Customer Reviews

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised by how excellent this book is.

Having read James Bradley's first book, Flags of Our Fathers, I was curious to read his follow-up. But Flags is such a compelling personal story - a journey to discover what happened to his father in World War Two - that I wasn't entirely confident he could achieve the same with a subject he was less directly connected to. I needn't have worried. Flyboys is not only well-researched and truly revelatory. It's also an unusually well-balanced and sensitive attempt to get to grips with the horrors of war.

Most of us are aware of the particularly gruesome nature of the war in the Pacific. But Flyboys delves into a previously untold tale that descends into levels of atrocity and barbarism that are hard to comprehend. And this is where Bradley's writing talent really comes to the fore. He doesn't just dig up the facts and tell the story remarkably clearly. He goes much further, placing the brutality in some sort of context. It's the insight and background he places the events within that takes this book to a higher level, giving the reader a grasp and understanding of otherwise incomprehensible inhumanity.

Some reveiwers have criticised Flyboys as unpatriotic - mainly for taking the trouble to offer a Japanese perspective on the Pacific conflict. But Bradley's credentials are hard to refute. His father, after all, was one of the flag-raisers on Iwo Jima; yet he has also travelled and studied extensively in Japan, acquiring an uncommon grasp of Japanese language, culture and history. And it's this uniquely balanced sensibility that takes Flyboys well beyond the mere unearthing of a harrowing story that it might otherwise have been.

If I have one criticism of Flyboys it's that the author offers so much context and detail that the book sometimes drifts away from its core subject into much wider considerations about World War Two, it's causes, consequences and moral dilemmas. But then again this is not really a fault - it's an integral part of what makes this one of the best books about war you will ever read.

My Dad was in the 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division. He landed in the 5th wave ashore, on Iwo Jima. I served for 6 years in the Corps. So my background reading this book is a little more personal than some, not better - just more personal.

This book points out the spine and character of Americans, coming out of the Depression. Nothing too hard, nothing that they wouldn't do for their country. It also points out the cruelty of War and that other cultures (in this case the Japanese Empire) do not view human life as we do. Isn't this what is happening today with the Terrorists?

The book is well written with the same personal feelings that I have about the topic. Bradley's Dad served on Iwo (see Flags of Our Fathers, by James Bradley)another excellent book by Bradley.

This book is well worth reading. Once you start it you will not want to put it down.

I had seen the book but never made the connection to the author of The Flags of our Fathers. I decided to pick it up and give it a read after chatting with an older gentleman about the war. He said it was good.

I had never hear of Chichi Jima. A bypassed island which was overshadowed by the Battle of Iwo Jima. Chichi Jima was a communications center for the Japaneses. American pilots "flyboys" were assigned to try and take out the radio stations so they could not inform Japan that bombers were on the way. Bradley tells the story of what happened to the flyboys that were shot down. Their names were Dick Woellhof, Floyd Hall, Marve Mershon, Jimmy Dye, Grady York, Warren Earl Vaughn, the future President George HW Bush, Glenn Frazier, Bill Connell and an unnamed B-24 crewman. Only George Bush and Bill Connell would survive.


What I found interesting is the way Bradley tries to explain the two cultures and the history leading up to the war. The history mentioned ranges from the Samurai, the restoration of the Mejii, Perry and the rise of the Militaristic powers. Bradley made an attempt to explain the pseudo-Samurai culture that arose and the actions of the so called "Spirit Warriors" committed. Actions which the real Samurai would have never done.

Bradley makes no attempt to "white wash" the history and the wars that were fought. Bradeley tells of barbarous acts committed by Japan, the US, and even China throughout the years. Actions which at the time people thought they were the right thing to do and with future generations can question.

The clash of the two cultures does come into play. To the Japanese soldier the act of surrender was a shameful horrendous act. It basically made you the lowest of the low. Treatment of such men was horrible especially with the brutal thugs that ran the army.

War is about dehumanizing the enemy. It makes it easier to kill them. The US even practiced it with songs such as "I am going to slap that dirty little Jap" and the use of a parade float which showed scurrying yellow rats being bombed.

Hollywood likes to paint a noble John Wayneish view of the war and yet our boys could be a brutal as the enemy. As mentioned by flyboys who strafed Japanese soldiers and sailors. Bradley doesn't try to paint an evil image of the US soldier. Simply that war can make decent people do bad things in war.

I knew prisoners were executed as I have seen the famous photo of the Australian soldier about to be beheaded. What I did not know was the acts cannibalism that went on.

