I was thinking pretty hard about the next DDR, and I had it down to In The Beginning by Isaac Asimov or The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson...and then I realized that the start date was December the SEVENth. And then it became clear to me: it was time to begin The Pacific Trilogy by Ian W. Toll. It's a book I've been interested in for some time, and I can't resist the timing. One problem: I don't have a copy of this book. One solution: the Louisville Free Public Library does. I checked it out today--
--and will get down to it tomorrow. This will be the first time I've done a DDR without actually owning it, which, I'm sorry to say, bothers me...but I think I'm going to go that way and see if it works out.
So we're off.
(You know.)
For the record: 23 pages of Prologue and 597 text pages (which includes Acknowledgements, Notes, Bibliography, and Index, but I read them, so I'm going to count them) for a grand total of 620 pages. Interesting that Amazon lists the hardcover page count as 640 pages, but maybe if you count all the non-text pages before the Prologue it comes out that way. I'm sticking with 620, though. Trying to keep it real, y'know.
BTW, this volume is followed by The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 and Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945...which combined are another 1,500 or so pages. So this could take awhile... but I'm down for it.
Day 1 (DDRD 1,497) December 7, 2021
WARNING: This is actually coming to you from Day 4, but I wanted to give you a heads up. If you're the kind of person who likes to read the end notes (I am), then you should know from the get-go that there is no textual indication when the notes come in. So you might want to flip to the NOTES section as you finish each chapter to read them, otherwise they pile up fast. I didn't realize this until I had finished page 100, so now I've got a shitload of notes to read before I catch up. Just thought you might want to know. Okay, back to the present.
So the LFPL has 7 copies of this book: 5 paper and 2 electronic. At this moment, only one of those copies is checked out. The second book, The Conquoring Tide: 7 copies, 6 paper and one electronic--none checked out. The final volume, Twilight of the Gods: 7 copies, 5 paper and 2 electronic--one paper and one electronic checked out. So at least a couple of other people are reading it, I guess. The good news: I probably won't have any trouble keeping a copy of this book and the other volumes in my hands for the three and a half months it will take me to read this trilogy.
BTW, I've now read 11,705 pages in my "second 1,000" DDR Days...which is only 1,744 pages short of what I read in all of my first 1,000 DDR Days. So if I keep up the pace, it looks like I'll double the number of pages I read in 1,001 to 2,000. Which makes me happy, I must admit. Even though I know that that's kind of stupid.
ANYway....
Read to page xxxii, which was 20 pages of Prologue. It was an interesting set-up: a brief history of the United States navy from its formation up through Teddy Roosevelt's White Ship World Tour (at the point where I stopped...there are still a few pages in the Prologue, so I'd assume that we'll go all the way up to World War II).
One section particularly caught my attention:
"A headline on March 1, 1905, read: 'Unclean Practices of Orient Bringing Degradation and Debasement in the Train of Unrestricted Immigration.' An editorial four days later: 'Japan sent us not her fittest, but her unfittest; she has sent us the scum that has collected up on the surface of the boiling waters of her new national life, the human waste material for which she herself can find no use.'" (xxx)
Sound familiar? (If not: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists." Donald Trump, presidential announcement speech, June 16, 2015.)
Reading these twenty pages also reminded me of the greatness of Theodore Roosevelt...and made me think (not for the first time) that it might be a good idea to put a biography of him on the DDR waiting list.
Day 2 (DDRD 1,498) December 8, 2021
Read to page 30. Pretty vivid description of the horror of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I was also interested in FDR's reported response. It didn't seem at all like a guy who was pretending that he didn't know about the attack in advance...so maybe I'm wrong to believe that he did.
Day 3 (DDRD 1,499) December 9, 2021
Read to page 60. Reading about the aircraft carrier Enterprise made me wonder how big that thing was. Fortunately, there's Wikipedia, so I didn't have to wonder long:
Overall Length: 827 ft 5 inOverall Beam: 108 ft 11 in
Day 4 (DDRD 1,500) December 10, 2021
Read to page 92...but I'm going to aim for 100 before day is done.
