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Anyone read "Flyboys"?

B

Brutuskend

Lifer
I just started it last night and I have to say it's a MUST read!

A lot of Japanese history in it that makes you understand what led up to WWII, and why the Japanese behaved as they did during the war!

READ IT!
 
MAN, the further I get into this book the more amazed / disgusted I become.

Reading this book gives me a whole new outlook on WWII and the conflict between Japan and the US.

It also makes me loose respect for Teddy R. and a few other Presidents.

I just finished reading about our involvement in the Philippines (pre WWII) last night. A TERRIBLE TERRIBLE chapter in American history that I was never aware of! 🙁

I highly recommend this book to the History Buffs out there, and ANYONE else for that matter!
 
It's on my "To Read" list.
It's scary how filtered the history we're taught is.
(and the grammer isn't much better 😛)
 
I got that book for Christmas '03, and I thought it was going to be a book about our brave pilots in WWII. It was, but it was not exactly what I expected.

I agree, it gave me a perspective of WWII, particularly from the Japanese side that I had never been taught or even considered.

It just goes to show you that people can and do get right down barbaric if the situation gets bad enough. I too was sickened by some of what I read, but I am glad that I read it. It's not easy to make me queasy, but parts of that book were truly disgusting. I now know why some of this has never been reported before.

No wonder my Grandfathers, uncles, etc., didn't like to talk about the war they fought in. I have probably 5 or 6 close relatives that fought in WW II, and another half dozen or so that I consider good friends and you can't get any of them to give any detail about their wartime experiences.
 
I read the book this past spring. It was an ok book, but a very quick read for the price of the hardcover.

If I'm paying big dollars for a hardcover, I want something that actually takes me longer than an evening to finish.
 
I find it hard to believe that it would change my mind that much. What we did in 1898 to another Country shouldn't have caused Japan to do what they had been doing to China and then attack us.
 
Originally posted by: Excelsior
I find it hard to believe that it would change my mind that much. What we did in 1898 to another Country shouldn't have caused Japan to do what they had been doing to China and then attack us.
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I very much doubt that it exonerates Japan in any way ... frankly that's impossible. But it's disturbing to see the amount of blood on our own hands.
 
Originally posted by: Armitage
Originally posted by: Excelsior
I find it hard to believe that it would change my mind that much. What we did in 1898 to another Country shouldn't have caused Japan to do what they had been doing to China and then attack us.
Click to expand...

I very much doubt that it exonerates Japan in any way ... frankly that's impossible. But it's disturbing to see the amount of blood on our own hands.
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Exactly.

Also it sheds more light on WHY the Japanese did what they did. Both in China, and the escalation of the war with us. Not to mention the whole mind set they had, and how they acquired it.
 
I really enjoyed Bradley's first (and far more famous) book, Flags of Our Fathers. If you don't cry reading the intro, you are not human!

I've heard "Fly Boys" starts off slow, but if you say it's good, I'll take it under consideration.
 
Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I really enjoyed Bradley's first (and far more famous) book, Flags of Our Fathers. If you don't cry reading the intro, you are not human!

I've heard "Fly Boys" starts off slow, but if you say it's good, I'll take it under consideration.
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it does a great job of establshing the context for the war in Asia. Lots of details I had never heard before. It touches a little bit on the period from "Last Samurai" without the Tom Cruise/Hollywood interpretations.

I just got through the Doolittle raid on Tokyo.

Doolittle Raid
 
I have talked with several Japanese who fought in the war, one in particular was a Japanese pilot who got back to Hiroshima to see his family had been wiped out. He was not bitter and realized the complexities of war. I think that like yin-yang, there are no good guys bad guys. Just people. My problem with the United States is that they tend to be arrogant and ignorant and yet naieve. My first reality was reading Allen Eckerts books, a series, with the first being, "The Frontiersman". What his writing did was to establishment that there are no right or wrong sides but just sides that fluctuate. Americans tend to take sides and then be judgemental w/o admitting errors on either side. And I believe, quite sadly so, that our current President and administration is a full blown example of this attitude. I am ashamed of our inability and arrogance to not admit our mistakes and to win the hearts of the people rather than winning the war. Read Sun Tzu's book, "The Art of War" His intention wasn't to teach warfare so much as to realize that winning people's hearts is the art of real warfare contrary to the current business climate that supposedly uses this book to annialate(sp.) their opponent.
Anyway, another great history book is the Story of Krupps.
 
Originally posted by: zener
I have talked with several Japanese who fought in the war, one in particular was a Japanese pilot who got back to Hiroshima to see his family had been wiped out. He was not bitter and realized the complexities of war. I think that like yin-yang, there are no good guys bad guys. Just people. My problem with the United States is that they tend to be arrogant and ignorant and yet naieve. My first reality was reading Allen Eckerts books, a series, with the first being, "The Frontiersman". What his writing did was to establishment that there are no right or wrong sides but just sides that fluctuate. Americans tend to take sides and then be judgemental w/o admitting errors on either side. And I believe, quite sadly so, that our current President and administration is a full blown example of this attitude. I am ashamed of our inability and arrogance to not admit our mistakes and to win the hearts of the people rather than winning the war. Read Sun Tzu's book, "The Art of War" His intention wasn't to teach warfare so much as to realize that winning people's hearts is the art of real warfare contrary to the current business climate that supposedly uses this book to annialate(sp.) their opponent.
Anyway, another great history book is the Story of Krupps.
Click to expand...

I'm glad the Allies won WWII, not the Axis. I wonder how Europe would be with one Fuhrer. Who has fared better? A democratic Europe or an eastern Europe under the boot of communism? How would South Korea fare right now if the North Korean had successfully united the country back in the 1950s? How fast do you think western Europe would recover without the Mashall Plan?
 
What you said may be true but it does not address what I mentioned. I do not see how your comments have any bearing on my comments. I believe you may be making some assumptions that I am not aware of and would appreciate knowing what they are.
 
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