Description
Book SynopsisScholars hailing from four continents and representing six nations reinterpret the meaning of the coordinated, and devastating, attacks of December 7/8, 1941. Working from a variety of angles, they revise and expand, to an unprecedented extent, what we understand about these events.
Trade ReviewInitial American reaction to the Pearl Harbor attack emphasized surprise and the failure of military intelligence. Pearl Harbor has become a symbol of American national unity in the face of external threat. The Japanese see the attack as the beginning of the end, the inescapable path toward atomic destruction and a new world order.
Beyond Pearl Harbor reveals a world of different understandings beyond these. Chinese, Indonesian, Filipino, Australian, and transnational understandings point to a clash of empires rather than a binary national conflict. The authors bring to the foreground long-effaced narratives and suggest a much needed postcolonial perspective." - Michael Myers, author of
The Pacific War and Contingent Victory: Why Japanese Defeat Was Not Inevitable"Bailey and Farber have gathered a collection of insightful, original essays that deepen and broaden our understanding of the impact of the Japanese attacks on December 7, 1941. Standard interpretations focus almost exclusively on the destruction at Pearl Harbor. Collectively these essays challenge that narrative and offer a refreshing new perspective that will change forever the way future historians think about that infamous day. This is a bold, imaginative, and absolutely essential book." - Steven M. Gillon, author of
Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation into WarTable of Contents
- Introduction: December 7/8, 1941, Beth Bailey and David Farber
- Prologue, Beth Bailey
- 1. The Attack on Pearl Harbor . . . and Guam, Wake Island, Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong: December 7/8, the Pacific World, American Empire, and the American Political Imaginary, Beth Bailey and David Farber
- 2. "American Lives": Pearl Harbor and the War in the US Empire, David Immerwahr
- 3. Japan and the Spirit of December 8," Jeremy A. Yellen
- 4. Popular Japanese Responses to the Pearl Harbor Attack: December 8, 1941 to January 8, 1942, Samuel Hideo Yamashita
- 5. Identities and Alliances: China's Place in the World after Pearl Harbor, 1941-1945, Rana Mitter
- 6. Worldly Medicine in Wartime China: An Exploration of Pearl Harbor's Unintended Consequences, Nicole Elizabeth Barne
- 7. Pearl Harbor and the Asian Cultural Turn, Ethan Mark
- 8. The Philippines and the Politics of Anticipation, Christopher Capozzola
- 9. Pearl Harbor and Australia's War in the Pacific, Kate Darian-Smith
- 10. Tolerance, Reconciliation, and Alliance of Hope: Pearl Harbor Narrativesin Japan, Yujin Yaguchi
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