Meanwhile...
I have a new reading partner...four week old Burl Ives:
Really wondering what Mr. Ian W. Toll thinks about the FDR Foreknowledge Idea. He has a Twitter page, so he is theoretically reachable, but I'm very shy about reaching out to famous people unless I have a good reason. I figure they get enough whack-a-doodles gnawing on their doorknobs without me adding to the queue. And if he didn't mention it at all in Pacific Crucible...which he hasn't done...then I'd guess that that is his answer.
Bigger issues. One, the WWII Era Japanese perception of Americans:
"The axis propagandists caricatured America as helplessly splintered by race, ethnicity, class, and creed; as a pampered, luxury-loving society in which the only cause that arouse the people was the pursuit of the almighty dollar; as a nation of loafers and malingerers, overpaid, over fed, and over-enfranchised, in which politicians went with hats in hand to receive the benediction of Union bosses. To their eyes, the United States was a sprawling, individualistic, leisure-loving nation, strung out on jazz, movies, baseball, strips, horse racing, and radio comedies -- anything but work, and certainly not the work of marching off to war. It was a nation enfeebled by divided government, with power impotently shared by the president and Congress and law courts, all constantly put upon by an insolent, unbridled press. Americans were a parochial, self-absorbed, inward-looking people, who could not care less about the rest of the world...." (61)
Well...that wasn't true then and it certainly is not true now. We don't like jazz that much.
A bit later on, Mr. Toll talked about how the newly manufactured Japanese fighter planes would be towed to the airstrips by oxen. Talk about cognitive dissonance. I tried to find a picture of that, but thus far have had no success...though I did find a reference to the animated film The Wind Rises (2013, Hayao Miyazaki), so I'll have a look at that asap.
And then there was the story of how the Far Right tried to take power during the ride up to WW II. They threatened leaders who didn't go their way...and even assassinated a few. They justified their actions by saying, "Japan now confronts a crisis.... Therefore it is our duty to take proper steps to safeguard our fatherland by killing those responsible." (90) Is it just me, or does that sound terribly familiar ?
Maybe I should take comfort in the fact that Japan went through this awful shit and came out fairly sensible and civilized...but I'm afraid it doesn't work that way with my digestive system.
You know, I think this book is pretty fantastic already, but even if it weren't, it'd be worth reading for the light it shines on current American goings on. To see that this Far Right bullshit is not an anomaly, and to see just how dangerous it can get, seems to me vital information.
Now I'm thinking about Direct Tweeting Nicolle Wallace. I'm probably wrong, but I have the feeling that she'd appreciate it. But with 1.2 million followers, I'm guessing she can do without a message from me.
Sidenote: Just watched The Wind Rises. It was a truly beautiful movie in and of itself--very touching at times, some nice hints of humor along the way, everything. And as for the WWII stuff, well first of all:
So there's that. Second of all, it hit me that this was a movie about a guy designing fighter jets which Japan was going to use against the U.S. in World War II. I know, that's pretty obvious, but the thing is that we saw this young engineer not only as a real human being, but as a good human being, a man who sacrificed for others without thought of reward, a man who was compassionate and honest and true. Which is just a little bit disorienting in this context. It made me wonder if it was difficult to get this film released in the USofA. I guess I'll just have to watch the documentary about the making of this film--The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness--which is also available on HBO Max. Mmm-hmm. But that's for tomorrow.
Oh, and I did read to page 100. And then it hit me: there hadn't been any notes yet. But I knew that there were notes in the back of the book. And then IT hit me: this was one of those books with hidden endnotes. I flipped to the back and sure enough, pages and pages of notes on what I had read so far. I started in on them but pooped out. That's just going to have to be for tomorrow as well. But if I'd known from the start, I would have been flipping to the back at the end of each chapter...or maybe at the beginning...and it would not have been an onerous task. So I'm going to go back to the top of this and post a "warning." Just in case.
