On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack against United States naval forces stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But what if the Japanese followed up their air assault with an invasion and occupation of Hawaii? With American military forces subjugated and civilians living in fear of their conquerors, there is no one to stop the Japanese from using the islands' resources to launch an offensive against America's western coast.
"Japanese Zeros appear in the skies over Hawaii and descended upon Pearl Harbor in a devastating attack that cripples the U.S. Navy fleet and airfields. The land invasion follows." "One after another, the islands are conquered and occupied by the Empire of the Sun. In the hands of a merciless enemy, American soldiers in POW camps suffer the cruel punishments meted out to those who have dishonored themselves with surrender. Many older Hawaiians of Japanese origin support the invaders. Some of their children, though, want to fight back. And no matter where their sympathies might lie, under amrtial law, all civilians must respect their Japanese conquerors, relinquish food and shelter on demand, and fend for themselves as goods become scarce." But the domination of the Pacific and the submission of those who live there is merely the beginning. With the U.S. military on Hawaii completely subjugated, there is no one to stop the Japanese from using the islands' resources to launch an offensive against America's western coast.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack against United States naval forces stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But what if the Japanese followed up their air assault with an invasion and occupation of Hawaii? With American military forces subjugated and civilians living in fear of their conquerors, there is no one to stop the Japanese from using the islands' resources to launch an offensive against America's western coast.
Description:
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack against United States naval forces stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But what if the Japanese followed up their air assault with an invasion and occupation of Hawaii? With American military forces subjugated and civilians living in fear of their conquerors, there is no one to stop the Japanese from using the islands' resources to launch an offensive against America's western coast.
"Japanese Zeros appear in the skies over Hawaii and descended upon Pearl Harbor in a devastating attack that cripples the U.S. Navy fleet and airfields. The land invasion follows." "One after another, the islands are conquered and occupied by the Empire of the Sun. In the hands of a merciless enemy, American soldiers in POW camps suffer the cruel punishments meted out to those who have dishonored themselves with surrender. Many older Hawaiians of Japanese origin support the invaders. Some of their children, though, want to fight back. And no matter where their sympathies might lie, under amrtial law, all civilians must respect their Japanese conquerors, relinquish food and shelter on demand, and fend for themselves as goods become scarce." But the domination of the Pacific and the submission of those who live there is merely the beginning. With the U.S. military on Hawaii completely subjugated, there is no one to stop the Japanese from using the islands' resources to launch an offensive against America's western coast.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack against United States naval forces stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But what if the Japanese followed up their air assault with an invasion and occupation of Hawaii? With American military forces subjugated and civilians living in fear of their conquerors, there is no one to stop the Japanese from using the islands' resources to launch an offensive against America's western coast.
**
From Publishers Weekly
Alternate-history master Turtledove (Ruled Britannia) presents a starkly realistic view of what might have been had the Japanese followed the bombing of Pearl Harbor with a land invasion and occupied Hawaii. U.S. airman Fletch Armitage, held in a POW camp under horrifying conditions (the Japanese never signed the Geneva Convention), keeps hope alive even as he slowly starves. His ex-wife, Jane, keeps her head down in occupied Wahiawa, tending her assigned garden plot and hoping she won't be raped. Fisherman Jiro Takahashi, a native Japanese, welcomes the Rising Sun in Hawaii, but his sons, who consider themselves American, aren't so sure, even though the white Americans begin treating Japanese-Americans with contempt, particularly those who act as translators for the invaders, further widening the racial divide and increasing tensions. As the Japanese strengthen their hold on the islands, each side comes to grudgingly accept the courage of the other, despite the cultural chasms that separate them. The Americans vow to retake the islands, setting the scene for a final showdown that pits mastermind Commander Genda and maneuverable Zero airplanes against American strategy that includes technology the Japanese lack: radar. A less than neatly wrapped-up ending leaves room for a sequel. With an emphasis on tactics and warfare technology, this exciting, well-researched alternate history will please history buffs and SF fans alike.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Turtledove's latest twist on history has the Japanese invading Hawaii in December 1941. It recalls most closely Ruled Britannia (2002), except that this book is almost certainly the first volume of another WWII alternate history. The strategic consequences of the U.S. being backed up against its own West Coast, with most of its navy's aircraft carriers sunk, are too extensive to be dealt with in one novel, and one viewpoint character, Joe Crosetti, is training as a naval aviator for the battles to come. But as usual, Turtledove provides an extensive range of characters, civilian and military, of both sides and all ranks. Minoru Genda and Mitsuo Fuchida, both real historical Japanese officers, perform with their expected brilliance. On the other hand, Corporal Shimizu rides ashore in a landing barge and gives a grunt's-eye view of the Japanese army, whose motto is, quite understandably, "Hard work!" U.S. artillery officer Fletcher Armitage and his wife, Jane, were on the verge of divorce when the balloon went up and are now even more thoroughly separated as he labors in a POW camp, and she survives off her turnip patch. Oscar van der Klerk goes from surf bum to amateur spy, and the fishermen of the Takahashi family are divided, father Jiro favoring the Japanese occupiers, and his sons, who considered themselves Americans, disgruntled, to say the least. Demanding, irresistible, and magisterial--to say the very least. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved