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The Flyboy who got away became president of the United States. What might have been for Warren Earl, Dick, Marve, Glenn, Floyd, Jimmy, the unidentified airman, and all the Others who had lost their lives? A Nobel prize, a wife’s love, a daughter’s soft memory? And what might have been for those millions of doomed Japanese boys, abused and abandoned by their leaders? War is the tragedy of what might have been.

Researching this book was often a disorienting experience. Early on, I thought I knew where justice lay. But as I listened to stories in Japan and America, I wasn’t so sure.

Nations tend to see the other side’s war atrocities as systemic and indicative of their culture and their own atrocities as justified or the acts of stressed combatants. In my travels, I sense a smoldering resentment toward WWII Japanese behavior among some Americans... 'When you’re not at war you’re a good second guesser. You had to live those years and walk that mile.'

Many years later, I obtained the Chichi Jima Flyboys� military service records. These records are still withheld today from the families. I obtained them through sources I choose not to reveal. Their service records show clearly that the navy knew who was bayoneted, beheaded, and/ or cannibalized. But these details were never passed on, despite desperate pleas from mothers...

Keenan tried to make the case that the inept Spirit Warriors... were actually master conspirators who worked their evil over a 14-year period... hiding it from their boss. But the name of the only official who held power throughout those 14 years was never mentioned. It was like making the case that the Model T automobile sprang from workers� coffee breaks and Mr. Ford just happened to have a big office.

The Spirit Warriors, who continued to enjoy fine meals in Tokyo, [promulgated] a document entitled 'Eat This Way-Endless Supplies of Materials by Ingenuity.'
'The emperor's loyal subjects were encouraged to supplement their [diet with] acorns, grain husks, peanut shells, and sawdust...'
There were similar articles, such as 'How to Eat Acorns' and 'Let's Catch Grasshoppers.'

'Guard against anyone stating this is area bombing.'
- message from Washington to Gen. LeMay

'You’re going to kill an awful lot of civilians. But, if you don’t destroy Japanese industry, we’re going to have to invade. And how many Americans will be killed? Some say a million. We’re at war with Japan. We were attacked. Would you rather have Americans killed? Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects... but all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you’re not a good soldier.'
LeMay

Today, with 20-20 hindsight, people speak of March 1945 as 'near the end.' True, Germany was close to defeat. But it was a different story in the Pacific. Casualties were increasing and the fighting becoming more intense. 'The Pacific war is gradually getting tougher... The closer we go, the harder it will be.� To me it looks like trying days for us in the years ahead.' Ernie Pyle didn’t say months—he said years.

The civilized English slaughter from the air was distinguished from the barbaric German and Japanese campaigns by an obfuscating cloud of euphemisms. The public was told British planes sought out strictly 'military targets' and civilians were only killed by 'mistake.' Churchill spoke of 'dehousing.' Indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas was called 'area bombing.'