Day 5 (DDRD 1,501) December 11, 2021
Read to page 130. Also caught up with the endnotes, so probably more like a 40 page day, but I'm pretty worn out after a night of interrupted sleep (tornado warnings), so I think that's it for the day. I did watch a big of The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, but the first parts of it were in Japanese without subtitles, and then when the subtitles kicked in they were so tiny that I had to sit very close to the tv to be able to read them, so I didn't get all that far. But I'm interested, so I'll probably get back to it. As for Pacific Crucible, the war has kind of halted as we learn the backgrounds of some of the main players on both sides. Interesting, but not nearly as compelling as the "war footage."
Day 6 (DDRD 1,502) December 12, 2021
Read to page 150...and it took me 53 minutes. I was pretty tired, though, and had to re-read a couple of times, so it might have been more like a 40 minute read...which is about what I was aiming for. That is probably going to be it for today, as it's Sunday, meaning three hours at church (get there an hour and a half early for daughter's choir practice, travel time, and Father Gary), then lunch at Subway, and then to the Kentucky Center for the Arts for The Nutcracker...again. Jacqueline wants to see this every year, so that's what we've been doing for quite some time. I think this is our twelfth or thirteenth viewing. The things we do for love.
Day 7 (DDRD 1,503) December 13, 2021
Read to page170. Another busy day, so just the twenty, then. Also reading hard in Lyrics by Paul McCartney, trying to beat the deadline on that. (Looks unlikely, as the book is not very good, I'm sorry to say.)
Day 8 (DDRD 1,504) December 14, 2021
Read to page190. My reading companion decided to get a bit closer today.
Day 9 (DDRD 1,505) December 15, 2021
Read to page 210. And 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
First typo. Yep. You'd think that Ian W. Toll and / or W. W. Norton & Company would be immune to this kind of thing, but here it is in black and white...with a little red on the side:
Day 10 (DDRD 1,506) December 16, 2021
Read to page 230, which primarily focused on the first U.S. Navy attack on the Japanese in the Marshall Islands. Pretty intense stuff.
Also remembered a passage from yesterday that I found very striking. Mr. Toll was describing how after the disaster of Pearl Harbor the sailors were told to scrape all of the paint off of the interior (maybe exterior, too) of the ships because of its flammability. It makes sense...but it's also so like the military. Shortly after a ship's hallways have been freshly painted, the sailors are set to work scraping the paint off. Or, as my first sergeant used to say on a regular basis, Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. (The 6 Ps.)
Read a little bit more...to page 237.
Day 11 (DDRD 1,507) December 17, 2021
Read to page 260.
There's a reference to Japanese ships opening fire on some Allies "at a range of 28,000 yards." That made me pause to do some math. 28,000 yards = 84,000 feet = 15.9 miles. That's pretty impressive stuff, isn't it?
On page 260, Mr. Toll makes reference to Japanese ships firing a salvo of torpedoes at Allied ships, and notes that "one of their fish hit the crippled Exeter." That might be accurate in terms of jargon, but I thought it was too cute by at least 1/2...possibly by 2/3rds. But maybe it's just me.
Day 12 (DDRD 1,508) December 18, 2021
Read to page 280.
Day 13 (DDRD 1,509) December 19, 2021
Read to page 300.
Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which I've started reading with Joe. The hero of this novel, "Tangor," was a WWII fighter pilot who was shot down and somehow transported to a world many light years distant from Earth. On this world, Poloda, after a few preliminaries, he becomes...a fighter pilot. What goes around comes around, I guess. BTW, in checking details prior to writing this, I found out that a Restored Edition (Complete and Unabridged) was just published by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc on September 1, 2021, So of course I am now wanting to get my eyes on that.
I've also started watching a WWII movie: U.S.S. Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016 ). I'm about 3/4ths of the way through and sorry to say that it's not very good, but I did learn that the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was transported to Tinian Island by this ship.