Such acts happened to the flyboys that crashed and were captured on Chichi Jima. Such acts suggested the War Department thought it was not a good idea to tell the families of the flyboys as they were told they were MIA. It's kind of sad hearing the mothers went to their graves not knowing what happened to their sons. Yet, would you want to tell a mother that her son was beheaded and partially eaten?

This story only made it to light because of Bill Doran felt the flyboys stories needed to be told and he contacted the author and told him about them. Bill Doran was present at the war crimes trials for the leaders and soldiers involved with the killings on Chichi Jima.

Bradley talked to endless people and even Japanese soldiers who were on the island an interacted with the flyboys. The cannibalistic commands were executed in 1947. The stories told about the flyboys facing their deaths is indeed courageous and noble. Depending on your viewpoints you can take it as true or simply soldiers making them honorable rather then what happened.

Bradley also visited the islands of Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima with President Bush. He asked the author if he knew anything about what happened to the two men he lost when he was shot down that day. President Bush stayed with his plane longer then he should have and even tried to turn it so they could get out safer. They didn't make it even though it was thought two parachutes were seen.

President Bush said to this day he still thinks of them.

Overall this is a great book to read and I highly recommend it.

What could have been an excellent piece of historical research is fatally flawed by an unflinching and blatant diatribe against American culture and action going back to the first settlers in the East.

Under the pretext of explaining why the Japanese resented American "meddling" in the Pacific, Bradley clumsily brings up a litany of (in his mind) evil American policies and acts that gradually become the dominant theme of at least his first few chapters. His graphic depiction of the Rape of Nanking is followed by a diatribe against the Americans' treatment of their aboriginals ( Indians, Native Americans, or whatever term floats your boat this week), and Bradley's intent of establishing moral equivalence is quite clear. As this pattern goes on, and on, and on, one begins to harbor a secret suspicion that this anti-American propaganda -- for there is no other appropriate word for his slick and dishonest portrayal -- was indeed the real raison d'etre behind this book.

No historian worthy of the name would seriously argue that Japan's megalomaniacal conquer-and-slaughter policies were merely a natural response to America's westward expansion, but that is exactly what Bradley tries to do. He is certainly entitled to his opinion, no matter how bizarre, but he is not entitled to play fast and loose with historical fact, and claiming that the US conquered the Philippines and Hawaii at bayonet point in the same way as the Japanese conquered Nanking is not just a stretch -- it's a lie.

Bradley's carefully-calculated weaving of every available piece of anti-American propaganda into the fabric of this book is especially distressing because his research and portrayal of the actual facts surrounding the Chichi Jima incident is otherwise excellent. His analysis of Japanese history and cultural change is succinct and, occasionally, perceptive. Clearly, there are either huge gaps in his knowledge of these areas or, more likely, he has picked and chosen the parts he likes and ignored others. He could have done us all a service by mentioning the Japanese plans for conqest and empire, including specifically everything up to and including Hawaii -- plans that went back almost to the turn of the century and were certainly no secret among the Japanese military or any Japanese citizen that read books and newspapers. He may not be comfortable with direct research into Japanese-language material, but there is at least one recent book in English on the subject of Japan's plans for Hawaii (Hawaii Under the Rising Sun, by John J. Stephan). Japan's militaristic culture and birth rate drove her imperial dreams since the population of tiny Japan, believe it or not, was almost two-thirds that of the whole United States.

For those with a firm grounding in history that can stomach Bradley's distortions, this book can be useful and definitely add to one's knowledge. Personally, I got a lot out of this book, but I deeply resent the deliberate distortions and untruths, and this is one book I would only recommend to other readers with a giant, bold warning label: "Inside these covers lies much good data, but with a large helping of politically correct B.S."

Unfortunately, I suspect this book will get wide readership among students and academics since the leftist history professors will simply love the message in this screed.

The enemy killed our airmen and cannibalized them and then, after the war when the Bonin Islanders (decendants of Yankee whalers) were brought home and sought full U.S. citizenship, LBJ gave their island (and Iwo Jima) to Japan! The story is grotesque in so many ways and Bradley tells it in shocking detail.

This is the history of ChiChi Jima, near Iwa Jima atoll from the days the island was a critical refueling station for whaling ships and US coal fired destroyers enroute to open up Japan to 'civilization' as it sets the stage for the core story of the fight by US Forces in World War II to take what was then the prime radio listening and communications post for the Imperial Japanese Forces. There were seven (?) "FlyBoys" shot down during the assaults who were captured, held captive, and, in different methods, killed. This is their story as well as the story of Japanese defenders astounded to see a US Submarine surface to save the future President George Bush after he had to ditch his attack aircraft. Fascinating book to the point I have purchased about five others for gifts.

