The Sky Rained Heroes: A Journey from War to Remembrance

by Frederick E. LaCroix

While Japanese and American forces fight mercilessly for control of the Philippines in 1945, two men, a Japanese infantry officer and an American P-51 fighter pilot, meet in a fearsome battle that leaves the Japanese officer dead. Half a century later, the fighter pilot's son, Frederick E. LaCroix, inherits the officer's bloodied, Kanji-inscribed Imperial battle flag, which was given to his father as a memento of his victory. The flag, coupled with his father's wartime correspondence, propels LaCroix on a six-year journey across eastern Asia to find the dead officer's family and return the flag.The Sky Rained Heroes details the emotional true stories of two soldiers from vastly different cultures, their families and the diverse paths that led them to their fatal meeting. Drawing from their actual wartime experiences, LaCroix crafts a unique and powerful narrative that brings the dramatic events of World War II to life and honors those who fought so bravely.

Genres: Nonfiction

281 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2009

Reviews

[John]

Don't believe the blurb on the cover of this book!!! It is supposed to be a bout a flier who gets a dead soldier's flag and who's son returns it to the soldier's family. It says "a Japanese infantry officer and an American P-51 pilot, meet in a fearsome battle"; a) they never meet and b) the pilot is on medical leave at the time. Then the cover says "the flag propels LaCroix (the son) on a six-year journey across eastern Asia to find the dead officer's family and return the flag". Again misleading! LaCroix (the father) doesn't receive the flag until page 233 of this 256 page book, and the return of the flag is only covered in the last four pages of the book.

It isn't a terrible book, just not what the cover would lead you to expect. A lot of the book is about Japanese military history and LaCroix Sr.'s time spent learning to be a P-51 pilot. That takes up a good chunk of the the book because he signs up in June 1942 and doesn't see combat until November 1944.

I had gotten the book wanting to read about the return of the flag story so I wound up just skimming many portions of the book.

[Nancy]

The heart of this book is in the many letters LaCroix's father wrote to his family while serving in Southeast Asia as an air force pilot during WW II. They show the spirit of the man and the closeness he felt with his family as he reveals his exploits and his fears as well as the pleasure he finds in battle.

Although I was intrigued by the historical aspects of the book and admire the author for his extensive research, his superfluous writing style made it difficult to read. I found the history of Japan's feudal society that led to their Banzai style of warfare fascinating, as was the history of the Philippines with its centuries of foreign occupation. The details that encompass the training of fighter pilots was especially interesting to me as my older brother was a jet pilot in the Navy in the 50s. His bravado became clear to me. The cultural differences in our two countries, especially as manifested in the Shinto religion, also added to making this a worthwhile read.

However, that being said, Frederick LaCroix's lack of confidence as a writer in continuously relying on quotations from other writers to express himself, was more than disappointing. It's too bad LaCroix didn't emulate the sincerity found in the writings of his father and let his own emotions come through.

[thewanderingjew]

These are my initial notes after reading a small section of the book known as Part I.
The Sky Rained Heroes, Frederick LaCroix
I received the book and was really excited to start to read it because the message of the book, reconciliation with one’s enemies, truly intrigued me.
I was immediately disappointed because although the author has a good story to tell it is, truly hard to detect it. His choice of language detracts from the telling of the tale. It is too wordy. He waxes poetic which would seem more appropriate for a novel rather than a non-fiction research project to find a Japanese officer in order to return his flag, a very meaningful memento, to his surviving family. I have to really concentrate to figure out what the point is of each sentence because it is so wordy that it becomes convoluted.
I think the language of an essay would have been more appropriate. I was expecting more information and less emotion, less “wordy eye candy”. The message gets lost in the verbiage. I will keep on reading because I truly do want to enjoy the books I receive, especially for free, but this may prove hard to do. Perhaps when he gets into the meat of the book, the message will become more discernible.
I will be back to tell you more.
I am back. I have continued to read through chapter 7 in Part II, not very far into the book, maybe 20 pages, but it has become more painful to read, so early on, that I don't think I will be able to finish it. The book is written in sound-bites, platitudes and unnecessary quotes which, quite simply, detract from its purpose. They seem strung together for no apparent reason other than to point out that the author knows them, since they do not enhance his message but serve merely to prove that he probably reads a lot and has stockpiles in his memory.
At first glance, the presentation of the book cover appears to be juvenile. I assumed, therefore, that perhaps the publisher wanted to attract a younger audience, as well, with the picture of the fighter pilot and the colorful title. It does catch the eye with the red rising sun coming off the bottom of the cover. If this format encouraged some young adults to read and others simply to read about a traumatic time in history, it would have a positive result.
However, once I began reading, I realized the language the author uses would be a total turnoff to young adults as it has been becoming for me. The message is so circular that after awhile you have to reread each sentence to get back to the original point.
The editor should have reined in this author so that he was less concerned with flowery language and more concerned with his message. Strings of platitudes and quotes abound on each page for no apparent reason that I can discern other than to show the author is aware of them. They do not enhance his message but rather confuses it. I am finding the prose so overreaching and roundabout that I am not sure if I can stick with this book. I have so many more books I want to read that I know I will enjoy far more.
I am really sorry to give so poor a critique of a book someone has been kind enough to send me for free. Therefore, I will skim the rest and return to add to this review, only if I am pleasantly surprised and can give you a better one.
I just sat down with the book and quietly turned the pages to see if it would finally capture me...no luck. It is just more of the same. I think there are quotes from every book the author ever read. I am sorry to pan the book but I will not give up. I am passing it on to my husband to see what he thinks.

