Customer Reviews

Destination Tokyo: A Pictorial History of Doolittle's Tokyo Raid, April 18, 1942

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Without being too technical or dry, Stan Cohen takes you back to America's first major strike against Japan since Pearl Harbor, 4 months earlier. What an incredible event! On April 18, 1942, after being spotted by a Japanese boat, Jimmy Doolittle and his 16 air crews took off from the USS Hornet to bomb Tokyo and other cities. It was a full 24 hours earlier than they had planned to launch, as well as hundreds of miles away from the intended launch point. Before they left, they all knew that with this sudden change in plans, they did not have enough fuel to fly all the way to friendly areas in China to land safely. They chose to go anyway. After hitting their intended targets, every single plane went down either in the water or in occupied China (except one which managed to land in Russia where the crew was promptly interned). Eight men were captured by the Japanese and only 4 of them survived the 3 1/2 year imprisonment. Japan was shocked and mortified that someone was actually able to hit them on their homeland so unexpectedly. It was a major morale booster for the USA at a time when the Japanese were winning in the Pacific. Mr. Cohen includes some fantastic photos and at the end of the book he includes a follow-up about the surviving crewmembers today. There are also accounts of expeditions that went back to the crash sites and talked to the Chinese people who helped the Raiders make it back home safely. I loved this book and cannot say enough good about it!

As usual with Cohen's books, the pictures are worth the purchase price. The text is a well appreciated bonus. If you have any interest in the "Doolittle Raid" you have to have this in your colection.