"In quiet voices they tell their stories: small dramas filled with scenes of heartbreak, frustration, heroism, hope, and triumph. Their stage is the sweeping panorama of the naval war in the Pacific. They were actors then, both known and unknown, thirty participants in the turbulent epic that began with the day of infamy at Pearl Harbor and ended with the signing of the surrender documents in Tokyo Harbor. Their remembrances, carefully culled from a vast collection of oral history interviews conducted by John T. Mason over the past twenty-five years, are personal, poignant, and incisive. And because the men were participants in historic events, they often reveal new perspectives and facts not included in traditional works of history." --Jacket flap.