Rating: 
Summary: History that needs to be told
Review: So many times you pick up a book which chronicles history, and it is the same thing. Repeating what has been written over and over for the past 50 years. Flyboys, by James Bradley, goes far beyond a typical history book. First off, this book takes you into the real lives of these brave Americans and places you in the conflict of the South Pacific in the early 1940s. You will also learn that this war was not about good guys and bad guys. You will shake your head in astonishment at what both sides did to each other. The Japanese seemed to base everything on their long history of isolationism and their culture while the Americans seemed to base their ultimate actions, the firebombing of Tokyo on a need to ultimately save lives. You can buy that argument but the end result, the brutal; devastation of Japan is hard to swallow. However, something had to be done and you are left thinking about those fateful decisions by Truman and his staff. This is an incredible red. If you care at all about who truly are our heroes, these flyboys, you will want this in your collection. I cringe to think that our kids look up to Kobe and company. The truth about George Bush senior and his colleagues needs to be told. These are our true heroes. This is a fantastic read! I am running to purchase other works by Bradley if they are anything like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating but a little too PC
Review: Filled with fascinating information about the Japanese WW2 mind and the accomplishments of the Flyboys, but too many attempts at moral equivalence for my taste; while describing the horror perpetrated by the Japanese, the author constantly points a finger at the US either in blame or charging hypocrisy (though his description of Japanese inhumanity eventually overwhelms).While there may be some validity to these charges - and the author provides many examples of American butchery, all the way from the Native Americans to the Phillipines - some attempts are somewhat sickening. After describing the appalling butchery of POWs and other horrors practiced by the Japanese, and the outrage such savagery provoked here in the US, he describes some take-no-prisoners incidents perpetrated by the US, and wags his finger: "When U.S. prisoners were killed, it was 'murder ...' But when Americans murdered Others, 'they had it coming to them.'" Er ... excuse me, Bozo, but didn't you read what you just wrote? To wit, the behavior of the Japanese. Did it not occur to the author that their rejection of the Geneva Convention, brutal treatment (rape, murder and torture) of civilians, and other scummy actions, such as this: "The wounded wait until [US] men come up to examine them ... and blow themselves and the other fellow to pieces with a hand grenade" (p. 143) could somehow lead American soldiers to regard their enemies as subhuman monsters? I dunno, I think it's possible. Sure, they look different ... but they also behave different, and that's the key. How about slicing open living POWs and removing their lungs or stomachs, without anesthesia? Poking around in their brains with a knife and twisting to see what body parts jerk? When an enemy not only murders your POWs as a matter of policy and in explicit disregard of the rules of war, but has demonstrated that they will not surrender, will blow you to bits if you show compassion or try to help them, and have no regard whatsoever for any human life, not even civilians (not even their own), what do they expect? What does the author expect? Yet he constantly attempts to suggest that either side was just as bad. Elsewhere he reports that the Japanese justifiably regarded the American firebombers as devils. Yes, the napalming of Tokyo was horrible, but what did they expect after their sons' killing sprees - hacking hundreds of thousands of non-Japanese (Chinese, for example) to pieces, raping and killing and sometimes eating daughters of civilians, forcing children to become "comfort women", the dishonorable attack on Pearl Harbor, practicing bayoneting on live prisoners, spraying typhoid, etc. etc.? Does the glee American soldiers and the American public felt over killing such a subhuman enemy - proven so by their actions - become more understandable? Do the complaints of firebombing Japanese civilians seem to recede into the distance of their hypocrisy? The crucial difference is that these most of the Japanese atrocities were a matter of official policy or direct orders, as opposed to the visceral hatred engendered in individual American soldiers by witnessing the inhumanity of the Japanese military. It is well written, though, and you do get a sense of the heroism of the American military, warts and all - and the author does try to show us as many warts as he can. He is also candid about the horrors perpetrated by the Japanese, not only upon Others, but upon themselves. The analysis of how the Japanese got locked into a couple of different mindsets and how that led to their defeat is also interesting. And we learn a little more about the amazing heroism of pilots like George Bush Sr. When I was less informed (still reading TIME, Newsweek, and the Washington Post for news ... then I happened upon the Media Research Foundation), I chuckled with Oliphant's baseless ridiculing of Bush's war record. After reading this book, I cannot help but cheer him as a true hero. I would like to have given this book four stars or more but due to the above, which may further encourage Japan's whitewashing of their brutal history. (I don't have to worry about America's history being whitewashed; too much white guilt and self-loathing around here for that.) It is definitely worth a read, in spite of the author's attempts to be sensitive. Fortunately, these are infrequent. Yes, neither side is guiltless ... but neither do both sides bear equal guilt, by any means. The Japanese are so ashamed of their history that they have to rewrite it; they understand this. And, strangely, so does the author, quoting Paul Fussell after reminding us that more people were killed with samurai swords than atomic bombs: "The degree to which Americans register shock and extraordinary shame about the Hiroshima bomb correlates closely with lack of information about the Pacific war."
