Honoring Our Heritage
Goldstein’s extensive WWII collection helps preserve historic truth

For many people seeking historically accurate information about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the journey often begins not in Hawaii but in Pittsburgh — in the office of Professor Donald Goldstein, of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

“By default, I’ve become the world’s foremost authority on Pearl Harbor,” said the 68-year-old Goldstein, adding with a laugh, “All the others have died off.”

To describe Goldstein as someone immersed in his research is both literally and figuratively true. His office, a small, windowless room on the third floor of Posvar Hall, is flanked on all four sides with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves overflowing with books, videotapes, newspapers, and magazines, as well as an eclectic collection of mementoes he has garnered through the years.

Overhead hangs a squadron of model military airplanes, a constant reminder of the kind of research to which Goldstein has devoted a lifetime, and which has translated into 50 articles and 20 books he has authored or coauthored. His most famous book perhaps is At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, which was first runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 and on The New York Times bestseller list for 47 weeks. Another book, Miracle at Midway, was on the bestseller list for nine weeks.

Other topics he and his associates have written books about include: the Williwaw War (the story of the Arkansas national guard in WWII Alaska), the Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, the Spanish American War, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, Amelia Earhart, and Japanese Admiral M. Ugaki.

He is in demand by local and national news outlets as well as Hollywood. Goldstein has been awarded two Peabody Awards for his work with ABC-TV; he has appeared on numerous national programs — including the Fox News Channel, PBS, the History Channel, Good Morning America, the Today Show, and the Discovery Channel — and has consulted on many movies and television programs dealing with war. He expects to be busier than ever this year, the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred Dec. 7, 1941.

Goldstein takes his responsibility seriously. In fact, when asked to work with the Disney Company on its recently released movie, Pearl Harbor, Goldstein refused the assignment because he believed they weren’t being true enough to history.

“No doubt, the movie will win a lot of awards because the special effects and the technology are fantastic,” said Goldstein. “But it’s not accurate. For example, the depictions of some of the historic figures, like Jimmy Doolittle, are bad.

“Not only that, but they don’t present the Japanese side accurately. I’m really surprised at that.

“Hollywood is doing exactly what they used to accuse the government of: rewriting history. Because the public is lazy, this is all the history they get — Hollywood history. The movies need to glamorize history, but we shouldn’t let the Oliver Stones of the world interpret history for us.”

Goldstein, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Denver and served in the Air Force for 22 years before retiring as a colonel in 1977, has spent nearly a lifetime collecting materials to help him and others interpret history accurately. While his main teaching strength is World War II, he is an expert on American military history, defense policy, and China.

Perhaps equally notable, stuffed among the materials in his office and elsewhere, is a phenomenal collection of photos, documents, and tapes of historical significance.

“By osmosis, I have gathered an extensive file on World War II, which I’ll donate to the Pitt library someday,” said Goldstein.

Among the materials are more than 10,000 still photographs of Japanese pilots and citizens, Adolph Hitler, the occupation of Japan, battleships, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the Vietnam War, the Korean Conflict, and the Spanish American War; thousands of taped interviews, including more than 100 each with Japanese Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Cmdr. Minoru Genda, who planned it; magazine articles from the 1940s and ‘50s; all the official volumes of the Far Eastern War Crimes Commission, Nuremberg Trials, and the Army Air Force in WWII; logs of every Japanese and American ship involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor; diaries of Japanese participants in WWII; and much more.

“Not all of these materials are exclusive, but some are,” said Goldstein. “But they’re all right here, in one place.”

With that, Goldstein paused, almost out of reverence for the treasure he has amassed, and what it should mean to anyone with an appreciation for history.

“You can’t teach history in a vacuum, nor should you apply today’s morality to events of the past — none of this, ‘we shoulda, coulda’ stuff,” he said. “We should care about history for the same reason that, when you go to a doctor because you’re sick, the first thing he does is check your medical history. That’s how he knows how to treat your problem. But if you look at something like China or the U.S. defense policy today only, without the benefit of historic perspective, you’ll get it wrong.

“Most importantly, when you study the history of war, you are learning about people. Perhaps this WWII headstone in India said it best: ‘When you go home and tell your story, don’t forget to say, ‘For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’”