Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James D. BradleyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
From the title I thought this was a story of plucky airmen in the Pacific in some limited theatre or engagement. I found the hardcover edition on my shelf and flipped through to the photos section which included a lot of atrocity pics, like live bayonetting of captured U.S. personnel. Taking in the audiobook version, I learned the scope here is much more broad: from pre-WW II anti-Christian Japanese sentiment to captured airmen subjected to cruelties including vivisection and cannibalism -- sometimes at the same time. Some key features spanning the entire PTO include the Doolittle Raid and the story of the its missing crews revealed in a February 1946 during a war crimes trial held in Shanghai to try four Japanese officers charged with mistreating the eight captured crewmen. The basis of much of the work is The U.S. Navy War Crimes Commission on Guam (commonly called the Guam war crimes trials). Inter-spliced with the deep background on these crimes is recollections of George H. W. Bush's fighter pilot career. Generally around the crimes is the story of the Pacific Theatre as a successful air war from beginning to nuclear end. A fair amount is laid our that the devastating fire bombing by air would have defeated Japan without resorting to the A-bomb.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment