Dead Reckoning

April 3, 2020

There are many books written about World War II, but few have focused on the targeted mission that killed Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1883-1943). Lehr (The Fence) has pulled together historical and personal documents that shed light on two of the major actors of the mission: U.S. Army Major John Mitchell (1914-95) and Yamamoto himself. Yamamoto, the architect behind the attack on Pearl Harbor, was a military genius with a complicated personal life. Mitchell, on the other hand, was an ace American pilot and married to the girl next door. More of a biography than a strict look at the military confrontation, the text provides an intimate look at the war in the Pacific told through the eyes of the men leading up to their fateful intersection. Though the mission itself was a success from the American point of view, the anguish felt by the Japanese people is also carefully explored. VERDICT Lehr's skills as a journalist dig deep into the lives of Yamamoto and Mitchell, shining light on the public and private life of each. Anyone interested in World War II, and especially the war in the Pacific, will find this account fascinating. [See Prepub Alert, 11/4/19.]--Danielle Williams, Univ. of Evansville

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April 15, 2020
An evenhanded history of the hunt for the mastermind of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Nearly a year and a half after the U.S. declared war on Japan, the Army Air Forces would finally catch up with Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, in the skies over the then-Japanese-held islands of Rabaul and Bougainville. Lehr--a professor of journalism at Boston University who has written two books on Whitey Bulger--weaves together two touching stories: the tale of Maj. John Mitchell, who was an ace flyboy chosen to lead the mission, homesick for his new bride, as well as the story of Mitchell's team; and the chronicle of Yamamoto, who, as a young cadet, had seen his country prevail against the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and became a forward-thinking officer who attended Harvard, worked two postings in Washington, D.C., and--significantly--grasped that aircraft carriers were the weapon of the future. Yamamoto also "sensed...from a mix of press accounts and military intelligence, that the United States was waking up--that following the deadly Pearl Harbor debacle, instead of curling up into a fetal position, she was climbing to her feet, raring to fight and seek vengeance. [He] had no way of knowing its full extent, but the winter of 1942 saw the [U.S.] hastily and effectively establish its wartime footing." By 1943, he was nearing 60, with a wife and children as well as a longtime geisha lover to whom he wrote passionate letters. Refreshingly, Lehr gets beyond the hate-filled, racist propaganda on both sides to give an honest appraisal of the protagonists, especially Yamamoto, whose logic in attacking Pearl Harbor was to "induce [America] to settle for peace with Japan." Once the Americans cracked the Japanese code, Midway became "Yamamoto's lament." A sympathetic, exciting portrait of both American and Japanese warriors caught up in "targeted-kill operations." (b/w photos)

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June 1, 2020
In this meticulously researched history, journalist Lehr (The Birth of a Movement) chronicles the lives of U.S. Army Air Forces major John W. Mitchell and Imperial Japanese Navy admiral Isoroku Yamamoto from their childhoods to their “fatal face-off” in 1943. An ace pilot from Enid, Miss., Mitchell commanded the 339th Fighter Squadron on Guadalcanal Island. In April 1943, he led 15 other pilots on a mission to assassinate Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Vilified by the American press as a “hate-filled warmonger,” Yamamoto emerges in Lehr’s nuanced portrayal as a “reluctant warrior” who hoped to force a peace settlement with the U.S. Sixteen months after Pearl Harbor, American code breakers decrypted a message detailing Yamamoto’s plans to tour Japanese bases in the Solomon Islands. Mitchell and his squad flew more than 800 miles round trip from Guadalcanal to shoot down the admiral’s bomber over Bougainville Island, losing only one American pilot in the aerial attack. Lehr packs the narrative with intimate looks at both men’s personal lives, debates among U.S. and Japanese leaders over military strategy, and the history of “targeted kill” operations. Even the most dedicated WWII buffs will learn something new from this granular account. Agent: Richard Abate.