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Biography & Autobiography. History. Military. Nonfiction. HTML:Over the remote Pacific island of Chichi Jima, nine American flyers-Navy and Marine pilots sent to bomb Japanese communications towers there-were shot down. Flyboys, a story of war and horror but also of friendship and honor, tells the story of those men. Over the remote Pacific island of Chichi Jima, nine American flyers-Navy and Marine pilots sent to bomb Japanese communications towers there-were shot down. One of those nine was miraculously rescued by a U.S. Navy submarine. The others were captured by Japanese soldiers on Chichi Jima and held prisoner. Then they disappeared. When the war was over, the American government, along with the Japanese, covered up everything that had happened on Chichi Jima. The records of a top-secret military tribunal were sealed, the lives of the eight Flyboys were erased, and the parents, brothers, sisters, and sweethearts they left behind were left to wonder. Flyboys reveals for the first time ever the extraordinary story of those men. Bradley's quest for the truth took him from dusty attics in American small towns, to untapped government archives containing classified documents, to the heart of Japan, and finally to Chichi Jima itself. What he discovered was a mystery that dated back far before World War II-back 150 years, to America's westward expansion and Japan's first confrontation with the western world. Bradley brings into vivid focus these brave young men who went to war for their country, and through their lives he also tells the larger story of two nations in a hellish war. With no easy moralizing, Bradley presents history in all its savage complexity, including the Japanese warrior mentality that fostered inhuman brutality and the U.S. military strategy that justified attacks on millions of civilians. And, after almost sixty years of mystery, Bradley finally reveals the fate of the eight American Flyboys, all of whom would ultimately face a moment and a decision that few of us can even imagine. Flyboys is a story of war and horror but also of friendship and honor. It is about how we die, and how we live-including the tale of the Flyboy who escaped capture, a young Navy pilot named George H. W. Bush who would one day become president of the United States. A masterpiece of historical narrative, Flyboys will change forever our understanding of the Pacific war and the very things we fight for.… (more)
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I have found that many American history authors write their books from the standpoint of the US having the moral superiority. The US always takes the high road and the enemy, whoever it is, is of a lower moral standard. I don't necessarily disagree with that point of view many times. After all, I am an American and I firmly believe that the US has fought in most wars for just reasons. However, history is about more than just one side. It's about more than just one point of view. It is an aggregate of facts and perceptions taken from both sides. The truth is usually somewhere in between.
In light of that, James Bradley lays it all out there when it comes to the actions of the Japanese and the US military. Bad things happened on both sides. I would say that the Japanese committed far more atrocities on an individual level. Cannibalism and beheadings were not common on the US side. The Japanese military seemed to embrace these acts wholeheartedly. Bradley spends a great deal of time talking about the cannibalism and the beheadings. You come to loathe the Japanese military as an institution and yet you find yourself feeling sorry for some of their soldiers who followed orders or risked losing their own lives.
The US does not escape criticism either. Firebombing major cities across Japan was not exactly civil. Thousands of innocent women and children were killed. I consider that a tragedy, and yet I also factor in the mindset of Japan at the time. The author does a good job of explaining that. There was nothing that could have been done diplomatically to bring the war to an end. When looking at the number of US servicemen that would have died conquering the Japanese islands, what choice was there?
War is not pretty. Once you get beyond Hollywood and the romantic image that people have in regards to combat, you will see something that should give everyone pause before they start beating the drums of war. Innocent people will die. Tragedies will occur. Families will be shattered by the deaths of fathers, brothers, and sons. That suffering will occur on both sides. That is the point I believe James Bradley is trying to make in this book.
I have heard from the children of Pacific War vets that they can never forgive the Japanese, but this book gives several first-hand accounts of just that forgiveness. It is that grace that in the end makes this book readable.
" While Iwo Jima had Japanese forces numbering 22,000, Chichi Jima's forces numbered 25,000."
Nine American Navy and
One ( Lieutenant George H. W. Bush) was picked up by the American submarine USS Finback.
"The others were captured by the Japanese and held as prisoners.
Then they disappeared."
...torture, execution and in some cases cannibalism.
Initially, when the war was over, the brutality of Chichi Jima was whitewashed.
"The records of a top-secret military tribunal were sealed."
Families received a censored version of events as many of the Japanese captors were being executed for their war crimes.
Bradley explains "the Japanese warrior mentality that fostered inhuman brutality and the U.S. military strategy that justified attacks on millions of civilians."
Bradley takes us on a intimate tour of the lives of the flyboys ( pre-military)
"Many of the new breed of pilot were teenagers when the war broke out, and piloted fighters and dive bombers against the Japanese in the last two years of the war."
"Bradley's quest for the truth took him from dusty attics in American small towns, to untapped government archives containing classified documents, to the heart of Japan, and finally to Chichi Jima itself."
(BN overview)
I didn't begin to set forth or elaborate all of the ancillary history that Bradley presented.
You'll discover that when you read....
The 5 disc audio was presented by the author
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The deceased Flyboys of our story were :
Jimmy Dye from Mount Ephraim, New Jersey
Floyd Hall from Sedalia, Missouri
Marve Mershon from Los Angeles, California
Warren Earl Vaughn from Childress, Texas
Dick Woellhof from Clay Center, Kansas
Grady York from Jacksonville, Florida
Glenn Frazier from Athol, Kansas
Warren Hindenlang of Foxboro, Massachusetts
It is excellently researched and written. I can find no fault there. If there is any fault in the book, it is that I
I liked it, but in the same way I liked the movie "Schindler's List". It is not a feel good read.
This is the kind of book that the questions it raises will cause you to chew on it for years. I recommend it, but to a mature audience. I personally wouldn't let my 14 year old son read it, yet. Later, when I feel he can handle some of the subject matter better. And perhaps by then, I will have better handle on it myself.
The more I read about man's inhumanity to man in this narrative, the more in disbelief I remained, yet the more I realized that the evil inclination is just as present in man as the good inclination. This is also part of the Jewish teaching I was given when growing up.
I was horrified by this book. Yet, I really appreciate the author's even-handedness in presenting both sides of the conflict by the end of the book. It is now with relief that I can wish my son a pleasant trip to Japan this year and look forward to his stories about that country on his return home.
A line from the end of this book read, "Nations tend to see the other side's war atrocities as systemic and indicative of their culture and their own atrocities as justified or the acts of stressed combatants." This statement is pretty telling about war. I hope that the future brings us all towards better understanding of each other's cultures.
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.