Rating: 
Summary: Who's more vicious? U.S. or Japan? Japan wins by a mile!
Review: Author Brady rightly reminds readers that America is not without historical sin. However, the barbaric nature of the Imperial Japanese "Spirit Warriors," and the fanatical, "die to the last man, woman, and child" attitude of the entire Japanese nation, leads me to the conclusion that napalming and nuking Japanese cities was the only way to stop the war that Japan started. How sad to read of the fate of the Flyboys of Chichi Jima. What brave men they were. And, what a great tribute this book is to former President George H. Bush.
Rating: 
Summary: Part Personal History: Part Anti-Western Civilization Lectur
Review: Reviewer David Nicholas hit the "nail on the head" with his review, "Pop History with all its Shortcomings". The individual histories of the American and Japanese servicemen were outstanding - as good as those presented in the author's earlier book, "Flags of Our Fathers". Few will be able to read the personal accounts of George H.W. Bush and others without crying! However, the author spent entirely too much energy explaining why the Japanese atrocities were somewhat justified by the (limited and exaggerated) western democracies' atrocities in the nineteenth century. The author also seemed to completely ignore that America's use of "total war" tactics late in WWII resulted more from the enemies' fanaticism then a national moral failure. This book is not for the faint-hearted. The details of real individual atrocities make "Silence of the Lambs" look like kid's stuff. Also there is a lot of Christian bashing that seems consistent with current American pop culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Stephen Ambrose?
Review: The recently declassified information regarding the Navy fliers downed at Chichi Jima is riveting but is not for the faint of heart. If you cannot watch the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, this book is not for you. Former President Bush's Chichi Jima experience enhances the quality of the text although more information on his missing crewmen would have been interesting. The history lesson on pre-war Japan was too drawn out. Sure, Japanese culture is different from that of the West but we could have gotten a clear picture of this with most of this section edited down. Other key historical context on the air war was left out, for example the British aerial attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto in 1940 which convinced the Japanese that an attack at Pearl Harbor could be successful. Also, the German terror bombing of the English city of Coventry was only briefly mentioned. After this bombing, all the major powers in the war attacked civilian targets which is the major theme at the end of this book. Overall, the book is an interesting read for those who are students of WWII or of modern warfare. Maybe James Bradley will take over where Stephen Ambrose left off?
Rating:
Summary: "What matters is what side you're on"
Review: I am not as schooled in the history of US wars as some of the other reviewers of this book appear to be; perhaps for this reason I take less exception to the author's stance with respect to the barbarity of war in general and his examples of US atrocities (from the preemptive "philosophy" of Manifest Destiny forward) in particular. As Bradley's interview subjects seem to agree in the closing chapter, war drives humans to do dreadful things to one another, and "what matters is what side you're on." For me, the stories of the nine Flyboys provided an engaging frame of human reference for the air war in the Pacific, but I was equally engaged, if not more so, by Bradley's inclusion of addtional narrative layers. His crisp telling of how US airpower came to be such a decisive factor, his survey of barbarism among the various combatant cultures throughout their preceding history, and his documentation of the horror visited on the Japanese mainland by the calculated US firebombing of civilians were stories new to me, seemingly well-researched and end-noted. I learned a lot from the book, and took in a great deal of fodder for future reflection and conversation. I occasionally found myself aggravated at the author's repetition of detail, and at the amount of space he gave to details about the family members of the Flyboys. These are small quibbles, though. For me, the book was well worth my time.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: This is an extraordinary book! I spent two weeks reading it, and I have just been blown away. I had no knowledge of what went on at Chichi Jima. The story in this book has just recently 1997 been declassified by the US government. I laughed, got mad, and cried reading this outstanding story of the flyboys. It will definately make you see the war through other peoples' eyes.
Rating:
Summary: While there are two sides to every story...
Review: that does not make them equal. James Bradley has written an excellent account of WWII in the Pacific, from the standpoint of the men who were the true instruments in the destruction of Japan's evil empire, if not it's emperor. If not for the sneaky suspicion that Mr. Bradley was making too great an attempt to distribute blame for the war in the Pacific - comparing U.S. & Western Imperialism, naked aggression against undeveloped countries, and just flat being a product of genocide (a couple hundred years prior to 1942), "Flyboys" is an otherwise excellent read. The persistent underlying tone in this book is one of terror-against-terror... In fact, General Curtis LeMay actually believed he would have been tried as a war criminal had the U.S. lost. The book's primary theme centered on the lives of a few kids who (including GHW Bush), after successfully surviving flight school, were sent to attack islands in the Pacific, in advance of heavy bombers sent to burn Japanese cities to the ground - to destroy the will of the Japanese. Oh, and to destroy the Japanese industrial complex, that was fully disbursed within the civilian population. The interesting (if grotesque) facts presented by Mr. Bradley (provided they are so), answered many long burning questions in my mind. I'd understood that the Japanese soldier was conditioned to fight-or-die, but I never understood the Japanese leadership mentality that was ultimately responsible for the deaths of more Japanese soldiers and civilians than any American. As history of the Pacific air campaign, in microcosm, I trust Mr. Bradley got it right. As a history of the bigger picture, I concede many points, but making the comparisons and semi-justifications, that he did, cannot have endeared him to many American readers. All in all, a book worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: "I am what I am"
Review: To borrow a phrase from the times. This book is simply a good way to read about stories that we need to hear. It is what it is and need not be judged as something it does not pretend to be. We of the baby boom generation grew up with silent fathers. Not much of this was ever discussed within our hearing. Those men believed that what happened in the Pacific should stay there. I know the complaints against popularized history and implied irreverence that are raised against this text by the professionals have some merit, but this book is not for that group. Nor is it just feel good, salute the flag patriotism, of the post Desert Storm era. It speaks about the costs , personal, moral and social, of war. Not Vietnam, but "the Good War." And it shows us that war is not a sanitary sport with umpires calling fouls. Real people, real innocents inevitably suffer. Real soldiers suffer. In an age of personalized agonies on television (sattelite reporters imbedded in combat, showing the pain of the individual) we are apt to either over personalize to the degree that we forget the great atrocities our troops fight against or to become desensitized to pain and suffering in a sort of body-count numbness. This book runs counter to that. It shows the actuality of heroism and it shows the horror of the situations which engendered it. Some of that horror so bad that it was classified, even in an age of propeganda. All in all, it is an easy read, referenced but not academic, but it is a disturbing read. It shows what people are capable of doing. And I must say, I have much more respect for all the "boys" of 41 -46.
