Flyboys

[elmilitaro]

Hey guys I was reading a good book this weekend it was called "Flyboys" and it was written by James Bradley. This book talks about the flyboys that crash-landed on Chichi Jima and their fate.


I was wondering if anyone else read it to?

 

[elmilitaro]

It also talks about how everybody considers death bad if someone else kills other people but we don't consider it bad if we kill other people. I know some of ya'll might be kind of confused but you have to read the book to understand more.

 

[Gnomey]

I have it but I have not read it yet. I know there are some people on here who have though.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

That's the Island George Bush Sr. was bombing when he was shot down in WW2

Unk

 

[evangilder]

I have read it, and I am pretty sure lesofprimus has. There are parts of it that I found were tough to read.

 

[elmilitaro]

Some parts were just so hard to read that i felt like crying as I read them. It actually shows the reality that happened during this period which may cause the most hardened veteran to break down and cry.

 

[elmilitaro]

Really?

I mean, whoa, I haven't. Where was this at. (If you don't wan't to answer you don't have to.)

 

[elmilitaro]

Wow.

 

[evangilder]

That's one thing I am glad I never had to see, Dan. Not that we haven't seen enough insanity that the world has had to offer.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

My brother is reading that book. He says its a good read. he did find some parts disturbing, but he has read other books on Japanese treatment of POWs and watched documentaries on it so he is not affected too badly.

 

[lesofprimus]

I'll tell ya what messed me up for the rest of my life was the mass graves of decomposing bodies...

 

[book1182]

I am reading this book right now. I never knew some of the facts behind what brought Japan into war with China. Also, I knew Japan wasn't big on surrendering but I had no idea on what they did to our and how they looked down on it. I have a lot of books on World War 2 Aviation but this one gives the best acount for what happened after you were shot down. I used to look at it like you were shot down and that was the end of the story. That's really not the case. It's just the start.

 

[evangilder]

I'll tell ya what messed me up for the rest of my life was the mass graves of decomposing bodies...

I hear ya. The senseless waste of human lives is just staggering in some places.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

My brother is reading that book. He says its a good read. he did find some parts disturbing, but he has read other books on Japanese treatment of POWs and watched documentaries on it so he is not affected too badly.

I'll do my periodic plug...

Read "Surviving the Day." It was written by my wife's grandfather Lt. Col Frank Grady. He was on Mac Arthur's staff and was captured on Bataan.

 

[evangilder]

I'll take a look for that next time I'm in the bookstore, Joe.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

there is one photo that disturbed me. It was taken in a concentration camp in Europe at the end of the war. It showed a holocaust survivor who was thin and bones showing with a plate of food in his lap, he was staring at the camera with sad eyes. When I saw the photo, I wanted to cry.

 

[lesofprimus]

Heres a photo that should make u feel something.... Think of the thousands and thousands of innocents that suffered the same fate...

I personally feel that too many Japanese War Criminals escaped punishment...

 

[evangilder]

Amen brother.

 

[jhor9]

I am reading this book right now. I never knew some of the facts behind what brought Japan into war with China. Also, I knew Japan wasn't big on surrendering but I had no idea on what they did to our and how they looked down on it. I have a lot of books on World War 2 Aviation but this one gives the best acount for what happened after you were shot down. I used to look at it like you were shot down and that was the end of the story. That's really not the case. It's just the start.

Thats a great picture of B17 C or D I flew in them while I was in B17 transiion school. It was about 20 miles per hour faster then the E,F and G

 

[nvrsummer2]

A few years late, but I just read this book. Ive been staring at it on shelves for years.

I had never heard of Chichi Jima before this. Truly sad story. What touched me was Marve Mershon gre up in the area i now live. And the picture of him in the 'Pike Bar'. Is where my workplace now stands....

Im glad their parents never found out the graphic details. Good choice by whoever kept it a secret. Im quite sure the fragile state the parents were in may have pushed some over the edge had they known their suffering.