James Bradley\'s Epic Non-Fiction Book

James Bradley's epic non-fiction book "Flyboys: A True Story of Courage" has become a national best seller, and now a Hollywood movie. The premise of the book is a detailed account of a World War II incident over the island of Chichi-jima. He uses detailed research and primary sources to create portraits and narratives of the brave young men who flew the first wave of fighter planes during World War I and World War II.

Bradley's goal in this narrative was multifold, he wanted to create a structured narrative of the rise of plane warfare in the 20th century, however he also wanted to paint the bigger picture of the Allie-Axis conflict between the United States and Japan. All of this is captured in his narrative of the incident over Chichi-jima.

The narrative of this story is framed around the story of a small group of American naval aviators, eight to be precise, who spent torturous months on the island of Chichi-jima as they were tortured, killed and abused by the Japanese. When U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima in the latter stages of the war of the pacific, U.S. warplanes were sent to bomb a small communications outpost on Chichi-jima. Bradley tells the interesting tale of Chichi-Jima, how the island held a Japanese occupation force of almost 25,000 soldiers. Iwo Jima at the time of its attack had only 22,000 forces. The reasons behind why the great Pacific battle was fought on Iwo Jima rather than Chichi-jima became obvious through Bradley's narrative. One marine notes "Iwo was heck. Chichi would have been impossible." Claiming Chichi-jima, with its terrain of mountains and unsuitable coastlines would have been nearly impossible. Therefore, the navy made the decision to bomb the entire island rather than attempt a land occupation. "Flyboys," the name given to U.S. pilots, were sent in to neutralize ChiChi's defenses.

Bradley accounts the lives of nine men who survived being shot down on a raid. Eight of these men were captured and taken as POWs, enduring the misery that was to follow. The ninth man was no other than Lieutenant George H.W. Bush, the forty first president of the United States. Bradley uses Bush as a primary source for his narrative. He writes, "Looking into the eyes of arguably the most accomplished and successful man alive," he could see the same survivor's guilt he had observed in other veterans. Bush, much like many others who were lucky enough to escape the battle barely scathed, did not have to suffer the consequences that befell the other eight men. The former president said that he still "thinks about those guys all the time." Bradley carefully positions president Bush as a foil to the lives of the eight men who were captured. Almost as if to say, what those lives could have accomplished had they been the ones who survived the incident.

Bradley uses the lives of these eight men as the backdrop to understanding the truly horrific nature of the war itself. The story of these eight men have up to this point been buried through a flurry of war-crime trials. Bradley artfully tells their story. Since Chichi-jima was not big enough to harbor even a full sized air strip, its primary worth was a massive radio complex. When naval pilots went to neutralize this target, they were shot down by anti-aircraft fire. These POWs were killed in the most horrific of styles. They were executed in the cruelest of manners, and were partially eaten by the Japanese captors.

Bradley uses the disgusting way in which these POW were killed to show the depth of enmity at the time of the conflict. He attempts to be impartial to both the Japanese and American side in his dialogue.

The principle reason for the way in which these POW were treated was the bushido code, the code by which Japanese saw honor and their right of conquest and expansion into China. Bradley explains that the Japanese hatred of American militarism had its own justifications. The Japanese saw in America, the ultimate hypocrisy in its protest of Japanese expansion. Had not America done the same thing with its westward expansion at the expense of both Native Americans and Mexicans? Bradley explains the context in which the hatred for American aviators flourished through the "Doolittle Raids." Where flyboys used fire bombs on the Japanese mainland that resulted in the death and cruel demise of some 250,000 civilians. Such tactics infuriated the Japanese military leaders and developed a deep hatred for flyboys. From the Japanese perspective, Bradley uses his impartiality to explain how the atrocities committed against the POWs were the error and madness of a few rather than the general consensus of many. Most of the soldiers were ordered on penalty of death to carry out the execution and cannibalism of the POWs. Bradley describes in gory detail how each of the aviators were killed, and why the Japanese commanders ordered the execution in the name of the bushido code. These orders were carried out on the basis of a strong but misguided sense of honor and the warrior spirit.

Bradley does not just attempt to defend the Japanese and their actions however. He also uses primary source interviews with the families of the aviators to portray the misery and the injustice of such an action. The families of these POWs were never told the details of how their sons died, but only that they were killed in action. The emotional torrent that these members of the family felt upon both learning the real truth is truly compelling and pulls at the heart strings. Bradley poignantly shows the destructive nature of war, by showing that although the death of these POWs were the result of a chain of events where both the U.S. And Japan committed atrocities, the victims are all innocent individuals. The use of these narratives strongly conveys Bradley's theme of the futility of war and its inevitable consequences on real people.

When the war was won by the Allies, a secret war crimes trial was held on Chichi-jima. Bradley explains that it was partially to prevent the family from knowing the gruesome manner in which their sons were killed, but also to provide leniency to some of the commanders for political reasons. Since the orders of such action was carried out by the highest levels of the Japanese military, including the Emperor himself. Bradley applies his narrative style to convey the sense of injustice from these criminal proceedings. Many of the people who were directly or indirectly responsible for their deaths were never prosecuted, due much to the political circumstance of the post-war era. In the final analysis, Bradley shows that the trial and the retributions after were mired in politics rather than justice, and as a result, real justice was never fully handed out in this incident. His purpose however is never merely to show guilt or innocence, but rather the complexity of the situation where wrong was committed on both sides of the war.

The ultimate message that is carried throughout the narrative is the evil and destruction of warfare. There is no right or wrong within war because everyone commits atrocities, only the victor is able to define "good and evil." Bradley uses the story of these eight pilots to illustrate the tortuous road of the Pacific conflict during WWII. It also sheds light on the mentality of the Japanese people, providing some justification for their actions if not vindication.