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A review by spacerkip
Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley
challenging
informative
sad
5.0
I did it. It took me just about a year and a half, but I finished it, boys.
This was a hard book to get through. It was thick, it was dense, and it was filled with first and second-hand accounts of horrors and human suffering not just limited to the 8 flyboys that take center stage. I can't think of a book that was so genuinely thorough as this one. Bradley takes the time to explore every facet of context for his readers - and I mean every facet. From the rise of Imperial Japan, to the Western colonialists that inspired it, to the plights of the American flyboy, to the abused Japanese common soldier, to the people back home in fear on either side of the Pacific, just about every perspective imaginable is researched and documented. I found myself bombarded with information every chapter and needed weeks to digest it all.
There are, of course, biases (because who exists without them), but I found an eagerness to understand the full scope of war and all it affects, even the perpetrators of violence. Not as a way to shift blame or excuse what was done. This approach reminds readers that nothing happens within a vacuum, especially not major events in human history, and reminds them to take a look at the sins of their own country before decrying another's so harshly.
Another one of Bradley's novels is in my bookshelf, and I'm definitely going to read it once I've given myself some time to process this one. I recommend this book to any WWII buff, especially those interested in a deep look at Imperial Japan and its troops, so often shrouded in mysticism by Western sources.
This was a hard book to get through. It was thick, it was dense, and it was filled with first and second-hand accounts of horrors and human suffering not just limited to the 8 flyboys that take center stage. I can't think of a book that was so genuinely thorough as this one. Bradley takes the time to explore every facet of context for his readers - and I mean every facet. From the rise of Imperial Japan, to the Western colonialists that inspired it, to the plights of the American flyboy, to the abused Japanese common soldier, to the people back home in fear on either side of the Pacific, just about every perspective imaginable is researched and documented. I found myself bombarded with information every chapter and needed weeks to digest it all.
There are, of course, biases (because who exists without them), but I found an eagerness to understand the full scope of war and all it affects, even the perpetrators of violence. Not as a way to shift blame or excuse what was done. This approach reminds readers that nothing happens within a vacuum, especially not major events in human history, and reminds them to take a look at the sins of their own country before decrying another's so harshly.
Another one of Bradley's novels is in my bookshelf, and I'm definitely going to read it once I've given myself some time to process this one. I recommend this book to any WWII buff, especially those interested in a deep look at Imperial Japan and its troops, so often shrouded in mysticism by Western sources.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail