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Flyboys By Bradley James
Now in paperback comes the momentous tale of the Pacific war told through dramatic poignant and unforgettable stories of nine heroic Americans Michael Beschloss author of The Conquerors The classic New York Times bestselling story of heroism and sacrifice by the author of Flags of Our Fathers The Imperial Cruise and The China Mirage This acclaimed bestseller brilliantly illuminates a hidden piece of World War II history as it tells the harrowing true story of nine American airmen shot down in the Pacific One of them George H W Bush was miraculously rescued What happened to the other eight remained a secret for almost 60 years After the war the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth and not even the families of the airmen were informed of what happened to their sons Their fate remained a mystery until now FLYBOYS is a tale of courage and daring of war and death of men and hope It will make you proud and it will break your heart
464 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2003
About the author
James D. Bradley
7 books336 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
James Bradley is an American author of historical non-fiction. His subject is the Pacific theatre of World War II.
James Bradley is an American author of historical non-fiction. His subject is the Pacific theatre of World War II.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,439 reviews
October 28, 2008
This book literally changed my view of the world. I was amazed, shocked, disgusted, astounded and inspired. This is one of those books that gives you a different perspective on history than the one you receive in school and it turned my perception of the world on its head (in a good way.)
If you've never wondered how horrific tragedies are perpetrated on mankind, you are like probably 95% of the rest of the civilized world, and you should probably read this book. This is a bit of history that should never be repeated, and therefore, should certainly be remembered.
The content was gripping and although the writing style (or perhaps the meticulously researched nature of the information?) reminded me of a PBS special, I couldn't set the book down.
If you've never wondered how horrific tragedies are perpetrated on mankind, you are like probably 95% of the rest of the civilized world, and you should probably read this book. This is a bit of history that should never be repeated, and therefore, should certainly be remembered.
The content was gripping and although the writing style (or perhaps the meticulously researched nature of the information?) reminded me of a PBS special, I couldn't set the book down.
April 23, 2014
This is the first time I've read a book that has made me feel like I needed to take a shower afterwards.
It's brutal. It's in your face graphic. It's violent. If this had been a movie, I would've gotten up and walked out.
I have almost no tolerance for violence. None. Zip. Nadda.
But, I realized this book was important. This wasn't gratuitous violence meant to thrill and excite. This was honesty at its best...or at its worst depending on how you look at it, but honesty nonetheless.
When I think of World War II, like many I think of Germany and Hitler and all the horrendous things the Nazis did. But when it comes to war, it would seem all parties involved have something to feel shameful about.
At times Flyboys made me ashamed to be an American. At other times it made me ashamed to be part of the human race, period.
This General Curtis LeMay quote sums it up:
Bradley doesn't sugar coat...he doesn't rationalize as he reveals the hypocrisy of war. It's only barbarous until you do it...to protect your men...or to further your agenda.
This book made me feel so many things. Ultimately, it reinforced that while not all things are fair in love or war...they also aren't simple or demarcated in black and white.
Was dropping the A-bomb...killing all those innocent civilians wrong even though ultimately it may have prevented more death than it caused? For that matter, were the brutal napalm attacks any more humane than the A-bomb? Were the Japanese attempts to claim uncivilized China really any different than America's campaign against the native American Indians?
What makes this account which focuses on the flyboys and America's air fleet so compelling is that Bradley seems to hold nothing back in the telling. He doesn't decide for you...just lays it out in all its ugliness.
Often a good book leaves you with more questions than answers and that is the kind of book this was. Excellent read, even if it was a hard one.
It's brutal. It's in your face graphic. It's violent. If this had been a movie, I would've gotten up and walked out.
I have almost no tolerance for violence. None. Zip. Nadda.
But, I realized this book was important. This wasn't gratuitous violence meant to thrill and excite. This was honesty at its best...or at its worst depending on how you look at it, but honesty nonetheless.
When I think of World War II, like many I think of Germany and Hitler and all the horrendous things the Nazis did. But when it comes to war, it would seem all parties involved have something to feel shameful about.
At times Flyboys made me ashamed to be an American. At other times it made me ashamed to be part of the human race, period.
This General Curtis LeMay quote sums it up:
"Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier."
Bradley doesn't sugar coat...he doesn't rationalize as he reveals the hypocrisy of war. It's only barbarous until you do it...to protect your men...or to further your agenda.
This book made me feel so many things. Ultimately, it reinforced that while not all things are fair in love or war...they also aren't simple or demarcated in black and white.
Was dropping the A-bomb...killing all those innocent civilians wrong even though ultimately it may have prevented more death than it caused? For that matter, were the brutal napalm attacks any more humane than the A-bomb? Were the Japanese attempts to claim uncivilized China really any different than America's campaign against the native American Indians?
What makes this account which focuses on the flyboys and America's air fleet so compelling is that Bradley seems to hold nothing back in the telling. He doesn't decide for you...just lays it out in all its ugliness.
Often a good book leaves you with more questions than answers and that is the kind of book this was. Excellent read, even if it was a hard one.
October 27, 2020
Very well written. Historical narrative.
It is so unfortunate and horrible how the history of mankind parallels the history of War. Every nation is guilty of this destruction and death.
You will have a complete understanding of the devastation caused by "3 dimensional" war (including the nuclear aspect of this).
It is so unfortunate and horrible how the history of mankind parallels the history of War. Every nation is guilty of this destruction and death.
You will have a complete understanding of the devastation caused by "3 dimensional" war (including the nuclear aspect of this).
May 20, 2015
My ignorance about the Second World War in the Pacific was shameful, but thanks to this brilliant book that has been to a degree rectified. It presents a marvellous overview not only of crucial events, but of the history leading up to both Japan and America's involvement in that war.
It's a difficult read, purely because the book contains so much about violence and human degradation, but I personally feel these are things I ought to know. In my spoiler I give a very long and thorough synopsis of aspects of the book that particularly interested me (mostly quotes from the book ), and here I just note some of my general feelings after reading it.
"I have forgiven the Japanese. I have Japanese friends. I make it clear that I have respect for the Japanese now because they have changed their attitude. I believe any culture can be indoctrinated into any attitude that the leaders want to teach them"
Quote from Glen Berry, who was on the Bataan Death March, endured two Hell Ships*, and had medical experiments performed on him at Fukuoka prison camp.
Like Barry, I am now convinced that any culture can be indoctrinated into the crazy ideas of its leaders - especially totalitarian cultures, In Japan's case this involved a ferocious commitment to military expansionism, a savage military culture, and this combined with a will never to surrender. The first thing I encountered when reading this book - to my surprise - was a great feeling of pity for the young men who entered and fought in the Japanese army. An overwhelming sorrow for what they had to endure. Yes, the treatment they meted out to prisoners of war was terrible, but their own experiences in the army were terrible too.
The book showed me levels of human depravity that I hadn't realised existed. Man's inhumanity to man can be truly extraordinary. Every society has people who are sadists and enjoy violence. They must be kept out of the army as much as possible, and certainly great efforts should be made to keep them out of senior army posts. They should never be put in charge of soldiers.
Many of the Japanese interviewed after the war showed revulsion and sorrow for acts they had committed during the war.
War is a terrible terrible thing. I was also very shocked by people's experiences of being fire bombed with napalm. It is a ferocious and cruel weapon - in this instance used by the Americans against the Japanese.
I think this is an incredible book, very well written too, and easy to read. I find it hard to read war books, but this had me gripped every inch of the way. Highly recommended.
*Hell ships...... http://www.dg-adbc.org/content/?s=415...
My notes :
March 6, 2018
...."With men the normal state of nature is not peace but war".... Immanuel Kant
James Bradley in his book unveils the secret stories of eight flyboys executed far out in the vast pacific in WWII
Let me be honest, friends....
I wasn't the least prepared for what I was up to reading "Flyboys: A True Story of Courage"; I mean I was expecting somewhat like adventure and Heroismus a la Hollywood, with simple black and white, the good guys against the bad ones.....
Instead I've become crushing Realität and thoroughly researched details depicting a gruesome war!!!
In this war you have a big and diffuse grey zone, you cannot discern between the good and bad guys. So, yes, Stephen King in "the shinning", you know the famous caretaker in the hotel, ....This inhuman place makes human monster....
This is exactly what wars gives birth to, human monsters!!!!
And so you have here the invasion from China by the japs, the fire inferno over Germany and Japan with hundred of thousands casualties,
the B-29 flying Superfortresses with their deathly Napalm incendiary bombs!!!
Even the atomic bombing at Nagasaki and Hiroshima....
But let me say it clearly, what gets you isn't so much this descriptions, although bad as they are...
Rather, and here it comes:
Marve Mershon
Dick Woelhof
Grady York
Floyd Hall
Glenn Fraizer...
All of them young flyboys!!!
(.....At that time we were all just kids......)
Bradley managed it to show us the faces and gives light to their stories--young people--
So reading about their fates, and what happened to them will punch you for good in the bowels!!!
I don't want to spoil, so you must read it for yourselves....
The book itself is very good written, and with lots of photos and background information. So you will learn a lot about the Mentalität and customs of both the Japaner and the Americans, and also how the world at that time could become so crazy.
Let me also say that it isn't an easy reading....
So be watchful and prepare yourself for this special treat by Bradley and his flyboys!!!!
If I were you, I would tighten up the buckle and enjoy the ride, but look out for turbulences....
And of course I will and must give it five stars, without discussion!!!
James Bradley in his book unveils the secret stories of eight flyboys executed far out in the vast pacific in WWII
Let me be honest, friends....
I wasn't the least prepared for what I was up to reading "Flyboys: A True Story of Courage"; I mean I was expecting somewhat like adventure and Heroismus a la Hollywood, with simple black and white, the good guys against the bad ones.....
Instead I've become crushing Realität and thoroughly researched details depicting a gruesome war!!!
In this war you have a big and diffuse grey zone, you cannot discern between the good and bad guys. So, yes, Stephen King in "the shinning", you know the famous caretaker in the hotel, ....This inhuman place makes human monster....
This is exactly what wars gives birth to, human monsters!!!!
And so you have here the invasion from China by the japs, the fire inferno over Germany and Japan with hundred of thousands casualties,
the B-29 flying Superfortresses with their deathly Napalm incendiary bombs!!!
Even the atomic bombing at Nagasaki and Hiroshima....
But let me say it clearly, what gets you isn't so much this descriptions, although bad as they are...
Rather, and here it comes:
Marve Mershon
Dick Woelhof
Grady York
Floyd Hall
Glenn Fraizer...
All of them young flyboys!!!
(.....At that time we were all just kids......)
Bradley managed it to show us the faces and gives light to their stories--young people--
So reading about their fates, and what happened to them will punch you for good in the bowels!!!
I don't want to spoil, so you must read it for yourselves....
The book itself is very good written, and with lots of photos and background information. So you will learn a lot about the Mentalität and customs of both the Japaner and the Americans, and also how the world at that time could become so crazy.
Let me also say that it isn't an easy reading....
So be watchful and prepare yourself for this special treat by Bradley and his flyboys!!!!
If I were you, I would tighten up the buckle and enjoy the ride, but look out for turbulences....
And of course I will and must give it five stars, without discussion!!!
June 15, 2013
I tried to read Flyboys: A True Story of Courage twice before and always stopped when the author tells the story of a Japanese soldier who rapes and kills a young girl after he kills the father. What turned me off was the author appends the honorific “–san” to this soldier. It pissed me off to show that respect. Well I powered through on the third try and glad I did. There is a reason the author did that which you only find out about later. This is a 5 Star history if there ever was one! You will ache for the families of the lost, the Americans and some of the Japanese. Terrible things were done, a savage vengeance was wrought on Japan, not unjustified but terrible nonetheless. I am so glad I read this amazing story.
Some highlights:
George H. W. Bush at war is shown for the hero he is. A brave young man, he might have been captured at Chichi Jima and suffered a terrible fate, rather than the admirable and honorable career he had. Here is a young George Bush after several months at war in the Pacific:
George Bush is literally going down in flames. I think about all the terrible things that were said about G.H.W. Bush as a politician and I get pretty ticked off. He wasn’t the best politician but is a better man than most.
The book is not just about the island of Chichi Jima and what happened there. The bombing campaign against Japan was horrific even before the bomb was dropped. It is hard not to sympathize with the targets of our bombers and wonder if we really needed to do this. Fire bombing of Tokyo, March 1945:
On July 26, 1945, President Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration. Once the Potsdam Declaration for unconditional surrender is announced, plans are made for the elimination of the POWs. Minister of War Shitayama issued an order to POW camp commandants, instructing them what to do in the event of an invasion:
The atomic bombs were there and would be used after our experience on Okinawa. The arguments over their use rage on but those against really don’t have weight in context of the war:
Former President Bush and a Japanese soldier meet on Chichi Jima as old men and tell their stories. An emotional and wonderful meeting of former enemies, it still chokes me up, a transcendent ending to the story.
I give it my highest possible recommendation.
Some highlights:
George H. W. Bush at war is shown for the hero he is. A brave young man, he might have been captured at Chichi Jima and suffered a terrible fate, rather than the admirable and honorable career he had. Here is a young George Bush after several months at war in the Pacific:
George Bush is literally going down in flames. I think about all the terrible things that were said about G.H.W. Bush as a politician and I get pretty ticked off. He wasn’t the best politician but is a better man than most.
The book is not just about the island of Chichi Jima and what happened there. The bombing campaign against Japan was horrific even before the bomb was dropped. It is hard not to sympathize with the targets of our bombers and wonder if we really needed to do this. Fire bombing of Tokyo, March 1945:
On July 26, 1945, President Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration. Once the Potsdam Declaration for unconditional surrender is announced, plans are made for the elimination of the POWs. Minister of War Shitayama issued an order to POW camp commandants, instructing them what to do in the event of an invasion:
The atomic bombs were there and would be used after our experience on Okinawa. The arguments over their use rage on but those against really don’t have weight in context of the war:
Former President Bush and a Japanese soldier meet on Chichi Jima as old men and tell their stories. An emotional and wonderful meeting of former enemies, it still chokes me up, a transcendent ending to the story.
I give it my highest possible recommendation.
November 29, 2017
Mr. Bradley has really written an eye opening book here. It is more than just the harrowing tale of the flyboys who met a gruesome end on Chichi Jima, it is a book about how they and the world at war got to that point of horror and beyond. The book is amazingly researched and very thorough on all the details given. I really like Mr. Bradley's view on everything he discusses in the book. Great book, even if you are not a fan of war books.
August 7, 2009
I have contended that books should not get a 5-star rating unless they are must read books; this is a must read. There are many people who will bypass this book because it is about an old war, not worthy of their interest. Many others will put it down without finishing it because it is, as the lady who loaned it to me said, rather gruesome. Both of those types should read it, however, because it is full of hard truths about the nature of man in general, and about the nature of men at war in particular, and because it sheds some light on things that our government and our culture have tried to keep in the dark.
I have not seen Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, and I was unaware of the fact that the movie is in fact based on a book, which I also have not read. James Bradley was the author of that book, which he wrote largely after becoming intrigued with the story of his father, who was one of the six servicemen who raised the flag over Iwo Jima, an act that was caught by a photographer in one of the most famous pictures ever published. Having done that, Bradley wanted to find a new subject, and he found it when a mutual friend suggested he contact a retired lawyer in Iowa--who just happened to have been involved in the legal proceedings of a war trial held in a hanger on Guam some 60-plus years ago. The records of that trial had been sealed by the authorities of that time, but much of that information had subsequently been declassified, and the lawyer had collected a stack of documentation over the years, which he made available to Bradley. Bradley then engaged in a two-year research that took him all over the world, interviewing survivors and relations of those who did not survive concerning events that took place on the island of Chichi Jima in 1945, when eight American airmen were captured by Japanese stationed on that island.
Like most Americans, I am sure, I had never heard of Chichi Jima--or, if I heard of it back in those days, and I am sure I did, never bothered to keep it in mind. ChiChi Jima is a very small island (about twice as large as New York City’s Central Park, Bradley reports), located not quite midway between Iwo Jima and Japan. As World War II ground down to its final close, ten American airmen of various ranks approached the island from different planes that were shot down in the grueling task of bringing the war home to the Japanese. One of those ten was a pilot who managed to get into a rubber raft and keep himself out at sea long enough to be picked up by an American submarine; his name was George Herbert Walter Bush. The other nine airmen, however, were captured by the Japanese and taken prisoner. This book is about what happened to them on that island, in a real sense, but it is much more than that. Bradley introduces us to these men as teenaged boys and provides a detailed account of how they all wound up on the island and what happened to them there, but he also provides an intriguing summary history of how the Japanese and American cultures of that time came into being, of how it happened that Japan and America were fighting a war at that time, how men at war behaved, and how their political leaders behaved. More than that, however, Bradley also provides an insight into the thinking of several people involved in both sides of that struggle, as they look back from the viewpoint of some 60 years later. Bradley provides an index at the rear of the book listing more than a hundred books and articles used as reference material for this history, along with a list of hundreds of quotations scattered through the book, with at least one on almost every page of the book. Finally, Bradley has provided a large number of interesting pictures to help the reader understand what these different people were like and how they interacted as they did.
Bradley writes with an interesting style, using short, terse sentences. I found the book an excellent read, and I recommend it to all who have not read it. It meant something different to me than it will to most readers, because I was remembering the propaganda that we were all exposed to during those years, but I learned lots of “new” things--many of which were originally presented in the newspapers I used to deliver to my faithful customers during that same time frame, along with many that I rather doubt ever appeared in any newspapers of that time.
I have not seen Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, and I was unaware of the fact that the movie is in fact based on a book, which I also have not read. James Bradley was the author of that book, which he wrote largely after becoming intrigued with the story of his father, who was one of the six servicemen who raised the flag over Iwo Jima, an act that was caught by a photographer in one of the most famous pictures ever published. Having done that, Bradley wanted to find a new subject, and he found it when a mutual friend suggested he contact a retired lawyer in Iowa--who just happened to have been involved in the legal proceedings of a war trial held in a hanger on Guam some 60-plus years ago. The records of that trial had been sealed by the authorities of that time, but much of that information had subsequently been declassified, and the lawyer had collected a stack of documentation over the years, which he made available to Bradley. Bradley then engaged in a two-year research that took him all over the world, interviewing survivors and relations of those who did not survive concerning events that took place on the island of Chichi Jima in 1945, when eight American airmen were captured by Japanese stationed on that island.
Like most Americans, I am sure, I had never heard of Chichi Jima--or, if I heard of it back in those days, and I am sure I did, never bothered to keep it in mind. ChiChi Jima is a very small island (about twice as large as New York City’s Central Park, Bradley reports), located not quite midway between Iwo Jima and Japan. As World War II ground down to its final close, ten American airmen of various ranks approached the island from different planes that were shot down in the grueling task of bringing the war home to the Japanese. One of those ten was a pilot who managed to get into a rubber raft and keep himself out at sea long enough to be picked up by an American submarine; his name was George Herbert Walter Bush. The other nine airmen, however, were captured by the Japanese and taken prisoner. This book is about what happened to them on that island, in a real sense, but it is much more than that. Bradley introduces us to these men as teenaged boys and provides a detailed account of how they all wound up on the island and what happened to them there, but he also provides an intriguing summary history of how the Japanese and American cultures of that time came into being, of how it happened that Japan and America were fighting a war at that time, how men at war behaved, and how their political leaders behaved. More than that, however, Bradley also provides an insight into the thinking of several people involved in both sides of that struggle, as they look back from the viewpoint of some 60 years later. Bradley provides an index at the rear of the book listing more than a hundred books and articles used as reference material for this history, along with a list of hundreds of quotations scattered through the book, with at least one on almost every page of the book. Finally, Bradley has provided a large number of interesting pictures to help the reader understand what these different people were like and how they interacted as they did.
Bradley writes with an interesting style, using short, terse sentences. I found the book an excellent read, and I recommend it to all who have not read it. It meant something different to me than it will to most readers, because I was remembering the propaganda that we were all exposed to during those years, but I learned lots of “new” things--many of which were originally presented in the newspapers I used to deliver to my faithful customers during that same time frame, along with many that I rather doubt ever appeared in any newspapers of that time.
December 12, 2013
I've been reading historical non-fiction for a LONG time, and it's rare to find a book about as threadbare a topic as World War 2 that is both informative and, at the same time, causes one to re-examine ones perspective of those events. Flyboys was one of those books for me.
All I knew (or thought I knew) about Flyboys when I bought it last week off the bargain book shelf at Borders was that it was the story of downed US aviators and their horrific treatment at the hands of their Japanese captors. And at its core, that is exactly what it is. What I did not expect, however, was how Mr. Bradley wraps that core story with a broader description of US and Japanese histories, including social evolution and atrocities committed by both countries at various times in their pasts, up to and including the end of World War 2.
In the earliest parts of this book I began to suspect I had bought a revisionist liberal diatribe, as Mr. Bradley describes the treatment of the American Indian in the late 19th century as "ethnic cleansing", and then went on to describe how US soldiers wiped out entire villages during the Philippine insurrection of the early 20th century. As I continued reading however, I discovered that Bradley was setting the groundwork for a comparison between US and Japanese cultural history up to WW2. And while he pulls no punches in describing the horrific atrocities visited upon the Chinese by the Japanese invaders before and during WW2, and makes no excuses for the treatment of the US fliers captured on Chichi Jima, the reader is reminded that the US didn't exactly come away from WW2 with clean hands, either. The fire bombing of Japanese cities and the resulting heavy civilian casualties is a powerful example of actions taken by the US that, had it been inflicted upon us instead, would have led to screams of war crimes. And yet, Bradley makes clear that the fire bombing of Japan was key to bring the war to an end prior to a US invasion, and also places the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the proper historical context.
