Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor

<b>“[Signal Officer Edgar] Osborne watched the <i>Hornet</i>’s bow so as to release [Colonel James] Doolittle just as the carrier began to dive down the face of a wave. The time required for a B-25 to traverse the flight deck meant that the bomber would reach the bow on the upswing, catapulting the plane into the air. Osborne dropped the flag and Doolittle released the brakes. The bomber roared down the flight deck at 8:20 a.m. ‘The scream of those engines, the excitement and urgency, made an incredible sight. I was lying face down on the wet deck, clutching the tiedown plates to keep from being blown by the terrific wind. When Doolittle’s B-25 began to move, it seemed unreal,’ [Ross] Greening later wrote. ‘I had chills running up and down my spine…’ Doolittle’s left wheels hugged the white line that ran down the deck. He passed fifty feet, then one hundred. Then two hundred. ‘He’ll never make it,’ someone shouted. The bomber charged toward the end of the flight deck and then appeared to vanish…”</b><br>- James Scott, <i>Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid that Avenged Pearl Harbor</i> <br><br>On the last night of his life, American airman Billy Farrow wrote a series of letters, the last of which was meant for his girlfriend of two years, Elizabeth Sims. The letter is simple, graceful, and shockingly free of bitterness, considering that Farrow had been sentenced to death by the Japanese military. <br><br>“You are to me the only girl that would have meant the condition of my life,” he wrote. “I have realized the kind of life being married to you would have meant to me and to both of us, and I know we would have found complete happiness.” And then, in a line that perfectly encapsulates the smallness of human life in the midst of cataclysmic world war, he continues: <b>“It is a pity we were born in this day and age.”</b><br><br>Farrow was one of “Doolittle’s Raiders.” He and 79 of his companions, under the command of famed aviator and daredevil Lt. Col. James Doolittle, had launched a surprise bombing raid on Tokyo in retaliation for the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. <br><br>The raid had been audaciously conceived and recklessly executed. Sixteen Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell bombers, each with a five-man crew and four bombs, took off from the carrier U.S.S. <i>Hornet</i>. The plan (concocted by a naval captain) was for the bombers to take off from a carrier, drop their payloads over Tokyo and other Japanese cities, fly to China where they’d land at emergency airfields in occupied-territory, refuel, and then push further inland. <br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1466115785i/19441881._SX540_.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><b>A B-25 bomber struggles off the deck of the USS <i>Hornet</i> on April 18, 1942</b><br><br>Things went awry when Japanese picket boats spotted the American convoy heading towards the mainland, some 200 miles before the launch point. Doolittle went ahead anyway, knowing that his men wouldn’t have the fuel to make it to the Chinese landing strips. The planes all launched successfully from the <i>Hornet</i>, caught the Japanese air defenses by surprise, and got away safely. That is when the real odyssey began. <br><br>This story, and much more, is the subject of James M. Scott’s magisterial <i>Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid that Avenged Pearl Harbor</i>. <br><br>I will be very honest in saying that this is a book I almost did not pick up. The title alone is a turn-off, like something from an RKO Pictures film. I feared this would be a Father’s Day kind of book. A simplistic tale of heroism and vengeance and American exceptionalism. I don’t have much interest in rah-rah jingoistic paeans. If I want propaganda, I’ll look at an old war bonds poster. The only thing that caught my attention was the prodigious length: 480 pages of text, exclusive of endnotes and index. Nearly 500 pages on a mission that is a mere footnote in the larger course of World War II? Something had to be going on, I thought. This is the work of an obsessive, and I dig obsessives. <br><br>The Doolittle Raid has been covered before, most famously by pilot Ted W. Lawson, who lost his leg following the crash landing of his plane, the <i>Ruptured Duck</i>, and wrote the celebrated <i>Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo</i>, which later became a pretty good movie. It also featured in Michael Bay’s execrable 2000 film <i>Pearl Harbor</i>, appended as a feel-good tag to a picture otherwise focused on a notable American defeat. I feel comfortable saying that this is the last book that needs be written on the subject. Scott covers this material from every angle and perspective. <i>Target Tokyo</i> is comprehensive, exhaustive, and beautifully written. <br><br>Scott begins in the shadow of Pearl Harbor. America is reeling from the loss of four battleships (two permanently), nearly 200 planes, and over two thousands men. The Philippines are under attack. Wake Island has been captured. President Roosevelt wants to hit back, if for no other reason than to lift the flagging spirits of his country. Enter Jimmy Doolittle and his Raiders. <br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1466115785i/19441882._SY540_.jpg" width="275" height="350" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><b>Famed aviator and Hennessy connoisseur, James Doolittle</b> <br><br>Scott