Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
A Pearl Harbor Novel Shows History from the Inside

A Pearl Harbor Novel Shows History from the Inside

Last updated on: December 7, 2021 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

A Pearl Harbor Novel Shows History from the Inside 2021-12-04T19:46:26-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today is the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. I am currently reading a novel that is immersing me in the intrigues, the mistakes, and the surprise attack that brought about the War in the Pacific. And it’s making me nervous about our own day.

I want to tell you about it, but first, some reflections on learning about history. . . .

History today is either forgotten or reviled. Many younger people especially know hardly anything about what happened in the past, and the little they do know is conditioned by those determined to discredit their heritage.

Purging history from the public square by removing statues and destroying monuments is supposed to protest slavery, anti-Indian atrocities, and other shameful parts of our past. But removing reminders of that past, in the long run, erases our national memory and can only create the impression that such bad things never happened. In so doing, they also erase the national memory of the good things that our forebears have left us.

So how can we learn history so that we can benefit from it? Reading history books is an obvious answer. But some historical scholarship is highly specialized, intentionally controversial and thus biased in one way or another, or–the biggest problem for me–highly abstract, looking down on historical events from a great height with a view to advancing a thesis or generalizing ideas. All of that is legitimate scholarship, but what I want in a history is description of concrete events, enabling me to enter into the past with the help of my imagination–that is, my ability to visualize and empathize–so that I can vicariously experience what happened way back then.

So I like to read narrative history; that is, history as story–as true story–rather than history as a social science. See, for example, the work of David Hackett Fischer, with his recreations of Paul Revere’s Ride and Washington Crossing the Delaware. Or David McCollough writing about the American Revolution, the Pioneers, and colossal feats of engineering, such as the digging of the Panama canal and the invention of the airplane . I’m also a big fan of Stephen Ambrose, with his account of the Lewis & Clarke expedition, the building of the transcontinental railway, and his many World War II books such as D-Day and Band of Brothers. I also recommend David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon, an absolutely compelling account of the series of murders on the Osage reservation back in the 1920s in Oklahoma close to where I live now, a book that reads like the best murder mystery.

Another genre that I like, literature professor that I was, is the historical novel. Not romances set in different historical periods but attempts to write about historical events in a manner faithful to the facts using the techniques of fiction writing; that is, the elements of fiction (characters, setting, plot, conflict, point of view, and theme) and the narrative modes (dialogue, action, description, exposition, and thoughts). The result, when done right, is a work of fiction that is an imaginative re-creation of a historical event.

A good example is the work of Michael Shaara, the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Killer Angels, Meticulously researched and drawing on letters, journals, and memoirs of the time, Shaara gives a blow by blow account of the Battle of Gettysburg from the point of view of the commanders and common soldiers on both sides. The result is a stunning and absorbing work of art, with complex characters and vivid action, possibly one of the greatest novels about warfare ever written.

After Michael Shaara died, his son, Jeff Shaara, took up the genre, using his father’s approach first to write more books about Civil War battles and then to write novels about our nation’s other wars (so far, the Revolution, the Mexican War, World War I, World War II, Korea). He is not the literary artist that his father was, but these are still good reads and effective historical recreations. To be sure, they are fictions, not histories, and they are no substitute for historical scholarship. But fiction has a special power to draw us in and to have an impact on us.

Last year, Shaara the younger published To Wake the Giant about the lead up to World War II, culminating in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He tells it primarily from the point of view of three characters: Roosevelt’s Secretary of State Cordell Hull; the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto; and an ordinary sailor Tommy Biggs, who has joined the Navy to escape the effects of the Depression on his rural community and finds himself stationed on the battleship the U.S.S. Arizona.

Unlike Shaara’s other books, the focus is not just on the battlefield but on the political and diplomatic context of what happened. We see Secretary of State Hull discussing the rise of Japan with FDR, who is preoccupied with Hitler’s threat to Great Britain, trying to balance Churchill’s pleas for help with the isolationism of lawmakers and much of the American public. Meanwhile, Yamamoto emerges as a pragmatic tactician, who tries to hold back the radical militarists and knows that Japan cannot, in the long run, win a war with the United States. Mistakes, miscalculations, and naive complacency afflict both sides. But finally Japan pulls the trigger.

This isn’t a review. I haven’t finished the book yet. But on this Pearl Harbor Day, the novel has me reflecting on how government incompetence, the unintended consequences of seemingly unrelated decisions, efforts at appeasement, and preoccupation with other concerns often precipitate war. And that, historically, the outbreak of war often comes as a surprise.

Today China is ascending, growing its military forces and technology to an alarming degree, threatening American allies, and practically promising to invade Taiwan. Meanwhile, the United States is weakened, demoralized, and poorly led. The conditions are not the same as in 1941, but they are too close for comfort. History doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, but ignorance of history makes repetition more likely.

Image: Pearl Harbor attack by WikiImages from Pixabay

Pearl Harbor anniversary

Pearl Harbor attack

To Wake the Giant

World War II

Previous Post

December 6, 2021

Do "Rights" Limit or Empower the Government?

Next Post

December 8, 2021 Legalism vs. Freedom vs. Lawlessness

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"I am not sure the items you mentioned, though disused, discontinued, discarded, could be considered ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"“Friend, use me in your relations with your neighbor just as you would want your ..."

DakotaLutheran

Luther on Tools

"Archaeology: It's the case that we don't have to go back very far to discover ..."

DakotaLutheran

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A woman with an issue of blood A leper A blind man A centurion

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »