Just finished reading "FlyBoys" by James Bradley. [amazon.com]

It starts with a very one-sided, negative history of America against the Indians and then the Philippines. Almost put it down, but the narrative serves a purpose.

He then documents modern Japanese history starting with their forced isolationism up until the late 1800s, followed by their rush into an industrial nation, conflict with Russia, then their Imperial expansion into China with associated atrocities. One of those atrocities was the air bombing of Chongqing in 1939 which killed 10,000 civilians. The US condemned this bombing of civilian targets. FDR imposed an embargo against Japan for this atrocity.

With the history, the book follows several US airmen through training and then eventual combat. George H W Bush is one of those airmen who found himself shot down over the island Chichi Jima, a Japanese radar and radio station. While Bush was rescued by submarine, several other flyboys were captured over Chichi Jima, questioned, tortured, one was shipped to the mainland and the rest were executed.

The book segues into the fire bombing of Tokyo, taking the perspective of survivors who witnessed people bursting into flames as they tried to flee the inferno with their families. It then documents the subsequent fire bombing of many other major Japanese cities to the extent that major portions of all the targeted cities were reduced to ashes and burned out brick buildings. The lives lost to fire bombing well exceeded Nagasaki and Hiroshima (Dresden bombing resulted in half the casualties of just Tokyo). The soldier's perspective was that the completion of the war was years away seeing that even the Japanese civilians would throw their children and themselves over cliffs rather than surrender.

The book ends with the war trials that covered over the Emperor's complicity (in an effort to prevent anarchy), finding no fault in his command but executing many of the other high level war commanders. It documents the trial and execution of the commanders on Chichi Jima who executed the POWs and finishes with stories of forgiveness and amelioration of many of the survivors.

Worth the read. If you like it I'd also suggest "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" - [amazon.com]