covers the conceptualization of the raid, as well as the training. His account of the bombing mission itself is insanely detailed. It is literally a bomb-by-bomb account that tells you which plane’s bombs hit which targets, what kind of damage that caused, and how many people died. There are moments when he connects individual Japanese casualties to the bomb from the plane that killed them. This makes for an incredibly intimate description of an otherwise lethally indiscriminate mode of warfare. <br><br>The bulk of the narrative is spent on the escape of the Raiders. Of the sixteen planes, fifteen crash-landed and one disobeyed orders and flew to Russia. (While allied with the U.S. against Germany, the U.S.S.R. was – at this point – scrupulously maintaining neutrality with Japan). The story of the aircrew interned in Russia makes for pretty good black comedy. It’s Sartre viewed through the prism of Heller. For the other 75 men, it was a vastly different experience. <br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1466116013i/19441900._SX540_.jpg" width="400" height="350" alt="description" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><b>Doolittle Raider Robert Hite is blindfolded and led into captivity</b><br><br>Three men died during the crash landings. Most of the rest escaped, aided by Chinese soldiers and civilians, who later paid a heavy price for their efforts. Eight men were captured, and their tale comprises the most fraught sections. At one point, they were taken to the infamous Bridge House jail in Shanghai. The conditions were near unendurable: <br><br><blockquote>Prisoners broiled in the summer heat and froze throughout the winter. A starvation diet of watery rice and a few ounces of bread caused fillings to fall out of teeth, and some inmates suffered vision loss. One Chinese prisoner starved to death after going twenty-five days without food. Filth was a constant. There were no baths, no haircuts, no shaves. Prisoners filed down their fingernails by rubbing them against the concrete walls. The Japanese guards refused to provide females with sanitary napkins, leaving them with bloodstained legs and dresses that served as a source of endless amusement for the guards. Fleas, lice, and centipedes swarmed the cells, and rats often tugged at the hair of sleeping captives. Disease was rampant, from dysentery and tuberculosis to leprosy. The communal latrine forced others to witness the horrific and untreated venereal diseases some prisoners suffered.</blockquote> <br><br>The Doolittle Raiders were mistreated, tortured, and forced to sit through a sham trial that convicted them all of war crimes. Three, including Billy Farrow, were executed by firing squad. <br><br>The aftermath of the raid, including the plight of the captives, is Scott’s true focus. He devotes space to the propaganda campaigns run by both the Japanese and the United States. He follows the Raiders once they return home, the ex-P.O.W.s suffering from what we’d now recognize as PTSD. He even takes us to the party Doolittle threw in 1947 at a Miami hotel where – according to a memo written by the hotel’s night manager, which Scott helpfully excerpts – there was women, booze, and a swimming pool. <br><br>This party, promised by Doolittle from the start, grew into a yearly tradition. Doolittle even donated a bottle of 1896 Hennessy cognac (from the year he was born) to be drank by the last two surviving Raiders. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to say that Scott closes this book with the last three survivors opening up that cognac and drinking their toast. <br><br>In a typical book, that final gesture would have been the culmination of a theme. The old heroes tossing one back to fallen comrades. <br><br>This is not a typical book. <br><br>In its latter half, <i>Target Tokyo</i> forces you to question the necessity of a mission that has become a cherished hallmark in U.S. military history. He takes us back to China, where the Japanese retribution – which the U.S. knew was coming – fell hard on the villages that assisted Doolittle’s men. An estimated 250,000 Chinese men, women, and children were killed, making the Nazi vengeance at Lidice look like a schoolyard game of bombardment. There are times when a number gets so large that it loses meaning. It’s far easier to empathize with the seven named Raiders who perished than with the quarter-million nameless Chinese who represented the collateral damage. Scott isn’t able to identify them, but he gives a searing portrait of the Japanese rampage through their lives. It was, in short, a reprise of the Rape of Nanking. Villages leveled. Mass executions. Biological warfare. <br><br>All this, for what amounted to a propaganda coup. A raid of no material consequence. Sixteen planes and 64 bombs. Later in the war, LeMay would hurl as many as 500 B-29s at Japanese targets, each with five times the payload of Doolittle’s B-25s. Perhaps the raid goaded Yamamoto into the Midway campaign. Perhaps. But the cost in lives seems disproportionate to its achieved goals. <br><br>Scott never makes an argument either way. He gives you every scrap of information he’s unearthed and threads it into a narrative that is structured to leave you asking the question yourself. Without being blatant, he overlays an ethical framework over the unrestrained hell of World War II. By the end, <i>Target Tokyo</i> becomes more than a story of a gutsy raid by nerveless airmen; it turns into a deep mediation on the moral choices inherent in war.

