"For sixty years, myths about Pearl Habor have proliferated. One oft-repeated tale has President Roosevelt so intent on drawing the nation into World War II that he was willing to sacrifice the Pacific Fleet. Another equally untrue but even more tenacious explanation - the "at dawn they slept" scenario - identifies military incompetence at Pearl Harbor as the reason behind the Japanese tactical victory.

After six years of intense research, naval historian Michael Gannon has finally separated fact from fiction to re-create the dramatic events surrounding that fateful December morning when more than 2,400 Americans were killed, eighteen U.S. warships sunk or heavily damaged, and 150 aircraft destroyed.

Drawing on largely untapped U.S. and Japanese primary sources - including overlooked or unknown military orders, code intercepts, aide-memoire, eyewitness interviews, and private correspondence - the author builds a narrative that penetrates a smoke screen of cover-ups, top-level military misdirections, and faulty diplomatic decisions going back to Japan's invasion of China in 1937."--BOOK JACKET.