To Wake the Giant: A Novel of Pearl Harbor

About this book

The New York Times bestselling master of military historical fiction tells the story of Pearl Harbor as only he can in the first novel of a gripping new series set in World War IIs Pacific theater. In 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt watches uneasily as the world heads rapidly down a dangerous path. The Japanese have waged an aggressive campaign against China and they now begin to expand their ambitions to other parts of Asia. As their expansion efforts grow bolder their enemies know that Japans ultimate goal is total conquest over the region especially when the Japanese align themselves with Hitlers Germany and Mussolinis Italy who wage their own war of conquest across Europe. Meanwhile the British stand nearly alone against Hitler and there is pressure in Washington to transfer Americas powerful fleet of warships from Hawaii to the Atlantic to join the fight against German U-boats that are devastating shipping. But despite deep concerns about weakening the Pacific fleet no one believes that the main base at Pearl Harbor is under any real threat. Told through the eyes of widely diverse characters this story looks at all sides of the drama and puts the reader squarely in the middle. In Washington Secretary of State Cordell Hull must balance his own concerns between President Roosevelt and the Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura who is little more than a puppet of his own government. In Japan Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto wins skeptical approval for his outrageous plans in the Pacific yet he understands more than anyone that an attack on Pearl Harbor will start a war that Japan cannot win. In Hawaii Commander Joseph Rocheforts job as an accomplished intelligence officer is to decode radio signals and detect the location of the Japanese fleet but when the airwaves suddenly go silent no one has any idea why. And from a small Depression-ravaged town nineteen-year-old Tommy Biggs sees the Navy as his chance to escape and happily accepts his assignment every sailors dream: the battleship USS Arizona. With you-are-there immediacy Shaara opens up the mysteries of just how Japana small deeply militarist nationcould launch one of historys most devastating surprise attacks. In this story of innocence heroism sacrifice and unfathomable blindness Shaaras gift for storytelling uses these familiar wartime themes to shine a light on the personal the painful the tragic and the thrillingand on a crucial part of history we must never forget.