Over the remote Pacific island of Chichi Jima, nine American
flyers-Navy and Marine pilots sent to bomb Japanese communications
towers there-were shot down. Flyboys, a story of war and horror but
also of friendship and honor, tells the story of those men.
Over the remote Pacific island of Chichi Jima, nine American flyers-Navy
and Marine pilots sent to bomb Japanese communications towers there-were
shot down. One of those nine was miraculously rescued by a U.S. Navy
submarine. The others were captured by Japanese soldiers on Chichi Jima
and held prisoner. Then they disappeared. When the war was over, the
American government, along with the Japanese, covered up everything that
had happened on Chichi Jima. The records of a top-secret military
tribunal were sealed, the lives of the eight Flyboys were erased, and
the parents, brothers, sisters, and sweethearts they left behind were
left to wonder.
Flyboys reveals for the first time ever the extraordinary story of
those men. Bradley's quest for the truth took him from dusty attics in
American small towns, to untapped government archives containing
classified documents, to the heart of Japan, and finally to Chichi Jima
itself. What he discovered was a mystery that dated back far before
World War II-back 150 years, to America's westward expansion and Japan's
first confrontation with the western world. Bradley brings into vivid
focus these brave young men who went to war for their country, and
through their lives he also tells the larger story of two nations in a
hellish war.
With no easy moralizing, Bradley presents history in all its savage
complexity, including the Japanese warrior mentality that fostered
inhuman brutality and the U.S. military strategy that justified attacks
on millions of civilians. And, after almost sixty years of mystery,
Bradley finally reveals the fate of the eight American Flyboys, all of
whom would ultimately face a moment and a decision that few of us can
even imagine.
Flyboys is a story of war and horror but also of friendship and honor.
It is about how we die, and how we live-including the tale of the Flyboy
who escaped capture, a young Navy pilot named George H. W. Bush who
would one day become president of the United States. A masterpiece of
historical narrative, Flyboys will change forever our understanding of
the Pacific war and the very things we fight for.
