Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: The text has some incredible human interest and that is a definite advantage.Kleiss as a pilot had a different perspective of the events and of course he isn't well talked about in other literature.Thus, a small window was opened into the lives of the people involved.However, the text suffers from several key failings that can't be overlooked.The battle of Midway is one that has been written about prolifically to say the least.Gordon W. Prange's work, Jonathon Parshall and Anthony Tully's monumental book Shattered Sword, and David Evans and Mark Peattie's Kaigun all stand out as exceptional and important works.In the light of such incredible resources, the constant use of Fuchida's writings, which have been discredited in Japan since the late 1950s, is perplexing.Fuchida's work was self-serving and fundamentally flawed, yet the authors here perpetuate the flaws.Simms and McGregor discuss codebreaking, but fail to reference probably the pivotal book on the subject, John Prados' Combined Fleet Decoded.The authors even equate Star Wars and the battle of Midway at one point.And the total absence of a bibliography hurts the value of the text as well.The result of these and other issues is a text that suffers from serious credibility issues.What starts as a book with great promise becomes a simple rehash of a tale well told by others.If you are interested in Midway and don't know where to start, I would be hard pressed to recommend this text for you.It carries a lot of baggage that will muddy the water and thus be counterproductive.On the whole, I don't recommend this text for anyone.
Author: Louis Arthur Norton
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4409730535