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Flyboys: A True Story of Courage

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 5,878 ratings · 572 reviews

FLYBOYS is the true story of young American airmen who were shot down over Chichi Jima. Eight of these young men were captured by Japanese troops and taken prisoner. Another was rescued by an American submarine and went on to become president. The reality of what happened to the eight prisoners has remained a secret for almost 60 years. After the war, the American and Japa...more

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published September 30th 2003 by Little, Brown and Company (first published 2003)

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Jun 17, 2008 Luke rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was a gift from my brother and I read it while laid up in bed with an injury.

First let me get my one minor complaint out of the way, as the book truly was exceptional. The author, James Bradley, could have spun a more cohesive storyline, but instead he prefered to jump somewhat willy-nilly between the past and present, and the here and there. I recall telling someone that I was reading this book when I was about halfway through it, and I was also going to tell them what it was about,...more This book was a gift from my brother and I read it while laid up in bed with an injury.

First let me get my one minor complaint out of the way, as the book truly was exceptional. The author, James Bradley, could have spun a more cohesive storyline, but instead he prefered to jump somewhat willy-nilly between the past and present, and the here and there. I recall telling someone that I was reading this book when I was about halfway through it, and I was also going to tell them what it was about, but I stopped myself short because I wasn't quite sure yet. What was the story? He starts off with ancient history and moves from this and that and although we know generally that we are supposed to come to the fate of some American airmen, their stories are actually just one more piece in a jumbled collection of smaller stories.

However, this is a minor complaint indeed because each of these individual stories in the jumbled collection is so intriguing and spell-binding that the book is nearly impossible to put down. Indeed, the accounts of the individual "Flyboys" themselves paled somewhat in comparison to all the "sturm und drang" surrounding them.

Of particular interest was the history of Japanese-American political contact from Commodore Perry's visit in the 18th century to the start of the second World War. I never found this history taught to me as a child and it went a long way towards making Pearl Harbor a somewhat explicable occurance. As a child one gets the impression Japan just up and decided to bomb us one day for the fun of it, or rather, due to their evil-ness. But aside from the morality of the attack, I was fascinated with its genesis.

Speaking of morality, Mr. Bradley goes to great lengths to detail in equal portions the atrocities committed by both the Japanese and the Americans. His not-so-subtle point seems, at times, to be that we are both the same in war. However in balance he still leans a bit towards a typically American view of things. For example, while he relates equally the bad, from reading the book one might get the impression that Americans were the only ones with derring-do or uncommon bravery. Part of this can be excused since that is pretty much the topic of his book, and undoubtedly also because Japanese stories are much more difficult to come by.

It is always interesting to me in all the war books I have read how hubris, inflexibility, and rigid adherence to tradition have such an impact on outcomes. The Americans and Japanese both suffered from these limiting tendencies, only the Japanese had the worst case of it. So many thousands and millions of coincidences and interacting situations contribute to the final result of any war, but I would be tempted to say the three things listed above have a major if not primary influence in the end. Japan was a small, island nation that could never have matched the US in productive capacity; nevertheless it is quite possible with certain successes they could have sued or negotiated for a quite favorable position in the end. Size or productive capacity is not everything, but in addition to their intrinsic constraints they added managerial blunder after blunder - a losing combination if ever there was one. (less)

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Oct 28, 2008 Joseph rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Joseph by: My dad

This book literally changed my view of the world. I was amazed, shocked, disgusted, astounded and inspired. This is one of those books that gives you a different perspective on history than the one you receive in school and it turned my perception of the world on its head (in a good way.)
If you've never wondered how horrific tragedies are perpetrated on mankind, you are like probably 95% of the rest of the civilized world, and you should probably read this book. This is a bit of history that sh...more

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Oct 05, 2009 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't give out 5 stars too often, and this one should get a six. The stories in this book had to be told, and they had to be told in a particular way. Bradley does a masterful job in relating the horrific details of what happened to 8 U.S. pilots on a speck of earth called Chichi Jima. The fact that this island is not a WWII household place name such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, or Dunkirk is by design: the tale was kept secret by the U.S. military. However, I'm surprised Bradley never revealed t...more I don't give out 5 stars too often, and this one should get a six. The stories in this book had to be told, and they had to be told in a particular way. Bradley does a masterful job in relating the horrific details of what happened to 8 U.S. pilots on a speck of earth called Chichi Jima. The fact that this island is not a WWII household place name such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, or Dunkirk is by design: the tale was kept secret by the U.S. military. However, I'm surprised Bradley never revealed the best part: Chichi Jima means "tits island" (owing to its two prominent mountains)!

