TARGET TOKYO

by James M. Merrill ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

In comparison with the recent Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders, Merrill's Target Tokyo is brief and bland where the former is full-blown and vital. What made Raiders exciting were the strips of first-person testimony from the pilots themselves, excerpts from logs and from war Crimes trials relating to the treatment of captured pilots. Merrill's book is always at one remove from such intimacy. But it is only by comparison that this rehearsal of that fantastically difficult and daring paid seems bland, for the essential details will forever remain exciting. In 1942, when Pearl Harbor still burned on the national consciousness, the conception of a retaliatory blow into the heart of the Japanese homeland was the most smoothing idea on earth for Americans. The raid was to be launched with modified -25's from navy carriers, the first such raid ever attempted. Because of the extraordinary danger involved, the bombers were manned by volunteers. At take-off time, stand-by crews with fistfuls of money ran wildly about offering to change places and make the run to Japan--men willing to pay money to die. The bomb-run is thrilling reading, as is the one-by-one loss of all sixteen bombers.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Sand McNally

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION