Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
Mark Harmon
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"A fast-paced debut. Espionage buffs will savor this vibrant account. " — Publishers WeeklyA U. more
272 pages, Hardcover
First published Harper Select
3.83
Rating
1624
Ratings
179
Reviews
Mark Harmon
48 books 15 followers
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I always take a slight pause before picking up a history book which has an actor or pundit listed as a co-author. Luckily, I can confirm that Mark Harmon (from NCIS but more importantly, Summer School) and Leon Carroll do a great job with Ghosts of Honolulu. The subtitle of the book is a bit misleading. While it sounds like this is a spy vs. spy espionage thriller, this book is more about the shifting fortunes of Japanese-Americans on Oahu during World War II. more
I learned about a piece history regarding World War II that I had limited knowledge about; Japan’s espionage behind and planning for the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is clearly well researched but the writing style is hard to follow and there are too many people (many ancillary) mentioned and there are many places, making this hard to follow and not an easy read. more
Very interesting history but writing style lacks good storytelling. It is hard to follow all of the characters other than the main one. . more
I wish this had been written by a Japanese American person, and I extra wish the audiobook had been read by a Japanese American person, bc the pronunciation gave big gaijin energy. more
This book triggers a lot within me. Not just as a veteran and granddaughter of Navy men, but in defining who the enemy is. For how long. Dishonest policies. Ugh, struggling with a review rewrite as there’s so much this book evokes. more
Much that I didn’t know. Very well written and the forward by Tom Hanks is great. more
I am an NCIS devotee. This novel about the history of the beginnings of the Naval Criminal Investigative Servies was fascinating from both the historical perspective and the human point of view. It spotlights some of the best and worst American behavior during war time and reminds us that there are always two sides to most stories. The individuals depicted represent the best of American patriots who work tirelessly to protect America while upholding the highest of American ideals. Congratulations to the authors who brought this evidence to light. more
Interesting premise, but the writing left something to be desired. I felt like I was reading a mediocre term paper rather than a well thought out work of nonfiction. more
Could not stop reading. Starts with the beginning of people involved and history before WWII. Then gets into the details of what went down up to and including December 7, 1941, and what happened after. If this part of history fascinates you, you will more than likely enjoy this book. more
Interesting facts that I knew nothing of. But the writing a bit of a struggle. I did get something out of it though. more
Not a great writing style. It took half the book to get into it and still not a smooth story. The characters were also not fully developed It could have been so good based on the true story that many do not know about. more
This book reads like an extended term paper with its copious use of footnotes rather than endnotes documenting every statement, and its trite language. Its format suggests the outlines of a screenplay for a future movie with headings referencing the date and location before each section describing an event. People, including the central figures, pop in and out of chapters in the book with little rhyme or reason. Some disappear for long periods of time, only to appear again later when they play a role in the story. None are truly well developed with respect to their biographies although the authors rely on interviews and historical records in presenting the information. more
Too many people with their stories being told at the same time making it difficult to follow. Also as I was reading, I just visually played Pearl Harbor (movie) in my mind which helped support the story. . more
Overall it’s an interesting read and a great “pop” history book if you have any fascination with WWII or Pearl Harbor in general. Once I got over the fact this is written by the guy who is in NCIS, I found a well thought out historical fiction that while it dragged in parts was a quick read one afternoon. My only complaint is that there are some sections that read like mud. Also lack of index of people is a big miss when your story is so character driven. . more
Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll provide their entry into American, easily read "Popular" history. It's a wonderful story of the rending tensions that WWII place on the Japanese culture in the Hawaiian Islands, especially pressures on the issei and nisei Japanese. We also are shown the role of the Naval Intelligence Service before, during and after the war, as well as. its evolution into Harmon and Carroll's favorite institution, the NCIS. Good Stuff. more
I don’t read a lot of nonfiction but have read many historical fiction World War II books. This was just too much factual information and my mind would wander but it is Interesting to learn about what was happening in Hawaii prior to the Pearl Harbor attack and how Japanese Americans were treated. And who doesn’t like listening to Gibbs. (Mark Harmon narrates the audiobook). more
Interesting and compact history of Pearl Harbor with emphasis on the Japanese population living in Hawaii at the time. Lots of names and dates which I liked. . more
Read like a Wikipedia article. Lacking depth or connection to many of the characters. . more
Interesting look into the beginnings of the NCIS. more
