To Wake the Giant Read online

  To Wake the Giant is a work of historical fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by Jeffrey M. Shaara

  Maps copyright © 2020 by David Lindroth Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  BALLANTINE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Hardback ISBN 9780593129623

  Ebook ISBN 9780593129630

  randomhousebooks.com

  Book design by Caroline Cunningham, adapted for ebook

  Cover design: Carlos Beltrán

  Cover photograph: U.S. Navy

  ep_prh_5.5.0_c0_r0

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Epigraph

  List of Maps

  To the Reader

  Map

  Introduction

  Part One

  Chapter One: Biggs

  Chapter Two: Hull

  Chapter Three: Biggs

  Chapter Four: Yamamoto

  Chapter Five: Hull

  Chapter Six: Biggs

  Chapter Seven: Biggs

  Chapter Eight: Yamamoto

  Chapter Nine: Hull

  Chapter Ten: Biggs

  Chapter Eleven: Biggs

  Chapter Twelve: The Spy

  Part Two

  Chapter Thirteen: Biggs

  Chapter Fourteen: Hull

  Chapter Fifteen: Yamamoto

  Chapter Sixteen: Biggs

  Chapter Seventeen: Hull

  Chapter Eighteen: Hull

  Chapter Nineteen: Biggs

  Chapter Twenty: Yamamoto

  Chapter Twenty-one: Hull

  Chapter Twenty-two: Biggs

  Chapter Twenty-three: Yamamoto

  Chapter Twenty-four: Biggs

  Chapter Twenty-five: Hull

  Chapter Twenty-six: Yamamoto

  Chapter Twenty-seven: Hull

  Part Three

  Chapter Twenty-eight: Rochefort

  Chapter Twenty-nine: Biggs

  Chapter Thirty: The Spy

  Chapter Thirty-one: Genda

  Chapter Thirty-two: Outerbridge

  Chapter Thirty-three: Elliott

  Chapter Thirty-four: Biggs

  Chapter Thirty-five: Kimmel

  Chapter Thirty-six: Biggs

  Chapter Thirty-seven: Hull

  Chapter Thirty-eight: Genda

  Chapter Thirty-nine: Yamamoto

  Chapter Forty: Biggs

  Chapter Forty-one: Biggs

  Afterword

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  By Jeff Shaara

  About the Author

  “War is not an act of God. It is a crime of man.”

  —CORDELL HULL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE 1933–44

  LIST OF MAPS

  1MAP OF OAHU IN 1941

  2THE ROUTE THE JAPANESE TOOK TO HAWAII

  3THE ROUTE THE JAPANESE PLANES FLEW TO PEARL HARBOR

  4U.S. SHIPS POSITIONED IN PEARL HARBOR

  TO THE READER

  Throughout our history, certain dates have had enormous significance, serving as reminders or even symbols of an event that profoundly changed our world. In American history alone, there are those dates taught to every student: July 4, 1776. June 6, 1944. November 22, 1963. September 11, 2001. And there is one more: December 7, 1941. On that day, in a mere two hours, an aerial assault by the Japanese destroyed or damaged much of the American military fleet and air power in and around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

  This story covers a full year, from December 1940 through the events and horrific tragedy of December 7, 1941. It is a story of sincere efforts to avoid a war confronting sincere efforts to start one, as well as a story of both heroics and blind incompetence. And it is a story about people on opposing sides, both old and young, who are men of character and courage, men with keen insight and brilliance; and others who are men of immense ego, incompetence, and an astonishing level of blindness. But there is no one villain, and no single hero.

  One challenge in telling this story is to avoid judgment of the participants on both sides. Many, or even most, Americans were encouraged by the media to believe that the Japanese were “funny little people” or a “godless horde,” as though they were a swarm of insects. I have inserted throughout this story actual quotes from various officials that, with our benefit of hindsight, display astounding ignorance. But such racism went both ways, as many Japanese viewed many Americans as rich, fat and lazy, spineless and weak, easy targets who would recoil in terror from any aggressive attack. And thus do wars start.

  I did not expect how personal this history would become. My goal, always, is to dig into the minds of the characters so that I feel comfortable putting words in their mouths. My greatest priority is to do justice to those who earned it and to let those men or their families know they are not forgotten.

  To Wake the Giant is told mainly from the points of view of three men in three very different locations.

  In Washington, D.C., Cordell Hull is President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of state, the diplomat responsible for bridging the dangerous gap between the United States and Japan. As such, he is exactly in the middle between Roosevelt, the American military chiefs, and the Japanese ambassador. Hull understands, more than anyone else in his government, that it is his duty to ensure good relations between the United States and every other country on earth—including, of course, Japan.