Mr. Scott has written a very readable, exhaustively researched look at the U.S.'s first strike on the home islands of the Empire of Japan in World War II. The author tells the story from its genesis in a comment FDR made shortly after Pearl Harbor that he wanted to strike the Japanese home islands to the final release of the raiders that Japan had captured after the war had ended. This book could well be subtitled, “Everything you wanted to know about the Doolittle Raid, but were afraid to ask” to paraphrase a famous title from the '60s.<br /><br />In telling of the raid, Mr. Scott also tells James Doolittle’s story. He looks at where he came from, his qualifications to both lead the raid and decide on the aircraft to be used, what modifications the aircraft needed, select the aircrew to fly on the mission etc. Contrary to common understanding, the people selected to fly the mission were not the best of the best. Almost all of them came from one bomb group, the 17th. That group not elite in any way and just happened to be the only one flying the B-25 at the time.<br /><br />In telling the story the author also includes various tidbits that I found fascinating. For instance when the carriers were discovered by Japanese picket boats, one of the accompanying cruisers, the USS Nashville, was tasked to sink it with naval gunfire. Much to the embarrassment of the Nashville’s skipper it took more than 800 rounds of main gun ammunition to accomplish this task. The author also tells Doolittle’s reaction when he realized that all of the B-25s had been lost on the raid. He felt that he would be court martialed and dismissed from the service – if he was lucky. He was given a pep talk by his crew chief and returned to the U.S. to a promotion to Brigadier General and a Medal of Honor.<br /><br />The author also includes quite a few pages on the Japanese preparations for an air attack and the schism between the Navy and the Army. The leader to the Navy, Adm Yamamoto, was concerned about the possibility and did what he could to prepare in face of the Army’s almost total disregard of the possibility. This included stationing picket boats well into the Pacific. <br /><br />The raid itself occurs about half way through the narrative. The rest tells the story of two crews that fell into Japanese hands and the one crew that diverted to the Soviet Union and the Japanese reaction to the raid. I found the story of the crew the diverted to the USSR really fascinating. To say they weren’t treated as heroes is an understatement. They were interned by the Soviets and kept in deplorable conditions and moved several times. Finally they were moved close enough to the Iranian border, they escaped to Iran in 1943. The author felt that they were allowed to escape to let the USSR off the hook with the US gov’t.<br /><br />The story of the 8 captured crewmen is also told in detail. 3 were eventually executed for war crimes, 1 died in captivity and 4 were eventually released after the war. In some ways their story is the hardest to read. All four of the men who survived had trouble adjusting to a freedom and one of them had such a hard time he returned to the United States in a strait jacket! In telling the story of the prisoners, Mr. Scott also tells the fate of the Japanese commanders who were in charge of them. 4 were prosecuted for war crime and convicted – though there sentences were fairly lite.<br /><br />Finally in telling the story, Mr. Scott also tells of the fate of the Chinese who assisted the Raiders. The Japanese reaction in some ways made the Rape of Nanking look like minor misunderstanding. The Japanese were absolutely ruthless in dealing with the Chinese populations in areas they controlled. They killed an estimated 250,000 Chinese in retaliation.<br /><br />All in all this is an excellent look at the Raid, it’s political beginnings, the actual nuts and bolts on how it was carried out, the effect on morale in both the U.S. and in Japan and finally he takes on the question of "Was it worth it?" considering the Japanese reaction and the lack of military results that were inherent in the such a minor raid - A definite 5 star read.<br />

A book of two parts, really. The first half introduces us to Jimmy Doolittle, a sort of miniature biography, and then we go into preparations for the raid on Tokyo and then the details of the raid itself. It is all great stuff. But the book really becomes powerful when the raid is complete and the raiders have all ended up in China or Russia: the years of imprisonment for a handful of raiders, the destruction and murder of hundred of thousands of Chinese as punishment for assisting the raiders, the subterfuge in Russia's handling of one of the crews, and of course the war crimes trials after the conclusion of the war. Some of this stuff will move you to tears. It's a wonderful book and makes one proud of The Greatest Generation.

Even before rescuers could remove all the dead from the oily Hawaiian waters following Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, American war planners started work on an ambitious counterassault, a strike against the heart of the Japanese Empire: Tokyo. This raid led by Army Forces Lt. Col. and famous stunt and racing pilot Jimmy Doolittle tested American ingenuity and gambled the precious few warships in the Pacific Fleet's battered arsenal, but also boosted American morale and jolted the Japanese out of the mistaken belief they were immune to attacks on their home soil.<br /><br />Sixteen Army bombers crewed by eighty volunteers eager to work alongside the legendary Doolittle and specially trained in carrier takeoffs thundered into the skies over Tokyo and key industrial cities, bombing refineries, factories, and dockyards, and then escaped to China. In the USA the mission derailed questions over the government's failure to deter the raid on Pearl Harbor, and Jimmy Doolittle came to personify the counterattack's success, his grinning image plastered nationwide on war bond posters.<br /><br />Postwar records and interviews revealed that Doolittle's audacious raid had achieved far more, convincing the reluctant Japanese military leaders of the need to extend the nation's defensive periphery and destroy America's aircraft carriers to prevent possible future strikes. The plan would focus on the capture of a Pacific atoll, one the Japanese knew America would risk its precious flattops to protect, and would culminate in the Battle of Midway, which would end in utter defeat for Japan and become the key turning point of the war, setting the stage for the Navy's offensive drive across the Pacific that would overwhelm Emperor Hirohito's empire.<br /><br />Yet, declassified records in both nations together with long-forgotten missionary files show a more nuanced history. Japanese documents reveal that the raiders – albeit unintentionally – bombed private homes and a school, and killed civilians, including women and children. Records also demonstrate how Roosevelt's administration, desperate for positive press, deliberately deceived the Americans about the mission's actual losses and even the capture of some of the airmen, sparking a propaganda warfare between the USA and Japan. In one of the story's uglier chapters, General Douglas MacArthur's chief of intelligence secretly protected the Japanese general who allegedly signed the death order of some of the captured bombers, considering him too valuable a postwar asset to be prosecuted in the war-crime trials.<br /><br />The worst part was, however, Japan's brutal retaliatory campaign of rape and murder against the Chinese, triggered by the brazen raid that had humiliated the Japanese leaders. Enemy troops reduced whole cities, towns, and villages to rubble; they cut the ears and noses off people, set others on fire, raped all women between 10 and 60 years of age, and drowned entire families in wells. Especially cruel they were to those villagers who had sheltered Doolittles's airmen after the raid on Tokyo. Seeing a souvenir left by them in one house, the Japanese made the owner's wife set him on fire herself. The heinous slaughter that claimed the lives of as many as a quarter million Chinese had been anticipated by senior American leaders even before Doolittle's raid. <br /><br /><i>Target Tokyo</i> is a highly compelling account of the attack on Tokyo from its genesis to its aftermath, emphasizing Jimmy Doolittle's remarkable talent as a commander. James M. Scott describes the practical difficulties of the mission, such as the drastic adjustments to Doolittle's B-25s and the risks of launching such massive planes from the carrier Hornet, whose flight deck was a much shorter runaway than the bombers normally used. He graphically narrates the physical and mental torture of the captured pilots and of their Chinese rescuers.<br /><br />James M. Scott has created a gripping tale of Doolittle's nearly-suicidal attack, and it deserves much more than 5 stars. Outstanding.

