The fascinating details of the week surrounding the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor―seven days that would change the world forever. December 7, 1941: One of those rare days in world history that people remember exactly where they were, what they were doing, and how they felt when they heard the news. Marlene Dietrich, Clark Gable, and James Cagney were in Hollywood. Kurt Vonnegut was in the bath, and Dwight D. Eisenhower was napping. Kirk Douglas was a waiter in New York, getting nowhere with Lauren Bacall. Ed Murrow was preparing for a round of golf in Washington. In Seven Days of Infamy, historian Nicholas Best uses fascinating individual perspectives to relate the story of Japan’s momentous attack on Pearl Harbor and its global repercussions in tense, dramatic style. But he doesn’t stop there. Instead, Best takes readers on an unprecedented journey through the days surrounding the attack, providing a snapshot of figures around the world―from Ernest Hemingway on the road in Texas to Jack Kennedy playing touch football in Washington; Mao Tse-tung training his forces in Yun’an and the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe cheering as the United States entered the war. Offering a human look at an event that would forever alter the global landscape, Seven Days of Infamy chronicles one of the most extraordinary weeks in world history. "Excellent.... [F]rom Ronald Reagan to a young Jack Kennedy to Ernest Hemingway and Mao Tse-tung, Best finds dozens of these fascinating reactions... [W]hat makes it in many ways the most interesting... lies in its taut sense of the wider impact the Japanese attacks had internationally, from Ottawa to Canberra." ― The Christian Science Monitor "A brisk, suspenseful World War II narrative from a proven storyteller." ― Kirkus Reviews Praise for Five Days that Shocked the World "Accenting personal experiences of the famous-to-be, Best draws the audience interested in WWII’s apocalyptic climax." ― Booklist "Outstanding." ― Midwest Book Review "Utterly absorbing." ― Maclean's "Riveting." ― Daily Mail (UK) "Fascinating." ― The Times (UK) Nicholas Best grew up in Kenya, served in the Grenadier Guards, and worked as a journalist before becoming a full-time author. His many other books include Five Days That Shocked the World, Happy Valley: the Story of the English in Kenya , Tennis and the Masai , and The Greatest Day in History . For ten years he was a fiction critic for the Financial Times and has written for countless other publications. He currently lives in Cambridge, England. Seven Days of Infamy Pearl Harbor Across the World By Nicholas Best St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2016 Nicholas Best All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-07801-8 Contents Title Page, Copyright Notice, Introduction, Epigraph, 1. Where Are Japan's Aircraft Carriers?, 2. Still a Chance to Call It Off, 3. All Quiet in the Pacific, 4. Japanese Forces on the Move, 5. Admiral Nagumo Hoists a Signal, 6. Where Are America's Aircraft Carriers?, 7. "The Japanese Will Not Go to War", 8. An Englishwoman Dances on Deck, 9. A Strange Periscope at Sea, 10. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", 11. A Japanese Pilot Grins at James Jones, 12. Lord Mountbatten's Nephew and CBS-TV's First Breaking News Story, 13. Edgar Rice Burroughs Watches the War Games, 14. Future U.S. Presidents Remember the Moment, 15. Britain Cheers the News, 16. Opinion Divided in Europe, 17. The Response in the Far East, 18. The British Empire Declares War, 19. Americans Gather Around the Radio, 20. HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales Begin the Fight Back, 21. First Mass Gassing of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Europe, 22. HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales Go Down Fighting, 23. Hitler and Mussolini Declare War on the United States, Epilogue: Reflections from Later Life, Notes, Bibliography, Index, Also by Nicholas Best, About the Author, Copyright, CHAPTER 1 WHERE ARE JAPAN'S AIRCRAFT CARRIERS? The New Public Offices building lies just across the road from St James's Park, in the heart of central London. It is an unremarkable office block completed in 1916, one of many similar government buildings clustered around Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament. Nobody walking past it in the dark days of December 1941 ever gave it a thought as they passed the concrete blast wall erected against the bombing and continued on their way. But appearances are deceptive. There was far more to the New Public Offices building than met the eye. For more than two years, ever since the last days of peace in August 1939, the anonymous gray building had been the nerve center of Britain's fight against Hitler and the Nazis. It was where Winston Churchill usually spent the night, rather than the prime minister's official residence at 10 Downing Street. It was also where his staff conducted the war, from the seventy or so windowless cubicles in the basement known collectively as the Cabinet War Rooms. The basement had no