Visions of Infamy: The Untold Story of How Journalist Hector C. Bywater Devised the Plans That Led to Pearl Harbor - Hardcover

Honan, William H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312054548 ISBN 13: 9780312054540

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1991

Synopsis

Explains how Bywater's prophecies of Japanese militarism may have inadvertently caused the Pacific War by inspiring Pearl Harbor mastermind Isoroku Yamamoto

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Reviews

Hector Bywater, a British authority on naval affairs, published books and articles in the 1920s and '30s that were astonishingly prophetic. In 1924, 16 years before the Japanese strike against Pearl Harbor, he accurately predicted the course of the Pacific war, including the surprise attack against U.S. naval forces, the invasions of Guam and the Philippines, and the island-hopping U.S. counterattack. Honan, chief cultural correspondent for the New York Times , argues persuasively that Bywater's writings directly influenced admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor offensive and many of Japan's subsequent moves. Ironically, Yamamoto initially agreed with Bywater that Japan could hold out against the U.S. for only a year and a half. Bywater died suddenly in 1940 at the age of 55, ostensibly from alcohol poisoning. Honan cites circumstantial evidence suggesting that he was murdered by the Japanese in order to eliminate the one Westerner who knew exactly what the Imperial Navy was up to. A compelling narrative. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Here, New York Times chief cultural correspondent Honan (Ted Kennedy, 1972) contends that Hector C. Bywater, at various times a British naval correspondent, undercover agent, investigator, and naval war-games addict, virtually ``invented the Pacific War.'' Bywater's prophetic writings in the 20's and 30's strongly influenced naval officers--some called him the successor to Alfred Thayer Mahan. Remarkably, Honan argues, both the Japanese Imperial Navy and the US Navy adopted many of Bywater's ideas and tested them in combat. Trying to prevent war, Bywater warned the Japanese militarists that, although they might score brilliant surprise victories at the start, a badly bloodied but enraged America would return in time with devastating power and numbers to destroy a depleted Japan. Ignoring his advice, Japan's leaders believed they could hold and expand their early wins with wide and impregnable defenses. Yamamoto would largely follow Bywater's scenario at Pearl Harbor, Midway, and other operations, Honan says. Despite his mainly accurate prophecies, however--including MacArthur's effective island-hopping and amphibious advances along the South Pacific regions--Bywater did not foresee the rapid advance of air power, aircraft carriers, and long-range submarines that would replace his favored battleships. And Honan hints that Bywater's sudden, mysterious death may have been ordered by Yamamoto before Pearl Harbor, since the Briton knew too much about Japan's plans. Honan collects much circumstantial evidence in support of his brief, gives deserved credit to a fascinating but forgotten man, and contributes to the ever-growing lore of WW II. In light of the limited options available to professional Navy planners, however, one may question whether history would have unfolded very much differently without Bywater's input. (Sixteen pages of photographs- -not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

During the Thirties, numerous people postulated a sneak Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor. Bywater, a hard-drinking and self-taught naval expert, was more astute about it than most. The strategies he devised for his fictitious battle between Japan and the United States in his novel The Great Pacific War (1925; St. Martin's. Aug. 1991. ISBN 0-312-06364-4. $22.95; Honan wrote a new introduction) became all too real when the Japanese borrowed them to plan their attack on Pearl Harbor. His prescience and untimely death just before the raid leads Honan to suggest that Bywater had been "silenced," probably by the Japanese high command. All speculation aside, the outspoken newspaperman had an interesting and adventurous life, well worth reading about. This fast-moving biography lends insight to the dramatic worldwide naval developments of the 1920s and 1930s. Recommended for general collections.
-Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312054548
• ISBN 13: 9780312054540
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 346