James Bradley (1)Rezensionen

Absolutely Brutal. An incredibly powerful reminder of why almost all countries have a version of Memorial Day and why successful diplomacy beats "winning" a war. It is rare for such a balanced account of gruesome battles, but Bradley does a very admirable job of presenting honest accounts from both the Japanese and American perspectives. The representative photos of the Flyboys before they entered the Pacific greatly personalized the narrative as well. A horrifyingly necessary read in a time when the world is once again headed to massive international conflict. .

This book was a birthday present from Brent & Heidi (Card is still in book.

FROM AMAZON: Flyboys is the true story of young American airmen who were shot down over Chichi Jima. Eight of these young men were captured by Japanese troops and taken prisoner. Another was rescued by an American submarine and went on to become president. The reality of what happened to the eight prisoners has remained a secret for almost 60 years.
After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth. Not even the families of the airmen were informed what had happened to their sons. It has remained a mystery - until now. Critics called James Bradley's last book "the best book on battle ever written." Flyboys is even better: more ambitious, more powerful, and more moving. On the island of Chichi Jima those young men would face the ultimate test. Their story - a tale of courage and daring, of war and of death, of men and of hope - will make you proud, and it will break your heart.

FROM AMAZON: This Edition: A True Story of Courage is an extraordinary of Navy and Marine airmen on a remote Pacific island is sent to bomb Japanese communication towers. They were all shot down. One was rescued by a U.S. Navy submarine. The others were captured by the Japanese soldiers and held prisoner. Then they disappeared. This is their story.

My brother told me this was "the best book he'd ever read" so I went into reading it expecting that. I was fooled by the first two chapters or so and thought "Wow, this is going to be a great book!"

And then the military propaganda started. And then the "Japan was such a terrible country ... here's what it did to it's people..." The first portion of the book I have "Bullshit" and other harsh comments written along the margin because it is such bullshit and crap propaganda.

Before I was even half way done with the book I stopped reading it because I was enjoying it (there was nothing about this book to enjoy) and was just "hate reading it" -- hoping/believing it has to get better (my brother said it was the best book he'd ever read!) ... and also really curious how things turned out once the guys get home.

Unsurprisingly, the US Government and Military so the flag raising and the flag raisers as cash cows and IMMEDIATELY sent them on tour to sell war bonds to make money for the military so they could continue to go to battle and kill people. The boy did not even have an opportunity to get treated for the war wounds! They were immediately sent on tour.

The surprising part for me was when I eventually did a Google search to get a better idea of what happened to the guys that survived after the war, specifically the father of the author. The author had made his dad out to be this amazing man who only did right for the remainder of his life -- he served his city and his town and was on all the boards and never did anything wrong the remainder of his life. He praised his father so highly I was, like, "Surely, after this man died it came out that he was a pedophile or a serial killer."

What I found is that the father, that the book is mainly about, who was such an upright and noble man, that never wanted to discuss his role in raising the flag ... was such a humble man and his family didn't even know he was a flag raiser until after he died and they were going through his things ... was NEVER one of the flag raisers. He played the part and took all the glory that was sent his way when he was alive -- staring in two movies and going on the government funded tour, sitting to he sculpted to be depicted in the monument that was eventually made off the photo ... WAS NEVER ONE OF THE FLAG RAISERS!

This was a horrible book and is going straight into my recycling bin. If I had a fireplace or a fire pit I would use it as kindling.

Adrianne

Only got about 50 pages in. Not my kind of book. Also, I gather from Wikipedia that it turns out the author’s father wasn’t really in the famous photo, although that shouldnt really matter I guess.

The book was itself a gripping page turner, but as you will see from the end of this review, there is more to my emotions connected with its reading. I was going to write "immensely enjoyable" concerning the book, but there was way too much gore for that. And warning, it's not bedtime reading. However, aside from the battlefield scenes it is a book that needs to be read.

The protagonist, the author's father, john or "Jack" Bradley was one of six that were in the iconic picture of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. As it happens the flag raising was one of the few relatively mellow interludes at Iwo Jima. Thus Jack Bradley did not regard himself as a hero. Nor did all but one of the flag raisers.

