The America we live in was not born on July 4, 1776, but on December 7, 1941, when an armada of Japanese warplanes supported by aircraft carriers, destroyers, and midget submarines suddenly attacked the United States, killing 2,403 men and forcing America's entry into World War II. Author Craig Nelson maps the road to war, beginning in 1914 with the laying of the keel of the USS Arizona at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, following Japan's leaders as they lurched into ultranationalist fascism, and providing a blow-by-blow account from both the Japanese and American perspectives. Backed by 5 years of research, Nelson delivers all the terror, chaos, violence, tragedy, and heroism of the attack in stunning detail and offers surprising conclusions about the tragedy's unforeseen and resonant consequences that linger even today. -- Adapted from book jacket.