My guest today is author and speaker James Bradley, who has written not only the legendary, "Flag of Our Fathers," but the provocative new book, "The Imperial Cruise," which gives us  a new perspective on President Theodore Roosevelt and his secret diplomatic mission to  the Pacific and to expand our influence to Asia.

             


     The Imperial Cruise                          Flag of Our Fathers
                                                                   Rock from Mount Suribachi

James Bradley is the fourth child of Iwo Jima flag raiser, John "Doc" Bradley. Raised in Wisconsin, Bradley studied at the University of Notre Dame, Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan and graduated with a degree in  East Asian History from the University of Wisconsin. When he was thirteen years old he read an article by James Michener in Reader's Digest which I paraphrase: "When you're twenty-two and graduate from college, people will ask you, 'What do you want to do?' It's a good question, but you should answer it when you're thirty-five." Michener explained that his experiences wandering the globe as a young man later inspired his book on Afghanistan, Spain, Japan and other places.

              

When he was nineteen years old, he lived and studied in Tokyo for one year. He later brought his Japanese friends home to Wisconsin. His father, John Bradley, had helped raise an American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima and had shot a Japanese soldier dead. But his father John Bradley welcomed his friends to his home.

Bradley has vast experience writing and producing corporate films and corporate meetings; he has traveled the world, living and working in more than 40 countries for nearly a decade. Bradley has run companies in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. He has jumped out of airplanes at 15,000 feet, has scuba-dove in deep waters worldwide, trekked to Mount Everest's base camp and walked among lions in Africa. He is an avid reader of history, enjoys discovering exotic cuisine, cliff diving, golfing and snow skiing.

For the past ten years, the James Bradley Peace Foundation and Youth For Understanding have sent American students to live with families overseas. Perhaps in the future when we debate whether to fight it out or talk it out, one of these Americans might make a difference.  He remains a professional motivational speaker and he is the author of Flag of Our Fathers, Flyboys, and The Imperial Cruise. He divides his time between homes in New York's Westchester County, and Jamaica.

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