Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (Paperback)

by James Bradley (Author) "THE e-mail was from Iris Chang, author of the groundbreaking bestseller The Rape of Nanking..." (more)
Key Phrases: issen gorin, unidentified airman, carrier planes, Warren Earl, Chichi Jima, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
The best selling author of Flags of our Fathers turns his attention to those pilots who fought in the Pacific during the Second World War. The result is a magnificent historical study and a fitting tribute to those who fought and died. Never anything less than supremely readable, the author intersperses a dramatic retelling of the Japanese-American war of the 1940's with the heartbreaking story of the fates of a handful of American 'flyboys' who were shot down and captured by the Japanese on the remote island of Chichi Jima. Tragically, their fates were kept from their families, a silence that the author swore to shatter. Understandably the author's focus swings more toward the American point of view, but Bradley also has no intention of sparing us the finer details of just what each side was capable of doing to the other- the use of napalm and atomic weapons on blatantly civilian targets by the Americans, the Japanese abuse and murder of prisoners of war- all are here. Despite the swing to a wide focus, the real tragedy of this story is never forgotten though- the loss of young, unformed lives on both sides- the tragedy of 'what might have been.' Balanced and unsparing in its study of the barbarity of war, yet always searching for the underlying cause and meaning of such horror, this book cannot be recommended enough. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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.

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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: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 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.

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good core story, but falls far short, February 14, 2005

By	Trader Mort (San Diego) - See all my reviews

Two words sum up James Bradley's Flyboys: muddled mess. The root of Bradley's book, the capture and horrific deaths of American pilots on Chichi Jima is absolutely compelling, and the author does his best to unearth information to shed light on this almost forgotten event. Most significantly, Bradley manages to find Japanese witnesses that supplement sketchy written documentation.

Flyboys' ultimate demise is the authors attempt to tackle the issue of moral equivalency between Japanese atrocities in World War Two and American atrocities, primarily against Native Americans in the 19th century. As most historians know, this moralist-type approach is a potential quagmire. Bradley strives to be balanced, but he does not manage to present that in his book, resulting in him getting caught on the slippery slope of 'they did bad things, but look what we did...' When the author must bring up the history of the Indian Wars in a book that is supposed to discuss the Second World War, that is a clear indication the author is struggling to find some parameter to the subject matter.

I commend Bradley for trying to be fair, but he just does not do a very good job of presenting the story. Flyboys spends at least 60% of the book addressing the issue of moral equivalency, and the remaining 40% discussing the core story of the flyers. Many people will undoubtedly be angered when Bradley calls the four presidents on Mount Rushmore `white supremacists', and when he completely rips Theodore Roosevelt.

My biggest gripe is that, while it is true the Indian Wars was not exactly the high point of U.S. history, Bradley softpedals Japan's actions from the 1850s to the end of World War Two. He argues that Japan was a peace-loving, almost pacifistic nation before the United States forcibly pushed the country on the path of imperialism with the Perry expedition. He says the `Spirit Warriors' misappropriated Bushido and turned it into a vehicle for aggression, dehumanization, rape, and murder. This then uses this issue to excuse the actions of many average Japanese soldiers who committed atrocities. Bradley claims that most soldiers were essentially conditioned to follow the Spirit Warriors, not being able to differentiate right from wrong. He later contradicts himself when he tells of sympathetic Japansese on Chichi Jima who apparently did recognize what was happing was just wrong. Daniel Goldhagen claimed in his book, 'Hitler's Willing Executioners', that many non-Nazi Germans were perfectly aware of the Holocaust and voluntarily went along with it. Bradley makes no attempt in his book, to examine if this possibility occurred in Japan.

Bradley may be somebody trying to come to terms with his family's history, so he is perhaps trying a bit too hard to come across as being completely balanced. Or it may be that he does not want to come off as being a racist (unlike the late Iris Chang, who felt free to pull no punches in her scathing critique of Japan's China campaign). Without such intensity, 'Flyboys' comes across as a flaccid mess.

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History That Needs Telling, October 20, 2004

By	Jerry Loveless "jerryl3515" (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Japanese have NEVER acknowledged their war atrocities. Their textbooks and museums hide their horrible behavior during WWII; the average Japanese knows little if anything about the Rape of Nanking, or the slaughter of millions in Manchuria and Korea, or the vicious treatment of POW's by their troops.

Even in the U.S. we've hidden, and continue to hide, the horrors committed by the Japanese against our POW's. "Flyboys" details the sickening treatment by the Japanese of a small group of American Naval Aviators shot down during attacks on the tiny island of Chichi Jima.

After the war, the courts-martial of the Japanese involved in this affair were sealed and classified Top Secret - because of fear of retribution against Japan by a horrified America. The cover-up lasted until Bradley, who wrote Flags of Our Fathers (about Iwo Jima) heard from a reader who told him the story of Chichi Jima. Bradley, then uncovered the full story via the Freedom of Infomation act and wrote this very powerful book.

It's a horrible story; one that should not be hidden, but instead should be told and retold.