Here’s Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, written by Leon Carroll, Jr., and Mark Harmon.
Hang on, Mark Harmon? Like the actor Mark Harmon? Let’s do a little due diligence here. Harmon has spent the last couple decades playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS, a military police procedural TV show that is the third-longest-running scripted television show currently airing. It came out of a guest spot on two episodes of JAG, where producer Donald P. Bellisario, having seen Harmon do a guest turn on The West Wing, floated the idea of having Harmon star in a new show. The episodes did well, the network ordered a season of the procedural, and twenty season and four spin-offs later, here we are.
Donald P. Bellisario, by the way, has been making TV for close to fifty years. A few other shows with his production card are Quantum Leap, Airwolf, and Magnum, P. I. Did you know that Tom Selleck was Spielberg’s top choice to play Indiana Jones in The Raiders of the Lost Ark? Unfortunately, Selleck had to pass because of the scheduled shoot date for the Magnum, P. I. pilot. Production of that pilot didn’t happen on time, by the way, which means Selleck could have been Indy.
Think about that for a second.
Anyway, Harmon recently stepped down from NCIS, which clearly gave him free time to work on a pet project he and Leon Carroll had been noodling around with during downtime on the NCIS set. Carroll, you see, is an actual NCIS man, who, after his retirement, has been the technical director for the show.
We’re still not sure there is any real connection between Harmon, Carroll, and the events of December 7th, 1941, other than Pearl Harbor is in Hawai’i and Magnum, P. I. is set in Hawai’i and Donald P. Bellisario (who produced both NCIS and Magnum, P. I.) likes Hawai’i.
Also, the guy who replaced Mark Harmon on NCIS is Gary Cole, who also had a recurring role on The West Wing AFTER Harmon’s stint. You see how it’s all connected?
Anyway, Harmon and Carroll wrote a book that digs—NCIS-style—into the intelligence and counter-intelligence operations leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The history buff in your house will probably dig it.
–A Good Book, Sumner, WA
When you start a conversation in an indie bookshop like A Good Book, you never know where it might lead!
