Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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. The fate of the others-an explosive 60-year-old secret-is revealed for the first time in FLYBOYS.

About the Author

James Bradley is the son of one of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. He lives in New York. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books; 2nd edition (September 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316159433
• ISBN-13: 978-0316159432
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,985 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Japanese
  #8 in	Books > History > Military > World War II > Asia
  #17 in	Books > History > Military > Aviation

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Courage, skill, and the right stuff under fire - but questionable assesment by the author, July 26, 2006

By	tim can (Pocono Mts of PA) - See all my reviews

A well researched and well told story of navy flyers and more than the specific stories of men the rise of naval aviation's and its new found role in war.

Please be aware this book contains some horrific details of the murder and muliation of US service men by Japanese forces in the Pacific which may be well beyond the comfort level of some readers.

There was much about this book I found compelling:

The Flyboys themselves were wonderful, admirable characters which demonstrate once again the debt owed to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice and those who fought along side them.

Flyboys is one of a number of books which at long last are addressing openly the horrifying facts of Japanese behavior in the Pacific theater. Unfortunately, this is coming generations too late to avoid the near universal denial of such things in Japan over the last 60 years.

The US knew far more of the details of prisoner treatment and execution than if shared with the public or with families.

However, there was one huge negative I never could quite overcome and that was the author's continual effort to compare US actions such as the use of fire bombing Tokyo to the actions of Japanese officers in the field which are not moral equals. To question whether the use of napalm was an effective war measure is fair. to use it to justify sadistic murder and canibalism strains jouranlistic, even novelistic credulity to the breaking point.

As the son of a WWII vet Bradley of all people should understand that war, any war no matter how unavoidable, is an obsenity requiring good men to place the great deal of their humanity aside so that they may restain an even greater evil. Yet somehow it escapes the author that horrific, although impersonal US bombing, no matter how you want to define the morals of war on the civilian population, does not require the same level of moral depravity that is required to kill a defenseless prisoner by hand and then remove from their still warm and quivering flesh, their internal organs so that you may dine on these morsals. One action reflects even in the worse case a perhaps flawed methodology of trying to end the war, while the other reflects deeply personal sadism and evil.

For all its virtues and flyboys has many this comparison left me dismayed.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Horrifying tale, October 30, 2006

By	Phoebus Franca "thebuffer" (San Francisco Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flyboys : A True Story of Courage (Paperback)

The publisher deserves some criticism for misrepresenting this book on the cover, dust jacket copy and all that stuff. I thought I was picking up an Ambrose-like narrative kind of story of the WWII fighter pilots. Instead, the book starts with a "big picture" historical view of what the author clearly views as two imperial powers colliding, with little understanding of each other. In other words, US - Japan relations went from Perry's opening of Japan (a destructive act, in the author's view, that was necessary because Chichi Ima, the centerpiece of the story, was needed for US merchant shipping purposes) to total, savage, unconditional war by 1941. (Of course, Japan had been at war already in China and elsewhere in the region; and the US and Britain had been playing behind-the-scenes roles that mattered a great deal in those years.)

"WWII" is thought of as one big thing when it was also, and perhaps more so several linked disputes and hostilities. So, the author provides an interesting and important view, helping readers see the historical line of sight in terms of Japan and the US. The sort of moral equivalency (some other reviewers here called it "liberal guilt") that grows out of this analysis is disturbing -- and unexpected, because nothing about the book's packaging hints at this tone. I felt like I was reading something of a piece with, well, most US history books written these days that are not forgiving or "patriotic" about any of the brutality that's occurred since Europeans hit the shores.

However, having set up the book this way, the author has given himself the breadth to write eloquently about the horrors experienced by both sides of the conflict. The book may spin off into too many directions -- for example, trying to determine whether the atomic bombs were even worth it since the destructive power of the napalm bombing of Tokyo and other cities may have been worse. There are other writers and other books that are more thorough and thoughtful about this topic, although the images the author creates of the taciturn, cigar smoking Curtis LeMay letting loose the incendiary raids is unforgettable -- and does cause an American to have to look in the mirror.

The personal accounts are really the heart of the book and are important on many levels. This has to be one of the first books to put together historical sources to tell a narrative like this. And that narrative is gruesome, so be prepared.

Finally, Bradley may be right that Hirohito should've been prosecuted as a war criminal, not set up as a titular, spiritual head the way MacArthur did it. How would history have been different? I'm definitely interested in reading more about this from other authors.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read, with notable except ion of equating our bombing to Japan's crimes, December 7, 2006

By	James P. Mathews - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Flyboys : A True Story of Courage (Paperback)

I found myself torn by this book. I was in awe of the bravery and patriotism of the naval aviators portrayed. That part of the book was inspiring. I was disgusted by "liberal guilt", or whatever else you want to call it when someone says our bombing of Japan renders us no better than the Japanese at that time. There is no moral equivalence whatsoever between our actions and Japan's actions. They attacked us (never mind what they did to the Chinese). They started the war and refused to surrender.

The US was faced with 2, and only 2, alternatives to ending the war. First, they could implement the devastating campaign of bombing. This involved a minimum number of American casualties. Second, we could have invaded Japan. Analysts estimated the number of American deaths from such a strategy in the hundreds of thousands, if not over a million. Sorry. The first and foremost responsibility of our government is to look out for the welfare of its own citizenry, not the citizenry of a fanatical nation hell-bent on world conquest and genocide.

Coming from the son of a Navye corpsman wounded at Iwo Jima, I found Bradley's views puzzling. Would he have preferred that his Dad be forced to invade Japan?