Flyboys

by James Bradley

  p. 19 “the facts of that case are of a character to excite the indignation of the people of the United States.” Wiley, Yankees in the Land of the Gods, 40.

  p. 19 “The nation stands upon strong vantage ground. We want accommodations for fuel and a depot for our steamers and we have a good cause for a quarrel.” Ibid.

  p. 19 “trample on [a brass crucifix] by putting the left foot on the cross and then the right foot.” U.S. Senate, Official Documents Relative to the Empire of Japan, 32nd Congress, 1st Session, Executive Document #59, Message from the President, April 12, 1852, 12.

  p. 19 . . . the kamikaze “would blow them away by aid of their priests.” Ibid., 21.

  p. 20 . . . the “real object of the expedition should be concealed from public view.” Wiley, Yankees in the Land of the Gods, 73.

  p. 20 “. . . the United States’ global rivalry with England and the need to secure ports on a Pacific steamship line were its real raisons d’être.” Ibid., 124.

  p. 20 The big event for the islanders was the arrival of whaling ships, which called for fresh water, supplies of fresh turtle and fish, vegetables, fruits, liquor, and occasional sexual services. Mary Shepardson, The Bonin Islands: Pawns of Power (C. Barbara Shepardson and Beret E. Strong, Unpublished, 1998), 35.

  pp. 20-21 “. . . edged with coral reefs.” Perry, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, 231.

  p. 21 “. . . They are clearly seen on entering the harbor.” Ibid., 246.

  p. 21 . . . for a price of fifty dollars, four cattle, five Shanghai sheep, and six goats. Samuel Eliot Morison, Old Bruin: Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 1794-1858, the American Naval Officer Who Helped Found Liberia (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967), 312.

  p. 21 “first piece of land bought by Americans in the Pacific.” Shepardson, The Bonin Islands, 61.

  p. 23 Thousands of armor-encased soldier-archers with eight-foot longbows and pikes stood by. Rhoda Blumberg, Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books, 1985), 30-31. (Much of the colorful information on Perry’s landing in this chapter is from Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun.)

  p. 23 “Your letter being received, you will now leave.” Wiley, Yankees in the Land of the Gods, 322.

  p. 24 “would produce a decided influence upon [the] government and cause a more favorable consideration of the President’s letter.” Ibid.

  p. 24 The original is from Morison, who reported, “Buchanan replied that the United States Navy operated under American law wherever it went,” which I have rendered as, “The United States Navy operates under American law wherever we go.” Morison, Old Bruin, 326.

  p. 26 Shinmin meant “people who obediently comply with their orders.” Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 30.

  p. 26 “. . . but should treat them in the same way as do the Western nations.” McClain, Japan: A Modern History, 293.

  p. 26 “. . . The Strong Eat up the Weak.” John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 (New York: Random House, 1970), 21.

  p. 27 “. . . trying to develop civilization and a country that inhibits the progress of civilization.” McClain, Japan: A Modern History, 300.

  p. 27 “a character suitable for great achievements in the world.” Ibid.

  Chapter 3: Spirit War

  p. 29 “I was thoroughly well pleased with the Japanese victory,” Raymond A. Esthus, Theodore Roosevelt and Japan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966), 24.

  p. 31 “Neither Trafalgar nor the defeat of the Spanish Armada was as complete and overwhelming.” Ibid., 71.

  p. 31 “the great civilizing force of the entire East.” Ibid., 41.

  p. 31 “but . . . I am far stronger pro-Japanese than ever.” Ibid., 96.

  p. 31 “. . . just as the United States has a paramount interest in what surrounds the Caribbean.” Ibid., 41.

  p. 31 “just like we have with Cuba.” Ibid., 101.

  p. 31 “Korea should be entirely within Japan’s sphere of interest.” Ibid.

  p. 31 “It is like the stampede of rats from a sinking ship.” Ibid., 110.

  p. 34 “map exercises, military history; the principles of military leadership, tactics . . . strategy and chess.” Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 44.

  p. 34 “training in horsemanship and military drills by junior army officers.” Ibid.

  p. 34 “had a trench dug inside the crown prince’s compound so that Hirohito could practice firing machine guns.” Ibid., 48

  p. 34 “played war-strategy games with him.” Ibid.