These stories, and the greater context in which they played out, will stay with me for a long, long time. I couldn't stop reading despite the rapid descent into unthinkable atrocities committed by nations and individuals on each other. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. I'll spare those details here. What is important is that Bradley is using primary sources. He interviews the individuals who witnessed, or even committed, the crimes related. This book is not propaganda based on 5th hand accounts of war crimes. These things happened and cannot be denied. I always try not to stand in judgment of things I did not witness especially when it's over 6 decades removed from the events. But that is a challenge with this one.

To be honest, when my dad first recommended this book to me and I read the covers, I thought great, more overly patriotic "America: World Police" as in what South Park creators poke fun at ("America, F- yeah! Gonna save the motherf-n' world yeah!"). On the contrary, Bradley gives insightful context and pulls no punches in his depiction of both the Japanese and Americans. He doesn't gloss over the strafing of schools and hospitals by U.S. pilots or the nightmarish details of firebombings of major cities (Bradley points out the British and American strongly condemned the Germans and Japanese for bombing city centers as uncivilized barbarism, then proceeded to do the same on a much larger scale and with complete air superiority under the euphemistic term "strategic bombing"). I'm still extremely disturbed and angered at my own ignorance of the American war on Filipinos from 1898-1902 which killed an estimated 250,000 civilians. To illustrate, one U.S. general ordered, "Kill everyone over ten years of age" as a policy for clearing villages in the Philippines. Throughout history when the West (U.S., Britain, France, etc.) wanted something (oil, sugar, labor, farm lands) they took it regardless of its lands being inhabited or if the "barbarous" locals had the audacity to rebel or reject the colonists' god (e.g. American Indians, Chinese, basically the entire African continent). Japan being a latecomer, felt they were only doing what others have done to build empire and why should the West complain? Their mistake was in being non-white.

This book has really left me torn. I had always been aware of the Japanese atrocities: Bataan death march, Rape of Nanking, horrendous death camps. But reading the first hand accounts was still shocking. I've always felt balanced. I have Japanese and haole ancestry. One great-uncle died for the U.S. while serving in his segregated unit, the AJA 100th Infantry Battalion. My other great-uncle survived the Bataan death march only to succumb to disease and starvation later on in the Japanese prison camp. I spent two and a half years living in Japan and met many veterans of the war. I've always held to the belief that these were extraordinary times and conscripted Japanese regulars were only slightly better off than their enemies or conquered subjects. But this book still shook my faith. Could the people I know have really done these things? On a broader level, how could the Japanese culture, even in its grotesquely twisted form as created by the militarists, have generated such horror? On the one hand I know the Japanese to be so simple and peaceful, just barely separated from our roots in nature (If have you seen Pom Poko, that anime film really captures that side of Japanese culture). Shinto is such beautiful and simple animism more akin to Native American and African religions than anything else in principle if not in practice. On the other hand are the tales in this book.

But there was something much worse for me in reading this book. I can't help but feel that equally horrendous things are occurring today right under our noses, and that these crimes will repeat themselves over and over again. Not until these terrible kinds of things happen again to people we care about (i.e. white Americans) will we ever hear about them. Knowledge of horror and survivor guilt will not be enough to prevent further acts of atrocity. (less)

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Jan 29, 2008 Susie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

James Bradley offers an amazing overview of the Pacific War and the impact America's commitment to an aerial war made upon its victory. I appreciate Bradley's ability to examine the war from both the America and Japanese perspective. He does not gloss over the American atrocities of strafing innocent fishermen, firebombing Japanese cities, and even dropping the atomic bombs. He does, however, also paint a clear picture of the Japanese world view, impressing upon his reader's the importance of un...more

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Mar 03, 2009 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

There were several times in this book where I had to tune it out. Learning of the atrocities committed by the Japanese commanders on United States Navy pilots was enough to make me sick.

James Bradley plunges into the stories of several young American naval pilots who attempted to dive-bomb and destroy the Japanese communications outpost on the island of Chichi-jima, an island 600 miles due south of Tokyo and 150 miles away from Iwo-jima. He does a wonderful job of describing the lives of the pil...more There were several times in this book where I had to tune it out. Learning of the atrocities committed by the Japanese commanders on United States Navy pilots was enough to make me sick.

James Bradley plunges into the stories of several young American naval pilots who attempted to dive-bomb and destroy the Japanese communications outpost on the island of Chichi-jima, an island 600 miles due south of Tokyo and 150 miles away from Iwo-jima. He does a wonderful job of describing the lives of the pilots prior to their enlistment in the Navy and, as a result, does a mighty fine job documenting the rise of naval aviation and the use of aircraft in war.