Some reviewers on Amazon.com have levelled the charge of "moral equivalency" against this book. I was thinking that way as I read the early chapters as well, but I did not come away with that feeling by the time I read the final page. Nowhere does Bradley make the claim that the US was "just as bad" as Japan, or that the US and Japan were morally equivalent. What I took away from this book is that the perception of morality in wartime and what constitutes war crimes is very much in the eye of the beholder (or more accurately, the recipient). For example, in the US we hold the Doolittle raiders as real military heroes - an opinion that I continue to hold. Bradley effectively conveys that, from the Japanese point of view, the raiders (or at least some of them) bombed a hospital, strafed civilian fishing boats, and killed schoolchildren. While the bomb-related casualties can be excused as unintentional, one cannot say the same about the intentional strafing of civilians. It injects a little bit of dirty reality to the US perception of events, which in the end is what the entire book accomplishes. Bradley doesn't argue that US and Japanese behavior was equal, but rather that our conduct of the war in the Pacific was a lot more gritty and morally ambiguous than we tend to believe. In the end, I found that Bradley had given me a fresh perspective on the Pacific war, and the morality of its conduct by both sides. I appreciate that.
All I knew (or thought I knew) about Flyboys when I bought it last week off the bargain book shelf at Borders was that it was the story of downed US aviators and their horrific treatment at the hands of their Japanese captors. And at its core, that is exactly what it is. What I did not expect, however, was how Mr. Bradley wraps that core story with a broader description of US and Japanese histories, including social evolution and atrocities committed by both countries at various times in their pasts, up to and including the end of World War 2.
In the earliest parts of this book I began to suspect I had bought a revisionist liberal diatribe, as Mr. Bradley describes the treatment of the American Indian in the late 19th century as "ethnic cleansing", and then went on to describe how US soldiers wiped out entire villages during the Philippine insurrection of the early 20th century. As I continued reading however, I discovered that Bradley was setting the groundwork for a comparison between US and Japanese cultural history up to WW2. And while he pulls no punches in describing the horrific atrocities visited upon the Chinese by the Japanese invaders before and during WW2, and makes no excuses for the treatment of the US fliers captured on Chichi Jima, the reader is reminded that the US didn't exactly come away from WW2 with clean hands, either. The fire bombing of Japanese cities and the resulting heavy civilian casualties is a powerful example of actions taken by the US that, had it been inflicted upon us instead, would have led to screams of war crimes. And yet, Bradley makes clear that the fire bombing of Japan was key to bring the war to an end prior to a US invasion, and also places the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the proper historical context.
Some reviewers on Amazon.com have levelled the charge of "moral equivalency" against this book. I was thinking that way as I read the early chapters as well, but I did not come away with that feeling by the time I read the final page. Nowhere does Bradley make the claim that the US was "just as bad" as Japan, or that the US and Japan were morally equivalent. What I took away from this book is that the perception of morality in wartime and what constitutes war crimes is very much in the eye of the beholder (or more accurately, the recipient). For example, in the US we hold the Doolittle raiders as real military heroes - an opinion that I continue to hold. Bradley effectively conveys that, from the Japanese point of view, the raiders (or at least some of them) bombed a hospital, strafed civilian fishing boats, and killed schoolchildren. While the bomb-related casualties can be excused as unintentional, one cannot say the same about the intentional strafing of civilians. It injects a little bit of dirty reality to the US perception of events, which in the end is what the entire book accomplishes. Bradley doesn't argue that US and Japanese behavior was equal, but rather that our conduct of the war in the Pacific was a lot more gritty and morally ambiguous than we tend to believe. In the end, I found that Bradley had given me a fresh perspective on the Pacific war, and the morality of its conduct by both sides. I appreciate that.
April 11, 2022
This is a thoroughly researched account regarding the execution and subsequent cannibalization of a number of American airmen who were captured by the Japanese during WWII. Mr Bradley has delved into the lives of these doomed men and makes them known to us as individuals. The reader learns about their lives and loves, their family ties, their dreams and accomplishments. Then he tells how each was killed by samurai sword, bayonet, or bamboo spear.
It's quite disgusting, of course...this killing of unarmed prisoners of war, but Bradley reminds us that there are two sides to every story. He tells it as fairly as he can and points out that most of the Japanese killed by American bombs had nothing to do with the war. They were old men, women and infants burned into oblivion by napalm. Americans murdered Japanese soldiers attempting to surrender and purposely strafed crowds of civilians. The main differences between the Allied and Axis atrocities is that the Allies would hammer you from a distance but with the Japanese it was up close and personal. The main difference I can think of is that the Americans didn't rape on the same scale as the Japanese. So basically the biggest error the Axis made was in losing the war. None of the victors were prosecuted, a point which was raised by one Captain Yoshii, who submitted in a statement: "Not one war criminal has been found among the victorious nations. War Crimes Trials are emotional act of revenge against the defeated nations. (P.318) It would seem that General Curtis Lemay agreed with Yoshii when he said: "If I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal."
I don't feel any pity for the Japanese who were hanged for atrocities: indeed, I think they could have thrown the loop a little wider. But the book has made me ponder the fairness of a War Crimes trial run by the victorious belligerent, and I think ideally a non-aligned nation should handle the war crimes allegations. And any book that makes you think...well, that's a good book. As is this one.
It's quite disgusting, of course...this killing of unarmed prisoners of war, but Bradley reminds us that there are two sides to every story. He tells it as fairly as he can and points out that most of the Japanese killed by American bombs had nothing to do with the war. They were old men, women and infants burned into oblivion by napalm. Americans murdered Japanese soldiers attempting to surrender and purposely strafed crowds of civilians. The main differences between the Allied and Axis atrocities is that the Allies would hammer you from a distance but with the Japanese it was up close and personal. The main difference I can think of is that the Americans didn't rape on the same scale as the Japanese. So basically the biggest error the Axis made was in losing the war. None of the victors were prosecuted, a point which was raised by one Captain Yoshii, who submitted in a statement: "Not one war criminal has been found among the victorious nations. War Crimes Trials are emotional act of revenge against the defeated nations. (P.318) It would seem that General Curtis Lemay agreed with Yoshii when he said: "If I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal."
I don't feel any pity for the Japanese who were hanged for atrocities: indeed, I think they could have thrown the loop a little wider. But the book has made me ponder the fairness of a War Crimes trial run by the victorious belligerent, and I think ideally a non-aligned nation should handle the war crimes allegations. And any book that makes you think...well, that's a good book. As is this one.
October 7, 2018
For Christmas, I got this as a book on tape, but I enjoyed the first chapters so much that I went out and bought the book. James Bradley's writing is elegant and well researched. I enjoyed learning about the Doolittle Raid, Tokyo Fire Raid and hearing about President George H.W. Bush and his time as a flyboy.
I would have liked to hear more details on the daily life of different fliers and more about some of the boys that survived. The book was very focused on the war crimes committed on Chichi Jima. It is a very important part of history, but I found the title misleading.
I would have liked to hear more details on the daily life of different fliers and more about some of the boys that survived. The book was very focused on the war crimes committed on Chichi Jima. It is a very important part of history, but I found the title misleading.
October 5, 2009
I don't give out 5 stars too often, and this one should get a six. The stories in this book had to be told, and they had to be told in a particular way. Bradley does a masterful job in relating the horrific details of what happened to 8 U.S. pilots on a speck of earth called Chichi Jima. The fact that this island is not a WWII household place name such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, or Dunkirk is by design: the tale was kept secret by the U.S. military. However, I'm surprised Bradley never revealed the best part: Chichi Jima means "tits island" (owing to its two prominent mountains)!
These stories, and the greater context in which they played out, will stay with me for a long, long time. I couldn't stop reading despite the rapid descent into unthinkable atrocities committed by nations and individuals on each other. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. I'll spare those details here. What is important is that Bradley is using primary sources. He interviews the individuals who witnessed, or even committed, the crimes related. This book is not propaganda based on 5th hand accounts of war crimes. These things happened and cannot be denied. I always try not to stand in judgment of things I did not witness especially when it's over 6 decades removed from the events. But that is a challenge with this one.
To be honest, when my dad first recommended this book to me and I read the covers, I thought great, more overly patriotic "America: World Police" as in what South Park creators poke fun at ("America, F- yeah! Gonna save the motherf-n' world yeah!"). On the contrary, Bradley gives insightful context and pulls no punches in his depiction of both the Japanese and Americans. He doesn't gloss over the strafing of schools and hospitals by U.S. pilots or the nightmarish details of firebombings of major cities (Bradley points out the British and American strongly condemned the Germans and Japanese for bombing city centers as uncivilized barbarism, then proceeded to do the same on a much larger scale and with complete air superiority under the euphemistic term "strategic bombing"). I'm still extremely disturbed and angered at my own ignorance of the American war on Filipinos from 1898-1902 which killed an estimated 250,000 civilians. To illustrate, one U.S. general ordered, "Kill everyone over ten years of age" as a policy for clearing villages in the Philippines. Throughout history when the West (U.S., Britain, France, etc.) wanted something (oil, sugar, labor, farm lands) they took it regardless of its lands being inhabited or if the "barbarous" locals had the audacity to rebel or reject the colonists' god (e.g. American Indians, Chinese, basically the entire African continent). Japan being a latecomer, felt they were only doing what others have done to build empire and why should the West complain? Their mistake was in being non-white.
This book has really left me torn. I had always been aware of the Japanese atrocities: Bataan death march, Rape of Nanking, horrendous death camps. But reading the first hand accounts was still shocking. I've always felt balanced. I have Japanese and haole ancestry. One great-uncle died for the U.S. while serving in his segregated unit, the AJA 100th Infantry Battalion. My other great-uncle survived the Bataan death march only to succumb to disease and starvation later on in the Japanese prison camp. I spent two and a half years living in Japan and met many veterans of the war. I've always held to the belief that these were extraordinary times and conscripted Japanese regulars were only slightly better off than their enemies or conquered subjects. But this book still shook my faith. Could the people I know have really done these things? On a broader level, how could the Japanese culture, even in its grotesquely twisted form as created by the militarists, have generated such horror? On the one hand I know the Japanese to be so simple and peaceful, just barely separated from our roots in nature (If have you seen Pom Poko, that anime film really captures that side of Japanese culture). Shinto is such beautiful and simple animism more akin to Native American and African religions than anything else in principle if not in practice. On the other hand are the tales in this book.
But there was something much worse for me in reading this book. I can't help but feel that equally horrendous things are occurring today right under our noses, and that these crimes will repeat themselves over and over again. Not until these terrible kinds of things happen again to people we care about (i.e. white Americans) will we ever hear about them. Knowledge of horror and survivor guilt will not be enough to prevent further acts of atrocity.
These stories, and the greater context in which they played out, will stay with me for a long, long time. I couldn't stop reading despite the rapid descent into unthinkable atrocities committed by nations and individuals on each other. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. I'll spare those details here. What is important is that Bradley is using primary sources. He interviews the individuals who witnessed, or even committed, the crimes related. This book is not propaganda based on 5th hand accounts of war crimes. These things happened and cannot be denied. I always try not to stand in judgment of things I did not witness especially when it's over 6 decades removed from the events. But that is a challenge with this one.
To be honest, when my dad first recommended this book to me and I read the covers, I thought great, more overly patriotic "America: World Police" as in what South Park creators poke fun at ("America, F- yeah! Gonna save the motherf-n' world yeah!"). On the contrary, Bradley gives insightful context and pulls no punches in his depiction of both the Japanese and Americans. He doesn't gloss over the strafing of schools and hospitals by U.S. pilots or the nightmarish details of firebombings of major cities (Bradley points out the British and American strongly condemned the Germans and Japanese for bombing city centers as uncivilized barbarism, then proceeded to do the same on a much larger scale and with complete air superiority under the euphemistic term "strategic bombing"). I'm still extremely disturbed and angered at my own ignorance of the American war on Filipinos from 1898-1902 which killed an estimated 250,000 civilians. To illustrate, one U.S. general ordered, "Kill everyone over ten years of age" as a policy for clearing villages in the Philippines. Throughout history when the West (U.S., Britain, France, etc.) wanted something (oil, sugar, labor, farm lands) they took it regardless of its lands being inhabited or if the "barbarous" locals had the audacity to rebel or reject the colonists' god (e.g. American Indians, Chinese, basically the entire African continent). Japan being a latecomer, felt they were only doing what others have done to build empire and why should the West complain? Their mistake was in being non-white.
This book has really left me torn. I had always been aware of the Japanese atrocities: Bataan death march, Rape of Nanking, horrendous death camps. But reading the first hand accounts was still shocking. I've always felt balanced. I have Japanese and haole ancestry. One great-uncle died for the U.S. while serving in his segregated unit, the AJA 100th Infantry Battalion. My other great-uncle survived the Bataan death march only to succumb to disease and starvation later on in the Japanese prison camp. I spent two and a half years living in Japan and met many veterans of the war. I've always held to the belief that these were extraordinary times and conscripted Japanese regulars were only slightly better off than their enemies or conquered subjects. But this book still shook my faith. Could the people I know have really done these things? On a broader level, how could the Japanese culture, even in its grotesquely twisted form as created by the militarists, have generated such horror? On the one hand I know the Japanese to be so simple and peaceful, just barely separated from our roots in nature (If have you seen Pom Poko, that anime film really captures that side of Japanese culture). Shinto is such beautiful and simple animism more akin to Native American and African religions than anything else in principle if not in practice. On the other hand are the tales in this book.
But there was something much worse for me in reading this book. I can't help but feel that equally horrendous things are occurring today right under our noses, and that these crimes will repeat themselves over and over again. Not until these terrible kinds of things happen again to people we care about (i.e. white Americans) will we ever hear about them. Knowledge of horror and survivor guilt will not be enough to prevent further acts of atrocity.
January 12, 2012
Post-Modern. First off this is kind of garbled. You start out learning there is some secret trial during WWII. Just when that starts to get interesting all the sudden we are subjected to a chapter of how American's have a history of committing atrocities and wiping out the Indians starting from the very beginning of Western civilization coming to the New World.
Then we get a history lesson on Japan and then a chapter on Japanese atrocities. Japan committed terrible terrible atrocities on the Chinese. It talks about how new officers were required to cut off the head of a unarmed civilian tied up to prove they could handle being an officer in a war zone. It talks about for bayonet practice they would circle a Chinese man or woman's heart and then stab them everywhere but in the circle to get as much practice in killing someone before the person actually died. But his point here is that the American's were just as bad because of the way we treated the Indians. So there is really no one that was better than anyone else the Pacific WWII conflict according to this author.
Then we learn that because the Jimmy Doolittle raid when the Americans bombed the Japanese mainland for the first time during WWII we hit a hospital that made us actually worse than the Japanese because they only attacked military targets in the Pearl Harbor sneak attack.
Then there are lots of random stories including one on George H.W. Bush's experiences in WWII. And he finally comes back to his original story but it ends up being lost and overshadowed in everything else he writes.
Don't worry, he also gets in his withing distaste for Teddy Roosevelt worked in here too.
Poorly written. Avoid.
