Dawn of Infamy: A Sunken Ship, A Vanished Crew and the FInal Mystery of Pearl Harbor

Dawn of Infamy: A Sunken Ship, A Vanished Crew and the Final Mystery of Pearl Harbor by

Stephen Harding    280 pages

The day that will live in infamy, December 7, 1941 as FDR said, holds  horrendous memories for  military personnel, their families and also Americans everywhere.   The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning by Japanese pilots led to the United States entering WWII.   But just prior to that attack from above, an American cargo ship was attacked by Japanese submarine I-26.   Had there been clearer lines of communication the radio disc jockey from San Francisco who heard the cargo ship, "Cynthia Olson's" S.O.S. might have been able to change the course of the war, but, sadly by the time he got the message to the appropriate people,  Pearl Harbor was in flames.    The Japanese commander and his crew of I-26 were celebrating their victory in sinking the first American ship that would start the war with the UlS.    The cargo ship was hauling a shipful of lumber to Hawaii and was half-way between Seattle and Honolulu when it was struck.   They had no idea why an American vessel would be fired upon other than ,maybe the Germans didn't realize they were American (and therefore neutral to the war at that time).   They immediately hoisted the American flag only to be continually fired upon.    The lumber buoyed the cargo ship so it did not sink immediately.   The Japanese crew went to breakfast to celebrate their good luck thinking the ship would be on the bottom of the ocean when they were done.   When they returned and checked they were astonished the ship was still afloat (not knowing the cargo inside it).   They then fired two torpedos.  The first torpedo causing the ship to list the second taking it down in a fiery death.    The Japanese commander had jumped the gun a bit because they were told not to engage in fighting until after the bombers had hit Pearl Harbor.   The Japanese Emperor wanted it to be a total surprise attack and didn't want the Americans to go on alert ahead of their attack.   Documents were fudged to put the time as happening just after the Pearl Harbor ambush so the original shooter did not go down in historical documentation as being the shot that began the war with the U.S.    THe Japanese claimed to have assumed the Americans had time to get in their life boats and get away.   They did not claim to have captured anyone alive and taken them prisoner.   They did not claim they shot all survivors found as was done thereafter.   But, no survivors in lifeboats nor bodies were found floating amid the flotsom when retrieval efforts were executed.   None of the American civilian crew working with the military to deliver the lumber to the base were ever heard from again after the initial SOS.    Harding tells what he has found out about the event.    A WWII mystery finally getting some light shed on it.   Good book.   WWII buffs will really enjoy it.   It makes me wish I had talked to my Dad more about his time in the Aleutian Islands.   Good book.  I highly recommend it.   .  

  - Shirley J.