Ghosts of Honolulu

A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

By: Mark Harmon

Narrated by: Mark Harmon, Leon Carroll

Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Read by the author.

"A fast-paced debut...Espionage buffs will savor this vibrant account." — Publishers Weekly

A U.S. naval counterintelligence officer working to safeguard Pearl Harbor; a Japanese spy ordered to Hawaii to gather information on the American fleet. On December 7, 1941, their hidden stories are exposed by a morning of bloodshed that would change the world forever. Scrutinizing long-buried historical documents, NCIS star Mark Harmon and co-author Leon Carroll, a former NCIS Special Agent, have brought forth a true-life NCIS story of deception, discovery, and danger.

Hawaii, 1941. War clouds with Japan are gathering and the islands of Hawaii have become battlegrounds of spies, intelligence agents, and military officials - with the island's residents caught between them. Toiling in the shadows are Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American agent in naval intelligence, and Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy sent to Pearl Harbor to gather information on the U.S. fleet.

Douglas Wada's experiences in his native Honolulu include posing undercover as a newspaper reporter, translating wiretaps on the Japanese Consulate, and interrogating America's first captured POW of World War II, a submarine officer found on the beach. Takeo Yoshikawa is a Japanese spy operating as a junior diplomat with the consulate who is collecting vital information that goes straight to Admiral Yamamoto. Their dueling stories anchor Ghosts of Honolulu's gripping depiction of the world-changing cat and mouse games played between Japanese and US military intelligence agents (and a mercenary Nazi) in Hawaii before the outbreak of the second world war.

Also caught in the upheaval are Honolulu's innocent residents - including Douglas Wada's father - who endure the war's anti-Japanese fervor and a cadre of intelligence professionals who must prevent Hawaii from adopting the same destructive mass internments as California.

Ghosts of Honolulu depicts the incredible high stakes game of naval intelligence and the need to define what is real and what only appears to be real.

©2023 Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll (P)2023 Harper Select

I just didnt know this history.

I went to school with many Japanese Americans but they did not share with non Japanese. Too soon? WWII seemed l8ke ancient history to someone born post-war. It wasn't. I am grateful for this personalized history.

Little Known Corner of the War

Although the Japanese Consulate spy is generally well known, the activities of the nisei in Honolulu have been less documented. Regarding the spy, Yoshikawa, and his accomplices Kuhn and Kotoshiroda, the result was complete failure. Yoshikawa escaped under diplomatic cover then avoided punishment in Japan. Kuhn was deported to Argentina (with other nazis?) and traitor Kotoshiroda became a pillar of the nisei community in Honolulu. The best nugget of information was the mention of Kuhn’s 17 year old daughter as Goebbel’s mistress. The whole family got exiled as far away from Germany as possible to protect Goebbels.

Choppy

I slugged through this but it didn’t flow well at all. The short chapters make it hard to follow. There’s too much information that doesn’t need to be included. It reads more like a textbook and doesn’t paint a picture of what’s going on.

The recent history of Hawaii

The narrator butchered the pronunciation of Hawaiian and Japanese words and it detracted what could have been a great story

Excellent

This is a great read! It reads like a spy novel! Yet every word is how it actually happened! Great insights to the US entry into World War2.

Enlightening insight in history

This book should be recommended by teachers to their students. We need to stop banning books.

Learned details about WWII I was unaware of in regards to the Japanese and Hawaii

The book was not what I expected. It was more of an narration diving into history but with a storyline embedded to me. It did pull me in, there is a lot detail, and I will probably re-listen to it.

Bringing important stories to life

Fantastic book bringing the story of many unknown heroes into the light. It’s incredible to see the impact people have on history and can be so easily forgotten over time.

I’m glad I stuck to it

For me, it started a little slow but it began to build. By the completion I couldn’t put down. There’s no a lot of little known history here and it’s well worth the time to read.

Very Interesting View

Great book in general. Story line was excellent. I like how it surrounded the Pearl Harbor attack, The stories and people were interesting.

Unfortunately, Mark Harmon could have used a coach for how to pronounce Japanese and Hawaiian terms. The accents were not on the right parts of the word. My head went to pronouncing them correctly. It made it hard to track the characters.