Rating: 
Summary: This is a tough read, but it is more than worthwhile
Review: Reading James Bradley's FLYBOYS is like watching Fox News Channel: both the book and the news channel have being "fair and balanced" as their goal, but reaching that goal is sometimes --- if not always --- a bit of a struggle. In the case of the book, the balance is between the Allied and Japanese fronts in World War II, and the author ends up trying very hard to make the Japanese case. Sure, the Japanese wanted to conquer East Asia and take over its population. But how is this any different, Bradley asks, from imperialist Europeans in the last century colonizing Africa and India? Sure, when the Japanese invaded Manchuria and put its people to the sword and herded its women into "comfort houses" of prostitution, this was bad. But American civilians killed defenseless Native Americans at the Sand Creek massacre and elsewhere --- what's the difference? And sure, there was the Pearl Harbor attack but the American response to that involved napalm attacks on the Japanese heartland that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. However, the balance in FLYBOYS is much more carefully poised. The real horror of the book is war itself, and the nature of war doesn't differ much on either side of the conflict. Horrible things happen in war --- that's the way war is. Dwelling on the crimes of one side or the other just feeds the fires of conflict, years after the end of hostilities. Even the most terrible of war crimes, like what happened to eight stranded American Navy, Marine and Army Air Corps flyers on the remote Pacific island of Chichi Jima, must be understood as part of the overall wretched fabric of war. And what happened on Chichi Jima, you might ask? Well, now it can be told. The story of what happened to a small group of American naval aviators on the Japanese-held island of Chichi Jima was a long-held secret, buried amidst the flurry of war-crimes trials. Chichi Jima was something of a sideshow in the war, one of the Bonin Islands, near the vastly more famous Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima had room for an airstrip; Chichi Jima only had room for a massive radio complex, sending intelligence data back to Tokyo. That made it a secondary target, but a target nonetheless, and American bombers were tasked to destroy it. Anti-aircraft fire from the island brought down some American planes, and their surviving crew members parachuted to the island as prisoners of war. What happened next scarcely bears thinking about. Bradley does tell us about it eloquently and, most importantly of all, non-judgmentally. What happened to Jimmy Dye, Glenn Frazier, Floyd Hall, Marve Mershon, Dick Woelhof, Grady York, Warren Earl Vaughan, and the anonymous B-24 crewman who shared their fates is shocking --- so much so that even their families could not know the whole truth. It was certainly a violation of the Geneva Convention protecting the rights of prisoners of war. It was so awful that most of the Japanese soldiers had to be ordered to participate. What Bradley does well is to put what happened on Chichi Jima in context. By itself, in isolation, the story of the eight Americans on Chichi Jima is the stuff of nightmares. But Bradley deftly places it against the appropriate backdrop --- the conquest-drunk warlords in Tokyo, the misplaced code of bushido that led to fanatical nonsense, the American napalm attacks that burnt the heart out of metropolitan Japan, and the vain sacrifice of the emperor's "shattered jewels." FLYBOYS is a tough read, but it is more than worthwhile. Bradley balances his catalog of horrors with an admiring, appreciative look at the courage of the American flyers who won the war in the Pacific. FLYBOYS is a worthy testament to their efforts and their sacrifice. --- Reviewed by Curtis Edmonds
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional reporting and storytelling
Review: I almost did not buy this book because its title, "Flyboys," hinted it would be too "apple pie" patriotic. But, it is an unrelentingly real read loaded with fascinating facts and stories from original sources. I kept reading it all night long. I could not put it down! Brady taught me what the war with Japan was like - both from a geo-politic view and from the human view of soldiers and civilians on each side. Chapter after chapter filled in little known but very important facts about the war. It told how barbaric Japanese military officers turned Japan into an expansionistic nation of atrocities. It told how Yankee ingenuity led to the US's extensive firebombing of Japanese cities and the suffering it caused that was far more extensive than that of the atom bomb. It revealed Japan's detailed and horrible plans for millions of its citizens to use bamboo poles in a fight to their inevitable death. As its defenses crumbled and the allies were pressing in, the Japan military was training boys to be "Sherman rugs" by lying underneath tanks with bombs. It was even planning to drop millions of plague ridden fleas on US cities! Unlike most history books, Brady builds drama from chapter to chapter as characters on each side suffer brutally at each other's hands. War is hell, and books like this one confront us with the evils of war that horrific enough to be unbelievable, if they were not true. What surprised me most was the very brave and human side of George Bush. I knew the former president was pulled from the ocean after his plane crashed, but did not know of his extraordinary acts of courage and how the "survivor" guilt he still feels has kept him from exploiting his history for political gain. History is going to be very kind to this man