  In Japan, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a political moderate, is confronted by the growing power of the militants in his own government who advocate for war against the world’s great powers. Knowing that Japan cannot win such a war, he must ensure Japan’s survival by any means necessary. And thus Admiral Yamamoto devises a plan, a bold strike against the Americans that might grant Japan the time it needs to greatly strengthen its military.

  In a small town in northeast Florida, Tommy Biggs is a nineteen-year-old with a talent for baseball and nothing else in his life. The Depression has crushed much of rural America, and Tommy’s father is one of the victims. Enduring his father’s chronic anger and his mother’s despair, Biggs aches for a way out. The opportunity is unexpected, but Biggs suddenly finds an escape from the miserable poverty that engulfs his family and his community.

  Throughout this story are several other points of view and many names, known and unknown, yet all of them are important to these events.

  I have taken liberties that must be mentioned (or you’ll certainly mention them to me). In the Japanese language, names are given as last/first: Yamamoto Isoroku. In English usage, obviously, it is the other way around. Realizing that the number of Japanese characters in this story might cause some confusion, I have adopted the English standard, first name/last name. In addition, though the Japanese use the metric system (meters, kilometers, et cetera), fo
r clarity’s sake I have employed the American system of feet and miles. If this book is ever printed in Japanese, I’m certain they will make the necessary changes. I hope I am forgiven.

  A total of three hundred thirty-five men survived the destruction of the USS Arizona. When I began working on this book in early 2019, there were exactly six of them still living. As I write this, there are two. As you read this, there could be fewer still. Or none at all. If there is one good reason for me to tackle this story, it is this: We must know, we must understand, and we must remember. Those who were there can no longer tell their own story.

  Finally, my apologies for a bit of self-indulgence. The creation of this book has been a surprisingly difficult experience. Without trying to overdramatize this, there were times when the story simply became too emotional to write, or too consuming to stop. That has happened to me a few times in past books, but not as often as it happened here. I deeply appreciate the support and tolerance and affection from my family: my wife, Stephanie, and daughter, Emma. They’ve put up with a lot during the writing of this book. I hope I can make it up to them.

  —JEFF SHAARA, APRIL 14, 2020

  INTRODUCTION

  In many ways, World War Two in the Pacific begins with the Japanese victory over the Russians in 1905: the Russo-Japanese War. The level of swagger that results from Japan’s decisive end to that war is passed on to a younger generation of officers, who embrace an unwavering belief in Japanese military superiority. In 1931, that belief is a primary justification for Japan to invade and occupy Manchuria, China. This blatant act of aggression draws immediate condemnation from the Western powers, though none is willing to commit military assistance to China’s defense. The ease with which the Japanese secure such a large area of China (and insert their own puppet government) seems to justify the wisdom of their strategy. It is as though by accomplishing their goals, they prove those goals correct.

  As the more militant voices take control of the government, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito still holds sway, with a spiritual and emotional grip on his government and military. But the emperor, by all accounts a meek and mild-mannered man, will not insert himself directly into politics. Though he objects often to the practices of the more aggressive generals, he does little about them. This paves the way for nearly fifteen years of domination by Japan’s military, leaving it free to push forward its own aggressive strategic planning.

  Emboldened by its initial successes in China, the military plans a grand strategy that will spread Japanese influence, if not outright control, over most of Asia. It is driven in part by the need for natural resources, including oil, rubber, and metals, most of which Japan does not have within its own borders. But a growing racism also drives these goals, particularly the belief among many Japanese that they are a race superior to those they seek to conquer. These include the Koreans, who have already suffered under Japanese rule for decades; the Mongolians; the Southeast Asian peoples; and, of course, the Chinese. This notion of Japanese racial superiority extends beyond Asia as well; many in the Japanese military assume that the West lacks the courage to stand up to Japan’s aggressiveness. According to Japanese historian Saburo Ienaga, “the idea that ‘all men are brothers’ is simply missing” from the culture.

  Over the next few years, the Japanese military continues to expand its conquest of China, and despite energetic condemnation from around the globe, Japanese resolve never wavers. Gradually, the focus of Japanese hostility turns more toward the United States, despite the fact that the Americans have been a primary trading partner, supplying Japan with the very raw materials it needs. According to Colonel Ishiwara Kanji, who authors a strategic report widely accepted by his superiors, “Japan must be willing to fight America to achieve our national objectives.”