[Janelle]

*Sigh* I really wanted to like this, but I just couldn't. It seemed so promising from the description - a WWII fighter pilot receives the kanji enscribed battle flag of a Japanese enemy, and years later his son endeavours to reunite the flag with the dead officers family. Unfortunately it was more like a dry textbook on Japanese and American WWII history.

It sounded like it would be quite poetic, full of anguish and eventually happiness, but any emotion got lost in the awfully convoluted language. I like to think that I have a fairly extensive academic vocabulary, but the language in this was so academic and hard to understand that it was common practice for me to read a passage and have no idea what the author had just said.

It literally felt like the author had just highlighted simple words in MS Word and right clicked > synonyms, and chosen the most ludicrous of the bunch. It's not like there was a word here or there that I was unfamiliar with - in most cases it was every second word in a passage! Googling definitions would honestly take weeks, if not months.

Aside from the convoluted language, I also took a disliking to the way the text was set out - from the description it seemed as if it would be almost like a novelisation of Robert LaCroix's journey, interceded with excerpts from his war letters, and then rounded up with a detailed account of Frederick LaCroix's journey to reunite the flag with the family, but it wasn't like that at all.

It chopped and changed between excerpts from wartime letters, simple and understandable descriptions of the air force and LaCroix's life during the war, and then textbook-esque play-by-plays of the war and the topography of the Pacific nations. I can't help but wonder if this style would have worked if not for the difficult language.

I also didn't like the letters at times. They were interesting and gave more of an idea into what life as a fighter pilot was like, but I couldn't help sitting there annoyed at LaCroix Sr's pompousness. I suppose that's quite rude because he was a real person (and since deceased), but I couldn't appreciate the letters when the author sounded like such an arrogant twat half the time.

I was completely amused in sections that detailed the Americans' arrogance when they were on resting leave in Australia, and a later section that detailed how they're baffled that the world don't see them as the selfless beings they perceive themselves to be - the letters basically showed LaCroix as personifying the typical American arrogance that is the reason why so many people dislike them!

I also found that the author quoted other texts FAR too often. I swear to god half of this text consists of texts from other people. That might be acceptable in a research project, academic journal or other scholarly work, but doesn't work well in what is supposed to be a ~novel. I think it should be marketed a different way - I thought I was going to be getting an amazing tale based in reality, but I got a textbook instead.

I think the author had an amazing tale and premise for what could have been a truly epic story, but it got lost in convoluted language.

[Disclaimer: I won this and was sent it for review through Goodreads, by the author. Whether I was sent it or not doesn't influence my opinion, because a bad book is still a bad book. Check my other reviews, you'll see I give honest reviews when a book is shit :)]

[Kayla]

The Sky Rained Heroes is a true story of two soldiers who fought in the Pacific during World War II. One was An American fighter pilot while the other is a Japanese soldier. The book showed how different our cultures and traditions are. I am not a huge History buff at all. When I think of World War II I automatically think of Europe and the Holocaust. I found this book refreshing to learn more about what happened in the Pacific/ Philippines/ Japan and China. It was a new perspective for me. The author (the son of the American pilot) chronicles his fathers journey through training and combat from the letters he wrote home to his family and friends. It was very interesting to read his letters and get a feeling for what his expereinces were like.
The author also included the history of the Japanese soldier. It was amazing to read about how much training they go through. At a very young age they are groomed to be soldiers.

For the most part I thought this book was very interesting and heartfelt, seeing how two soldiers lives were changed by eachother. At times I felt overwhelmed by some of the background histories of the countries/ governments etc... Sometimes it was just too much information for me to absorb. Some of the history was intersting enough that I want to do further reading into it.