Very enjoyable and informative read about the Doolittle raid on Japan. Growing up and studying history in school I knew about Jimmy Doolittle but after reading this book I learned how little I really knew.<br /><br />In December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathered his senior military staff to plan an ambitious counterstrike against the heart of the Japanese Empire ... Tokyo.<br /><br /><i>“The president was insistent,” Arnold recalled, “that we find ways and means of carrying home to Japan proper, in the form of a bombing raid, the real meaning of war.”</i><br /><br />Jimmy Doolittle, son of an Alaskan gold prospector, a former boxer, daredevil pilot, and a graduate from MIT volunteered to lead the mission. The story follows the process on the decision of which bombers to use, how many bombers, the training, and the targets. When they took off from the deck of the USS Hornet it was a one-way mission. They would drop their bombs on Japan and then head for Free China. Maps were poor, as was the weather, and fuel was tight. This isn't just the story of FDR, Jimmy Doolittle, Lieutenant General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, and Vice Admiral William “Bull” Halsey. In this story you meet the pilots, navigators, and bombardiers who raised their hands and volunteered for a mission from which few expected to return. Most of the bombers ran out of fuel and crashed. Several of the raiders were captured and suffered torture and starvation in Japan's notorious POW camps. Those who were not captured had to escape across China ... on foot, rickshaw and boat with the Japanese army in pursuit.<br /><br />I have read about the atrocities committed by Japan during the war but was not aware of the impact on the people of China. In a retaliatory campaign the Japanese Army killed some 250,000 people. Women from 10 to 65 were raped. Families were drowned in wells. Entire towns were burned, and communities were devastated by bacteriological warfare. The barbarism of the Japanese Army was unfathomable. It was said that the only barbarism not committed was cannibalism.<br /><br />The raid was a propaganda victory for Roosevelt:<br /><br /><i>"the Roosevelt administration, desperate for positive press, deliberately deceived the American people about the mission’s actual losses"<br /><br />"The Doolittle mission promised a potent tonic to the frustration brought on by Pearl Harbor, Wake, Guam, and now Bataan."</i><br /><br />As difficult as it was to read about the horrors of war and the suffering I came away with a new admiration of Jimmy Doolittle and the men who volunteered for this mission. And I learned a lot that I hadn't known before.<br /><br />If you enjoyed <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/8664353.Unbroken_A_World_War_II_Story_of_Survival__Resilience_and_Redemption" title="Unbroken A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand" rel="noopener">Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption</a> by <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/30913.Laura_Hillenbrand" title="Laura Hillenbrand" rel="noopener">Laura Hillenbrand</a> I believe you would enjoy this book too.<br /><br />

One of those books that keep coming up as a greatly recommended book. <br /><br />It was a great read, but felt somewhat disappointed in some parts. It was surprisingly engaging read, although I have some sort of pet peeve against these minor raids/missions that are over inflated in their coverage and importance. Doolittle raid, was the bombing of Japanese cities by some 16 medium bombers, in early years of the Pacific War. It did little damage to Japanese, lead to little losses to US Forces and led to tremendous catastrophe to Chinese. <br /><br />The book is very well written for my taste, it's exciting to read and is a very personal in it's coverage. The experiences of the crews are meticulously covered and overall the structure of the book is good in terms of how much is spent on preparation, the actual mission and the aftermath. I got some new information from it, mainly the reasons and results of the operation.<br /><br />The book is somewhat critical of the operation, but not enough. For my taste Scott tries too hard to stay in the background. He avoids making any synthesis in the end, which I think is somewhat outrageous. He does all the work, but refuses to play to the end and instead goes for the story driven happy endings where crew meets after the war. Where's the criticism for the operation, what were the actual benefits, what were the actual benefits that the planners did and could count on? What were the risks, what were the costs. He mentions all these things here and there but doesn't really form them into a coherent conclusion. Instead he goes for the story driven history where we follow every meal and torture scene of the fliers and suddenly food they eat has more importance than the actual operation. 250 000 chinese died for this operation without consent, I think they deserve a bit more 70 years after.<br /><br />The lack of maps, and the lack of any sort of additional info apart from few pictures is somewhat outdated method to writing history. At least he could've thrown the name of the planes and name of their crews to one appendix. But no, there's absolutely nothing, no maps, no flight routes, nothing to supplement the text apart from some few pictures in the mid. This of course might be a problem to a certain editions of the book.

