This book, by James Bradley, is incredible. I bought it Friday evening and simply cannot put it down. It brings to life some of the carrier war and seems to give a nice overview of the Pacific theatre. More importantly, it provides tit for tat the atrocities that were committed by the Japanese and the Americans. I am appalled at the treatment of POWs, I knew a lot of it but when confronted with it page after page, I just shook my head. Friday evening, about 100 pages into the book, I simply had to put it down and had trouble getting to sleep. Interestingly, this is balanced as far as I can se because he paints both cultures, Japanese and American showing the differences, but the similarities in the way people were treated. I get the overwhelming feeling on the American side he is trying to get you to see that it was retaliation, but, I am not sure history bears that out. This is an incredible read and I highly recommend it. If I had stars to give, it would get all of them.
NSCLCCTL
Got this book over the weekend too. I agree with you in that (so far)it is a great read. I like the way he writes, such as at the beginning of the book where Bradley mentions the harbor sneak attack,battleships sunk,sailors swimming in burning oil and that Roosevelt admired this victory and the Japanese…I got mad as hell till he said it was the Russian harbor and the Roosevelt was Teddy.Sneaky.Looking forward to tonight so I can start reading again.
Teise
Hmm… my birthday is coming up next month-- I’ll have to mention this to my wife. Another one this brings the atrocities to horrible light is Ghost Soldiers-- another great read!