The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
James D. Hornfischer
February 2004

The author also is on a friendly relationship with the content of his book. When Hornfischer wrote this book, he took careful time gathering the information that he needed to write it. I would like to imagine that somewhere on the way he formed relationships with some of the people he interviewed as he sat down and talked with them. These relationships were probably friendly. After he conducted these interviews, Hornfischer began to write the book thinking of the sympathy that he thought the soldiers in the battle deserved.
This sympathy is represented in the book in many different ways. Hornfischer writes about how the Americans bravely fought during the battle and how they were able to face death and destruction and still survive after their ship is shot down. Sympathy is found in the hearts of the pilots in the American bombers as they fake attacks to just try and simply stall the Japanese ships. Sympathy is found in commander Sprague who knows his carrier fleet is doomed but he tries to find any way to keep them alive anyway.
All the sympathy found in this book for the Americans points to the fact that Hornfischer is at a friendly level with the characters and contents in his book. The way that Hornfischer describes the American ships as they are being attacked and the emotions of the men as they watch their ship and their comrades die gives the notion that Hornfischer actually cared about those men. Since he was the one to put so much work in the book, it seems as if he is really the one who cared about them.