Bradley doesn't present a one-sided story, either. He was able to paint both sides of what happened to some of the "flyboys" who had the misfortune of being shot down over this Pacific hell, and of the enlisted Japanese infantry whose duty it was to defend the island under a doctrine of fear, instilled by the abusive, dictator-like Japanese commanders.

Bradley also details the use of incendiary bombs through retelling the destruction of Tokyo; this was the first true test of napalm. With passages including such details as:

(R)ivers of fire flowed down the streets. Canals boiled and humans burst spontaneously into flames, blazing like matchsticks. People's heads exploded in the heat, the liquid brains in their burst skulls bubbling an eerie fluorescence..."

set the tone of the hellish nightmares that war, of any kind, creates. It is also worth noting that the bombing of Tokyo killed more people in a single-day than those killed by the atomic bomb at Nagasaki. Only the death toll from the atomic destruction at Hiroshima would surpass--just slightly surpass--the number dead from the incendiary bombing.

Two final notes: during trials after the war, the atrocities carried out by the Japanese commanders were uncovered and the officers responsible were court-martialed and subsequently executed; and one of the pilots who was shot down over Chichi-jima was Lieutenant George H. W. Bush, who was rescued by the USS Finback, an American submarine.(less)

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Feb 02, 2009 Ryk rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 16, 2013 Jordan Murphy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Flyboys, by James Bradley is a novel that tells the story of the American pilots that flew over the pacific in WWII. The book follows a series of different pilots, bombers, and navigators including former President, George Bush. The books thoroughly tells each of there experiences both flying and in some cases of there capture and/or death. Flyboys is an excellent example of a book that can be read both for enjoyment and the opportunity the book provides to learn the truth about war, specificall...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Christopher Covino rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Flyboys

Flyboys by James Bradley is an excellent book that chronicles an untold story of World War II. Bradley also wrote Flags of our Fathers, a book about the men who fought on Iwo Jima. Flyboys tells the story of ChiChi Jima, a sister island of Iwo Jima. The Island of ChiChi Jima was a strategic island for the U.S in their Island Hopping Campaign. It would allow them to knock out Japanese communication and Anti-Air craft weapons so they could assault the Island of Iwo Jima. When the story of...more Flyboys

Flyboys by James Bradley is an excellent book that chronicles an untold story of World War II. Bradley also wrote Flags of our Fathers, a book about the men who fought on Iwo Jima. Flyboys tells the story of ChiChi Jima, a sister island of Iwo Jima. The Island of ChiChi Jima was a strategic island for the U.S in their Island Hopping Campaign. It would allow them to knock out Japanese communication and Anti-Air craft weapons so they could assault the Island of Iwo Jima. When the story of Iwo Jima is told, ChiChi Jima is often left out. Until Bradley released the book, no one knew about the terrible happenings of Brave men who flew over that Island.

The book begins with a build up of the war. From Pearl Harbor to the American bombing campaigns over Japan and China. When the war first started Japan attack the U.S Naval base at Pearl Harbor, The U.S then struck back by bombing Japanese targets. The brave men who ran these bombing runs barely survived, some didn’t. They took off during a typhoon from an Aircraft Carrier. They took off further away from the target than they anticipated and barely made it to the target. As they were leaving they were low on gas and couldn’t make it back to the ship. The only place to land was in China, this meant they would have to cross the ocean and hope they could make it to the coast. They made it with the help of a tail wind and were rescued by Friendly Chinese forces. Learning about the early parts of the war was extremely interesting, but I do not think it was needed to get to the point of the book.

The book next goes talks about the pilots who ran bombing runs over ChiChi Jima. One of them was President George H.W. Bush. I thought this was very interesting. You would think that if a president played a major role in a battle in the Pacific you would hear more about the battle but it was still shrouded in secrecy. Bush went to Princeton and then joined the Navy to fly plains. He was one of the six pilots who attacked the Island. Bush was shot down along with his co-pilot into the water around the island; He was able to get into a raft and later saved. Other pilots like Warren Earl Vaughn were not so lucky. What happened to him and these other men on the island is completely mind-boggling.

The book is centered around the events of ChiChi Jima but there is a lot of build up to get to the events, and a lot of back and forth between the events of ChiChi Jima and other parts of the war like the advancement of American aircraft. The book is full of facts about the war and details other battles like Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. I learned a lot about the war in the Pacific by reading this book. It is always nice to read the stories of the people who give their lives for our freedom, especially the forgotten ones.

I highly recommend this book to anybody who enjoys history. I enjoyed the book as whole. It had a good plot and told a story of heroic men that few people had ever heard before. The stories of these men deserved to be told, and when you read what happened to them on this island You will have a new found respect for all service members, and you may even be disturbed that a group of people could do such horrible things. James Bradley did a good thing for these men, he told their story. The stories of thousands of service men and women like them will never be told. This book gives these men a voice.

