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 enlarge | Author: James Bradley
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $14.94 (100%)
New (50) Used (233) Collectible (5) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 23845
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0316159433
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.540509528
EAN: 9780316159432
ASIN: 0316159433
Publication Date: September 14, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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| Customer Reviews:
 don't waste your money June 5, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Can't criticize this book strongly enough. It's viciously anti-American and very often at odds with the facts. It tries to draw moral equivalency between the US and Imperial Japan despite the enormous and obvious differences between the two. For example, the book tris to equate the American fire bombing of Japan with the horrific atrocities wantonly committed throughout Asia (particularly in China, Korea, and the PIs) by the Imperial Japanese Army and completely overlooks the obvious difference that the allied civilians who had been so brutally abused had SURRENDERED, while the Japanese civilians killed in the US air raids had not. Another striking difference was the Flyboys -at great risks to their own lives - dropped leaflets before the attacks warning the Japanese civilians to evacuate their cities or face the consequences, while the Imperial Japanese Army did just the opposite and lied to Chinese, Korean and PI civilians in order to concentrate them in a place where their exterminations could be more readily facilitated.
The book also claims that the US bombed defenseless civilians - a flat denial of fact. In fact, the those civilians had radar to tell them of the incoming raids, a formidable array of anti-aircraft batteries, and as well as fighter protection.
As for the claim that it was immoral to bomb Japanese cities independent of the issue of civilian casualities, and that Americans were therefore a being highly hyprocritical, it must be pointed out not only were they valid military targets, but also that their destruction would serve as a warning to future aggressors that such atrocities against US allies would breed retaliation and would not be cost free.
Eqally outrageous is the large number of glaring historical errors the book contains. At one point the book quotes a source who remembered the smell of jet fuel on a US aircraft carrier in WWII?!!!!! FYI: The US had no operational jets in WWII. Similarly, the book quotes a supposed eyewitness to the DoLittle Raid, a British diplomat who was supposedly stationed in Tokyo at the time, despite the fact that Britian would have been at war with Japan for several months by that time.
A far better title for this book would have been FLIGHTS OF FANCY.
Not Just Another War Story May 22, 2008
Definitely a good story of bravery, Flyboys by James Bradley, is a true story with interviews and facts about World War 2 that could change what people used to think about the war in the Pacific.
It is a story about some Navy pilots that were sent in to attack a Japanese radio station on the island of Chichi Jima. It tells of how they were captured and treated on the island, but it is also more than stories of World War 2. It tells the history of the Japanese Empire and how they came to be the warring country that they were.
This book delves deep into the most sinister parts of the Second World War. On one side, it describes how the Japanese treated the Chinese citizens and the American soldiers in some of the most horrific ways such as: killing, mutilating, and even eating their prisoners. Then again, this book describes how the American bombers firebombed the Japanese cities packed full of civilians.
If I had to change something about this book, I would have written less about the trials at the end. The trials seemed to be too repetitive. The author discussed the same facts about the trial repeatedly. This seemed to drag out the trial and this part of the book lacked in interesting facts. Even though this book was choking with unnecessary facts, it was still interesting to read because of the more important details.
I sincerely loved the amount of information in this book. Even the gruesome parts of the book add to the big picture of warfare; not just the bombs and bullets, but the emotional part of it as well. It also has some interesting comparisons such as: the chart that shows some of the Japanese cities that were bombed, which American city they were closest to in population, and how much of the city was destroyed. The whole book really makes you think what might have happened if the situation had been swapped between the Americans and Japanese.
 A note of thanks to the author February 25, 2008
Absolutely marvelous jobl! Every high school student should be required to read this book. I am about to order seven of the books to give to friends and family members. My father died after being shot down while a gunner on a B-24 bomber in March of 1944. As I read the book, I realized - even though he must have experienced some terrible minutes going to his death - how fortunate he was to not have been captured. I also spent some two plus years in Japan as a member of the occupation forces and found the Japanese people to be, like most Americans, sensitive,kind and ashamed of any military personnel and the political leaders who tolerated atrocities of any kind.
Michael Dunne Healy
Flyboy January 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased this book for the aviation story, but received the most unbiased history lesson about the two fighting cultures. We recommend it to all our friends and fellow history buffs.
 Great Story, Odd Revisionism January 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Bradley hit a grand slam home run with "Flags of Our Fathers" but with "Flyboys" he ran a triple into a double. Reviewer Starzec does a fine job of detailing and addressing some of the odd commentary and analysis by Mr. Bradley that marginally taints an otherwise great book so I will not go into detail here. Bradley's writing style engages and flows easily and takes the reader on an emotional course right to the end of the book. This is a heretofore little known story but certainly an important one. This is one for the personal bookshelf. Good read.
Steven Bustin, Author: Humble Heroes, How The USS Nashville CL43 Fought WWII
Humble Heroes: How the USS Nashville Fought WWII
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