Target Tokyo

The dramatic account of one of AmericaΓÇÖs most celebratedΓÇöand controversialΓÇömilitary campaigns: the Doolittle Raid. In December 1941,as American forces tallied the dead at Pearl HarborPresident Franklin Roosevelt gathered with his senior military counselors to plan an ambitious counterstrike against the heart of the Japanese Empire: Tokyo. Four months lateron April 181942sixteen U.S. Army bombers under the command of daredevil pilot Jimmy Doolittle lifted off from the deck of the USS Hornet on a one-way mission to pummel the enemyΓÇÖs factoriesrefineriesand dockyards and then escape to Free China. For Rooseveltthe raid was a propaganda victorya potent salve to heal a wounded nation. In Japanoutraged over the deaths of innocent civiliansΓÇöincluding childrenΓÇömilitary leaders launched an ill-fated attempt to seize Midway that would turn the tide of the war. But it was the Chinese who suffered the worstvictims of a retaliatory campaign by the Japanese Army that claimed an estimated 250000 lives and saw families drowned in wellsentire towns burnedand communities devastated by bacteriological warfare. At the center of this incredible story is Doolittlethe son of an Alaskan gold prospectora former boxerand brilliant engineer who earned his doctorate from MIT. Other fascinating characters populate this gripping narrativeincluding Chiang Kai-shekLieutenant General Joseph ΓÇ£Vinegar JoeΓÇ¥ Stilwelland the feisty Vice Admiral William ΓÇ£BullΓÇ¥ Halsey Jr. Heretooare indelible portraits of the young pilotsnavigatorsand bombardiersmany of them little more than teenagerswho raised their hands to volunteer for a mission from which few expected to return. Most of the bombers ran out of fuel and crashed. Captured raiders suffered torture and starvation in JapanΓÇÖs notorious POW camps. Others faced a harrowing escape across ChinaΓÇövia boatrickshawand footΓÇöwith the Japanese Army in pursuit. Based on scores of never-before-published records drawn from archives across four continents as well as new interviews with survivorsTarget Tokyo is World War II history of the highest order: a harrowing adventure story that also serves as a pivotal reexamination of one of AmericaΓÇÖs most daring military operations.