Doolittle Raid

battle_name=Doolittle Raid

Aftermath

Following the Tokyo Raid, the crews of two planes were missing. On August 15 1942, it was learned from the Swiss Consulate General in Shanghai that eight American flyers were prisoners of the Japanese at Police Headquarters in that city. On October 19 1942, the Japanese broadcast that they had tried two crews of the Tokyo Raid and had sentenced them to death, but that a number of them had received commutation of their sentences to life imprisonment and a lesser number had been executed. No names or facts were given.

Related Topics:
August 15 - 1942 - October 19

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After the war, the facts were uncovered in a War Crimes Trial held at Shanghai which opened in February 1946 to try four Japanese officers for mistreatment of the eight prisoners of war from the Tokyo Raid. Two of the original ten men, Dieter and Fitzmaurice, had died when their B-25 ditched off the coast of China. The other eight, Hallmark, Meder, Nielsen, Farrow, Hite, Barr, Spatz, and DeShazer were captured. In addition to being tortured, they contracted dysentery and beriberi as a result of the poor conditions under which they were confined. On August 28 1942, Hallmark, Farrow, and Spatz were given a "trial" by Japanese officers, although they were never told the charges against them. On October 14, 1942, Hallmark, Farrow, and Spatz were advised they were to be executed the next day. At 16:30 on October 15, 1942 the three Americans were brought by truck to Public Cemetery No. 1 outside Shanghai. In accordance with proper ceremonial procedures of the Japanese military, they were then shot.

Related Topics:
1946 - Prisoners of war - Meder - Dysentery - Beriberi - August 28 - 1942 - October 14 - October 15

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The other five men remained in military confinement on a starvation diet, their health rapidly deteriorating. In April 1943, they were moved to Nanking and on December 1 1943, Meder died. The other four men began to receive a slight improvement in their treatment, even being allowed to keep a copy of the Bible, and survived until August 1945 when they were freed. The four Japanese officers tried for their war crimes against the eight Tokyo Raiders were found guilty. Three were sentenced to hard labor for five years and the fourth to a nine-year sentence.

Related Topics:
Nanking - December 1 - 1943 - Bible - 1945

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For three months after the raid the Japanese conducted a search for the remaining airmen, who had escaped to the Zhejiang area. Approximately twenty-five thousand Chinese civilians were killed in retaliation for harboring the American airmen, during the Battle of Zhejiang-Jiangxi in the Sino–Japanese conflict in the Pacific War.

Related Topics:
Zhejiang - Battle of Zhejiang-Jiangxi

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Initially, Doolittle had told his crews that he believed that the loss of all the aircraft, and the relativly minor damage done, had rendered the attack a failure, and that he expected a court martial. Instead, the raid bolstered American morale, and earned him a Medal of Honor and promotion to Brigadier General.

Related Topics:
Court martial - Medal of Honor - Brigadier General

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In November 1944 Japan began launching as many as 9,000 balloon bombs in partial retaliation for the Doolittle Raid.

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The raid was depicted in a feature film Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, featuring Spencer Tracy as Doolittle, and in the final portion of the 2001 feature film Pearl Harbor, in which Doolittle was played by Alec Baldwin.

Related Topics:
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo - Spencer Tracy - 2001 - Pearl Harbor - Alec Baldwin

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