Hara gives an unusual and frank insight in the workings of the Japanese Navy during WWII. He describes in great detail how he fought many battles as a destroyer captain and what he, his colleagues and enemies did right or wrong: many battles were stacks of blunders and were won by who blundered the least or simply was the luckiest.

Couldn't put it down: had to keep reading which cost me some sleep....

Probably one of the two books anyone interested in the Pacific naval war simply MUST have in his libraray (the other the brilliant 'Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy' by the unfortunately named Paul S. Dull). True experts and affecionados should overlook the occasional mis-identification of ship types (undoubtedly a result of either negligent editing or translation problems), but otherwise a superb recollection of the Pacific war from the point of view of a famous Japanese destroyer captain.

Having studied this war and its naval campaigns, one thing that always struck me was the peculiar paradox of the near-deification of Admiral Yamamoto (engineer of the Pearl Harbor attack) by the Japanese at the time, and many foreign historians as well. Frankly, from any objective point of view, it was Yamamoto who almost single-handedly ensured the disasterous defeat of the Japanese navy, first, by not in fact taking out the most important targets at Pearl Harbor (the enormous fuel tank farm, and the even more important ship-repair facilities and machine shops), and secondly, by repeatedly committing vastly insufficient forces at the places of most importance, and invariably sending these elements through the most convoluted and tortuous separate routes to get there (each element could be easily defeated one at a time).

Further, it appears that at no time during the war did the Japanese have the slightest interest in obtaining or using intelligence, by either method or desire, and this led them into one catastrophe after another. Guadalcanal is probably the best exemplar of this failed strategy, where neither the Japanes Navy, nor the Japanese Army had any idea of the strength of the American presence there, apparently weren't even interested, and instead committed and lost battalions, regiments, whole divisions of troops and squadrons of ships again, and again, and again, until both the Army, and Navy were bled white.

The Japanese submarine fleet was even more useless, not because of any real defect in the subs themselves, but the ridiculous manner in which they were used. This is even more stunning when you consider that not only was the Japanese submarine fleet largely founded by German engineers and specialist after the First World War, but the Japanese maintained close communications with the Germans throughout the war, even sending submarines to Germany and back several times, as well as German U-Boats sailing to Japan and being used by the Japanese Navy. Yet despite the continued availability of the very finest in submarine expertise, the Japanese apparently never bothered to discuss the topic of strategy and/or tactics with the Germans. Incredible!

With all my various studies of this war, I never came across any real recognition of these fundamental flaws, until I read this book, and it is apparent that not only were these flaws as real as i thought, but that many members of the Japanese Navy itself were fully cognisant of these same mistakes, and yet, were unable to convince their own senior command of the need for changes, and so went down together. Starting to sound familiar?

This may be one of the best first person accounts of the Pacific theater of operations, that I have read from either side. Not only does Capt. Hara explain the individual battles in which he participated in vivid detail, he also gives his own perceptions of Japanese leadership (or lack thereof) during this incredibly demanding period. With his background in torpedo warfare, Hara shares his perception of both the abilities and short-comings within his own navy, but also those of the USN (praise and condemnation where he deemed appropriate, including himself). Overall a very good and fast paced oral history of the Pacific War, I would recommend to anyone.

Japanese Destroyer Captain is an excellent written account of Captain Hara missions in the Pacific theater during World War II. This work gives a rare insight into the Japanese perspective regarding the great naval battles of World War II from early campaigns to the last desperate struggles of the Japanese Empire. This account provides a reason why the Japanese lost the initiative in the Pacific by exposing the ill concieved naval tactics which lead to the defeat of the Imperial Navy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Naval battles of World War II.

I found this revision to be a little too generic in the type and spelling, but very informative none the less. I used to have the early 70's copy of this book in paperback. I enjoyed it then as I do now.

i first read this book 40 years ago and have recently completed it for a third time. excellent primary source account from a japanese perspective during ww2. an exceptional translation and the author's story make j.d.c. more a story of fate and luck rather than one of duty and war. a fine addition to anyone's book collection, not just those with an interest in ww2.

There's a lot of books coming out of Germany about the German experience in World War II, but there have been amazingly few coming from Japan. Even though this came out a long time ago, this book doesn't disappoint. Hara does a good job talking about how the American superiority in men and materials, as well as a good deal of old fashioned guts, turned the tide that was overwhelmingly on the side of the Japanese right after Pearl Harbor. I highly recommend this book to any student of the war in the Pacific and especially for those who want to see the war from the eyes of an enemy.

Excellent view of the naval WWII war in the Pacific from the viewpoint of a knowledgeable Japanese officer who was in many of the battles. Very readable and informative.

I read this book in paperback the summer before I started college in 1972. I still have the old Ballantine paperback in my personal library here in my office - along with many other classic WWII memoirs and histories which were released between the early '60's and '70's - and they remain to this day the backbone of any historians efforts to understand the conflict from a human perspective.

Hara was there. Regardless of the rhetoric,and the apologetics of his stance, it's impossible to argue with the eyewitness accounts he provides, and the detail of his style.

He creates at once a sympathetic and enthralled audience for his side of the story - one which needed telling, and which wasn't available until he committed it to print.

