Ron Werneth: Beyond Pearl Harbor: The Untold Story of Japan's Naval Airmen

"The initial feeling after shooting down someone was relief, because it was not me who was shot down," said Harada-san. "When we shot at each other, we were at very close range, and I could see my opponent's face well. It looked terrible, because he was going down. I felt very bad, because I could imagine that my opponent had a family of his own, and I killed him."

Lt. J.G. Kaname Harada flew Zero fighter planes for the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. Beyond Pearl Harbor collects his story and sixteen other first-hand accounts from Japanese pilots and flight crewmen, never before published in English - and rarely heard in their native country, where little time is spent covering the "dark corner" of modern history in school.

Beyond Pearl Harbor is a personal view of the war from the Japanese side, from a pilot's feelings about the Zero itself (superb maneuverability, but poor protection for the pilot) and training methods of the Imperial Japanese Navy (a solid whack to the back of the pilot's head for mistakes - and no helmets to ensure it hurt) to their combat and post-war experiences, detailing the marked differences that come with being a veteran of a defeated military in an occupied country.

After moving to Japan, Werneth spent three years meeting and befriending many of that country's surviving WWII pilots and mechanics, and recording their stories in their own words. Like several others in the book, Ensign Kenji Hori now thinks that he was brainwashed during the war, but still feels proud to have fought for his country, and wonders if today's youth would do the same; Ensign Yuji Akamatsu felt that Japan could not win after the Battle of Midway, and Lt. Cmdr. Iyozo Fujita never thought Japan had a chance to start with, while Lt. Cmdr. Zenji Abe has never understood why the war began in the first place. But perhaps most powerful of all is the story of Harada-san, past the age of 90, who is still haunted by the memory of the enemy pilots he shot down - and still runs a kindergarten in the hope of teaching children to understand the preciousness of life.

Ron Werneth has been researching World War II Japanese Naval aviators and mechanics for over a decade. Since the late 1990s, he has been a regular contributor to aviation journals in the United States, Europe, and New Zealand. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Kaori.