A date which will live in infamy."--President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, December 7, 1941." This eye-popping, large-size, and image-packed book about the infamous sneak attack that changed the course of history will keep readers fascinated. Through bold and striking images previously unseen outside of Japan, and an authoritative, thoroughly up-to-date text, the shocking event that was Pearl Harbor unfolds. Enhancing the experience are the standout maps and graphics by Malcolm Swanston (expert cartographer of the History of Warfare series). Starting his narrative long before the assault and continuing through to its dramatic aftermath, H.P. Willmott, a brilliant and experienced historian, breaks new ground and corrects misconceptions. Above all, Willmott makes sense of the complex, often surreal process that led the Japanese High Command to consider an attack on Pearl Harbor the preferred strategy. The text about the strike itself draws on extensive new research. Highlights include concise tables listing every warship involved in the operation, along with every formation of aircraft, which carriers they flew from, and which targets they hit. Most controversial: a discussion of crucial evidence that explains why a third and potentially devastating strike on the American base never occurred. Finally, you'll see why this fateful day may have been not only the day that Japan started the war...but also the day she lost it.