Then we get a history lesson on Japan and then a chapter on Japanese atrocities. Japan committed terrible terrible atrocities on the Chinese. It talks about how new officers were required to cut off the head of a unarmed civilian tied up to prove they could handle being an officer in a war zone. It talks about for bayonet practice they would circle a Chinese man or woman's heart and then stab them everywhere but in the circle to get as much practice in killing someone before the person actually died. But his point here is that the American's were just as bad because of the way we treated the Indians. So there is really no one that was better than anyone else the Pacific WWII conflict according to this author.
Then we learn that because the Jimmy Doolittle raid when the Americans bombed the Japanese mainland for the first time during WWII we hit a hospital that made us actually worse than the Japanese because they only attacked military targets in the Pearl Harbor sneak attack.
Then there are lots of random stories including one on George H.W. Bush's experiences in WWII. And he finally comes back to his original story but it ends up being lost and overshadowed in everything else he writes.
Don't worry, he also gets in his withing distaste for Teddy Roosevelt worked in here too.
Poorly written. Avoid.
July 24, 2011
This is a searing look at the War in the Pacific. James Bradley (author of Flags of our Fathers) writes as an American who clearly has a great deal of love and pride for his country, but is too intellectually honest to look away from our hypocritical record. This is not a book that presents World War II as a "good war" in which America was good and the Germans and the Japanese were evil. Neither does it make a false equivalency with some of the terrible things America has done and thus imply that we were no better than the Germans and the Japanese. We did terrible things, and Bradley talks about them - from our genocide of Native Americans to our slaughter of Filipino resistance fighters to our outright ignoring all the rules of war we condemned the Japanese for breaking. But we didn't perpetrate a Holocaust, we didn't do what the Japanese did in China, and we didn't torture, execute, and eat POWs. Reading Flyboys was gut-churning all the way through, from the global perspective, when Bradley looks at the horrors of the war from all sides, to the individual perspective, when he focuses on the seven men who are ostensibly the subjects of his book.
The unifying thread in this book is eight "Flyboys" who were shot down over the small island of Chichi Jima during the final months of the war. Seven of them were taken prisoner by the Japanese. None of them survived. The Army put the Japanese officers responsible for their deaths on trial, and executed several of them, but the details remained classified for decades because the US thought it would be too inflammatory and too distressing to the men's families. (In fact, as Bradley describes, the heartbreak of not knowing and not even having a body to bury broke several of their families, sending their parents into lifelong depression, alcoholism, and/or early deaths.) Bradley was contacted by someone who wanted these men's stories told, and he acquired the records of the trial, the men's service records, and interviewed every survivor he could find, on both sides - friends and family of the dead men, still-living Japanese soldiers who knew the prisoners (and one who was one of their executioners), and even former President George H. Bush - who was the one pilot shot down over Chichi Jima who was recovered by the US Navy before the Japanese could take him prisoner.
The story of these individual pilots and gunners is sad and gruesome, but Bradley puts it in a wider context; Americans and Japanese did terrible things to each other all over the Pacific. If he just talked about the individual fates of seven American airmen, it would be easy to arouse moral hatred of the Japanese officers who ordered their deaths (and many of the Japanese officers were monstrous). But he also talks about how Japanese soldiers were indoctrinated, how they were treated by their superiors, what they endured as they were relentlessly bombed, and what was happening in Japan, as American B-29s set most of Japan's cities ablaze and turned over a third of the population homeless.
People can argue about the morality of napalming civilians vs. the morality of torturing POWs to death, but if there's one take-away from this book, it is that war is an atrocity, period.
Besides the hard look at the horrors of war, Flyboys is also a high-level look at the history of the war in the Pacific, starting with Japan's rise as an imperial power, and at the history of air warfare and how the U.S. became the preeminent military superpower in the world by gambling everything on air power, which was still mostly untested when we entered WWII. All the major historical turning points - Pearl Harbor, Midway, Doolittle's raids, Iwo Jima, the preparation for an invasion of Japan, and finally, Hiroshima and Nagasaki - are covered, but mostly just in terms of how air power figured into each.
This isn't your typical history of the war. It's framed as a personal story, and spends more time talking about moral quagmires than military specifics. But it's very good and very affecting. It's not meant to give you a warm fuzzy feeling about how we won the war, but it will certainly make you admire the men who fought it, and pity them for the things they had to do.
The unifying thread in this book is eight "Flyboys" who were shot down over the small island of Chichi Jima during the final months of the war. Seven of them were taken prisoner by the Japanese. None of them survived. The Army put the Japanese officers responsible for their deaths on trial, and executed several of them, but the details remained classified for decades because the US thought it would be too inflammatory and too distressing to the men's families. (In fact, as Bradley describes, the heartbreak of not knowing and not even having a body to bury broke several of their families, sending their parents into lifelong depression, alcoholism, and/or early deaths.) Bradley was contacted by someone who wanted these men's stories told, and he acquired the records of the trial, the men's service records, and interviewed every survivor he could find, on both sides - friends and family of the dead men, still-living Japanese soldiers who knew the prisoners (and one who was one of their executioners), and even former President George H. Bush - who was the one pilot shot down over Chichi Jima who was recovered by the US Navy before the Japanese could take him prisoner.
The story of these individual pilots and gunners is sad and gruesome, but Bradley puts it in a wider context; Americans and Japanese did terrible things to each other all over the Pacific. If he just talked about the individual fates of seven American airmen, it would be easy to arouse moral hatred of the Japanese officers who ordered their deaths (and many of the Japanese officers were monstrous). But he also talks about how Japanese soldiers were indoctrinated, how they were treated by their superiors, what they endured as they were relentlessly bombed, and what was happening in Japan, as American B-29s set most of Japan's cities ablaze and turned over a third of the population homeless.
People can argue about the morality of napalming civilians vs. the morality of torturing POWs to death, but if there's one take-away from this book, it is that war is an atrocity, period.
Besides the hard look at the horrors of war, Flyboys is also a high-level look at the history of the war in the Pacific, starting with Japan's rise as an imperial power, and at the history of air warfare and how the U.S. became the preeminent military superpower in the world by gambling everything on air power, which was still mostly untested when we entered WWII. All the major historical turning points - Pearl Harbor, Midway, Doolittle's raids, Iwo Jima, the preparation for an invasion of Japan, and finally, Hiroshima and Nagasaki - are covered, but mostly just in terms of how air power figured into each.
This isn't your typical history of the war. It's framed as a personal story, and spends more time talking about moral quagmires than military specifics. But it's very good and very affecting. It's not meant to give you a warm fuzzy feeling about how we won the war, but it will certainly make you admire the men who fought it, and pity them for the things they had to do.
April 9, 2020
I'm shocked by this book. I used to teach secondary school history and also have taken courses in Japanese history, so I am very familiar with WWII, but I learned many new things from this book. Although I already knew about the first third of this book (where he sets up the historical basis for the actions and mindset of both sides) and about Iwo Jima, bombings, etc I was not prepared for the graphic detail in which he describes the stories of the Flyboys fates. I actually cried several times whilst reading. I feel Bradley gives a well-rounded perspective from both the American and Japanese sides. He met and interviewed victims and perpetrators from both sides. Before reading this book I was 'on the fence' about the US use of the atomic bomb; I am no longer on the fence and am now convinced it was merited and additionally that it wasn't as bad as today's generation (that wasn't alive during this time) makes it out to be. Read it and you'll understand why. Although Rated R for graphic violence and inhumane acts.
June 30, 2017
It has always been my belief that the Japanese were as brutal as the Nazis. This book proves my conclusion. 10 US Navy pilots were bombing some Japanese island when they were shot down. All were captured except for one, future President George Bush. He was picked up by a American. submarine. The others were brutalized, beheaded and cannibalized by the Japanese soldiers on the island.