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Feb 09, 2013 Jason Phillips rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

James Bradley's fine effort, "Flyboys," packs the same punch of reality that his previous book did. He could have merely profiled the brave pilots captured and tortured on Chichi Jima, and spent lavish time and attention on one Chichi Jima survivor, former president George H.W. Bush. It could have turned into an oral history, without much meat, but Bradley hits a home run here on several fronts.

First, he goes into detail on the conditions of the times, the era in which these men lived, fought an...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Chris Jean added it · review of another edition

I have read the book “FlyBoys” by James Bradley. Flyboys is about 9 American pilot that were shot down over the island of Chichi. The book also talks about the American and Japanese relationship. The Author of Flyboys is James Bradley who mostly writes about historical nonfiction. He also has other books such as Flags of our father. While reading flyboys I Learned that no matter how hard life gets you can never give up. You always need To fight on.

There are many things I like about the book. I l...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Kevin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Flyboys: A True Story of Courage" by James Bradley is a gripping book. "All these years I had this nagging feeling these guys wanted their story told." This is the first thing you read as you turn to the first chapter; and the story does just that, with vivid and colorful words. This book is a non-fiction book, and talks about nine young American pilots, Navy and Marine Corps and how they were shot down in the island of Chichi Jima, and were taken prisoner by the Japanese. When I was reading t...more "Flyboys: A True Story of Courage" by James Bradley is a gripping book. "All these years I had this nagging feeling these guys wanted their story told." This is the first thing you read as you turn to the first chapter; and the story does just that, with vivid and colorful words. This book is a non-fiction book, and talks about nine young American pilots, Navy and Marine Corps and how they were shot down in the island of Chichi Jima, and were taken prisoner by the Japanese. When I was reading this book I didn't want to but the book down, it was breath taking.

Like I said in the first paragraph, this is a non-fiction book. So, there is no main theme to this book, however its more of what can we learn from our history so we don't repeat it. James Bradley does such a great job making the reader visualize and understand what happens in each chapter. For example in chapter five, The Rape of China; Mr. Bradley paints a very gruesome and bloody view of what the Japanese used to do to the Chinese back in the mid 1940's.

In the book the author talks about the pilots in general and do not go into talking about them individually. However, what is said in the book is enough to give you a good idea of how they thought, acted and even how they felt. Witch makes you feel like your one of the pilots.

The book takes place mostly in China, Japan, and America. In the beginning of the book it also talks about the west expansion. Then later goes on talking about the fist time Americans visited Japan, and how Japan did horrible things to China, and talks about other events leading up to the Pacific War. This part in time and the next century or so will lead to one of the most bloodiest battles in all of history.

"Flyboys: A True Story of Courage" talks about many things starting with the western expansion and moving through other major events leading to this devastating war. However, the main story in this book is about nine young American pilots, Navy and Marine Corps, and how they were trying to do a bombing run to Japanese communication towers in the island of Chichi Jima. During there bombing run they were shot out of the sky and taken as prisoners by the Japanese soldiers. The book then tells you of the hardship of these brave and heroic military pilots on the island of Chichi Jima.

I'm not a big reader, but I am a big naval aviator enthusiast. That why this book had caught my attention. This book reminds me of every other naval aviation book I've read, because they are all about hardship, motivation, dedication, and most of all the journey and thrill of being a navy pilot. I've read a couple of books about pilots and flying, but this one is in the top three.

I recommend this book to any aviation enthusiast or anyone looking for a good but somewhat challenging read.(less)

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May 22, 2012 Nicole Green rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Flyboys is an amazing book. As a World War II buff, I was excited to read this because it was one of the most guarded secrets in military history, especially when it included one of our nation's presidents, George H.W. Bush. I feel that Flyboys should be mandatory reading for any history course, especially if the main topic of the class is World War II.

Not only did James Bradley do his homework, he did extra-credit too. Flyboys isn't just about the flyboys of World War II, it's about the Japanes...more

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Mar 28, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: completed

Absolutely the BEST BOOK (outside of the Bible) I have ever read in my life. The author offers an informative and balanced viewpoint of the horrors of war and great injustices done by both the Japanese and the Allies during the Pacific portion of World War II. The author exposes hypocrisy on both sides, describes GREAT courage, and provides insight into the Japanese "fight-to-the-death" mentality demonstrated that from an American cultural mindset is beyond comprehension (at least for me it was...more Absolutely the BEST BOOK (outside of the Bible) I have ever read in my life. The author offers an informative and balanced viewpoint of the horrors of war and great injustices done by both the Japanese and the Allies during the Pacific portion of World War II. The author exposes hypocrisy on both sides, describes GREAT courage, and provides insight into the Japanese "fight-to-the-death" mentality demonstrated that from an American cultural mindset is beyond comprehension (at least for me it was until I read this exciting and powerful book)..

