"Superb...[Paradis] writes history with ease and authority." --The
Wall Street Journal
"[An] engrossing procedural...Richly researched." --The New York
Times Book Review
A thrilling narrative that introduces a key but underreported moment
in World War II: The Doolitte Raids and the international war crimes
trial in 1945 that defined Japanese-American relations and changed legal
history.
In 1942, freshly humiliated from the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United
States was in search of a plan. President Roosevelt, determined to show
the world that our nation would not be intimidated or defeated by enemy
powers, he demanded recommendations for a show of strength. Jimmy
Doolittle, a stunt pilot with a doctorate from MIT, came forward, and
led eighty young men, gathered together from the far-flung corners of
Depression-era America, on a seemingly impossible mission across the
Pacific. Sixteen planes in all, they only had enough fuel for a one-way
trip. Together, the Raiders, as they were called, did what no one had
successfully done for more than a thousand years. They struck the
mainland of Japan and permanently turned the tide of the war in the
Pacific.
Almost immediately, The Doolittle Raid captured the public imagination,
and has remained a seminal moment in World War II history, but the
heroism and bravery of the mission is only half the story. In Last
Mission to Tokyo, Michel Paradis reveals the dramatic aftermath of the
mission, which involved two lost crews captured, tried, and tortured at
the hands of the Japanese, a dramatic rescue of the survivors in the
last weeks of World War II, and an international manhunt and trial led
by two dynamic and opposing young lawyers--in which both the United
States and Japan accused the other of war crimes--that would change the
face of our legal and military history. Perfect for fans of Lucky 666
and Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial, Last Mission to Tokyo is a thrilling
war story-meets-courtroom-drama that explores a key moment in World War
II.