October 25, 2022
I am not a big fan of WWII histories but this was probably among the best histories of any period I have ever read. Bradley has given us an incredibly fair and objective treatment of WWII in the Pacific and what lead up to it. This is a book that should be required reading in every high school and of every college history major.
March 4, 2009
There were several times in this book where I had to tune it out. Learning of the atrocities committed by the Japanese commanders on United States Navy pilots was enough to make me sick.
James Bradley plunges into the stories of several young American naval pilots who attempted to dive-bomb and destroy the Japanese communications outpost on the island of Chichi-jima, an island 600 miles due south of Tokyo and 150 miles away from Iwo-jima. He does a wonderful job of describing the lives of the pilots prior to their enlistment in the Navy and, as a result, does a mighty fine job documenting the rise of naval aviation and the use of aircraft in war.
Bradley doesn't present a one-sided story, either. He was able to paint both sides of what happened to some of the "flyboys" who had the misfortune of being shot down over this Pacific hell, and of the enlisted Japanese infantry whose duty it was to defend the island under a doctrine of fear, instilled by the abusive, dictator-like Japanese commanders.
Bradley also details the use of incendiary bombs through retelling the destruction of Tokyo; this was the first true test of napalm. With passages including such details as:
Two final notes: during trials after the war, the atrocities carried out by the Japanese commanders were uncovered and the officers responsible were court-martialed and subsequently executed; and one of the pilots who was shot down over Chichi-jima was Lieutenant George H. W. Bush, who was rescued by the USS Finback, an American submarine.
James Bradley plunges into the stories of several young American naval pilots who attempted to dive-bomb and destroy the Japanese communications outpost on the island of Chichi-jima, an island 600 miles due south of Tokyo and 150 miles away from Iwo-jima. He does a wonderful job of describing the lives of the pilots prior to their enlistment in the Navy and, as a result, does a mighty fine job documenting the rise of naval aviation and the use of aircraft in war.
Bradley doesn't present a one-sided story, either. He was able to paint both sides of what happened to some of the "flyboys" who had the misfortune of being shot down over this Pacific hell, and of the enlisted Japanese infantry whose duty it was to defend the island under a doctrine of fear, instilled by the abusive, dictator-like Japanese commanders.
Bradley also details the use of incendiary bombs through retelling the destruction of Tokyo; this was the first true test of napalm. With passages including such details as:
(R)ivers of fire flowed down the streets. Canals boiled and humans burst spontaneously into flames, blazing like matchsticks. People's heads exploded in the heat, the liquid brains in their burst skulls bubbling an eerie fluorescence..."set the tone of the hellish nightmares that war, of any kind, creates. It is also worth noting that the bombing of Tokyo killed more people in a single-day than those killed by the atomic bomb at Nagasaki. Only the death toll from the atomic destruction at Hiroshima would surpass--just slightly surpass--the number dead from the incendiary bombing.
Two final notes: during trials after the war, the atrocities carried out by the Japanese commanders were uncovered and the officers responsible were court-martialed and subsequently executed; and one of the pilots who was shot down over Chichi-jima was Lieutenant George H. W. Bush, who was rescued by the USS Finback, an American submarine.
February 18, 2022
was for school but i actually enjoyed it more than i thought i would :)
very gruesome so trigger warnings
very gruesome so trigger warnings
February 16, 2024
Honestly a very difficult read, and wasn’t quite what I expected based on the back-of-the-book hook. While I learned a LOT, the gruesome realities of war and horrific details are much of what made me want to look the other way at times. Certainly a fascinating read about the Pacific theater of WWII.
December 13, 2016
This is a fascinating story of the Pacific air war in WWII, with a side focus on the fates of nine American flyers who were shot down over the tiny island of Chichi Jima. One of them was former American president, George H.W. Bush, while the others were executed by the Japanese.
Bradley, famous for his other book Flags of Our Fathers, writes a very compelling story. As someone who has lived in Japan, he comes at it with a different perspective and seeks to convey a little of the way the Japanese viewed America and the war. He tries to draw comparisons to the US actions in the Philippines and against Native Americans, as if to justify Japanese brutalities during WWII, or at least to show that American history isn't blameless either. Still, some of his comparisons weren't completely accurate, such as pg 68 in my book where he says: 'America would cause the deaths of more than 250,000 Filipinos – men, women, and children… So Hitler and Tojo combined, with all their mechanized weaponry, killed about the same per month – 7000 – as the American 'civilizers' did in the Philippines.' The problem, I realized many pages later, was that his figure for deaths attributable to Hitler and Tojo was ONLY for American deaths, and did not include other nations. (I may be nit-picking, but I think the way Bradley presents statistics sometimes is deliberately misleading.) I was also bothered a bit by his overly familiar way of referring to everyone by their first names and his casual use to terms like 'Flyboys' and 'Spirit Warriors.'
It's also a difficult and unpleasant book to read sometimes, as Bradley is very blunt about the brutality that occurred. And yet I think it's important for us to know and understand the history - warts and ugliness and all - and I found it to be a very informative and even enjoyable book to read.
Bradley, famous for his other book Flags of Our Fathers, writes a very compelling story. As someone who has lived in Japan, he comes at it with a different perspective and seeks to convey a little of the way the Japanese viewed America and the war. He tries to draw comparisons to the US actions in the Philippines and against Native Americans, as if to justify Japanese brutalities during WWII, or at least to show that American history isn't blameless either. Still, some of his comparisons weren't completely accurate, such as pg 68 in my book where he says: 'America would cause the deaths of more than 250,000 Filipinos – men, women, and children… So Hitler and Tojo combined, with all their mechanized weaponry, killed about the same per month – 7000 – as the American 'civilizers' did in the Philippines.' The problem, I realized many pages later, was that his figure for deaths attributable to Hitler and Tojo was ONLY for American deaths, and did not include other nations. (I may be nit-picking, but I think the way Bradley presents statistics sometimes is deliberately misleading.) I was also bothered a bit by his overly familiar way of referring to everyone by their first names and his casual use to terms like 'Flyboys' and 'Spirit Warriors.'
It's also a difficult and unpleasant book to read sometimes, as Bradley is very blunt about the brutality that occurred. And yet I think it's important for us to know and understand the history - warts and ugliness and all - and I found it to be a very informative and even enjoyable book to read.
December 15, 2022
This amazing true story of WWII in the pacific theater will make you realize the lopsided version of world history that we were given in school. I can remember always wondering if Japan and Germany taught their youngsters the truth, or some kind of powder puffed version of their nation's acts of aggression and ruthless conquests. I am just realizing that I was taught the same half truths.
I had no idea that more Japanese lives were lost by relentless bombing with napalm, than those lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. I had no idea that napalm was invented by the president of Harvard, James Conant, and scientists at MIT, DuPont, and Standard Oil.
Most of the book centers around 8 naval airmen (flyboys) who were shot down and captured at Chichi Jima, a small island which is only 150 miles from Iwo Jima. Can't say more which would be spoilers.
Of greatest value in this book, was James Bradley's willingness to shed light on the history leading up to both Japan and America's involvement in the war.
Flyboys is a must read for everyone.
Now I have got to read The China Mirage.
I had no idea that more Japanese lives were lost by relentless bombing with napalm, than those lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. I had no idea that napalm was invented by the president of Harvard, James Conant, and scientists at MIT, DuPont, and Standard Oil.
