Last Mission to Tokyo
The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raiders and Their Final Fight for Justice
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Narrated by:
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Jacques Roy
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By:
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Michel Paradis
About this listen
Michel Paradis’ Last Mission to Tokyo, a “superb” (The Wall Street Journal) and “engrossing...richly researched” (The New York Times Book Review) account of a key but underreported moment in World War II: The Doolittle Raids and the international war crimes trial in 1945 that defined the Japanese American relations and changed legal history.
In 1942, freshly humiliated from the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was in search of a plan. President Roosevelt, determined to show the world that our nation would not be intimidated or defeated by enemy powers, demanded recommendations for a show of strength. Jimmy Doolittle, a stunt pilot with a doctorate from MIT, came forward and led 80 young men, gathered together from the far-flung corners of Depression-era America, on a seemingly impossible mission across the Pacific. Sixteen planes in all, they only had enough fuel for a one-way trip. Together, the Raiders, as they were called, did what no one had successfully done for more than a thousand years. They struck the mainland of Japan and permanently turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.
Almost immediately, The Doolittle Raid captured the public imagination, and has remained a seminal moment in World War II history, but the heroism and bravery of the mission is only half the story. In Last Mission to Tokyo, Michel Paradis reveals the dramatic aftermath of the mission, which involved two lost crews captured, tried, and tortured at the hands of the Japanese, a dramatic rescue of the survivors in the last weeks of World War II, and an international manhunt and trial led by two dynamic and opposing young lawyers - in which both the United States and Japan accused the other of war crimes - that would change the face of our legal and military history. Perfect for fans of Lucky 666 and Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial, Last Mission to Tokyo is an unforgettable war story-meets-courtroom-drama that “captures the reader with the first sentence and never lets go” (John Grisham).
©2020 Michel Paradis (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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On New Year's Eve, 1939, a horrific triple murder occurred in rural Oklahoma. Within a matter of days, investigators identified several suspects: convicts who had been at a craps game with one of the victims the night before. Also at the craps game was a young black farmer named W. D. Lyons. Political pressure mounted to find a villain. The governor's representative settled on Lyons, who was arrested, tortured into signing a confession, and tried for the murder. The NAACP's new Legal Defense and Education Fund sent its young chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to take part in the trial.
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What a piece of history 💕
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Race Against Time
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- Narrated by: Jerry Mitchell
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
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In Race Against Time, Mitchell takes listeners on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the Civil Rights Movement, decades after the fact. His work played a central role in bringing killers to justice for the assassination of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham, and the Mississippi Burning case. Mitchell reveals how he unearthed secret documents and found long-lost suspects and witnesses, building up evidence strong enough to take on the Klan.
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Absolutely horrible reading
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Marked for Life
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An empowering memoir of courage and hope in the face of injustice—and the basis for the ABC television show, For Life—Marked for Life is the true story of Isaac Wright Jr.’s battle to win his freedom after being wrongfully imprisoned for crimes he didn’t commit, and a critical indictment of America’s judicial system.
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Outstanding Book!
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By official accounts, the Navy SEALs of Alpha platoon returned as heroes after their 2017 deployment to Mosul, following a vicious, bloody, and successful campaign to drive ISIS from the city. But within the platoon a different war raged. Even as Alpha’s chief, Eddie Gallagher, was being honored by the Navy for his leadership, several of his men were preparing to report him for war crimes, alleging that he’d stabbed a prisoner in cold blood and taken lethal sniper shots at unarmed civilians.
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This is a book from people who were proven to lie their asses off.
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The Assassination of Fred Hampton
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Uncovering a cold-blooded execution at the hands of a conspiring police force, this engaging account relentlessly pursues the murderers of Black Panther Fred Hampton. Documenting the entire 14-year process of bringing the killers to justice, this chronicle also depicts the 18-month court trial in detail. Revealing Hampton himself in a new light, this examination presents him as a dynamic community leader whose dedication to his people and to the truth inspired the young lawyers of the People's Law Office.
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Terrible narrator for a great story!!!
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Blood in the Water
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On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed. On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed 39 men - hostages as well as prisoners.
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Tragic Events, Well-Told
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Let the Lord Sort Them
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In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: The country’s death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier. When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment.
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Very Slanted
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By: Maurice Chammah
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The “compelling [and] vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) true story of a man who claimed to be a survivor of a 1919 British massacre in India, his elaborate 20-year plan for revenge, and the mix of truth and legend that made him a hero to hundreds of millions.
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more interesting history
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My Lai
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On the early morning of March 16, 1968, American soldiers from three platoons of Charlie Company entered a group of hamlets located in the Son Tinh district of South Vietnam, located near the Demilitarized Zone and known as "Pinkville" because of the high level of Vietcong infiltration. The soldiers, many still teenagers who had been in the country for three months, were on a "search and destroy" mission. Three hours after the GIs entered the hamlets, more than 500 unarmed villagers lay dead, killed in cold blood.
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Outstanding audiobook
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Devil in the Grove
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Arguably the most important American lawyer of the 20th century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the US Supreme Court when he became embroiled in a case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and to cost him his life. In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor with the help of Sheriff Willis V. McCall, who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve....
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the fight for civil rights
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U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is a central character in the movie Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks. In his classic 1970 memoir, Powers reveals the full story behind what happened in the most sensational espionage case in Cold War history. After his U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down, Powers was captured on May 1, 1960 and endured 61 days of rigorous interrogation by the KGB, a public trial, a conviction for espionage, and the start of a 10-year sentence.
