Operation Storm

February 11, 2013
Pearl Harbor was not Admiral Yamamoto’s only sneak attack. Within weeks of December 7, 1941, he approved a plan to build 18 enormous I-400 submarine aircraft carriers that would traverse the seas, surface, and launch 54 planes to bomb Washington, D.C., or New York City. Yamamoto’s strategy stood in stark contrast to those of the Americans; whereas the latter spent a fortune on a futuristic weapon that would go on to cause unprecedented destruction, Japan’s expensive, high-tech submarine program was primarily meant to frighten. Despite diminishing supplies and American bombing, three submarines were eventually completed, though only two were launched near the end of the war, and these were captured by American forces just weeks after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Aviation historian Geoghegan’s virtuoso research turns up surviving witnesses and obscure documents to corroborate this engrossing story of politics, logistics, and the technological leaps and bounds made during wartime, and the resulting tale is a thrilling take on a little-known aspect of the conflict in the Pacific theater. 8 pages of b&w photos. Agent: Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary Management.

February 15, 2013
Nicely dramatized story of the monster Japanese submarines that were trained on the American mainland at the end of World War II. Aviation scholar, researcher and journalist Geoghegan has scoured the archives to present a little-touted facet of Japanese naval history that offers a fascinating glimpse into the workings of the Japanese mindset at the endgame of the war. After Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto engineered the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, his next gambling idea was to bomb American cities so that "the American people [would] surely lose their will to fight." A superfuel-carrying submarine that could double as an aircraft carrier was needed for such an ambitious, risky enterprise, and thus, a series of I-400 supersubs came under intensive design and construction well into 1943. While the Japanese were flirting with other bombing raids over the Oregon coast, time was running out; the Americans scored victory at Midway, among others, and Yamamoto had been ambushed, forcing a scale back of the I-400s; yet completing the first supersubs became a point of honor, even as the tide was turning for the Axis powers. Special attack planes called Seiran were tested to accompany the pair of subs, which were finally ready by January 1945. Geoghegan pursues the fate of the I-401 on its last mission in August 1945, manned by the incompatible pair of commanders Nobukiyo Nambu and Tatsunosuke Ariizumi, for whom the news of the Japanese emperor's capitulation prompted two competing reactions as the sub was pursued by the American patrol sub Segundo, skippered by the young commander, Stephen Lobdell Johnson, who was "brash with a cockiness that put his crew on edge." An exciting narrative of a naval showdown revealing hubris and humility on both sides.

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Starred review from May 15, 2013
This meticulously researched piece of WWII naval history spectacularly fleshes out an episode that even naval buffs may have only heard sketched. It is the story of the largest conventional submarines ever built, intended to carry seaplane bombers within striking range of American targets. Those targets changed as the war progressed and Japan's position regressed, from American cities to the Panama Canal to American fleet anchorages. Plagued by shortages of materials, the slow development of the seaplane bombers, and personality clashes of the officers of the special submarines, the I-400s (like so many Axis wonder weapons) never drew Allied blood, let alone having a major effect on the war. However, the Japanese persevered and sent to sea remarkable achievements in naval architecture. The thoroughness with which the author has covered his subject speaks of a Labor of Hercules, although readers who are not fairly serious students of naval history may find the book slow going before the story takes hold of them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)