The story is about a number of downed flyers.. A number of them did not return from the war and what actually happened to them (the most horrorific thing I have ever read in non-fiction) is concealed from their families for many, many years. Some of their families were destroyed and one of them lived to be the president of the United States.

The author truly educated me as to the causes of the war in the Pacific. Rather than simply being crass Japanese aggression, we are introduced to Japan's Imperialistic growth and the rise of a militant obsession, in which the Japanese felt that they were only doing what other European nations had done before them. The author shows how the Japanese excused their conduct in the Pacific by pointing at the United States' domination of the North American continent, the extermination of the American Indian, and the muscle flexing in the Caribbean and South America.

The author also exposes the hypocrisy of the American government during this period. Roosevelt condemned bombing of civilan areas in 1938-- but quickly applied the same practice to the war in Europe. By the time the Pacific War had advanced-- burning down entire cities with Napalm became a stated goal of the Allies...

At the same time-- the author points the reader to the fact that the Japanese truly planned to fight to the death and the estimates of losses that Allied troops would take if they attempted to land troops on the Japanese homeland. The author, acknowledges the awful facts of bombing an area filled with civilans with Napalm bombs (which killed MANY MANY more people than both Atomic bomb blasts combined) as a necessity to bring about an ending to the war.

Patton once said something about War being a situation where two sons-of-bitches go into a fight with the object being to kill the other son-of-a-bitch before he kills you. This book acknowledges the atrocities of war, the hurt, loss, sorrow, the laying aside of basic humanity and human decency in order to overcome the other guy who is doing the same.

This book is the first book that literally left me sobbing.... I was grieved over the loss of human life. I was grieved, yet I honored the courage of our flyboys. These were real people, put in unreal times, to do unimaginable things, that had to be done.

I look forward to the day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and peace will reign forever. Until then, I am blessed to know that we have men who have stood in harm's way, taken action that hurt their hearts and troubled their souls, and defended our nation and our way of life with all they had.

I truly believe that this book is a must read. I can tell that Bradley started off to write about the horrors perpetrated by Japanese forces, but was moved to a more balanced approach.. and I think God he offered a balanced book that explained, without excusing, any of the parties involved.

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Feb 03, 2012 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At 2am this morning i woke up, unable to sleep. This happens every now and then, enough that i am used to it. Realizing after five or ten minutes that i would not fall back asleep i grabbed this book. I had been picking it up just about every night, reading it, and going to sleep. It was a good book, often keeping me awake to at least finish the chapter. Tonight was different.
After maybe a half hour, all i could think, in stereotypical 2012 fashion, was "OMG, WTHFH!" (OH MY GOD! WHAT THE FUCKI...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Relstuart rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-do-not-recommend, history

Post-Modern. First off this is kind of garbled. You start out learning there is some secret trial during WWII. Just when that starts to get interesting all the sudden we are subjected to a chapter of how American's have a history of committing atrocities and wiping out the Indians starting from the very beginning of Western civilization coming to the New World.

Then we get a history lesson on Japan and then a chapter on Japanese atrocities. Japan committed terrible terrible atrocities on the Chi...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Tyler Duffy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Flyboys by James Bradley is a national bestseller, and for good reason. The book follows each Floboy's individual story, most of whose stories were kept a tight lipped secret for over 60 years. The Flyboys were nineteen, twenty, twenty one year olds that chose to serve, enlisting in the US Air Force, a new branch of military that had few supporters and many skeptics. Bradley begins with a backdrop of Japan, the invasion and Rape of China, and the race to catch up to the Western Powers threatenin...more Flyboys by James Bradley is a national bestseller, and for good reason. The book follows each Floboy's individual story, most of whose stories were kept a tight lipped secret for over 60 years. The Flyboys were nineteen, twenty, twenty one year olds that chose to serve, enlisting in the US Air Force, a new branch of military that had few supporters and many skeptics. Bradley begins with a backdrop of Japan, the invasion and Rape of China, and the race to catch up to the Western Powers threatening the Motherland. Japanese propganda spread like wildfire, and Bradley descrives how Japan did in 80 years what other coutnries had been doing for centuries. He shifts his story into the 1930's, when the thought of planes being but to military use was preposterous, where the "third dimension" would never be the key component in war.
Then Pearl Harbor absolutely shocks the nation. Youth across the United States rushed to sign up, and the more adventurous ones enlist in the Air Force. This is when the individual stories of each boy begins. Bradley devotes different sections of the book to each Flyboy, including former president George H. W. Bush, and his tale. Bradley starts with the stories given to the public, about the dogfights and bombings, but then singles out the individual pilots and illuminates the brutally true and tragic tales about what happened after they survived their crash. It took 60 years of uncovering to reveal the harrowing stories of the nine airmen that were shot down in the Pacific.
I connected with Flyboys, but not really. I might never nedure the anguish of knowing I am about to fly my final mission and not being able to tell my parents goodbye, or writing my last letter to a loved one. I might never endure the grief of not knowing if my son was alive or dead, or just "MIA", never receiving the final letter his cruel captors never mailed. What I do know is that I felt as close to the actual loss as possible, through the gripping, intricately and perfectly weaved threads of this story, but even "story" isn't really the right word. This book was a movie that etched itself in my memory, which showed me a side of war we all think we know. If it is possible to write an experience, then that is exactly what James Bradley did.

