Pacific Skies

From 1941 to 1945 the skies over the Pacific Ocean afforded the broadest arena for battle and the fiercest action of air combat during World War II. It was in the air above the Pacific that America's involvement in the war began. It was in these skies that air power launched from carriers became a new form of engagement and where the war ultimately ended with kamikaze attacks and with atomic bombs dropped over Japan. Throughout the conflict American flyers felt a compelling call to supplement the official news and military reports. In vivid accounts written soon after combat and in reflective memoirs recorded in the years after peace came, both pilots and crew members detailed their stories of the action that occurred in the embattled skies. Their first-person testimonies describe a style of warfare invented at the moment of need and at a time when the outcome was anything but certain. Gathering more than a hundred personal narratives from Americans and from Japanese, Pacific Skies recounts a history of air combat in the Pacific theater. Included are the words of such famous aces and bomber pilots as Joe Foss, Pappy Boyington, Dick Bong, and Curtis Lemay, as well as the words of many rank-and-file airmen. Together their stories express fierce individualism and resourcefulness and convey the vast panorama of war that included the skies over Pearl Harbor, Wake, and Guadalcanal and missions from Saipan and Tinian. As Pacific Skies recounts the perilous lives of pilots in their own words, Jerome Klinkowitz weaves the individual stories into a gripping historical narrative that exposes the shades of truth and fiction that can become blurred over time. A book about experiencing and remembering, Pacific Skies also is a story of unique perspectives on the war.

Paintings by the renowned aviation artist plus “lots of wartime photographs and plenty of entertaining and informative text. . . . absorbing reading” (Aviation History). Climb in to the cockpit of some of America’s most heralded warbirds, like the P-38 that carried Richard Bong to his forty kills, and fly along with Paul Tibitts in the Enola Gay as it makes its final approach on Hiroshima. This lavishly illustrated book covers the most famous air engagements in World War II’s Pacific Theater of Operation in an exquisite and beautiful fusion of art and history. Paintings by acclaimed aviation artist Jack Fellows are supplemented by color maps, previously unpublished photographs, original artwork, and personal accounts.

In 1939, when this Vintage Words of Wisdom title was first published, only 36 years had elapsed since the Wright brothers had made the first flight in a powered aeroplane. Yet in these few years, as Amy Johnson explains, the world had become a smaller place, shrunk by the achievements of pioneer aviators who established air routes connecting cities and peoples across the globe. Amy Johnson was one of these pioneers of aviation history, achieving remarkable fame for her many record-breaking flights during her short life - she died aged just 37 piloting an aircraft on behalf of the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1941. In May 1930 she became the first woman to fly from Great Britain to Australia and even today her name is recognised although, for many, her achievements are perhaps less familiar. Sky Roads of the World is her autobiography. It provides details of Amy's own flights but is also a rich source of information about the various men, and women, who throughout the 1920s and '30s risked their lives to extend the possibilities of aviation and achieve fame and glory setting records for speed and distance by air. She captures the thrill and anxiety faced by these pilots as they flew, often alone, with few instruments and no ground support. The tales are enhanced by her personal experience and she provides much background colour with her insights into the places and people encountered around the world.Amy and her fellow women pilots also challenged the expectation of the time that aeroplanes and flying were a man's world. For example, in this book Amy Johnson writes of finding a refreshing attitude in the USA where, 'I was in the land of opportunities, a country where a woman is given a job according to her qualifications and not her sex'. She also highlights the prejudice she often encountered throughout her career despite her success and achievements.For anyone interested in the growth of civilian aviation between the two World Wars this book provides much detail on emerging routes, airlines, aircraft and the numerous male and female aviators responsible for their development. Amy Johnson flew to and across many countries and writes of aviation in all continents in a manner that evokes much period charm. Amy Johnson is worthy of her place in the history of aviation and among our British heroes. Sky Roads of the World will introduce her to new readers who will gain a better understanding of Amy, the woman and pilot, and also of an early twentieth-century world experiencing considerable social and technological change.

Gendering the Trans-Pacific World introduces an emergent interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field that highlights the inextricable link between gender and the trans-Pacific world. The anthology examines the geographies of empire, the significance of intimacy and affect, the importance of beauty and the body, and the circulation of culture.