James Bradley (author)

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James Bradley (c. February, 1954-) is an American author, specializing in historical nonfiction chronicling the Pacific theatre of World War II.

His father, John Bradley, was one of six men who became famous for being photographed raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi. That photograph has gone on to be the most duplicated and reproduced photo ever taken.

[edit] Author fame

In 2000, Bradley published Flags of Our Fathers, which tells the story of six U.S. Marines including his own Navy corpsman father, John Bradley, raising the American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima. In that book, which was made into a film, directed by Clint Eastwood, Bradley took great care to actually locate and speak with family and friends who actually knew the men depicted. In doing this, he received great praise for his realistic portrayals and bringing the characters to life. The book and the film goes in depth about the men, and their war-time service. Of the six men, Bradley's father John, PFC Ira Hayes, and PFC Rene Gagnon were the only ones to survive the battle. SGT Michael Strank, CPL Harlon Block, and PFC Franklin Sousley were all killed in action later on in the battle. The book and film tell the story in a before, during and after format, and both were well received upon their release. An impromptu speech Bradley gave at the Iwo Jima memorial was transcribed by Michael T. Powers in October 2000, and widely circulated on the Internet.[1]

In 2003 he published Flyboys: A True Story of Courage. That book tells the story of an air raid that took place during the Battle of Iwo Jima, some 150 miles away, when U.S. warplanes bombed the small communications outpost on Chichi Jima. While Iwo Jima had Japanese forces numbering 22,000, Chichi Jima's forces numbered 25,000.

Nine crewmen survived after being shot down in the raid. One was picked up by the American submarine USS Finback. That one man was then-Lieutenant George H. W. Bush, who later went to become the forty-first President of the United States. The other eight were captured as POWs by the Japanese and were executed and eaten, a fact that remained hidden until much later. Like Flags of Our Fathers, Flyboys: A True Story of Courage also topped the New York Times Bestseller list when it came out.

His next book is titled The Imperial Cruise. This story is about a ship that left port from Hawaii. It should be published in late 2007.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Boys of Iwo Jima", speech by James Bradley, transcribed by Michael T. Powers. Online at Snopes.com. Also online at Michael T. Powers's site.

[edit] External links

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