Ghosts of Honolulu
A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
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3.9 • 253 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"A fast-paced debut...Espionage buffs will savor this vibrant account." — Publishers Weekly
A U.S. naval counterintelligence officer working to safeguard Pearl Harbor; a Japanese spy ordered to Hawaii to gather information on the American fleet. On December 7, 1941, their hidden stories are exposed by a morning of bloodshed that would change the world forever. Scrutinizing long-buried historical documents, NCIS star Mark Harmon and co-author Leon Carroll, a former NCIS Special Agent, have brought forth a true-life NCIS story of deception, discovery, and danger.
Hawaii, 1941. War clouds with Japan are gathering and the islands of Hawaii have become battlegrounds of spies, intelligence agents, and military officials - with the island's residents caught between them. Toiling in the shadows are Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American agent in naval intelligence, and Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy sent to Pearl Harbor to gather information on the U.S. fleet.
Douglas Wada's experiences in his native Honolulu include posing undercover as a newspaper reporter, translating wiretaps on the Japanese Consulate, and interrogating America's first captured POW of World War II, a submarine officer found on the beach. Takeo Yoshikawa is a Japanese spy operating as a junior diplomat with the consulate who is collecting vital information that goes straight to Admiral Yamamoto. Their dueling stories anchor Ghosts of Honolulu's gripping depiction of the world-changing cat and mouse games played between Japanese and US military intelligence agents (and a mercenary Nazi) in Hawaii before the outbreak of the second world war.
Also caught in the upheaval are Honolulu's innocent residents - including Douglas Wada's father - who endure the war's anti-Japanese fervor and a cadre of intelligence professionals who must prevent Hawaii from adopting the same destructive mass internments as California.
Ghosts of Honolulu depicts the incredible high stakes game of naval intelligence and the need to define what is real and what only appears to be real.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Part biography, part spy story, and 100% true, this enthralling history book examines the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As debate over the U.S. entering World War II rages, Japanese American Naval Intelligence officer Douglas Wada is sent on a mission to find Japanese agents operating in Hawaii. Meanwhile, a Japanese spy named Takeo Yoshikawa gathers information in advance of the planned strike, pitting the two agents against each other in a race against time. Authors Mark Harmon (yes, the TV star) and Leon Carroll Jr. blend hardboiled military history with the human side of this story, digging into Yoshikawa’s harsh, samurai-like upbringing and Wada’s turbulent childhood. Whether you’re a history buff or love fast-paced espionage thrillers, Ghosts of Honolulu is a riveting read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
NCIS star Harmon and Carroll, the show's technical adviser, spotlight in their fast-paced debut how the historical precursor of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service dueled with Japanese spies in Hawaii during WWII. In 1939, FDR ordered the Office of Naval Intelligence to "investigate domestic threats of espionage and sabotage." In Hawaii, Douglas Wada was recruited as the agency's only Japanese American counterintelligence agent at a time when Japanese Americans accounted for more than a third of the population. Wada's job was to "monitor the local population," but he and his fellow counterintelligence officers correctly regarded Japan's consular agents and their staff as the real spies in Hawaii, rather than members of the overwhelmingly loyal Japanese American community. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. counterintelligence chiefs in Hawaii, aware the attack had been guided by information that had "come from a spy working in the consulate in Honolulu," advocated against the kind of mass internment of Japanese Americans that occurred in the western U.S. Wada continued his career through the Cold War decades, as the Office of Naval Intelligence evolved into the NCIS, and died in 2007. The authors strikingly paint WWII-era Hawaii as a spy-vs.-spy battleground, detailing Wada's covert cat-and-mouse games with the Japanese consulate. Espionage buffs will savor this vibrant account of a dogged WWII investigator.
Customer Reviews
Oahu pre, during, and post World War Two
This is a great read about locals and their experiences and participation in pre, during and post World War Two on Oahu.
Behind the History
This book gave much history and back stories that are not typically in other accounts of Pearl Harbor. It provided a new perspective.
T.Yamamoto
Moving
Well written and insightful but difficult to read more than a bit at a time because it makes it all so real.