The military aspect is important; if not for the soldiers who fought, died and faced indescribable brutality we might not be blessed with the freedoms we take too much for granted. Freedom isn't free. The next time anyone tells you that America is not a great country, though with blemishes, or you think that yourself, do yourself a favor; read this book or, as applicable, hand someone a copy.

The subtext of the book consists of the core American values it describes; the simple decency that helps make our nation great. After the war ended he avoided publicity, shunned the inevitable hero worship, and spent his time concentrating on running a business and raising a family based on integrity and kindness.

Back in what must have been late 2006 I took my stepfather of more than 30 years out to see the movie "Flags of Our Father." He had fought in WW II, in North Africa and I believe Europe. That was a major part in our almost lifelong bond. I believe, but am not certain, that I got the book from his shelf. I may have purchased it as a holiday or birthday gift. His life in many respects echoed that mantra of decency, integrity and kindness that I have cherished while he was alive and for the more than six years since his passing.

Great war story by son of one of the flag raisers at Iwo Jima. The father was a medic there. Pretty good film by Eastwood also. (First read in 2003).

I read it again in 2014 and it still is one of the best ever.

Read on the flights to and from NF22 FPC. My mom gave me this book from the old CCHS collection. I was interested to read based on the author and the topic; unfortunately, he came across as very biased against Teddy Roosevelt and was extremely repetitive in his critiques of the president. Not an enjoyable read at all because it highlights some terrific dark spots of American history that are important to remember and are humbling for anyone who thinks the US is the perfect country. I do not completely agree with the author's thesis that white Christians continue to follow the sun west, causing the hate and discontent in the Japanese that eventually led to WWII. It is a quick, easy read, but I do not highly recommend this book to anyone, other than those who think very highly of Teddy Roosevelt and want to challenge their opinions.

Wow. The book presents a totally different (and very negative) view of TR and Taft. Can this be true? Did Roosevelt's racism and reckless, beligerent and illegal foreign policy lead to WWII? Was his public persona a complete sham? Clearly TR was far from perfect, but this book seems extreme overreach to me.

James Bradley is the son of John Bradley, one of the six Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. The Marines and the Japanese were in a fight to the death with no quarter given. The fighting on this island was one of the decisive factors in the decision to drop the atomic bomb. There were many instances of outstanding courage, but the picture set these six men apart forever. Great book, about ordinary men doing great things.½

A towering work of revisionist history, it earns a second star only because it sent me to do so much follow-on reading on any number of topics touched. Highly recommended if one enjoys books written as exploration of alternate historical timelines.

Was supposed to read for a book report over winter break.
Book was pretty horrendous so the boys and I split it up by chapter and then combined all our notes and wrote our own summaries, etc.
Teach found out about this and we all failed the project
10/10 would do again to not read this book.

Flag of Our Fathers describes the battle of Iwo Jima both before and the aftermath, using the famous image by Joe Rosenthal of the 6 American Marines flag-raising as the focal point for the Marines' stories.

This is a book I read with my colleagues at work, as the early parts of the book relate to some of the collections in our archival depository. Bradley's work is a sweeping account of the flawed policy of American government toward China from the mid-19th century until the rise of Mao Zedong to power in the 1940s. The early part of the book focuses on the American merchant class who set up trading posts that the were deliberately isolated from the ordinary Chinese people by the Chinese government. The American merchants all made wealth in the opium trade creating an opiate crisis in China (It made me realize that the Sackler family were not the first Americans to get people hooked on opiates while also acquiring Asian art).

Among these merchants were Warren Delano, the maternal grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The foreign policy of both Theodore Roosevelt and FDR are key parts of this book as they operated on false assumptions of China as a place where the Chinese peasants were eager to be Americanized and convert to Christianity. This view was promulgated by what Bradley calls the China Lobby, lead by influential and wealthy businessmen like the publisher Henry Luce. Key figures in the China Lobby were the Soong Family, Charlie Soong and his daughters Soong Ai-ling, Soong Ching-ling, and Soong Mei-ling who were American educated and Christian converts. Soong Mei-ling married Chiang Kai-shek and together and gained power by deluding the China Lobby and American government for financial support while in fact creating a cruel but ineffectual dictatorship over China.

I found this book very illuminating about the history of China and Chinese-American international relations. Bradley also has a lot of suppositions about how a more realistic approach to China by the US government could've prevented the severity of the Pacific theater of World War II as well as the wars in Korea and Vietnam. He certainly makes a good point that the US could've responded positively to calls for alliance from Mao, a more effective fighter against Japan than Chiang, and someone who was no less a communist or tyrant than America's World War II ally Josef Stalin. On the other hand I am very turned off by Bradley's snarky tune and frequent use of jokey nicknames for the figures in this book. For all I know,The China Mirage may be 100% factual, but Bradley's writing style makes me doubt it.

Favorite Passages:

"On the American side, generations of missionary dreams about New China created an assumption in the United States about a reality that never existed in Asia. The China mirage took hold in the nineteenth century, affected U.S. foreign policy and domestic politics in the twentieth century, and continues to misguide America. Perhaps the cautionary tale revealed in this book will motivate people in both countries to strengthen that bridge across the Pacific before it’s too late. Again."

 

"...a procession of American sea merchants made their fortunes smuggling opium. They were aware of its poisonous effects on the Chinese people, but few of them ever mentioned the drug in the thousands of pages of letters and documents they sent back to America. Robert Bennet Forbes—a Russell and Company contemporary of Delano’s—defended his involvement with opium by noting that some of America’s best families were involved, 'those to whom I have always been accustomed to look up as exponents of all that was honorable in trade—the Perkins, the Peabodys, the Russells and the Lows.'"

 

Certainly some missionaries knew that Chiang was a one-party despot with legions of Blue Shirt thugs terrorizing the populace. They also knew that Chiang’s government was still a weak collection of warlord states held together by Ailing and Chiang through financial payoffs. But for reasons of either blind faith or strategic amorality, these men of God overlooked Chiang’s shortcomings. The Missionary Review of the World wrote, 'China has now the most enlightened, patriotic and able rulers in her history.'”

 

Given to me by my mom from the CCHS collection. Read during the fall of 2021 right after taking over as OpsO for LSB. Read in the field during a Bn FEX. Great book that provides unbiased and detailed account of WWII and going back even further into the history of western/US relationships with Japan. Also interesting to read from an EABO perspective and how Japan drastically failed at it at the beginning of WWII and what it led their troops to do. Definitely recommend to other WWII and military history fans. Not a huge fan of the title, but it does a great job of explaining how crucial "flyboys" were to the US success in WWII.

It's been awhile since I read this, but I enjoyed it greatly. Loved how well-researched it was with the stories of the young men who ended up in the famous AP photo of the flag raising at Iwo Jima. Both the stories of how they came to be there and the stories of what happened to them after the photo. Similar to [b:The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle: Memoir of a WWII Bomber Pilot|974343|The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle Memoir of a WWII Bomber Pilot|Robert Morgan|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309213019s/974343.jpg|2031569] in that it describes the difficulties our "heros" face when they return from that thing that made them a "hero".

Bradley's research offers quite a contradictory view of Teddy Roosevelt and how his policies may have laid the groundwork for Japanese expansion leading up to World War II. It's certainly not the standard text you learned from your elementary school texts. Bradley's perspective on T.R. is consistent with some other historians who agrue that his "rough rider" reputation was due to his self promotion, and not earned by his actions. Probably offensive to some, in that it offers a less than exemplary viewpoint of U.S. policies, but it's certainly an interesting and thought provoking book.

Review: Imperial Cruise by James Bradley. 3* 01/18/2021

The book was interesting, educating and at times unbelievable. President Taft and other VIPs had taken a cruise prior to WWI with the intent to secretly discuss and reassure Japan’s VIPs that they could invade Korea. The information of politics throughout the book gives the reader an eye opener to some of what the US was doing. There was even information of Teddy Roosevelt’s racism priority tactics changed the course of history in the Pacific, some causes of WWII, the rise of communism, and some data behind the Vietnam War.