  p. 34 “. . . the small group of talented officials who had assisted him.” Ibid., 27.

  p. 34 “hand-to-hand combat rather than firepower determined victory or defeat in battle.” Ibid., 47.

  pp. 34-35 “. . . ‘military spirit education’ in general should be encouraged.” Robert J. Butow, Tojo and the Coming of the War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961), 23.

  p. 35 “Every facet of the curriculum was permeated with emperor worship and militarism.” Sabura Ienaga, Japan’s Last War: World War II and the Japanese, 1931-1945 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978), 327.

  p. 35 “. . . three toy soldiers with the caption ‘Advance! Advance! Soldiers move forward!’” Ibid., 106.

  p. 35 “. . . Music classes were to reverberate with war songs.” Ibid., 24.

  p. 35 “. . . I was prepared to serve the emperor in any way possible.” I became aware of Masayo Enomoto’s experiences in the Imperial Japanese Army through the kindness of someone at the BBC who sent me an interview with him. I later journeyed to Enomoto-san’s living room, confirmed segments of his previous interviews (the BBC interview and the documentary Japanese Devils are just two examples of Enomoto-san’s telling his tale publicly), and learned new facts from this fascinating man. At first it seems strange that Enomoto, a man who admits he ate a Chinese woman, is welcomed to and respected in China. Why? Because he is Japanese and tells the truth.

  p. 36 “. . . you’ll have to kill a hundred, two hundred Chinks.” Ibid., 107.

  p. 36 “. . . we had to stand at attention and salute.” Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History (New York: The New Press, 1992), 235.

  p. 36 “. . . You simply bore up under it, your teeth clenched.” Ibid., 235.

  p. 36 “. . . and is advancing with the times to lead the entire world.” Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 200.

  p. 36 “. . . she would shrivel up and die.” Butow, Tojo and the Coming of the War, 25.

  p. 37 “. . . They were non-persons.” Ienaga, Japan’s Last War, 51.

  p. 37 “. . . The result was an officer corps of rigid mentality and limited experience.” Ibid., 48.

  p. 38 “. . . ‘absolute obedience to superiors.’” Ibid.

  p. 38 “. . . who concedes a strategic area to the enemy shall be punishable by death.” Ibid., 49.

  p. 38 “This act typifies the glorious spirit of the Imperial Army.” Ibid.

  p. 39 “. . . It was the last primitive infantry army of modern times.” Frank Gibney, trans. Beth Cary, Senso: The Japanese Remember the Pacific War (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharp, 1995), 23.

  p. 39 “. . . My uniform froze.” Ibid., 28.

  p. 39 “. . . They thought that beatings were a form of education.” Ibid., 27.

  p. 39 “. . . I nearly fainted in agony.” Ibid., 54.

  p 39 “. . . I wonder what my parents would have felt had they seen me in this state.” Ibid., 28.

  p. 40 “. . . obedience to them had to be absolute and unconditional.” Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 55.

  p. 40 “We learned that the senior soldiers were gods,” Gibney, Senso, 54.

  p. 40 “. . . held the soap for the NCOs and washed their backs.” Ienaga, Japan’s Last War, 53.

  p. 40 “. . . men who would carry out our superiors’
orders as a reflex action.” Gibney, Senso, 54.

  Chapter 4: The Third Dimension

  p. 41 “You just got in and flew.” Craig Nelson, The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid—America’s First World War II Victory (New York: Viking, 2002), 39.

  p. 43 “. . . so tomorrow we shall write of battles in the skies.” Isaac Don Levine, Mitchell: Pioneer of Air Power (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1958), 388.

  pp. 43-44 “. . . or disaster in war.” Ibid., 317.

  p. 44 “. . . she would still be able to get home.” Ibid., 240.

  p. 44 “. . . and half a hundred newspapermen.” Ibid., 241.

  p. 44 “. . . flyers will never sink the Ostfriesland.” Ibid., 239.

  p. 44 “. . . by officers of the navy department in high authority.” Ibid., 311.

  p. 45 “. . . while others hid their faces behind handkerchiefs.” Ibid., 256.

  p. 45 “. . . It is evident to everyone who attended the demonstration that history is being made.” Ibid., 260.

  p. 45 “‘. . . with sufficient airplane and submarine protection this country was perfectly safe from attack.’” Ibid., 268.

  p. 45 “. . . and Constellation be converted into aircraft carriers.” Ibid.

  p. 45 “the battleship is still the backbone of the fleet and the bulwark of the nation’s sea defense.” Ibid., 269.

  p. 46 “. . . I have never seen anything like it.” Ibid., 295.

  p. 46 “. . . care must be taken that it is not underestimated.” Ibid., 298.

  p. 46 “. . . may end up by developing the greatest air power in the world.” Ibid., 299.

  p. 46 “. . . take us at least two years to get on a par with . . . Japan.” Ibid., 304.

  p. 46 “. . . as things stand now, would probably be with the Japanese.” Ibid., 337.

  p. 46 “. . . You have got to look ahead.” Ibid., 304.

  p. 46 “. . . to humiliation, demotion and discipline.” Ibid., 307.

  p. 47 “knocking a butterfly out of the air with water from a garden hose.” Gen. William Mitchell, “Building a Futile Navy,” Atlantic Monthly, September 1928.

  p. 47 “. . . bore the mark of a single bullet hole.” Levine, Mitchell: Pioneer of Air Power, 316-17.

  p. 47 “. . . proved the exact opposite.” Ibid.

  p. 47 “. . . anti-aircraft devices remain the ‘backbone’ of coast defense.” Ibid.

  p. 47 “jar the bureaucrats out of their swivel chairs.” Ibid., 318.

  p. 48 “. . . openly tell falsehoods about aviation to the people and to the Congress.” Ibid., 327-28.

  p. 48 “. . . I would certainly be tried for it.” Ibid., 329.

  p. 48 “. . . exceedingly dangerous undertaking and precedent.” Ibid., 342.

  pp. 48-49 “. . . which is being ignored in the administration of national defense.” Ibid., 343.

  p. 49 “. . . The last war taught us that man cannot make a machine stronger than the spirit of man.” Ibid., 363-64.

  p. 49 “. . . with forfeiture of all pay and allowances for five years.” Ibid., 368.

  p. 49 “to seize Alaska, Hawaii and the Philippines.” Ibid., 375.

  p. 49 “. . . a surprise move while negotiations would be going on behind diplomats’ doors.” Ibid.

  p. 49 “Japan never declares war before attacking.” Ibid., 389.

  p. 50 “. . . had not entirely dissuaded the Japanese from making the attempt.” “United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (Pacific War)” (Washington, DC, July 1, 1946), 28.

  p. 50 “. . . apparently was regarded by both as a minor auxiliary.” Nelson, The First Heroes, 102.

  p. 50 “. . . our planes should be designed to attack Japan.” Levine, Mitchell: Pioneer of Air Power, 395.

  p. 50 “. . . a little while we will be as easy to attack as a large jellyfish.” Ibid., 397.

  p. 51 “The American people will regret the day I was crucified by politics and bureaucracy.” Ibid., 399.

  Chapter 5: The Rape of China

  p. 52 “. . . we will make the whole world look up to our national virtues.” Butow, Tojo and the Coming of the War, 46.

  p. 53 “Japan’s holy mission beckoned: defend the imperial way and build a paradise in Asia!” Ibid.

  p. 53 “. . . Where should we find an outlet for these millions?” Ienaga, Japan’s Last War, 11.

  p. 53 “. . . save its 600,000,000 from ‘imperialistic oppression.’” Butow, Tojo and the Coming of the War, 32.

  p. 53 “. . . Three or four divisions and a few river gunboats will be quite enough to handle the Chinese bandits.” Ienaga, Japan’s Last War, 85.

  p. 54 “. . . Spies! This was war.” All quotes from Shozo Tominaga are from Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War (this quote from page 44).

  p. 54 . . . Chinese troops were not “soldiers,” but “bandits.” Russell, Lord of Liverpool, The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes (New York: Berkley Publishing, 1958), 34.

  p. 54 “if you kill them there will be no repercussions.” Katsuichi Honda, The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan’s National Shame (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharp, 1998), 171.

  pp. 54-55 “. . . nor act in accordance with, all the concrete articles of the Treaty Concerning the Laws and Customs of Land Warfare and Other Treaties Concerning the Laws and Regulations of Belligerency.” Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 359.

  p. 55 The same directive ordered “staff officers in China to stop using the term ‘prisoner of war.’” Ibid.