I read Flags of our Fathers first and really liked it so I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, it does not compare well. It's not a bad book but just not in the same class as the first one. In this one Bradley seems to take a very simple story and drag it out. In the end I really have a couple of issues with the book. First, it doesn't really give you much detail about the air strategy for the war. It focuses more on a couple of guys who got shot down and captured. Second, it spends far too much time on the cannibalism theme. Okay, the Japanese were cannibals - we get it. Third, he seems to make the case that bad things happen in all wars so we are no better than anyone else. After reading this book if you feel that way there may be something wrong with you. The Japanese attacked us. What they did in China has no equivilance. The shear magnitude of the senseless killing, raping, and pillaging. These people were 'godless'. They were willing to allow millions of their own poeple to die for the sake of some strange 'concept' - not because they had to. The US would have stopped the bombing at anytime but the Japanese leaders were willing to make the sacrifice of millions of their people. Even the Germans weren't like this.

It's a good read and I would recommend it but I have to question Bradley on this one. It can't hold a candle to the first book.

Finished the book. What an excellent read!--compelling, gripping, harrowing, moving, but above all level-headed and fair. It is a page-turner. It piqued my interest in the Pacific War so much that I've purchased another book: Sorties into Hell: The Hidden War on Chichi Jima and will start reading it rightaway. I would recommend "Flyboys" to anyone, with one caveat: it is not for the fainthearted because of the graphic--but accurate--descriptions of the horrors of war. Don't let the cheery title fool you. This is one serious read!

P.S., Finished Sorties into Hell: The Hidden War on Chichi Jima by Chester Hearn in one weekend. It provides much additional information regarding the war crimes committed by the Japanese against U.S. flyers. I recommend it highly as a companion book to "Flyboys".

A great book. I would have given it 5 stars but thought it was overwritten and too detailed at times. I'd previously thought Hirohito wasn't so bad -- just a captive of the military. Not so. The extent of George Bush's heroism was another revelation.

The first third of the books is a non-stop anti-American tirade. For the author, every vice of the Japanese imperial militarist culture is directly inherited from America and learned from American "imperialist" actions in the Pacific (even though the US lacked any concession in China, and had no Pacific territory until after 1898). According to him, the Japanese were only imitating the Americans when it came to brutality, torture, and territory hungry imperialism.

His implication is the Japanese can't be held responsible for their atrocities, because they were taught to do it by the Americans (despite the fact the British and Germans primarily trained the Japanese militarily as they leapt into the industrial age).

The author specifically singles out (over 40 pages) US activities in the Philippines as proof of the favored Yankee pastime of bayoneting babies. Of course, there is some context missing; he only refers to isolated incidents on Samar during which atrocities were committed on both sides over a very short time. He conveniently ignores thousands of counter examples over five years where US forces took extreme pains and great additional risk to minimize civilian casualties, not to mention all the humanitarian efforts on other islands. Perhaps the Japanese militarists, who the author implies wouldn't hurt a fly until they learned brutality from Americans, only read about the battles in Samar.

Another truly bizarre and absurd aspect of the book is the author's attempt to outline a chain of events demonstrating the US government always sought to acquire Chichi Jima (the island that is supposed to be the subject of the book), and the Japanese were therefore totally justified in being particularly defensive of American presence on the island.

To support this fantastic allegation, he points to obscure legislation in congress which sought to establish a coaling station at numerous locations throughout the world, including Chichi Jima. While that never became law, I guess he assumes the Japanese had their "man in Washington" following the threatening bill, during the Meiji reign, and every Japanese soldier to through 1945 was taught about this effrontery...yeah, right. He then points out that various US ships in the late 19th Century stopped and used the island for shelter, while it was otherwise uninhabited. Apart from not even rising to the level of circumstantial `evidence' to support his accusation, he never provides any support to show the Japanese were aware of these events, or more importantly that their opinion and actions were changed by them.

...but wasn't the book supposed to be about how some US flyers were made prisoners and treated toward the end of the war on a remote island? Yeah, I thought so too...apparently the author became lost during his early rant. He does manage to get to that...eventually.

One disturbing window into the author's method is shown in the photos of him with former President GHW Bush (41). The caption and juxtaposition of the photos clearly suggest President Bush was involved in the research and supports the author's conclusion. In fact, this is simply not true...neither are most of the "facts" used to support his opinions as expressed in the book.

The point is, while Bradley might be a gifted writer (his prose is certainly readable), he is a frustrated American-hating revisionist embittered by his father's experiences and perceived injustices. He is not a historian and is clearly incapable of scholarly research or serious historical analysis, choosing to selectively take from discredited politically correct revisionist texts that support his preconceived notions, while ignoring libraries full of legitimate sources.