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Jul 28, 2011 Albert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this because I enjoyed the movies based on Bradley's World War II narratives, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. This book is different in that it deals with war atrocities that eclipse those portrayed in his previous books. It narrates the true story of the very young navy pilots (most of them 19 years old) -- flyboys -- who participated in the dive-bombing of Chichi Jima island in the latter months of World War II. The main story is about the flyboys that got captured durin...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard to know what to say about Flyboys. It's the kind of book that everyone should read, and yet there are things about it that I wish I hadn't read and didn't know, and I don't want to inflict that information on anyone either. Non-fiction, about what happened on a tiny island a few miles from Iwo Jima during WWII. 8 flyboys (pilots and other air-personnel like navigators and radiomen) survived being shot down at various times near the island. 7 parachuted near enough the island to be brou...more

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Feb 28, 2011 Ben Brenneman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fly boys was a great read. In fly boys the story revolves around eight men that become fly boys in world war II. seven of these eight were captured and the one that wasn't happened to be George W. Bush who later became the President of the United States. This story told the stories of the eight heroic men who played a huge part in the war. Fly boys were the ones that paved a path right through the war for the ground troops. These men did the impossible by taking off of a naval carrier in the mid...more

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Nov 20, 2010 Joshua rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

This riveting, hard to read in places non-fiction book attempts to tell the story of what if was like to be a pilot for the USA in the Pacific campaign during WW2. It also deals a lot with Japan, their culture and the "spirit warriors" that made their soldiers infamous for sacrificing themselves for the emperor. They are also known for a lot of horrific things they did during WW2--millions raped and killed in China, encouraged beheadings and torture and mass cannibalism! American soldiers weren'...more

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Aug 06, 2009 JBradford rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have contended that books should not get a 5-star rating unless they are must read books; this is a must read. There are many people who will bypass this book because it is about an old war, not worthy of their interest. Many others will put it down without finishing it because it is, as the lady who loaned it to me said, rather gruesome. Both of those types should read it, however, because it is full of hard truths about the nature of man in general, and about the nature of men at war in part...more I have contended that books should not get a 5-star rating unless they are must read books; this is a must read. There are many people who will bypass this book because it is about an old war, not worthy of their interest. Many others will put it down without finishing it because it is, as the lady who loaned it to me said, rather gruesome. Both of those types should read it, however, because it is full of hard truths about the nature of man in general, and about the nature of men at war in particular, and because it sheds some light on things that our government and our culture have tried to keep in the dark.

I have not seen Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, and I was unaware of the fact that the movie is in fact based on a book, which I also have not read. James Bradley was the author of that book, which he wrote largely after becoming intrigued with the story of his father, who was one of the six servicemen who raised the flag over Iwo Jima, an act that was caught by a photographer in one of the most famous pictures ever published. Having done that, Bradley wanted to find a new subject, and he found it when a mutual friend suggested he contact a retired lawyer in Iowa--who just happened to have been involved in the legal proceedings of a war trial held in a hanger on Guam some 60-plus years ago. The records of that trial had been sealed by the authorities of that time, but much of that information had subsequently been declassified, and the lawyer had collected a stack of documentation over the years, which he made available to Bradley. Bradley then engaged in a two-year research that took him all over the world, interviewing survivors and relations of those who did not survive concerning events that took place on the island of Chichi Jima in 1945, when eight American airmen were captured by Japanese stationed on that island.

