Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor

Part Flyboys, and part Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, James M. Scott's Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor, is the story of the 16 B-25 bomber crews who took off from the Hornet in April 1942 inflicting somewhat minor damage on Japan's infrastructure, but a heavy toll on its psyche.

Doolittle was already famous before he planned and led this daring raid. A stunt pilot and early aviator, he was already a flight instructor in World War I. By the second world war, his reputation was such that men leapt at the chance to serve with him. As such, the Air Corps had no difficulty finding volunteers for a top-secret and highly dangerous mission, the details of which the men themselves would not learn until after the Hornet had put out to sea.

The raid itself was remarkable primarily for being the first time the Japanese home islands had ever come under attack from a foreign enemy, setting the stage for the later attacks that would flatten so many of Japan's cities - to say nothing of the nuclear bombs that would end the war. It was also remarkable for the scope and scale of retaliation by Japan directed at China, where 15 of the 16 bomber crews landed after the raid. While the final tally will never be known, an estimated 250,000 Chinese civilians became victims of the Japanese as a direct result of the raid.

Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor sheds light on one of the early actions against the Japanese, one that has been rather forgotten, consigned to the shadows of such places as Iwo Jima, the Midway, and the Coral Sea. For history enthusiasts, Scott's work offers an opportunity to learn more about this turning point in the war.