  Despite the prediction from Colonel Kanji that “three or four divisions and a few river gunboats will be quite enough to handle the Chinese…,” the Chinese army, led by Chiang Kai-shek, begins to resist the Japanese invasion with more tenacity than expected. The result is a strategic slugfest that the Japanese military euphemistically describes as the “Chinese Problem.” Although this is unknown to much of the outside world, the Japanese army commits a series of brutal atrocities against the Chinese, often against civilians. And despite a lack of any real gain in their costly campaign, the Japanese believe that withdrawing from China would be an admission of error, the kind of shame the Japanese find unacceptable. The cost of that campaign increases the need for Japan to pursue other conquests, meeting their need for natural resources.

  On September 1, 1939, the attention of the world turns away from Asia as a new crisis rips through Europe, when Hitler’s Germany invades Poland. In the United States, President Roosevelt and the American military leaders embrace the belief that Hitler is a far greater threat than anything the Japanese might be planning. The Western world is shocked as Hitler slices his way through northern Europe with relative ease, including a crushing victory over the French army that takes barely three weeks. Occupying Paris, Hitler spreads his brutality outward in several directions, from Scandinavia to North Africa. His most logical target now is Great Britain, which desperately seeks aid from the United States. As concern grows over Hitler’s successes, there is enormous pressure within the U.S. government to pull its warships away from their primary base in Hawaii in order to add much-needed strength to protect shipping in the Atlantic.

  But Roosevelt’s pledge of assistance to Britain is not universally supported by the American people. For years, the movement favoring American isolationism has spread, and many insist that what happens over there should stay over there. Many isolationists view the great oceans to the east and west as impregnable barriers that will protect the United States from any real danger. It is the military chiefs who are quick to point out that oceans can also be highways—that in the modern world of 1940, no place on earth is safe from the submarine or the great warship. However, there is little objection to Roosevelt’s push to remove ships from Hawaii. As they sit at anchor in Pearl Harbor, many, including high-ranking naval officers, believe their presence in the Pacific is simply a waste of time.

  In 1940, the Japanese enter into the Tripartite Pact, which is essentially a treaty with Germany and Mussolini’s Italy pledging joint cooperation as the war moves forward. Some in the American government are shocked by this unexpected alliance. The war that has been over there has just become far more complicated, and far more dangerous. The fear is that if the Japanese receive direct military assistance from Germany, they might be inclined to use it. Yet very few of America’s leaders take that threat seriously.

  At the end of 1940, the rhetoric from Tokyo becomes increasingly hostile, aimed at both the United States and Britain. If they hear it at all, the vast majority of American military chiefs and their civilian counterparts dismiss such talk with amusement: a tiny mouse roaring at a lion. The racism of the day only adds to the utter dismissal of the Japanese, with posters and cartoons depicting them with enormous buckteeth and inch-thick eyeglasses, incapable of walking in a straight line. Newspapers and Hollywood reinforce the stereotypes, lulling the public into a state of utter complacency.

  In Hawaii sits the commander in chief of the U.S. Navy for the entire Pacific basin. His job is to protect American interests, including island bases spread throughout the ocean as well as those in the Philippines. On the island of Oahu, the U.S. Army also maintains a substantial presence, protecting the American naval fleet when it sits at anchor within Pearl Harbor. The two forces, logically, are expected to be mutually supportive and maintain a steady flow of communication with their chiefs in Washington. But these are regarded as frustrating, boring assignments. There simply is no threat.

  “Should Japan go to war, one would have to resign oneself to it as unavoidable and throw oneself wholeheartedly into the fight.”

  —ADMIRAL ISOROKU YAMAMOTO, JANUARY 1941

  “The Japan
ese are not going to risk a fight with a first-class nation. They are unprepared to do so, and no one knows that better than they do.”

  —CONGRESSMAN CHARLES FADDIS (PENNSYLVANIA), FEBRUARY 1941

  PART ONE

  “All warfare is based on deception.”

  —SUN TSU, THE ART OF WAR, 500 B.C.

  “Everything which the enemy least suspects will succeed the best.”

  —NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

  “Japanese sanity cannot be measured by our own standards of logic. Japan’s resort to measures which might make war with the United States inevitable may come with dramatic and dangerous suddenness.”

  —JOSEPH GREW, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN, 1941

  ONE

  Biggs

  PALATKA, FLORIDA—SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1940

  He knew he could hammer the ball when it left Russo’s hand. The stripe of tape spun slowly, a lazy fastball, too lazy, floating toward him like a fat melon. He cocked the bat, then sprung forward, the bat meeting the ball, a hard thump, the ball now speeding away, rising. He began his run to first base, still watching the ball, hearing the shouts from the others, one voice, Clyde, the first baseman, “Holy mackerel. But it ain’t staying fair. Too bad.”