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A review by confiance
Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley
1.0
Having heard wonderful things about Flags of Our Fathers, I was very interested in this book.
Bradley attempts to portray a non-biased opinion of the history leading up to and surround WWII but falls flat. Beyond flat, really. He refers to pilots as "Flyboys" throughout the entire work, while Japanese soldiers and military command fall under the term "Spirit Warriors." FDR is "the Dutchman." He uses first names for everyone, and calls B-25s "Billies." The military leaders of Japan were stated to have an "upside-down system of morality."
If the stylistic issues don't bother you, the overly detailed, exact-to-the-minute recounting of the events of Chichi Jima may- while dealing with memories and interviewing soldiers some 50+ years later, you cannot tell me that someone spoke of something with "perverse admiration." Quote and cite and acknowledge the cons of using a first person account years later as the main basis for your story, dammit!
I started highlighting quotes that bothered me, mostly because they were incorrect (there were no official Joint Chiefs in 1945 - that wasn't legally established until 1947and it can be argued that the Marines are NOT America's oldest fighting forces), or they demonstrated a lack of neutrality (upside down sense of morality, repeating numbers of dead in italics to drive home the point that Japan killed more civilians in China in 6 months than soldiers died in battle in Europe over 6 years). In the end, I had over 15 sections highlighted, and that was only in the second half of the book.
Bradley attempts to portray a non-biased opinion of the history leading up to and surround WWII but falls flat. Beyond flat, really. He refers to pilots as "Flyboys" throughout the entire work, while Japanese soldiers and military command fall under the term "Spirit Warriors." FDR is "the Dutchman." He uses first names for everyone, and calls B-25s "Billies." The military leaders of Japan were stated to have an "upside-down system of morality."
If the stylistic issues don't bother you, the overly detailed, exact-to-the-minute recounting of the events of Chichi Jima may- while dealing with memories and interviewing soldiers some 50+ years later, you cannot tell me that someone spoke of something with "perverse admiration." Quote and cite and acknowledge the cons of using a first person account years later as the main basis for your story, dammit!
I started highlighting quotes that bothered me, mostly because they were incorrect (there were no official Joint Chiefs in 1945 - that wasn't legally established until 1947and it can be argued that the Marines are NOT America's oldest fighting forces), or they demonstrated a lack of neutrality (upside down sense of morality, repeating numbers of dead in italics to drive home the point that Japan killed more civilians in China in 6 months than soldiers died in battle in Europe over 6 years). In the end, I had over 15 sections highlighted, and that was only in the second half of the book.