  p. 55 “. . . decision to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners of war.” Ibid.

  p. 55 “. . . massacred, tortured, or drafted into Japanese labor camps.” Russell, The Knights of Bushido, 34.

  p. 57 “. . . It was to make the prisoners last as long as possible.” Gibney, Senso, 65.

  p. 58 “. . . and here would come thousands of Japanese to take away what the natives had.” Ibid., 206.

  p. 58 “. . . to ensure no one could report where the invaders slept.” Jonathan Lewis and Ben Steele, Hell in the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima (London: Channel 4 Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, 2001), 42.

  p. 59 “. . . the soldiers had sliced off his flesh to feed to the dogs.” Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, 98.

  p. 59 “. . . only his torso remained on the ground.” Gibney, Senso, 30.

  p. 60 “. . . I’d order the one I planned to kill to dig a hole, then cut him down and cover him over.” Cook and Cook, Japan at War, 151-57.

  p. 60 Newspaper contest quotes from Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, 125-27.

  p. 60 “‘. . . It’s a valuable weapon.’” Gibney, Senso, 96.

  p. 61 “. . . spread of such a disease would weaken the strength of the Army considerably.” Yuki Tanaka, Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998), 96.

  p. 61 “. . . 20,000 comfort women were required for every 700,000 Japanese soldiers, or 1 woman for every 35 soldiers.” Ibid., 99.

  p. 61 “32.1 million condoms were sent to units stationed outside Japan.” Ibid., 96.

  p. 62 “The caption below read simply Totsugeki —‘Charge!’” Honda, The Nanjing Massacre, xx.

  Chapter 6: The ABCD Encirclement

  p. 63 “. . . ATTACKS TERMED ILLEGAL.” New York Times, September 23, 1937.

  p. 63 “. . . CIVILIANS VICTIMS.” New York Times, September 23, 1937.

  p. 63 “. . . ENVOY CITES SLAUGHTER OF NONCOMBATANTS.” New York Times, September 24, 1937.

  p. 63 “campaign of death and terror.” New York Times, September 24, 1937.

  p. 64 “. . . make war indiscriminately upon noncombatants and combatants alike.” New York Times, September 22, 1937.

  p. 64 “. . . contrary to principles of law and of humanity.” New York Times, September 28, 1937.

  p. 64 “. . . developed as an essential part of modern civilization. John Dower, War
Without Mercy (New York: Pantheon Books, 1996), 38.

  p. 64 “. . . profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity.” Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 39.

  p. 64 “. . . inhuman bombing of civilian populations.” Dower, War Without Mercy, 39.

  p. 64 “. . . have aroused horror and indignation throughout the world, and solemnly condemns them.” New York Times, September 28, 1937.

  p. 65 “What the United States would do if the protest should go unheeded was not revealed.” New York Times, September 23, 1937.

  p. 65 “. . . neither her people nor her government wishes to become embroiled in the Far East.” New York Times, September 25, 1937.

  p. 65 “. . . a program to keep the United States out of war and safeguard the democracy they fought to save twenty years ago.” New York Times, September 22, 1937.

  p. 65 . . . the Oxford antiwar oath: “I refuse to support the Government of the United States in any war it may conduct.” New York Times, April 23, 1937.

  p. 65 “. . . Ask the American Indian or the Mexican how excruciatingly trying the young United States used to be once upon a time.” Butow, Tojo and the Coming of the War, 107.

  p. 66 “. . . now cry, ‘Thief!’ if Japan even so much as looked at a neighboring territory?” Ibid., 25.

  p. 66 “. . . the white miners who have been strongly attracted there by reports of rich deposits of the precious metal.” Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1970), 284.

  p. 67 “. . . do a great many evil things. . . . This war has come from robbery—from the stealing of our land.” Ibid., 299.

  p. 67 “. . . to the greatness of the race and to the well-being of civilized mankind.” Dyer, Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race, 78.

  p. 67 “. . . wholly alien race which holds a coveted prize in its feeble grasp.” Ibid.

  p. 68 “would be like granting self-government to an Apache reservation under some local chief.” Drinnon, Facing West, 298.

  p. 68 . . . found only three who recommended independence for the Philippines. Stuart Creighton Miller, Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1982), 16.