Rating:
Summary: Strays way off course
Review: I am very offended in the tone that book takes in regard to comparing Japan's Chinese campaign with our final offensives in Germany and Japan. With all of the well written reviews I do not have much to add except to say that Japan was dead in the water and would have fought to the last man, woman and child. I also think that the nuclear bombs definately did create a new level of war and by doing so expedited the surrender. I am tired of people trying to apologize for America, the fact remains if they did not engage us then they would not have faced our wrath. The Chinese on the other hand recieved the barbaric wrath of Japan without so much as provoking them. I suppose we are supposed to draw a parallel in our manifest destiny or turn of the century Phillipine campaigns that were both in a very different era. By taking away all of Japans budget to make war America gave them a head start on creating a modern economy unparalleled in the world. This book gets three stars for having some nice solid sections when it stays on task and does not get to preachy. If it wasn't for that I would have flunked it. The author has talent though and the read is pretty good being that is so severly flawed.
Rating:
Summary: Not sure what to make of this book
Review: First off, I find it surprising that this story was not told sooner, as it involved a future U.S. president (I suppose much of the information was not available until recently). I give Bradley credit for telling the story of the airmen who gave their lives in service to our country, but I'm not sure what to make of Bradley's commentary on U.S. policy before and during World War II. It's true that atrocities happen in war, and the actions of our military should not be whitewashed. It seems wrong to me, however, to try to draw moral equivalency between the aggressors, and those who fight that aggression at great cost to themselves so that others may enjoy freedom. I also reject Bradley's suggestions that all atrocities committed by the Japanese were a direct result of earlier U.S. actions, however wrong those actions may have been (Bradley's description of the Japanese corruption of the Samauri code seems to contradict his own assertions regarding this point). I rate "Flyboys" 3 stars for telling a story that should have been told earlier, but I have reservations about the revisionist history in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of history, but not much on Chichi Jima
Review: After reading the book, I have to agree with the review listed by Publishers Weekly. I thought the book was about the battle of Chichi Jima based on the perspective of the nine flyboys (including George Bush). However, the battle isn't actually covered till about halfway through the book. The author begins with a history lesson of pre-war Japan and has a look at when Admiral Perry first landed in Japan. My first thoughts were "...why the history lesson?" Then, we are treated to perspectives of Billy Mitchell and his pre-war court martial. It was only later I realized that the author was setting the stage for the battle of Chichi Jima. In that case, after reflection, Bradley's pre-history lesson made sense.
The book is supposed to tell the story of the flyers and the horrors they endured when captured. Bradley is excellent in telling us the horrors that transpired. And, he weaves the ordeals that the families went through back home in wondering what happened to their sons.
I enjoyed the book but I found myself asking several times why was the history lesson of Japan included; why have the war crimes trials been included? All in all, I enjoyed the book and others here have certainly captured some of the flaws with Bradley's story. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book albeit with some warning that the book is not really about the Chichi Jima battle itself.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding the Pacific Front
Review: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage is one of many examples that has further opened the doors to understanding what occurred during the Pacific War of World War II. The basic premise of the book is the story about nine US pilots that led a mission to combat the Japanese military, but met their terrible demise when they became POWs on the island of Chichi Jima. Their story bears similarities to something out of a Sci-Fi novel -- Jules Verne or H.G. Welles, but their story was real and horrendous. It is a chilling story that begins with the these pilots' story before the war, and ends with the aftermath of the war.