An enduring classic; this one belongs on the shelf of any person who wants to thoroughly understand the Pacific War.

I recently had the oppertunity to read "Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway-The Great Naval Battles as seen Through Japanese Eyes.
Tameichi Hara paints an interesting palet of not just the Naval engagments, but the social and economic upheavels in Japan during the war. The hardships he mentions on the civilian population were horrendous, and the reader soon realizes that the "bitter taste" of war is universal for every nation that finds itself at war.
The Naval battles and discription of those engagements was enough to give the "arm-chair" Admirals and Captains cold chills, however, sometimes I felt that Tameichi Hara was too redundent, and...much more of a tactician than I wanted to read about.
Overall, a very good book, and one worth reading for anyone who has the slightist interest in history, and Naval wafare.

I first read this book in the early 1970's, on the life of Tameichi Hara and his activities while a destroyer captain during the Pacific conflict in World War Two. I found it a very interesting read, on his life and what led up to his involvement in most of the major actions against the U.S. Pacific fleet, especially in the Solomon Islands. The book is well written and kept me just as entranced the second time as it did the first. It is refreshing to have a Japanese version of the events instead of an American one. Well recommended.

Growing up, I read as much as I could of the Pacific Theater during World War II. I was disappointed that so much was available from the U.S. side, with very little published on the Japanese side. Of course one reason for that was so many Japanese died during the war. So it was a great pleasure to find this book. Hara fought in almost every major surface engagement during the war, and still lived to tell about it. As another reviewer wrote, Hara gets into some of the technical aspects, notably his work before the war on the "Long Lance" torpedo. This weapon was one of the few systems that was superior to the allies- and was a surprise to them in 1941. It had extremely long range and a large warhead and was used with devestating effect during the night battles around Guadalcanal, many of which Hara was an eyewitness of.
In short, if you are interested in WW2 Naval History, this book is a "must have" for your library.

Anyone who is a fan of WWII history or military reading will enjoy this book. It's an interesting look at the Japanese perspective as seen through the captain's own eyes as well as his peers. There's good discussion of naval strategy as well as their thoughts on the war in general. Although some books can be dry and overly technical, I found this to be a nice balance and the story moved smoothly.

Hara is the last samurai. He objected to compulsory suicide as official doctrine, because he saw this as a violation of bushido values. He turned pacifist BEFORE the Bomb. His personal doctrines demonstrate why the Japanese lost the war--they were inflexible; he wasn't. His doctrines were "Never ever do the same thing twice" and "If he hits you high, then hit him low; if he hits you low, then hit him high," the latter a maxim of MacArthur's, too. Hara criticizes superiors for using cavalry tactics to fight naval battles; never understanding the implications of air power; dividing their forces in the face of enemy forces of unknown strength; basing tactics on what they thought their enemy would do; and acceping a war of attrition with a foe more capable of maintaining it. His technical discussions are superb. What gives the book significance is his explication of strategy/tactics and their implications. Hara is a brave man who knew WHY he did what he did. This puts him in a minority, in any navy.

Captain Hara discusses how he commanded a Japanese destroyer in all of the major Pacific sea conflicts during World War II: Empress Augusta Bay, Coral Sea, the invasion of the Philippines, Guadalcanal, Savo Island, and Midway. While on a re-supply mission through Blackett Straight in August 1943, upon noticing a fire-ball explosion near the destroyer "Amagiri" in front of his destroyer "Shigure", he ordered for his ship's crew to shoot at Lt. John F. Kennedy's sinking PT-109. He provides a most harrowing description -- as commander of cruiser Yahagi -- how he barely survied its sinking alongside the ill-fated battleship Yamato on their suicide mission to attack the U.S. forces invaiding Okinawa. He details his training of the pilots of suicide motorboats (Shinyo: "ocean shaker") that were designed to ram Allied warships approaching Japan. After I wrote to him, he sent me an autographed photograph of himself in 1968 -- a fine keepsake from one of the luckiest Japanese destroyer commanders to have survived so many desperately fought WWII sea battles. His 312-page book was initially published by Ballantine Books in 1961.

Captain Hara discusses how he commanded a Japanese destroyer in all of the major Pacific sea conflicts during World War II: Empress Augusta Bay, Coral Sea, the invasion of the Philippines, Guadalcanal, Savo Island, and Midway. While on a re-supply mission through Blackett Straight in August 1943, upon noticing a fire-ball explosion near the destroyer "Amagiri" in front of his destroyer "Shigure", he ordered for his ship's crew to shoot at Lt. John F. Kennedy's sinking PT-109. He provides a most harrowing description -- as commander of cruiser Yahagi -- how he barely survied its sinking alongside the ill-fated battleship Yamato on their suicide mission to attack the U.S. forces invaiding Okinawa. He details his training of the pilots of suicide motorboats (Shinyo: "ocean shaker") that were designed to ram Allied warships approaching Japan. After I wrote to him, he sent me an autographed photograph of himself in 1968 -- a fine keepsake from one of the luckiest Japanese destroyer commanders to have survived so many desperately fought WWII sea battles. His 312-page book was initially published by Ballantine Books in 1961.