cover image Eyewitness to Infamy

Eyewitness to Infamy

Paul J. Travers. Madison Books, $24.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8191-8058-2

Prefaced by two chapters titled, respectively, ``Pearl Harbor: Geographical and Historical Background'' and ``The Battle of Pearl Harbor: The Official Account of the U.S. Navy,'' this book gathers straightforward personal recollections by 46 American servicemen, one Army nurse and one male civilian of the December 7, 1941 attack. Most of these individuals participated in defense and/or rescue operations on Battleship Row, Ford Island, Hickam Field, the Navy Yard, Scofield Barracks and other Pearl Harbor locations. Memories of the ``day after'' are also included with accounts of hasty burial ceremonies, trigger-happy GIs hunting for nonexistent enemy soldiers and the near panic caused by rumors such as one about a commercial airline pilot who claimed to have seen Japanese troop ships approaching Oahu. Despite repetition and overlaps, the book captures what it was like to live through one of modern history's great events. (Nov.)