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Title details for Danger's Hour by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy - Available

Danger's Hour

The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her

by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy
Michael Prichard
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Based on extensive interviews with Japanese and American survivors, letters, diaries, and other primary sources, Danger's Hour explores the May 11, 1945, attack on the USS Bunker Hill, one of the deadliest kamikaze attacks of World War II. The book details the story of the ship herself (a technological marvel), her crew, and her kamikaze adversaries. Maxwell Taylor Kennedy shows how crucial this battle was to victory in the Pacific, even though it was overshadowed by the almost simultaneous surrender of the Nazis in Europe. With this extensive research, Kennedy tells the human story on both sides of the battle.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 25, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400128327
      • File size: 498415 KB
      • Duration: 17:18:21

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Hearing the story of the deadliest kamikaze attack of WWII, listeners experience both the terror of being on the targeted ship, the USS BUNKER HILL, and the terror of the Japanese pilots flying to their certain deaths. The author tries to convey how a pilot's desire to live can be suppressed such that he is willing to train for months to kill himself in the perpetration of a mass homicide. Narrator Michael Prichard reads briskly, following the cue of the action described when the raging fires cannot be suppressed. He slows to a somber, deeper voice when describing the ceremonies performed before pilots left on their fatal missions. He even sings one little song and recites some poetry, showing his wide versatility as a performer. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 8, 2008
      The U.S. aircraft carrier Bunker Hill
      and the Japanese kamikazes that struck her on May 11, 1945, embodied two fundamentally different approaches not only to war but to life, according to Kennedy. The Bunker Hill
      manifested American material power, and its civilian sailors reflected the determination of a nation to punish Japan's aggression with total victory. The pilots of the Divine Wind (or kamikaze) , on the other hand, represented a philosophical and spiritual response, an epic of pride, honor and virility. And when the kamikazes struck the Bunker Hill,
      it seemed for a time that a few determined men could frustrate American power, killing almost 400 Americans and wounding another 250. In what he views as a relevant lesson for the age of terror, Kennedy (Make Gentle the Life of This World
      ) explores “how an individual's desire to live can be so successfully suppressed” that he will train for certain death. The author combines extensive archival research with interviews of American and Japanese participants in a spellbinding account showing that much more than geopolitics was at stake in the Pacific war. Photos.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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