Bradley revisits this part of history in order to address the Pacific aspect of WWII, and to present the voices of the guilty and the victims that came from both the US as well as the Japanese side that previously had not been disclosed to the public. The most controversial part of the book was the detailed and vivid descriptions of the pilots' executions by the Japanese soldiers. This was the most powerful part of the book that will make you wonder, was this the reason why the war had to end immediately with the atomic bomb? Bradley suggests that the uncalculated acts by the Japanese military and the enormous US casualties far more exceeded the European front, and General Curtis LeMay was "itching" to deter the war as soon as possible. Bradley states, " ...Curtis did not think a moral boundary was crossed. Later he wondered if people thought it "much more wicked to kill people with a nuclear bomb, than to kill by busting their heads with a rocks. I suppose they believe also that a machine gun is a hundred times wickeder than a bow and arrow" (297).
There is a lot of historical references that Bradely makes in order to relate them back to the incident on Chichi Jima. He goes all the way back to Matthew Perry's Expedition on Chichi Jimi in 1853, and proceeds to other related incidences that have occurred between the US and the Japanese. The drawback of the book was this ineffective approach of trying to draw them all together to present a concise narrative. It may have been helpful if he added a little anthropological evidence on why the Japanese soldiers had a "warrior-like" quality that was somewhat beastly. The last remaining chapters attempts to close this chapter in history, but also suggests that there are more stories that still need to be told.
Flyboys is not only for military history buffs, but anyone who's interested in wanting to understand what WWII was about in the Pacific. It will definitely open your eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Context, not Moral Equivalency
Review: In this informative and well-written book, author James Bradley discusses the hidden history of nine American naval aviators shot down over the Pacific during World War II. Eight of these men were captured, tortured and executed in so morbid a fashion that the government felt it best not to inform their families of the specific nature of their demise. The ninth aviator, Lieutenant J.G. George H. W. Bush was fortuitously rescued and eventually became the forty-first President of the United States. From an historical and a stylistic point of view, this book definitely has its flaws, but it is excellent in spite of them.
Bradley sets the gruesome fate of the eight captured flyboys in the broader historical context of imperial expansion in the Pacific. For more than a century the United States waged wars of extermination within North American and then in the Philippines in order to expand and secure its empire. The Japanese understood this and believed it was perfectly acceptable to do the same thing both in China and the South Pacific. Bradley does not discuss this aspect of American history in order to condemn the United States and to excuse Japan. He does so in order to help explain Japanese attitudes during World War II--attitudes that he by no means agrees with.
Bradley also provides wonderful background on other important topics such as Japan's rapid modernization and the attitudes that accompanied it, the development of aerial and carrier based warfare, the daily life of the average Japanese soldier, and the full spectrum of strategic bombing. It is this last topic that is probably Bradley's most powerful contribution. To the objection of many reviewers, Bradley pulls no punches when discussing the nature of America's strategic bombing policies in Germany and especially in Japan. In addition to destroying military and industrial targets, the goal was to incinerate as many Japanese civilians as possible. In case you doubt it, just read the words of Air Force general Curtis Le May, President Franklin Roosevelt, and several pilots.
Yet this policy was not simply one of murder. American military planners had justifiably come to conclude that unless they murdered civilians en-masse through indiscriminate incendiary bombing, Japan would continue to fight on for years at the cost of considerable American and Japanese civilian lives. I don't like or agree with this policy but at least I understand that there was more to it than wanton killing.
The most powerful aspect of Flyboys is the human side of warfare that Bradley provides. Bradley does an excellent job of showing what kind of people the nine flyboys were, what it was like to be a Japanese soldier executing a Chinese civilian or American pilot, what it felt like to drop incendiary bombs on Japanese civilians, and what it was like to be the victim of American napalm. Readers may find themselves hating the Japanese at one point in the book for torturing and murdering civilians and POWs and then hating the Americans in another for deliberately baking, boiling, and burning all manner of Japanese civilians to death (General Curtis Le May's words, not mine.) They also may be surprised to find themselves sympathizing with Japanese soldiers who did not wish to perform executions and American pilots who found themselves deeply conflicted over bombing civilians. The point is that Bradley strips away many of the cliches of warfare and shows us how complex it actually is when you introduce the human dimension. For me, this departure from the usual self-congratulating accounts of American history in World War II actually made me appreciate America more.
I usually don't like history books that assume a jocular tone as this one does, but somehow it didn't bother me with Flyboys. I learned a lot from this book and I enjoyed reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: apologist
Review: this book was just an apologist for the cruelty the japanese inflicted on their enemies. the author dishonored these men for the book hints that they deserved what they got. the japanese were only imulating and modeling themselves after the united states. i kept reading this book to understand what happened to these men only to get a skewed history lesson on how horrible the united states was in establishing itself as a world power. i hated this book.
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