The book is divided into 13 chapters with and introduction and 5 appendixes:

Appendixes

1. Tabulation of Second Wave Dive-Bomber Attacks
2. Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Japanese Terms
3. Ships in Pearl Harbor and Vicinity
4. The Perfect Attack
5. Acknowledgments

This book is best described by as an analysis of the Japanese Pearl Harbor air raid on an operational and tactical level, using operational research methods and combat models developed at the US Naval War College.

Each chapter reviews what and how the Japanese military planners and the top commanders thought the primary goals were to be and how to accomplish those goals, filtered thru the mindset, doctrine and personal traits of the Japanese people involved.

The conclusions reached by the author might change your thoughts about the effectiveness and execution of the raid as filtered thru the historians that only looked at it from the American point of view.

The analysis is very thorough and sometimes becomes tedious. If you are looking for a first person view of the raid, this is not it, if you are looking for a detailed (and I mean DETAILED) analysis this book is for you.

Conclusion: From the modelers perspective this is not a very helpful book, however, as an analysis of the raid from the Japanese point of reference it is very intriguing and goes far to display the old axiom “every plan changes (or falls apart) once the enemy is encountered”.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing for the review copy and to IPMS/USA for the review space.