If the information is true, false or otherwise our history doesn’t show too much to preach about. It was unheard of and embarrassing to read some of the information about our history’s maneuvers and practices. The water boarding torture was wide spread and used a lot the massacres the US did to the Philippines and our involvement in deposing the Hawaiian Queen.

It’s a sad state of affairs that the US foreign politics of expropriation, colonialism, rape, and murder in our past was nothing to boast about. This book surprised me.

I think the best summary would be: "Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia". Fascinating and eye-opening. Even if it's the first book I've read where Mao is the one who benefits from whitewashing. Key insights are how powerful propaganda is and how politics is wholly removed from public opinion and done between private individuals. We like to think this has changed.

Ironically this book has its own agenda too (but it's upfront about it).

Quite an illuminating book. Like many others, I previously had the impression of Theodore Roosevelt as the man who started the national parks and other fine works. This book tells a different story.

The "imperial cruise" was a cruise that took place in the summer of 1905. On the ship were the president's daughter Alice, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, and a large group of congressmen and other government officials. Something of a "fact-finding mission", the cruise was really the means for Taft to negotiate secret treaties on Roosevelt's behalf.

Shocking for me - but probably shouldn't have been - was the evidence of ignorance by Roosevelt, Taft, and too many others of the actual nature of the cultures of Japan, China, and other faraway countries. Roosevelt thought, for example, that the Philippines could not be governed by the blacks who lived there because they were not ready to govern. They were only slightly advanced from savagery. And the Chinese! Barbarians.

Because the Japanese were adept at adopting trends, such as clothing and manners, that suited their purposes, Roosevelt believed that their Americanized looks and behavior (especially as exemplified by a Japanese-American who represented Japan in talks with Roosevelt) meant that they were more civilized.

Thus Roosevelt decided on his own to negotiate agreements with Japan and Korea without aid of consultations with experts in the East. Decisions were made that led to many deaths and possibly were responsible for future actions in WWII.

It is clear from the tone of the book that the author is willing to believe the worst of Roosevelt and Taft. Further, he is willing to jump to large conclusions and interpret facts to fit his thesis. I found the book interesting and intriguing and it inspired me to look more into this president.

A real eye-opener for me. I had not paid attention to the history & attitudes of US society in the 1890s through 1914. Had no ideal how fully entrenched into the culture and its leadership racial discrimination was. Shocking to see language that could come out of 1930s German propaganda was being said, written by American politicians.
The book's thesis that Teddy Roosevelt's political heritage set the stage for 100 years of problems is sustained.

The title is a misnomer because the author ranges far afield from the imperial cruise. He does occasionally dangle the prospect of a big reveal for the reader if they will just keep reading. But in the end he pulls a sleight of hand and does not deliver the goods. (Its a secret meeting between Teddy Roosevelt and the Japanese that set the clockwork running for World War II.) The takeaway is that the author is not a serious historical scholar.

For a short book, this really packs a wallop. I learned so much about the Battle of Iwo Jima -- I knew there were underground caves but never understood how the Marines were essentially operating on top of an underground city. I learned about the history of the Marines. I learned that the war in the Pacific was "America's War" -- versus the combined allied efforts in the European theater -- it should have been obvious but I had never considered it before. I learned the power of the image of "The Photograph" -- how the emotions it evoked in civilians (including myself) are so, so, so unrelated to what mattered to the Marines who were there. Most important, I learned the stories of the six Marines identified as flagraisers -- six lives that would be lost to history if not for The Photograph -- six lives that are representative of so many lives lost to history.

Personal Note: This is the first book I've read this year as part of the World War II book challenge, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov3LrLCpBFQ

LibraryThing Note: Thanks to setnahkt for pointing out that two of the Marines identified as flagraisers in this book were not flagraisers after all. I don't think this detracts from the book at all but actually reinforces its key themes.

The blurb is basically correct: America's elite being made fools of over their bone-ignorance of China.

Some nice bits of Chinese history, American history, folly, cruelty and loss, but not a particularly engaging book, which is a pity.

Best thing I could say about it is that this book is a good primer, but really there needs to be more, more meat.