Yes, it’s Bluto’s (John Belushi) now iconic gaffe in “Animal House” come true: “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” Those are German planes on the cover of Michael J. Clark’s history book for young readers about the sneak attack that brought the U.S. into World War II.
Just think about all of the careless, irresponsible boobs, including the author and the cover artist, who had to breach the ethical values of competence, diligence and respect for that book to be published and put on the market. How many must it have been? Then you can add to that List of Shame our pathetic, ruinous education system, which has produced such a nation of dolts that not even a humble secretary or passing clerk had the knowledge to point out, when they saw the book as it made its way through production, “Uh, aren’t those German planes?” Anyone who did, thus preventing this epic embarrassment, might have received a promotion or a bonus. Or at least someone would have bought him or her a nice lunch.
And this is one more example where cultural literacy rot matters. If you can’t learn your American history, at least know your classic films.
Here’s Bluto:
Ethics Alarms 
Egad! Not a Rising Sun to be found. I’m going to go into a dark corner and weep.
Hmmmph. My comment was up and then disappeared. Let’s try again: At least part of the image is accurate. The lower left 1/6th of the cover shows the Avocet (VP-4) at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The ship was in dark and light gray camouflage. I suspect that image was ‘borrowed’ from the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Reassuringly, on Amazon, at least, a number of reviewers rated the book 1-star, the lowest possible, due to that cover.
One 4-star reviewer commented, “Great cover. Historical accuracy is amazing.” But, this had to be tongue-in-cheek since the review was entitled, “Was it Over When the Germans Bombed Pearl Harb?”
Well, that is true. The historical accuracy _is_ amazing. Amazingly bad, that is.
Next up is a book on Operation Typhoon. The cover will feature soldiers looking at the spires of the Kremlin in the distance from their Type 95 tanks.
Alternet history? I’m a fan of that niche but Clarke I don’t know and too lazy to follow-up.
Per the blurbs on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, it’s not alternate history, but straight history.
That’s really, really funny. Was wondering which classic movie people should have been familiar with. “Tora! Tora! Tora!” was the first that came to my mind. I call “signature significance,” Jack. Of course, it’s a generational thing. A line in the retrospective speech at my fiftieth college reunion was, “When it came out, we thought ‘Animal House’ was a documentary.”
I have to say, I had more than a little bit of sympathy for the mistake. Having self-published a book of stories (“Stories from Way Out West,” by Bill Fearnow. Buy it on Amazon. Please.) without hiring a professional proofreader and notwithstanding my having proofread everything many times, an amazing number of amazingly obvious typos appear in the book as published. This Pearl Harbor cover is just the epitome. Frankly, it’s so funny and given the “Animal House” reference, I wonder whether someone didn’t do it as a gag that ended up not getting caught and going too far.
Whaddya think is worse: This, or the highfreakin’larious PHOTOSHOPPED COVER of Phat Albert’s bogus screed Our Choice?
That’s different, Paulie. That’s FRAUD.
“See how average temperatures in your area are changing – Explore Climate Science Info”
Just snuck onto the bottom of the post. Ugh.
Amazon lists the book as “independently published,” and “temporarily out of stock.” One suspects that what’s inside the book is as sloppy as the cover, and that even Amazon might change “temporarily” to “permanently,” but we shall see.
Still available there as a Kindle book and at Barnes and Noble as a paperback.
The only justification would be an assertion in the book that the Germans provided the majority of planes that took part in the attack. Such a claim would warrant (if not require) an explanation on the book jacket.
Second comment eaten.
I’m not an aircraft expert, but those look suspiciously like Focke-Wulf Fw190s. The canopy and top of the engine nacelle are somewhat distinctive. Anyways, yeah, that error had to pass through a LOT of hands to make it to the bookshelf. Just editing the Rising Sun onto the planes would have fixed the problem for all but the most diehard aerophiles.
My first boss out of college – named Brad and a good friend of mine – used to say all the time that “observancy is the key to success.” I chuckled when he would say it, but I never forgot it. The details matter, and paying attention to them makes a difference.
Is “aerophiles” a word…?
You are correct. I pulled up some images of a FW-190 as well as an A6M3 Zero. That is absolutely not a Zero, everything about it is different. It does look very much like the picture I found of a FW-190.
My sister suggested it might have been a gag, or that people might have thought it was one. She was astounded when I told her it was a real history book and not alternate history.
It’s now officially a meme. The book cover showed up in this week’s compilation of memes on Power Line (near the bottom):
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/09/the-week-in-pictures-knife-sharpening-edition.php