Rating: 
Summary: Falls Prey to multi-cultural myths
Review: James Bradley does present a legitimate look at a minor battle.
His prose is easy to read and to a certain degree engaging. When
he sticks to the historical account of Chici Jima he probably
gets the story right, and provides valuable information to the
reader. Unfortunatly I can't say much postive about the rest of
the book. Bradley falls trap to the typical multi-cultural trap
of assuming a lot of negatives about American history and postulating that other nations attrocities were justified by
attrocities Americans committed in the past as well. While we
have legitimatly done some horrible things in the past, like the
Sand Creek Massacre he implies that such events were frequent
and comprable to what the Japanese did to the Chinese and Americican prisoners in the Pacific theatre. This seems a jump
in logic to this reader and smacks of an almost American self-loathing. In addition the book is just plain depressing. The
accounts of cannabilism were almost too unbearable to read
about especially those that occured in New Guinea.
Rating:
Summary: A Spellbinding Read
Review: This book is a must read. Mr. Bradley has done an incredible amount of research in preparation for telling the sad story of eight young American pilots during history's most brutal war. As for the criticisms made by other reviewers regarding his supposed anti-American bias. Let me just say that I am a patriotic American. I love this country. And as such, I understand the criticisms of the author's decision to attempt to draw parallel with the expansion of America, the Filipino rebellion, and certain actions of American soldiers in WWII as equal to the outright barbarity of the Japanese Army. However, I think their criticisms miss the mark. Mr. Bradley seems unequivocably on the American side. He is not defending or rationalizing Japanese barbarity towards the Chinese, Koreans, Allied troops, etc. I feel he is merely trying to teach us why the Japanese, in their minds, felt they were justified in starting the war, pillaging much of Asia, and treating POW's with such malice. He does not excuse their misguided judgments, but at least helps us to understand WHY they may have thought that way. I, for one, appreciated the effort. I didn't always agree, but I figure that was the point, because although the Japanese had their point of view, I wouldn't have agree with it back then, any more than I do now. This is a phenomenal book that is much more than just the story of 8 Flyboys.
Rating:
Summary: Very Balanced and Fair (and Shocking)
Review: As the reviews on this site indicate, most American mass media book buyers are unfamiliar with and simply refuse to accept that the American military committed many acts of barbarity and several acts of outright terrorism to win the war with Japan. In my view (and the view of the author), these acts were completely justifed. Flyboys tells the remarkably savage and brutal tale of the Japanese mistreatment and murder of 8 fighter pilots over the South Pacific in the last year of World War II. What the book brilliantly does is place that savagery in context, exploring Japan-American relations over the last two centuries, and reflecting on how the Japanese military perverted ancient Japanese codes of conduct to justify a war of aggression. Apparently, many reviewers cannot possibly even entertain the author pointing out that America also expanded across the continent and elsewhere by aggressively conducting war (against the Mexicans, the Spanish, Native Americans etc.), or that American leaders responded to Japanese barbarity by dehumanizing the enemy and by firebombing major urban Japanese population centers. Not only that, FDR blatantly covered up the civilian targets and deaths with euphemistic language and insistence that the bombs dropped were intended for military targets only, not civilian population centers. Of course, given the nature of the enemy resistance, the reader is not led to conclude that the firebombs were illegitimate means to end the war. Rather, they were necessary to save massive American casualties from a ground invasion of Japan. The author treats this subject very fairly and does a masterful job of putting the decisions made by our leaders in context, with solid historical sourcing. To me, this effort to place the primary story in historical context is one of the best features of the book. The book is meticulously researched, and every fact recounted is supported by citation and documentation. The book is a brutal and horrific look at the Pacific war, and is unforgettable. You will be very moved by the end of this book, and will look at the veterans of the Pacific war with new-found respect and admiration for a difficult job performed with unusual bravery and courage.
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