... in his engrossing procedural of a war crimes trial, Paradis offers a more troubling history than some triumphalist American chronicles of the Doolittle raid ... Paradis, himself a Pentagon lawyer who defends detainees held by the American military at Guantánamo Bay, has a keen sense of the injustices, vagaries and ironies of war crimes trials. His book’s authority is the result of substantial archival research. He gives a chilling account of Japan’s scramble to find legal grounds for executing the American prisoners ... a richly researched book ... While Paradis avoids lazy moral equivalences, his book, like any true war story, has something to disquiet nationalists of all stripes.
... superb ... One suspects that Mr. Paradis gives the Japanese officer a bit more credit for compassion than he deserves, but that does nothing to soften the impact of the three executions that follow ... Mr. Paradis writes history with ease and authority. He covers the raid itself, and the airmen’s fate, briskly and then turns to the story that interests him most of all: the challenge of bringing justice to Warden Tatsuta and the other Japanese officers responsible for executing the three airmen and torturing, starving and otherwise mistreating their comrades. Remarkably, the legal maneuvering turns out to be as riveting as the raid itself ... Mr. Paradis relates the courtroom jousting with a novelist’s skill ... Mr. Paradis’s storytelling is superb, and his research is impeccable. He is one of very few Americans writing about the Pacific War who have actually delved into Japanese-language sources; he even renders their titles in kanji characters and syllabic script. I do wish, however, that he was a bit more careful about the way words were used in the 1940s. I cringed whenever he innocently belittles the airmen. They were heroes—they were Doolittle Raiders! They weren’t 'flyboys.'
... provacative ... a legal expert and a skilled writer ... Best is Paradis' detailed and dramatic narrative of the tireless American legal effort to make the Japanese pay for their treatment of the Raiders. Paradis brilliantly describes the prosecution and defense lawyers, their motivations and legal strategies, as well as the surprises, dissapointments, mistakes, obstacles, and beaurocratic meddling they faced at trial. This becomes a gripping legal thriller ... the result is stunning.
Based on extensive archival research, this narrative by Paradis expertly renders the complexities and nuances of war crimes trials into readable prose as well as fleshing out the backstories and personalities of the major protagonists ... Will appeal to readers of military and World War II history and legal thrillers.
The Doolittle raid over Tokyo four months after Pearl Harbor has received plenty of attention, but this captivating account of the lesser-known aftermath deserves attention ... A lawyer specializing in war crimes law, Paradis ably summarizes the mission in which B-25 bombers inflicted little physical but much psychological damage to the Japanese ... Although a legal scholar, Paradis writes engagingly, delivering clear explanations of the legal issues, the onerous preparations, and the trial itself ... A surprisingly absorbing legal procedural.
... deeply sourced ... Though human elements of the story sometimes take a back seat to legal matters, Paradis persuasively argues that the case set a meaningful precedent for the Geneva Conventions. This finely wrought history rescues a dramatic WWII episode from obscurity.
