Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit

About the Book

Your book had great meaning for me. It is a remarkable collection of personal narratives that bring history to life!
–Art Linkletter

Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit is perhaps the first publication to document the broad human experience of December 7, 1941. In this groundbreaking book, people from all across America recall how their lives were suddenly changed forever by Japan’s “dastardly attack” in Hawaii.

The fascinating stories in this 604-page book carry the reader back in time to vintage diners, filling stations, railroad depots, drug stores, family farms, stadiums, churches, barracks, and other places where the alarming news of the ambush was announced to a stunned nation.

During the war, millions of young Americans left home for duty in military camps, defense plants, and foreign battlefields. The speakers tell how they dutifully answered the call to arms while experiencing dislocation and heartbreaking separation from loved ones in the process. Their fleeting interlude of adolescence had ended with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Many narrators discuss significant personal, national, and world events from the time of the Depression through WWII, thus making this book a fine introduction to the momentous Roosevelt era. Readers learn how the children of the Depression era overcame hardship–and acquired the sturdy character that enabled them to emerge as liberators of the world.

WWII veteran contributors include former President George H.W. Bush and famed cartoonist Mort Walker.

Plain-spoken, patriotic, and poignant, these captivating narratives portray a humble, remarkable generation in their grand hour of distinction.

Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit contains over 175 narratives by people who remember December 7, 1941, and describe their reactions to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on that day. While explaining how the Japanese strike on the warships and military installations in Hawaii stunned, humiliated, and infuriated the American people, the speakers remain baffled as to how diminutive Japan could have masterminded such an audacious ambush on the mighty United States of America.

Exactly how Japan could execute the maneuver without being detected remains open to debate. What matters most is that the inspired retaliation that followed left no doubt: Americans of the World War II era were a people of prodigious creativity, iron resolve, and boundless courage. They were also intensely patriotic. When their beloved country was suddenly wounded by a violent act of treachery, the spirited Americans lashed back at their antagonists with a mighty fury heard ‘round the world.

Overnight, millions of people’s lives were turned upside down: Dutiful young men left home to confront the enemy; able women hired on at factories to build airplanes and tanks; scrappy kids collected junk metal to feed the mighty war machine; proud parents fretted and placed blue stars in their windows; and countless plans and dreams were smashed like the crippled, sunken ships in the flaming harbor.

In September 2000, in a self-appointed quest to chronicle experiences of Americans during the Great Depression and World War II, I began interviewing senior citizens about their most important memories of those turbulent years. (“The Great Depression? There was nothing great about it,” grumbled one correspondent.) Among other things, I wanted to learn what people were doing on Pearl Harbor Day–the day the United States finally said goodbye to the Depression and hello to World War II.

Although the fiery battle in Hawaii on that unforgettable day is well documented, writers and historians have long neglected the Pearl Harbor Day experience of persons who, on December 7, 1941, lived in the continental states and other places outside Hawaii. I felt it important to record this overlooked d

About the Author

Larry McCabe is the author of over 40 published music instruction books. Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit is his first history book.