Like most Americans, I am sure, I had never heard of Chichi Jima--or, if I heard of it back in those days, and I am sure I did, never bothered to keep it in mind. ChiChi Jima is a very small island (about twice as large as New York City’s Central Park, Bradley reports), located not quite midway between Iwo Jima and Japan. As World War II ground down to its final close, ten American airmen of various ranks approached the island from different planes that were shot down in the grueling task of bringing the war home to the Japanese. One of those ten was a pilot who managed to get into a rubber raft and keep himself out at sea long enough to be picked up by an American submarine; his name was George Herbert Walter Bush. The other nine airmen, however, were captured by the Japanese and taken prisoner. This book is about what happened to them on that island, in a real sense, but it is much more than that. Bradley introduces us to these men as teenaged boys and provides a detailed account of how they all wound up on the island and what happened to them there, but he also provides an intriguing summary history of how the Japanese and American cultures of that time came into being, of how it happened that Japan and America were fighting a war at that time, how men at war behaved, and how their political leaders behaved. More than that, however, Bradley also provides an insight into the thinking of several people involved in both sides of that struggle, as they look back from the viewpoint of some 60 years later. Bradley provides an index at the rear of the book listing more than a hundred books and articles used as reference material for this history, along with a list of hundreds of quotations scattered through the book, with at least one on almost every page of the book. Finally, Bradley has provided a large number of interesting pictures to help the reader understand what these different people were like and how they interacted as they did.

Bradley writes with an interesting style, using short, terse sentences. I found the book an excellent read, and I recommend it to all who have not read it. It meant something different to me than it will to most readers, because I was remembering the propaganda that we were all exposed to during those years, but I learned lots of “new” things--many of which were originally presented in the newspapers I used to deliver to my faithful customers during that same time frame, along with many that I rather doubt ever appeared in any newspapers of that time.
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Apr 25, 2013 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Flyboys,James Bradley recounts the never before heard story of eight pilots who helped bring freedom to America during WW II. The first several chapters deal with the history behind the tension between Japan and the west-particularly America. Going into the book I knew America and Japan weren't the 'best buds,' but I had no idea how bad the mutual hatred was. Also, I didn't realize how brutal (much like the Muslims) the Japanese are-ch. 2 recounts in vivid detail the extent of the Japanese br...more

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Apr 10, 2009 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very well written and an incredible eye opener for me.

What an emotional rollercoaster. At first I was angry at the japanese, then I was angrier and disallusioned with Teddy Roosevelt and the 1890s-1950-s government, then I was pissed at the American people. Next I cried with mothers who sent their too young sons off to fight a war when they couln't even sit with their girlfriend alone because they were too young. I cried for the Chinese people, the phillipinos people and for my own ignorance an...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Raymond rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Much like Clive Cussler In "Corsair" attributes the Libyan conflict to colonial era anti-piracy actions, James Bradley ties the origin (and the final surrender ceremony of the Empire of the Rising Sun) to the Commodore Perry incidents.
My teenage years in Kansas preceded my entire WWII experience so I was indoctrinated to propaganda in much of my exposure to propaganda in movies, radio and comic books (Captain America and the such)! I had wondered about the interest in Shangri-La (I seem to reca...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Mike added it

Shelves: books-read-in-2013

I'm having trouble deciding where to begin my review of "Flyboys." From the very beginning of the book, I was held in absolute awe.

The author goes into great detail to demonstrate the ruthlessness of mankind and how bias and prejudice can lead us to justify the killing of our fellow man. He compares "Manifest Destiny" of the USA to Japan's need to expand into China. This lust for land and national expansion ultimately leads to war. War, as author James Bradley so well explains, causes the human...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Kamas Kirian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: aviation, biography, history, military, non-fiction, wwii, pacific-islands

Misled and annoyed, followed by appreciative and solemn. I don't think the person who wrote the blurb about the book actually read the book. The first third of the book doesn't really have anything to do with the last half of the book. And former President Bush makes up a very, very small part of the narrative. Having read Bradley's book Flags of Our Fathers, I was interested in what he had to say President Bush's tour in the Pacific.

Basically, the first third of the book should be more aptly ti...more

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Jul 05, 2010 Laura Leaney rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: WWII history buffs

Recommended to Laura by: My dad

This is ostensibly the story of eight WWII flyboys (and one unknown flyer) who were shot down in attempting to take out the radio communications center on Chichi Jima, a much less notable location than its sister island, Iwo Jima, where most history focuses. One of those pilots was George H.W. Bush, who was rescued by a submarine. What happens to the captured men shows the depravity of war and the perversion of the ancient Japanese way of Bushido. If you've read much about war crimes, you should...more

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Jul 10, 2010 George rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nook-ereads, lacpl-epub, james-bradley, best-reads

EXCELLENT. AN AMAZING READ. More Gonzo history, stridently told.