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Astonding
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On August 8, 1993, a single bullet to the head killed Freddie Woodruff, the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Within hours, police had a suspect - a vodka-soaked village bumpkin named Anzor Sharmaidze. A tidy explanation quickly followed: It was a tragic accident. US diplomats hailed Georgia’s swift work. Yet the bullet that killed Woodruff was never found, and key witnesses have since retracted their testimony, saying they were beaten and forced to identify Sharmaidze. But if he didn’t do it, who did?
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great book needs a hires narrator
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Jean McConville's abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.
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On a par with I'll Be Gone in the Dark, plus...
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Killing Jesus
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Millions of people have thrilled to best-selling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, works of nonfiction that have changed the way we view history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly 2,000 years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God.
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The Jesus story in context
- By Kimberly on 10-01-13
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What listeners say about Last Mission to Tokyo
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- Jason M.
- 10-27-20
Great Untold Story
I knew about Doolittle Raid but now know the fate of the missing crews. This book was at times boring but does keep you interested. The book was not much about the mission (which is what I was expecting and hoping for) but more of the trials which made it interesting. Well researched and well written, easy to understand for being a trial. Overall a great book to read.
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- upwithsexton
- 05-05-22
Very interesting insight and ending!
Thought it would be open & shut. Now want to learn more about https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki
Kenpeitai!
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- D. Littman
- 08-10-20
terrific book, excellently rendered to audio
This is a terrific story, that expands on a small sliver of [mostly distorted] history within the broader story of the Doolittle Raid. It provides a different interpretation, convincingly, than I had been taught -- the one I had emphasized the "littleness" of the damage & suggested the Japanese were able to shrug the whole thing off. The author demonstrates that the raid was instrumental in the subsequent [disasterous for Japan] Midway expedition, and that the raid resulted in the intensification of rivalries within the Japanese cabinet. The author also shows how the foregoing, combined with the collateral/civilian damage from the raid (firmly denied by the Doolittle raid participants) led to the events of the imprisonment, torture, executions of the captured raiders. The author also provides an object lesson about how hard it is to achieve a truthful & fair war crimes trial, something that applies to the trial of the Japanese in Shanghai & to the Al Quaida in America's 100-year old Cuban colony in Guantanamo. Highly recommended.
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4 people found this helpful
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- John
- 08-03-21
OK, But Know What It Is ...
This is an effort at non-fiction history by a legal scholar regarding the lead up to and trial of four Japanese war criminals in Shanghai after World War II regarding their involvement in the treatment and earlier trial of Doolittle Raiders who were captured in China. Three of the Raiders were executed after incredibly perfunctory proceedings.
If you are looking for a detailed treatment of the Doolittle Raid itself, this is not your book. That said, it is a pretty interesting treatment of the subject matter, although it drags in parts. As is so often the case, a good editing would have helped the book move along, and would probably have lessened its length by about 20 percent.
As a lawyer myself, I found the description of the trial and its preparation interesting. It is extremely difficult working with clients and witnesses who speak only (or mainly) a foreign language. Working through interpreters is sometimes necessary, but a difficult experience. It really surprised me that the Army allowed Edmund Bodine, a pilot who had attended law school but did not have a law degree and who was not a lawyer at the time, to serve as lead defense counsel. That said, he did a credible job in performing a largely thankless task.
The great frustration in the whole story--and one that is driven home by the author--is that those who were more culpable were not part of the trial. The author attributes much of this to interference from MacArthur (or his minions) who were focused on rebuilding Japan. I don't know if that is fair or accurate, but it sounds about right.
As noted, the book tends to drag in places. Another shortcoming of the book is that it contains an extremely truncated and unfulfilling afterward about what happened to the protagonists involved in the trial. That was disappointing.
The result of the trial will be frustrating, one way or the other, to almost everyone. The one thing the book establishes beyond much doubt, however, is that the Japanese defendants got a fair trial. The captured Doolittle Raiders surely did not.
The narration is quite good. My only qualm is that some of the Japanese pronunciations seem a bit off, although the author does well with German later in the book--so maybe my qualm is not fair. Overall, very listenable.
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- Cheryl
- 08-20-20
riveting
Japan is a secondary when it comes to WWII. We think of Germany, Hitler, and the Holocaust.
Author worked hard at showing us a side of the war that we do not normally see.
The story of the POWs that came home from Japan is astounding.
Descriptions of the beheadings is very vivid.
Great book
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- Steve J DeBow
- 09-17-20
It’s great
It really broke down the trial and added a human element to it more words
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- S.
- 11-21-24
Outstanding !
Great story well told ! Fascinating way to approach the subject. Thank you to the author.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-02-20
could not download.
could not download more than half of the book. Would like to cancel this book.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-18-20
if your heroes are lawyers and war criminals.....
Sorry, but this book was way too sympathetic to the Japanese soldiers, who were truly war criminals. The "heroes" in this book were the lawyers, who seemed to be motivated in making a name for themselves.
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- Julia K Olsen
- 08-17-20
Bait and switch
I was drawn to the book by the topic, reviews and summaries of the book. But starting in Chpt 1 the author chose to emphasize the Mormon religion. Glaringly out of place . Chapter 2 continues the Mormon religion.
Not the topic where I’d expect or want this kind of content - so detailed on the case of the Mormon aviator but none of the other fliers that it seems the author’s sole intent is to proselytize, which is sad as the rest of the story needs telling. Returning for credit.
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4 people found this helpful