My Turn
SOME YEARS AGO I wrote a book about the Japanese submarine attacks on Hawaii and the West Coast. "Advance Force -- Pearl Harbor" became required reading at the Arizona Memorial, won awards, made news when a computer-enhanced photograph in the book showed a submarine intruder in Pearl Harbor, and appeared in the bibliography of scholarly books on the attack, yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah. You have to watch
them city slickersTo date, "Advance Force" is still the primary reference on that aspect of the attack. So I was interested in seeing how National Geographic and Robert Ballard would interpret the events. While watching a preview tape, (the show appears tonight on NBC), I was astonished to hear things I wrote or expressed falling from the lips of those in the show. Ballard used the book as a prop, pointing out things on the pages as coming "from experts." My book is almost always in his hands or perched on a shelf behind his head.
Do they acknowledge their sources? Nope. The impression given is that Ballard did all the research himself.
Last fall, National Geographic pressed the University of Hawaii's undersea lab to find the midget submarine and keep it secret until Ballard could arrive and take credit. Lab leader Alex Malahoff said he declined. He said the Geographic also tried to get the university to lend lab personnel and their submarines for free, in exchange for the "prestige" of working with Ballard. The lab also declined that offer.
About that time, researchers from NatGeo bought a couple of books from me and asked that I supply them with free photographs. I directed them to the National Archives and never heard from them again.
Ballard and crew showed up in Hawaii and poked around in the same part of the ocean that had already been explored by the UH. They found nothing. If Ballard had checked with Malahoff or other experts familiar with the subject, they wouldn't have wasted their time, or NatGeo's money.
What's the lesson here? Watch out for them city slickers, I suppose. And while you can't copyright facts, it wouldn't hurt to extend a little professional courtesy while lifting someone else's scholarship.
Burl Burlingame is a Star-Bulletin staff writer. My Turn is a periodic column written by
Star-Bulletin staff members expressing
their personal views.