While interesting and the account of the Pearl Harbor attack is moving, the story does only loosely follows the life and story of Douglas Wada and hardly, if at all, discusses the formation of NCIS and any role Wada might have played in that history. The book simply follows too many individuals that ends up muddying the narrative and creating an disheveled account of historical events. . more
Writing style made it very confusing. I didn’t know what was happening most of the time. Too many different people. Hard to follow. Did not like this at all. more
Not a book for anyone looking for excitement, but full of details about the Pearl Harbor attack, including the lead up, the mistakes, and the outcome of the investigations. Hawaii had a substantial Japanese population: “160,000 people: 125,000 American citizens of Japanese origin and 35,000 Japanese citizens. ” Unfortunately, the government assumed that all of them were to be treated as “spies, double agents, lurking subversives. ”The response was convoluted. “The Army, Navy, FBI and local police in Hawaii all have counterintelligence operations underway. more
"Ghosts of Honolulu" pays homage to the Naval Intelligence Service which is the precursor to the current and now well-known NCIS which Mark Harmon has immortalize in a TV series. It revolves around the life of Douglas Wada, its first Japanese American agent based in Pearl Harbor before and during WWII. As a U. S. naval counterintelligence officer Wada was working to safeguard Pearl Harbor. more
3+I had expected to enjoy this more than I did. I was attracted to the concept of viewing the 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor from the intelligence angle, examining the role of spies from both sides of the conflict. I wanted to understand how this world-changing, shocking event had come to pass. The results were literally world-changing as the assualt brought the massive untapped power of the United States out of its isolation and into a vital leadership war role with truly existential consequences. However, although I gained some new knowledge from the book, it was far less than I had expected. more
i'm torn between rating this 2 or 3 stars and goodreads will not let me do halves. it was a book. i had low hopes for this as soon as i got it and found out it was only like 250 pages and it has just some footnotes (many of which could have been worked into the book) instead of copious endnotes. i hope harmon and carroll continue to write about ncis as they implied they will, because i think they have a lot of room and potential for improvement. this was not a bad book. more
So. For Nonfiction November, I looked through my libro downloads for something to listen to on a couple of long work drives and this is what I landed on (I worked a Veteran's Day event earlier this month so that might have influenced this choice, haha). And this was an excellent choice. I didn't know ~a ton about Pearl Harbor beyond what is briefly mentioned in history books and this had a lot of excellent information. But it also talked a lot about the treatment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor so a lot of times this just made me angry on the way to work. more
Mark Harmon, noted for his TV portrayal of an NCIS agent, and Leon Carroll, Jr. , who was an NCIS agent and eventually a technical director of the show, have written an excellent book about the Japanese part of WWII, which is well researched and documented. The main character is Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American to be a naval intelligence agent at that time. As a teen, his Hawaiian family sent him to Japan for several years, where he mastered the Japanese language and its culture. After returning to Hawaii and attending college, the U. more
So impressive to hear all the information about the Japanese not published in other places --at least not to my knowledge. It seems as if there were clues about the upcoming attack that the American leaders should have paid attention to (similar to feckless Gge W Bush's ignoring warnings about our 9-11. ) A couple other things standing out to me are that the US was considered dumb to have parked the various ships and planes in neat rows, which were easy to take out by the kamikaze. But actually, the reason was to protect them so ships w explosives couldn't be parked inbetween. Also, the horrible camps that Japanese were sent to had been argued over with many objections and the locations more carefully considered than seems evident --but were still horrible. more
Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl HarborMark Harmon, Leon Carroll (narrated by Mark Harmon)In the last several years I've read and listened to more books about the Pacific front in WWII than I've read in all my years before this time. Learning so much through historical fiction, fiction, and nonfiction has increased my interest in this time and place and that interest is what drew me to this audiobook. Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll collaborated on it while Mark Harmon narrates the audiobook. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) goes back much farther than I realized and although the synopsis features Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American agent in naval intelligence at that time, and Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy sent to Pearl Harbor to gather information on the U. S. more
B: Ghosts of Honolulu by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr. —This book is supposed to be the first of a series on the history of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Mr. Carroll is the technical advisor for the TV series, and Mark Harmon is well known for his villainous role in Tom Selleck’s western Crossfire Trail and other TV series. I found the book interesting but they fail to connect the dots of the subtitle “A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. more