[Rrshively]

This book is a fascinating story of two men whose fates cross during World War II. The Japanese soldier is killed, and the American pilot gets his Japanese flag as a souvenir. Years later the pilot's son tries to find the history behind the encounter and the Japanese family to which it belongs. The most interesting parts to this book were about the pilot training of the pilot, Robert LaCroix, and his letters home. Some of his adventures as a pilot are breathtaking.

Frederick C. LaCroix, the author, comes over as a very intelligent man who has written this as a well-reasearched scholarly work. This book has 267 citations at the back of the book plus many quotes from literature, poetry, and factual material in the body of the book. The reader gets a quite comprehensive history of Japan, and information on the history of the Phillipines. This book may have more than the average reader wants to know about the background of the encounter. If you want to read a scholarly work with philosophical leanings, this is for you. If you just want a basic story about these two men, you will have to wade through a lot of other material to find it.

[Sarah Sammis]

The Sky Rained Heroes by Frederick E. LaCroix is described as a memoir that details a son's six year journey to find the family of a Japanese pilot his father had shot down during the Second World War. The son's goal is to return the Imperial flag to them.

Instead, the book is a history book about the American and Japanese forces written in a stilted attempted at academic language. Intermingled with LaCroix's analysis of American and Japanese culture are the letters his father wrote during the war. The juxtaposition between the father's informal voice and the son's ornate style is jarring. It disrupts the flow of events and takes the focus away from the story of the discovery.

While I'm glad for the author that he managed to accomplish his goal, I didn't agree to review a history book. I agreed to review a memoir. This book isn't a memoir. The blurb needs to be rewritten to be less misleading.

I received the book from Phenix and Phenix for review. I have since released the book through BookCrossing.

[Jaclyn]

I won this book as a first read. I was really excited because I love a good book on history (either fiction or non-fiction) however once I started to read, I could not get past the first chapter. I passed the book off to my dad while on vacation who is an even larger history buff and he confirmed my first impression. He did however finish the book.

He reviewed the book as follows.

"The underlying story was good but the author was too cutesee. In the front of the book he enundated the reader with quotes which were distracting and which did not really add to what he was trying to bring out in his story. His intention was to parallel the lives of two warriors from opposing sides through the war. He used letters from his father to tell a good story of his service during the war. On the flip side he did not have a lot of detail on the Japanese soldier who died in the Philippeans.
Finally, I don't feel that he brought their two lives to some sort of definitive statement or point in the end - which was his intent to start."

[Nicki Markus]

This is not the sort of book I would usually read. I entered the giveaway for the book as I felt my partner would enjoy it. However, I decided to give it a go too and was pleasantly surprised.

I am not keen on 'war' books on the whole, but I found this one refreshingly easy to read as it featured letters and lots of literary quotes and references and wasn't a stodgy read with long descriptive passages about battles at all.

I liked the generally short chapters, which meant I could easily read a chapter before bed and reach a good place to stop.

All in all a pleasant and interesting read.


Free copy won through Goodreads First Reads.

[Ron]

I finished this Friday. Overall I liked the book. Frederick LaCroix does not provide a standard biography of his father, rather he juxtapositions chapters about his WWII fighter pilot father (Robert Edward LaCroix), a Japanese officer (Yasuyuki Ishizuka), and his own visits to lands where either Robert or Yasuyuki had spent time during WW II. At first this arrangement is disconcerting, but the multiple viewpoints adds to the story-telling with the culmination, not in a battle scene, but in a homecoming of Ishizuka's Kanji flag to his relatives. In the end, the book is not so much a biography as a meditation on relationships and the interaction (for good or ill) of people.

[Felyn]

This book is an autographed copy signed by the author in June 2009. I met him at the Galleria location of Barnes and Nobles. The first thing I said to him was, "I wish my dad was alive to meet you. He would've had a ball talking about his memories about the War." It was a wierd thing to say, but I think the author sort of understood what I was trying to say.

But, I digress. The book was interesting, but I think it could gone a little further.

[Jana]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. I couldn't finish the book. It almost seemed as if the author was trying to impress the reader with his intelligence and big words. I guess I'm just not smart enough for this book.

[Brenda]

I'm not finished this book yet, but, I already know I'm going to give it a good review. I was a little slow to get into it - but once I set my mind -set back to the topic, I found the scholarly wording easier to follow.

[Philip]

Won this here on Goodreads and cant wait to start it...

[Alicia]

I am really into history. I loved this because as I read it I learned about what happened.

[Katie]

Just won this book and I hope that it is great!

[Faith]

I really liked the letters from his dad.