Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, James Bradley

Last year I read James Bradley's other excellent book, Flags of our Fathers about his father's participation in the famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima. Flyboys, his second book, is about the air war in the Pacific and particularly about the fate of downed navy airmen on the nearby island of Chichi Jima. One of the lucky ones was a young Lieutenant J.G. named George who was rescued by a submarine even as the Japanese were coming out to capture him in his life raft. George survived the war and went on to become the 41st president of the United States.

In this day and age, much has been made of rules of appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Bradley's book reminds me of the truth that I tell my children:

In war, the victors write the histories and hold the war crimes trials.

This is a compelling book, Bradley writes in a style that illuminates and challenges at the same time. I thought I knew about the Pacific war until I read this book.

The disoriented author is too young to have any personal memories of World War II. Even my father was just a little too young to serve. As a Jamaican he would have served in the British Armed forces. My mother however is from Guam.

Guam is on the other side of the international dateline. December 8th 1941 my mother was in a church program dressed as an angel complete with wings when the bombing started. Japan was garrisoned by 50 U.S. Marines and about the same number of lightly armed Guam guardsmen. The Japanese attacked in force and before long Guam was occupied. My mother spent the war being marched from camp to camp, hiding from the Japanese because she and her brother spoke English as their primary language.

Bradley's book  starts out from a perspective I found intriguing. He describes in rather sympathetic terms the reasons leading up to war from the Japanese side. Bradley starts with First Contact — the visit of Commodore Perry to Japan the mid 19th century. Japan he notes was late to join the Imperial club. When the Japanese finally made forays into Russia and China, the imperial nations of the West criticized them and forced them to give up their territorial gains.

Bradley also describes the militarization of Japanese society which is um paralleled in recant history. Most Americans have forgotten that Japan was fighting the Chinese years before Pearl Harbor. The Japaneses carried out a brutal scorched earth campaign in China. The Japanese committed what Westerners define as atrocities throughout the Pacific coast of Asia culminating in the Rape of Nanking.

This book details for the first time the fate of six captured flyers on Chichi Jima. The numbers alone are staggering. More people died from the allied fireboming (using conventional napalm) in Japan were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The most memorable thread in this book is the atrocities committed upon the young American flyers. Torture murder and finally cannibalism. The warrior class that ruled Japan was committed to fight to the last Japanese man woman  and child.

At first I thought that Bradley had written an anti-American book. As I read further, I no understand that Bradley is an inquisitive, sensitive writer who understands that the war was necessary. Bradleys book definitely paints the picture that war is hell.

For those of us who have not had to live through a war, this book is an education.

Flyboys gets 5 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

Purchase Flyboys from Amazon.com.