Hoyt, Edwin P. Yamamoto; the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Lyons Press. 271p. map. notes. index. c1990. 1-58574-428-X. $16.95. SA

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto will be known forever to Americans for his role in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In truth, however, planning and orchestrating that raid was only one of the accomplishments for which he will be remembered. A surface-warfare officer during his early career, he encouraged and guided the expansion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1930s; then, becoming a convert to the possibilities of air power, he almost single-handedly imposed the air doctrine on a conservative naval establishment. A year of study in the U.S. convinced him of the nation's immense--if latent--strength, and he earnestly warned his superiors against an unnecessary attack on the American democracy. The army and civil leadership were eager to complete their conquest of China and overruled him, even as he became commander in chief of the Combined Fleet. Several times he predicted that he would run wild during the early stages of a war with the U.S., but that Japan would suffer for it in the end. With great foreboding, he set about planning the attack that would both immortalize him and confirm his prophecy. So traumatized were the Americans by his fighting skills that he was marked for assassination, and subsequently killed early in 1943 during a dramatic ambush by P-38 fighters.

Edwin Hoyt is a retired journalist and longstanding writer of popular military history. He has authored some 38 books, mostly on WW II, naval and Asian affairs. Many of his earlier books have been frankly action-oriented and were pitched to the high school level--historically accurate enough, but definitely stressing the combat activities. His later titles are more extensively researched and have expanded to larger themes, and enjoy a higher reputation. Yamamoto was written from English-language sources and can never be a definitive biography, yet it fills a definite gap in popular American studies of WW II. It is more nuanced in tone than some of his earlier works, yet Hoyt still knows how to write enticingly and there is plenty of battle excitement to attract YA readers. Raymond L. Puffer, Ph.D., Historian, Edwards Air Force Base, CA