<b>#4 Best Book I Read During 2020</b><br /><br />I was wary of this book for a long time because it seemed from the title that it would be more of a general book on the topic and not really an in-depth history. But then I read Matt’s review (<a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1657419008?book_show_action=false&amp;from_review_page=1">https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...</a>) which is, as always, excellent - and saw that he had had the same reservations but read it anyway and really liked it, so I picked it up.<br /><br />So glad I did, it’s a fantastic book. Scott starts the way seemingly every WWII book starts - with a detailed look at Pearl Harbor through the eyes of FDR. I’ve read a million of those, and this one had some interesting parts I hadn’t heard before.<br /><br />But after the Pearl Harbor intro the book is all Doolittle raid, and you get everything - the men selected, their training, life on board the Hornet on the way to the raid, and the raid itself are all covered in the first half of the book. It’s very well-written, very interesting, and never bogs down (and it helps that I really didn’t know anything about the raid beforehand).<br /><br />But the second half of the book is where the story shines - the aftermath. Sixteen crews trained, rode out to the middle of the Pacific, launched successfully from a carrier, and bombed Tokyo. But from there the stories of the crews all veer off in different directions. You ride in the plane with them to all their different destinies. I won’t get into it here because it would be a spoiler (I knew nothing about it and it enhanced my experience greatly).<br /><br />But it wouldn’t be a spoiler to tell you that the “success” of the raid is ambiguous at best. Was it worth it to bomb Tokyo in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor? It was a public relations bonanza in a United States that was desperate for good news. But 250,000 innocent civilians received fates far worse than death in the days that followed because of the raid. Scott doesn’t take a side, he just gives you all the fascinating/horrifying facts.<br /><br />Don’t read anything about the Doolittle raid ahead of time, go in with as little information as possible, and soak it all in.<br /><br />One small disclaimer - I listened to this book, and sometimes it was hard to tell the crews apart as he went from plane to plane. This is only a minor critique, it didn’t hurt the story for me, and I’m still glad I listened to it. The narrator was great.

Imagine taking a slice of Ian Toll's <i>Pacific Crucible</i>, putting it under a magnifying glass, and then realizing there is a whole book there, waiting to be written, read, and explored. That's what you have here, and written with the same verve that Toll writes. Impeccably researched but also remarkably human; it grips you from the start. And there are so many fascinating episodes, like York's crew's escape from the Soviet Union, that play out within the bigger Doolittle episode, that itself plays out within the WWII saga. If a better book could be written on the Doolittle Raid, I really can't imagine it.

James M. Scott has produced a formidable account of one of the greatest military missions in the US history. The air raid executed by Jimmy Doolittle and his elite squad of pilots and crews in 1942 gave US citizens a reason to believe we could win a war in territory on the other side of the world. It also defined the new role of air power. In WWI, aircraft provided the context for a one-on-one conflicts and dog-fights in the sky. The Doolittle raid on Japan changed the mission for air war—to attack the enemy’s resources to limit their ability to make war and to demoralize the population. <br /><br />In 400+ pages of narration, Scott provides a complete account of the raid, including how the Japanese were thinking. We also get an insight into the air corps heroes—especially the pilots. These young recruits were in their twenty’s from all parts of the US. For them, life and death decisions became the norm. <br /><br />While the Jimmy Doolittle narrative dominates the first third of the book, once the bombing run is completed, we get insights into how the other pilots made decisions once they were over enemy territory. The most difficult passages come near the end of the book as we read about the harsh imprisonment in POW camps. <br /><br />The book nicely mixes the broad strategies of the raid on Tokyo with lots of details of the planning, the attacks, and the recovery in China. The details come out thanks in part of the dialogue among the flyers. What’s missing are the profanities that young guys with limitless courage must have used. <br /><br />There continues to be a debate about the impact of the Doolittle raid. Scott addresses this in the end of the book. The loss of all the planes, the malicious treatment of the men captured, and the inconsistent impact of the bombers has to be measured against the surge of patriotism created in the US by the raids. <br /><br />As a young reader in the mid 1950's, I read 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, a first hand account by one of the pilots of the Doolittle warriors. It engaged me fully in the excitement and glamour of war. Now, almost five decades later, I am glad that we have a much more thoughtful understanding of the event. <br />

I would give anything to sit in the cockpit of a B-25 as Jimmy Doolittle piloted that airplane off the USS Hornet in 1942. What an incredible feat it must have been. Holding down the brakes and racing the airplanes engine until its ready to blow up is an adrenaline release in itself. Then he releases the brakes and takes off with only 500 feet left on a ship carrying 2,000 pounds of bombs, and travels 2,000 miles with a full crew. All of this being done on a carrier deck without hitting the superstructure of the ship's island.<br /> <br />James Scott has written a tremendous, concise, detailed account of the Doolittle raid. Four months after Pearl Harbor, with American Pacific Fleet in shambles, and American Pacific bases either in the hands of Japanese or about to fall, FDR and military leaders decide to bomb Tokyo. Scott carries the reader along as each of the 16 planes attack dropping their bombs and the impact they will have. Its remarkable reporting of what happened. By the end of the raid however the reader is only half done. There are hours of reading ahead to learn the fate of 80 men. A gripping story that is well researched, as Scott takes the reader up close to the raid, well done and hard to put down.