“…the more I see of this war in the Pacific the less right I think we have to claim to be civilized.”
–Charles Lindbergh, from The Wartime Journals of Charles H. Lindbergh (page 138)

WARNING: This book, and maybe even this review, contains material that might be deeply disturbing.

For the most part, human history, even as sanitized by the winners and laced with large measures of bullshit, has not been pretty. In ‘Flyboys: A True Sto...more

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May 27, 2009 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been reading historical non-fiction for a LONG time, and it's rare to find a book about as threadbare a topic as World War 2 that is both informative and, at the same time, causes one to re-examine ones perspective of those events. Flyboys was one of those books for me.

All I knew (or thought I knew) about Flyboys when I bought it last week off the bargain book shelf at Borders was that it was the story of downed US aviators and their horrific treatment at the hands of their Japanese captors...more I've been reading historical non-fiction for a LONG time, and it's rare to find a book about as threadbare a topic as World War 2 that is both informative and, at the same time, causes one to re-examine ones perspective of those events. Flyboys was one of those books for me.

All I knew (or thought I knew) about Flyboys when I bought it last week off the bargain book shelf at Borders was that it was the story of downed US aviators and their horrific treatment at the hands of their Japanese captors. And at its core, that is exactly what it is. What I did not expect, however, was how Mr. Bradley wraps that core story with a broader description of US and Japanese histories, including social evolution and atrocities committed by both countries at various times in their pasts, up to and including the end of World War 2.

In the earliest parts of this book I began to suspect I had bought a revisionist liberial diatribe, as Mr. Bradley describes the treatment of the American Indian in the late 19th century as "ethnic cleansing", and then went on to describe how US soldiers wiped out entire villages during the Philippine insurrection of the early 20th century. As I continued reading however, I discovered that Bradley was setting the groundwork for a comparison between US and Japanese cultural history up to WW2. And while he pulls no punches in describing the horrific atrocities visited upon the Chinese by the Japanese invaders before and during WW2, and makes no excuses for the treatment of the US fliers captured on Chichi Jima, the reader is reminded that the US didn't exactly come away from WW2 with clean hands, either. The fire bombing of Japanese cities and the resulting heavy civilian casualties is a powerful example of actions taken by the US that, had it been inflicted upon us instead, would have led to screams of war crimes. And yet, Bradley makes clear that the fire bombing of Japan was key to bring the war to an end prior to a US invasion, and also places the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the proper historical context.

Some reviewers on Amazon.com have levelled the charge of "moral equivalency" against this book. I was thinking that way as I read the early chapters as well, but I did not come away with that feeling by the time I read the final page. Nowhere does Bradley make the claim that the US was "just as bad" as Japan, or that the US and Japan were morally equivalent. What I took away from this book is that the perception of morality in wartime and what constitutes war crimes is very much in the eye of the beholder (or more accurately, the recipient). For example, in the US we hold the Doolittle raiders as real military heroes - an opinion that I continue to hold. Bradley effectively conveys that, from the Japanese point of view, the raiders (or at least some of them) bombed a hospital, strafed civilian fishing boats, and killed schoolchildren. While the bomb-related casualties can be excused as unintentional, one cannot say the same about the intentional strafing of civilians. It injects a little bit of dirty reality to the US perception of events, which in the end is what the entire book accomplishes. Bradley doesn't argue that US and Japanese behavior was equal, but rather that our conduct of the war in the Pacific was a lot more gritty and morally ambiguous than we tend to believe. In the end, I found that Bradley had given me a fresh perspective on the Pacific war, and the morality of its conduct by both sides. I appreciate that.(less)

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Jul 19, 2012 Teri Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As this book details the atrocities of war, it's hard to say "I love it." War is too horrifying a subject to apply that description. Well written, this book was read by the author in the audio format I purchased. The Flyboys are the pilots of WWII, and the book speaks in detail about the cruel fates that awaited the unfortunate ones who were shot down and taken as pows in Japanese territory. In this review, I refrain from giving the book's details about the insidious crimes that took their lives...more

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About James Bradley

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James Bradley,is an American author of historical non-fiction. His subject is the Pacific theatre of World War II.

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“The Flyboy who got away became president of the United States. What might have been for Warren Earl, Dick, Marve, Glenn, Floyd, Jimmy, the unidentified airman, and all the Others who had lost their lives?...And what might have been for those millions of doomed Japanese boys, abused and abandoned by their leaders? War is the tragedy of what might have been.” — 5 people liked it

“No one ever won a war by dying for their country. They won by making the other son-of-a-bitch die for his” — 3 people liked it

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Flyboys: A True Story of Courage

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