Day 14 (DDRD 1,510) December 20, 2021
Read to page 320.
Two more typos: one from yesterday and another from today.
Reference bombs loaded into the planes of the Doolittle mission, "Some were affixed with medals that had been bestowed upon American officers by the Japanese government before the war...." (289)
That should be "affixed to" shouldn't it?
Also,
"They counted one another as friends, and this tended to smooth the contours of their professional partnership, which might otherwise had been complicated...." (307)
Which definitely should be "otherwise have...."
So that's 2 and 3 now. (Shaking my head.)
Oh, spoke too quickly. There was another one today...a real puzzler:
So there's typo #4 on page 315.
Day 15 (DDRD 1,511) December 21, 2021
Read to page 340. Hmmm. Not that far from the end at this point, am I? The problem with doing a trilogy, of course, is that once I've committed to the first volume, I think I've committed to the two that follow as well. What if I hated the first volume, though? I am so OCD about this that I think I'd have to push on through anyway. Fortunately, that is not the case this time around, and I am pretty sure that I will be more than happy to spend another couple of months with Mr. Toll. It does make me wonder about that Stalingrad "trilogy" by David M. Glantz, which never did leave my peripheral vision.
Day 16 (DDRD 1,512) December 22, 2021
Read to page 360.
Day 17 (DDRD 1,513) December 23, 2021
Read to page 380.
If you're not worried about "spoilers," this would be a good time to watch the documentary Battle of Midway: The True Story (2019). I didn't watch it until DDRD 1,516, and that was fine, but I would have read about The Battle of Midway with greater focus if I'd seen the documentary before the book got too far into it. Just sayin', sir.
Day 18 (DDRD 1,514) 🎅👩December 24, 2021🎄🎄
Read to page 400. Also had a little waiting time on my hands, so read through the Acknowledgements, Bibliography, and Index...so actually a 20 + 57 page day.
Forgot to mention that I finished watching U.S.S. Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016) yesterday. It wasn't a very good movie, but there was one touching scene near the end which almost made it worthwhile.
Meanwhile, in Hoopla-land, I found a thing called Raid of No Return by Nathan Hale (both story and art) which looks like an interesting account of some WW II missions, so I'll have a look at that.
Day 19 (DDRD 1,515) 🎄🎄🎄December 25, 2021🎄🎄🎄
Read to page 420.
Day 20 (DDRD 1,516) December 26, 2021
Read to page 440. Which means 54 pages to go. I guess it's about time to pick up Volume II, The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944.
We're well into The Battle of Midway here, and it's quite a rousing tale. It's possible that I've forgotten, but I don't think I was ever taught anything about this battle from junior high school through two Master's degrees...which included a few classes in history and quite a few in literature. I can't help but think a proper study of this battle would go a long ways towards telling a story about the United States that would make young people appreciate the better angels of this country...and see the importance of self-sacrifice, suffering, all of that. I was so affected by Ian Toll's version of this story (he's an excellent storyteller, and I'm starting to think I need to read everything this man has written*) that I went looking for the movie. Turns out that there are a few of them, and as I was looking through the list I saw a documentary entitled Battle of Midway: The True Story (2019) which I decided would make for a good start. For one thing, because it features footage of the actual battle. For another thing, it's only 51 minutes long and recently made. Not to mention free to watch on several platforms (Paramount+, Amazon, fuboTV).
And it was quite a fascinating piece of work. It really helped me to see the airplanes that Ian W. Toll had talked about...especially see them in action...and to see some of the characters...like Admiral Nimitz...come to life on the screen. Also a nice surprise: Ian W. Toll himself was one of the narrators / interviewees. He looked a little older than his author picture, and his voice was a little ragged, like a guy who's smoked a pack and a half a day for three decades (give or take a decade), and I really liked seeing and hearing him.
Also interesting is that the documentary pretty much focused the story of Midway through one of its most (maybe most) distinguished airmen, Dusty Kleiss. I didn't remember the name, so I looked back at the Bibliography and Index of Pacific Crucible and...didn't see the name. Not too surprising, I suppose, in that Mr. Toll is focusing on the whole Pacific War while the documentary was pretty tightly focused on The Battle of Midway, but it was still a little surprising.
Probably still going to watch at least one of the Midway movies at some point, too, but high recommendations for this documentary. I kind of wish that I had watched it before I started the Midway section, so maybe I should put a little beacon up there ↑ somewhere.
P.S. Alas, looks like I found another typo (#5):
On page 423, "Waldron altered course and closed the Japanese fleet in a shallow glide."
I'm pretty sure that that should read "closed on the Japanese fleet...."
Day 21 (DDRD 1,517) December 27, 2021
Read to page 460.
Typo #6:
On page 456, we're told that "Japanese damage control equipment and training was unequal to the task" of controlling the fires aboard their stricken ships.
Since there's an "and" here, it should read "were unequal to the task."
Day 22 (DDRD 1,518) December 28, 2021
Read to page 480, and only have about ten pages to go now. I finished off the endnotes today, too. It finally hit me that these notes were not for expanding on the information in the main text, as is often the case with other history books I've read, but merely to indicate the source material for quotations and facts. Which is good--I'd be suspicious if notes like that did not exist for a historical tome--but does not make for interesting reading. For that matter, I don't think it even makes for necessary reading unless you're looking for a link to the source so that you can pursue something further. Which doesn't mean that I will skip reading the notes in the second volume, but I won't spend a whole lot of time on them, either.
Ian W. Toll seems to conclude that the victory at Midway was the decisive battle of World War II. Not only did it mark the turning point for the war against Japan, but it also inspired the American public in terms of being in the war and allowed FDR to keep feeding the European Theater with what they needed. Presumably a less successful sea war with Japan would have necessitated diverting more resources to the Pacific Theater. Also, Mr. Toll definitely sees the Midway victory as due to the intelligence operations of the U.S.ofA., specifically the cryptographic units which broke the Japanese code and allowed the U.S. forces to have foreknowledge of the Midway attack. He even goes farther, identifying a single individual...one Joe Rochefort. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rochefort)
I wonder if this is why Mr. Toll didn't focus on Dusty Kleiss--because he sees the victory as essentially Intelligence based, not due to the excellence of a single pilot. It still seems puzzling to me that there's no mention of Kleiss at all, though. Then again, there was no mention of Joe Rochefort in the documentary, so I guess you get what you pay for.
Much to my surprise, the copy of The Conquering Tide that I thought had been sitting on the shelf of the Northeast Branch of the library forever was checked out, so I had to put in a request for it to be shipped to me. It's on its way, but I'm not confident that it will make it by Thursday, so I checked out an e-version of the book just to be sure that I would be able to start on time. The good news is...somebody else in Louisville is into Ian W. Toll!
And there was much rejoicing.
Day 23 (DDRD 1,519) December 29, 2021
Read to page 491...which was the last text page of the book. And since I've already read everything that follows this page, that means This Is The End, Beautiful Friend.
It was an interesting read. Sometimes a thrilling read. I admire Mr. Toll's writing immensely, and am anxious to read the rest of The Pacific Trilogy...and am pretty sure that I will then read his first and to date only other book, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. I kind of wish that I had started with that book, actually...just to get a ramp up into the later history of the U.S. Navy, but too late for that, isn't it.
Reading this book has also made me think a lot about my father's time in the Navy during World War II.
He was just a kid. And Ian W. Toll keeps that in mind in the pages of this book...most of the guys who fought and died or were wounded were just out of high school. It really was a Children's Crusade.
I'm anxious to go on to volume two of the trilogy. And since today's reading in Pacific Crucible was only 11 pages, I'm going to go ahead and put a little dent in it.
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