Most of the book centers around 8 naval airmen (flyboys) who were shot down and captured at Chichi Jima, a small island which is only 150 miles from Iwo Jima. Can't say more which would be spoilers.
Of greatest value in this book, was James Bradley's willingness to shed light on the history leading up to both Japan and America's involvement in the war.
Flyboys is a must read for everyone.
Now I have got to read The China Mirage.
March 31, 2008
OK, so I didn't actually finish this book. I picked this up off my husband's night stand. The book is by the author of Flags of Our Fathers, which I haven't read and haven't seen the movie. I thught it was worth a try, though; the movie was nominated for Academy Awards. And I need to expand my reading horizons again.
After 120 pages I asked my husband if the book was going to be about torture all the way through, and when he said yes I decided to stop reading. Really, it was just one greusome quote after another from war veterans about human beings doing awful things to each other. About all I can say for it is that he doesn't spare either side.
Anyway, it wasn't about what I thought, and I wasn't about to read 240 more pages of it.
After 120 pages I asked my husband if the book was going to be about torture all the way through, and when he said yes I decided to stop reading. Really, it was just one greusome quote after another from war veterans about human beings doing awful things to each other. About all I can say for it is that he doesn't spare either side.
Anyway, it wasn't about what I thought, and I wasn't about to read 240 more pages of it.
February 27, 2019
This book. Wow. It unlocks the secrets that even the parents of these flyboys didn’t know about. It started off slow, but by the second and third chapter, I couldn’t put it down. It starts at the beginning of the Second World War, and follows a handful of pilots through the war, and in most cases, all the way to their tragic deaths. It was heart wrenching reading about what happened to them, what they went through, what their families went through, etc. SO awful. I appreciated the pictures at the end of the book of the pilots mentioned. The author did an amazing job with this book. It’s definitely one that I will remember.
December 19, 2018
I couldn't trust the author to tell the history of his subject. The information he gave in the beginning of the book was half the story of each of his rant. It came across that he was trying to make America the big bad boogy-man. I'm not interested in his opinion when I'm expecting a book on history.
October 23, 2016
Brief synopsis: the Japanese did horrific things but it was only because Americans are despicable, murdering, racists. The USA is the cause of all the world's problems.
Tell a story or be an American apologist. Don't tell a story to further your political leanings.
Tell a story or be an American apologist. Don't tell a story to further your political leanings.
February 21, 2023
All of the people rating this book five stars are lying. This book was terrible and gruesome. I strongly disliked every minute that I had to suffer through. It was repetitive and genuinely unlikeable. The only interesting chapters were the ones that included backstories.
March 7, 2017
Grateful to have read the stories of these men's lives
July 6, 2010
This is ostensibly the story of eight WWII flyboys (and one unknown flyer) who were shot down in attempting to take out the radio communications center on Chichi Jima, a much less notable location than its sister island, Iwo Jima, where most history focuses. One of those pilots was George H.W. Bush, who was rescued by a submarine. What happens to the captured men shows the depravity of war and the perversion of the ancient Japanese way of Bushido. If you've read much about war crimes, you should be fine with reading about the separate fates of these airmen, but the stories are disturbing and not for the faint of heart.
But the larger story is about the war waged in the Pacific - and the historical/cultural/sociological reasons for its beginnings. In very few pages, Bradley gives the reader the broad picture - which is helpful in understanding what happened on Chichi Jima - but is just a little too broad for my taste. He makes rather sweeping comparisons of the colonial military actions of Japan in China to America's dealings with Native Americans. Some of these points are surely valid, but I would have loved to have had more documentation and depth. Nevertheless, the deceptions perpetrated on both sides by high ranking officials, especially in defending mass slaughter, are agonizing to read.
I always have such mixed feelings reading these kinds of histories. War is the arena of the hero - it is in battle (and there is no other condition like it, I would imagine) that men, and now women, are able to test their bravery, loyalty, and personal strengths. However, quite frankly, I wish there could be another way toward valor. This book makes the point that we already know: war is a horror.
If the writing had just been a little more artistic, I might have given it a four.
But the larger story is about the war waged in the Pacific - and the historical/cultural/sociological reasons for its beginnings. In very few pages, Bradley gives the reader the broad picture - which is helpful in understanding what happened on Chichi Jima - but is just a little too broad for my taste. He makes rather sweeping comparisons of the colonial military actions of Japan in China to America's dealings with Native Americans. Some of these points are surely valid, but I would have loved to have had more documentation and depth. Nevertheless, the deceptions perpetrated on both sides by high ranking officials, especially in defending mass slaughter, are agonizing to read.
I always have such mixed feelings reading these kinds of histories. War is the arena of the hero - it is in battle (and there is no other condition like it, I would imagine) that men, and now women, are able to test their bravery, loyalty, and personal strengths. However, quite frankly, I wish there could be another way toward valor. This book makes the point that we already know: war is a horror.
If the writing had just been a little more artistic, I might have given it a four.
June 4, 2020
Bradley's work is a terrific read, thoroughly engaging at all times, even if his desire for politically-correct history occasionally detracts from the narrative his own sources are clearly detailing.
Just as in Flags of our Fathers, Bradley wants desperately to paint a nuanced, progressive picture of the "good war," and he succeeds on occasion in an attempt that is nothing if not earnest. However, where Flyboys falters is the author’s determined yet faulty attempt at making a false equivalency between the societies of the two principle national actors, vis-a-vis racial attitudes and ethical treatment of prisoners. Bradley wants so badly to ensure his readers understand that it wasn’t just Japan that dealt with radical issues of racial animosity. However, Flyboys descends into genuine awkwardness when Bradley’s own sources mercilessly force him to deviate from presentist didacticism and simply compare the insanely differentiated statistics on Japanese v. American treatment of prisoners of war. These moments in Flyboys are painful, aggravating, and detract from a compelling narrative (side note: Bradley’s insistence on inserting 21st century presentist narratives into his works would completely derail his 3rd attempt at history, the, deeply-confused, critically-reviled "Imperial Cruise”).
Flyboys is at its strongest when Bradley is simply quoting, detailing, and contextualizing the subject of his narrative: the fighter and bomber pilots of World War II’s Pacific Campaign. Their quiet, humble recounting of their experiences are enough to move and thrill even the most jaded historian. It is here, when Bradley allows history to speak, that Flyboys truly soars.
Just as in Flags of our Fathers, Bradley wants desperately to paint a nuanced, progressive picture of the "good war," and he succeeds on occasion in an attempt that is nothing if not earnest. However, where Flyboys falters is the author’s determined yet faulty attempt at making a false equivalency between the societies of the two principle national actors, vis-a-vis racial attitudes and ethical treatment of prisoners. Bradley wants so badly to ensure his readers understand that it wasn’t just Japan that dealt with radical issues of racial animosity. However, Flyboys descends into genuine awkwardness when Bradley’s own sources mercilessly force him to deviate from presentist didacticism and simply compare the insanely differentiated statistics on Japanese v. American treatment of prisoners of war. These moments in Flyboys are painful, aggravating, and detract from a compelling narrative (side note: Bradley’s insistence on inserting 21st century presentist narratives into his works would completely derail his 3rd attempt at history, the, deeply-confused, critically-reviled "Imperial Cruise”).
Flyboys is at its strongest when Bradley is simply quoting, detailing, and contextualizing the subject of his narrative: the fighter and bomber pilots of World War II’s Pacific Campaign. Their quiet, humble recounting of their experiences are enough to move and thrill even the most jaded historian. It is here, when Bradley allows history to speak, that Flyboys truly soars.
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