Flyboys

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I have the book, and have read the book. At the time I was reading it, my wife and I were still going to her parents' church, and some of their good friends' last name was Mershon. I never had the nerve to ask them if there was any relationship. I'd hate to find out that there was, and they never knew the details, but I did....I wouldn't be able to look at them afterwards. Its a great book, though.
 
Little late posting too, but I did read Flyboys a few years back, like VZ said. There were some parts where I had to put the book down and step back for a minute, especially the section which talked about what the Japanese soldiers did to the Chinese civilians.
Funny, my mom's parents did not like Bush Sr., and believed that he embellished his record during the war, especially the part where he got shot down. After reading this though, I'm not so sure about that. He was lucky to be alive. After reading that, I gave more respect to Bush Sr. than I previously did.
 
I also read this book. When reading it, one should not just remember the gruesome story of the pilots at Chichi Jima and the war-crimes comitted by the Japanese. The story holds a much bigger message. It gives you an insight in how this war came to be, how and why people acted like they did and above all, it teaches all of us one great lesson: No country is innocent in a war. German and Japanese guild is obvious, we have learned about them. But the US, Britain Dutch etc were all just as guilty to the horrors of the war.

After reading the book I realised that not only the Japanes do cover up their history, we Dutch do as well. I never learned much about the Dutch' colonial history. I'm sure the Americans don't learn much about their lesser glorious parts of history as well (Philipines etc like described in theis book). It makes you think twice of accusing the Japanese of denying their WW2 war-crimes.

A great read for all who are prepared to look critically at their own history.
 
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It's a very good read. Somethings are hard to swallow, and difficult to believe. But history has proven them to be true.

Another good read, along the same lines is "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang. Can you amagine two Japanese officers
having a contest to see who could chop off the most heads in a given time period ?

Charles
 
vikingBerserker said:
I hate to say it but I have to kinda agree with you on this part. Most Americans would be shocked about the what occured in the Philipinies early on.
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Every country that contains humans has had its fair share of dark moments and black sheep. Its exceedingly true, though, that history is written by the winner, and will always be biased (more or less, depending on the author) by those doing the writing. We (in the US, at least) all learned about the Trail of Tears in school, but never did the curriculum go in-depth as to what actually happened on that long, sad march.
 
Marcel, you do have a good point. I only learned about what happened on the Philippines from what my mom told me, before I started reading Flyboys. Also, when I had AP US History in high school, my history teacher had us start reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States," which more or less talks about the dark side of America's past (although I am not particularly fond of the author, or the stuff that he has written. It's too left for my taste, no offense Marcel).
On positive note, we did talk about some of the atrocities that occured on the Native Americans back in grade school, even though we only scratched the surface of that.
 
Well, here in Holland, you get in history how great our 'Golden age' was, the 17th century when The Netherlands was one of the greatest nations of the world. Little do they tell you about the fact that one of the reasons we were so rich is that we were the biggest slave-traders in the world.
 
Yeah, no nation likes to discuss about the negative aspects in their history, no matter who you are. As long as you try to talk about it, then that earns respect in my book. Just make sure that when telling history, you have to tell about all the facts on each opposing side, and then let the reader make up their own minds. Don't just tell one side without telling the other, that I don't like.
 
All god posts guys. Marcel your post was dead on.
I came away after reading Flyboys, with a realization that atrocities were committed by the Allies too. That book made me start to take a more realistic view of the war.
 
Ferdinand Foch said:
you have to tell about all the facts on each opposing side, and then let the reader make up their own minds. Don't just tell one side without telling the other, that I don't like.
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Exactly, and that's what Bradley does in this book. I rank this one amongst the best I've read so far, not trying to have a one-sided view, it tries to give you the harsh reality with all it's sides and let you do the math yourself.
 
Hehe, amen to that Marcel. That was one thing I didn't like about reading Zinn's a People's History of the United States (albeit I've only read the first two chapters, but have skimmed through enough of it to get a general idea). He wasn't keen on looking at both sides, it was basically the general "one side is getting oppressed by the other side" routine. That's why I couldn't take him as a serious historian. That, and some of the sources that he uses were very questionable.
 
Messy1 said:
All god posts guys. Marcel your post was dead on.
I came away after reading Flyboys, with a realization that atrocities were committed by the Allies too. That book made me start to take a more realistic view of the war.
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Yep. However, I think that was a much greater occurrence in the Pacific/CBI theaters than it was in the ETO or MTO. Say what you will about their politics and national policies, but the general grunt on the ground typically fought an honorable battle wherever possible. There were a lot of "heat of the moment" incidents, of course, and the winning side will always play those down as such where they were committed by their own troops, but in the Pacific, the mindsets of the opposing forces were so very far apart that pretty much from the first shots fired in anger, things devolved into the most basic man-vs-man-I-will-survive-in-any-way-possible struggles. I read ETO/MTO books, and wonder if I could have measured up to the standards of the guys in the foxholes. I read PTO/CBI books, and want to cry at how low mankind can sink. That does not stop me from shaking the hand of every vet I meet, from whatever theater, branch, and MOS.
 
Just finished this, and Jesus Christ.........

I'd always wondered what happened to the IJA from the war wth Russia where the Chinese really liked them to WW2 where it was the opposite.

Now I know, hell of a read!
 
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