Bush's comrades eaten byJapanese
The former President George Bush narrowly escaped being beheaded and eaten by Japanese soldiers when he was shot down over the Pacific in the Second World War, a shocking new history published in America has revealed.
The book, Flyboys, is the result of historical detective work by James Bradley, whose father was among the marines later photographed raising the flag over the island of Iwo Jima.
Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 - and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese.
The horrific fate of the other eight "flyboys" was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress.
Mr Bradley has established that they were tortured, beaten and then executed, either by beheading with swords or by multiple stab-wounds from bayonets and sharpened bamboo stakes. Four were then butchered by the island garrison's surgeons and their livers and meat from their thighs eaten by senior Japanese officers.
The future president escaped a similar fate because he ditched his plane further from the island than the other crews, and managed to scramble on to a liferaft. American planes launched a hail of fire at Japanese boats which set out to capture him, driving them back, and he was eventually rescued by a US submarine.
When the black hull of the USS Finback surfaced in front of him, he thought he was hallucinating, he told Mr Bradley in a television film made to coincide with the publication of Flyboys. He had been vomiting, bleeding from a head wound, and weeping with fear. He said only four words to his rescuers: "Happy to be aboard."
Mr Bush's part in the raid - for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross - has long been known to Americans. Not known until now was the grim fate of his downed comrades - none from his own plane - who swam ashore.
Mr Bradley pieced together the horrific truth from secret transcripts of the war crimes trials, given to him by a former officer and lawyer who was an official witness at the time, and the testimony of surviving Japanese veterans.
A radio operator, Marve Mershon, was marched to a freshly dug grave, blindfolded, and made to kneel for beheading by sword, testified a Japanese soldier, named as Iwakawa, at the war crimes trial. "When the flyer was struck, he did not cry out, but made a slight groan."
The next day a Japanese officer, Major Sueo Matoba, decided to include American flesh in a sake-fuelled feast he laid on for officers including the commander-in-chief on the island, Gen Yoshio Tachibana. Both men were later tried and executed for war crimes.
A Japanese medical orderly who helped the surgeon prepare the ingredients said: "Dr Teraki cut open the chest and took out the liver. I removed a piece of flesh from the flyer's thigh, weighing about six pounds and measuring four inches wide, about a foot long."
Another crewman, Floyd Hall, met a similar fate. Adml Kinizo Mori, the senior naval officer on Chichi Jima, told the court that Major Matoba brought "a delicacy" to a party at his quarters - a specially prepared dish of Floyd Hall's liver.
According to Adml Mori, Matoba told him: "I had it pierced with bamboo sticks and cooked with soy sauce and vegetables." They ate it in "very small pieces", believing it "good medicine for the stomach", the admiral recalled.
A third victim of cannibalism, Jimmy Dye, had been put to work as a translator when, several weeks later, Capt Shizuo Yoshii - who was later tried and executed - called for his liver to be served at a party for fellow officers. Parts of a fourth airman, Warren Earl Vaughn, were also eaten and the remaining four were executed, one by being clubbed to death.
The parents of all the airmen are now dead, but Mr Bradley contacted all their families. "The first reaction was a stunned silence, a hush. But I think that at last knowing how these men died, however horrible their deaths, has allowed closure and in a word I heard from them, healing," he said. Mr Bush's first reaction was also to say nothing. "There was a lot of head-shaking, a lot of silence," the author told The Telegraph. "There was no disgust, shock or horror. He's a veteran of a different generation."
The former president returned to Chichi Jima with Mr Bradley for the first time since his rescue for the CNN documentary broadcast last week. Mr Bush looked sombre but never visibly upset, and ventured into the water in a modern liferaft to re-create his experience.
He recalled that while on the submarine he asked himself why he had survived. "Why had I been spared and what did God have in store for me? In my own view there's got to be some kind of destiny and I was being spared for something on Earth." Earlier he had told Mr Bradley: "I think about those guys all the time."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/26/wpow26.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/26/ixworld.html
The book, Flyboys, is the result of historical detective work by James Bradley, whose father was among the marines later photographed raising the flag over the island of Iwo Jima.
Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 - and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese.
The horrific fate of the other eight "flyboys" was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress.
Mr Bradley has established that they were tortured, beaten and then executed, either by beheading with swords or by multiple stab-wounds from bayonets and sharpened bamboo stakes. Four were then butchered by the island garrison's surgeons and their livers and meat from their thighs eaten by senior Japanese officers.
The future president escaped a similar fate because he ditched his plane further from the island than the other crews, and managed to scramble on to a liferaft. American planes launched a hail of fire at Japanese boats which set out to capture him, driving them back, and he was eventually rescued by a US submarine.
When the black hull of the USS Finback surfaced in front of him, he thought he was hallucinating, he told Mr Bradley in a television film made to coincide with the publication of Flyboys. He had been vomiting, bleeding from a head wound, and weeping with fear. He said only four words to his rescuers: "Happy to be aboard."
Mr Bush's part in the raid - for which he won the Distinguished Flying Cross - has long been known to Americans. Not known until now was the grim fate of his downed comrades - none from his own plane - who swam ashore.
Mr Bradley pieced together the horrific truth from secret transcripts of the war crimes trials, given to him by a former officer and lawyer who was an official witness at the time, and the testimony of surviving Japanese veterans.
A radio operator, Marve Mershon, was marched to a freshly dug grave, blindfolded, and made to kneel for beheading by sword, testified a Japanese soldier, named as Iwakawa, at the war crimes trial. "When the flyer was struck, he did not cry out, but made a slight groan."
The next day a Japanese officer, Major Sueo Matoba, decided to include American flesh in a sake-fuelled feast he laid on for officers including the commander-in-chief on the island, Gen Yoshio Tachibana. Both men were later tried and executed for war crimes.
A Japanese medical orderly who helped the surgeon prepare the ingredients said: "Dr Teraki cut open the chest and took out the liver. I removed a piece of flesh from the flyer's thigh, weighing about six pounds and measuring four inches wide, about a foot long."
Another crewman, Floyd Hall, met a similar fate. Adml Kinizo Mori, the senior naval officer on Chichi Jima, told the court that Major Matoba brought "a delicacy" to a party at his quarters - a specially prepared dish of Floyd Hall's liver.
According to Adml Mori, Matoba told him: "I had it pierced with bamboo sticks and cooked with soy sauce and vegetables." They ate it in "very small pieces", believing it "good medicine for the stomach", the admiral recalled.
A third victim of cannibalism, Jimmy Dye, had been put to work as a translator when, several weeks later, Capt Shizuo Yoshii - who was later tried and executed - called for his liver to be served at a party for fellow officers. Parts of a fourth airman, Warren Earl Vaughn, were also eaten and the remaining four were executed, one by being clubbed to death.
The parents of all the airmen are now dead, but Mr Bradley contacted all their families. "The first reaction was a stunned silence, a hush. But I think that at last knowing how these men died, however horrible their deaths, has allowed closure and in a word I heard from them, healing," he said. Mr Bush's first reaction was also to say nothing. "There was a lot of head-shaking, a lot of silence," the author told The Telegraph. "There was no disgust, shock or horror. He's a veteran of a different generation."
The former president returned to Chichi Jima with Mr Bradley for the first time since his rescue for the CNN documentary broadcast last week. Mr Bush looked sombre but never visibly upset, and ventured into the water in a modern liferaft to re-create his experience.
He recalled that while on the submarine he asked himself why he had survived. "Why had I been spared and what did God have in store for me? In my own view there's got to be some kind of destiny and I was being spared for something on Earth." Earlier he had told Mr Bradley: "I think about those guys all the time."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/26/wpow26.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/26/ixworld.html
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Excellent book. How soon we forget the attrocities committed by the Japanese, German's, and Soviet's not that long ago. 0 -
I read this book 2 or 3 years ago. I highly recommend it as it gives a very interesting perspective of the Japanese culture. 0 -
I never heard of the Japs committing cannibalism. The rest of the story does not surprise me. The Japanese believed that being captured was a disgrace and that captives deserved nothing more than bad treatment and death.
My dad fought against them, and he still does not have a kind word to say about them. He will not drive a Japanese car.0 -
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
I never heard of the Japs committing cannibalism. The rest of the story does not surprise me. The Japanese believed that being captured was a disgrace and that captives deserved nothing more than bad treatment and death.
My dad fought against them, and he still does not have a kind word to say about them. He will not drive a Japanese car.
I never fought them.... And I still won't drive a Jap car....Come on people the bombed Pearl Harbor without a declaration of war. Even that idiot GWB had the courtesy to them (Iraq & Afghanistan) he was coming (Probably 10,000 freaking times) Of course it was actually "Geraldo Fonda" that told them when and Where0 -
1st have heard of this.... I'll have to pick this up, I'm need'n a break from scifi anyway..... 0 -
Most Orientals will eat anything that moves, or doesn't move! They believe that everything has "mystical" powers, or healing properties. They are brutal people, and I am not referring to the ones that have been "Americanized". Most of my departed older veteran family, hated their guts until the day they died. 0 -
Move 'em onto the land after the sheep and we'll have another dustbowl. 0 -
Gee, I lived in Japan for several years, and have taught Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Thais and various other orentials for over thirty years. Thank you so much for pointing that they are a brutal, depraved people or I might never have realized it. I just hope that Americans are never judged as a people by what the worst of us has done during wartime. 0 -
just like i have always said
"Japanese don't eat bush"0 -
I read the book about a year ago and commented on it here.
The Japs got off lightly under MacArthur's peace terms. They were
brutal,murderous people. Their savagry was widespread thruout the Pacific theater of operations. Responsibility went right to the top; the Empirer Hirohito. While this episode wasn't widely known,
their reputation was. A few uncles who served in the Pacific hated the Japs till the day they died.
Funny, I visited Japan just eight years after WW2 and wondered where all the savages went. My impression was they were all beautiful people.
The passionate hate I had from stories of WW2 evaporated.0 -
Some years back I had met an older couple through a business deal. The old guy had a face only a mother could love. His wife explained to me that he had been captured by the Japanese and was a POW for almost three years. He fell asleep, or passed out, on a work detail and to make an example of him the Japs cut his eyelids off. In another incident some of the guards were drunk one night and were making jokes and Curtis wasn't laughing so they cut his lips off, giving him a permanent "smile". She also said he had over twenty scars from being prodded by bayonets. He had undergone extensive plastic surgery but was still cosmetically a mess. These sand fleas at Gitmo don't have the slightest idea what prisoner abuse really is. 0 -
Now, don't you feel great whenever you drive your Japanese car? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by nunn
Now, don't you feel great whenever you drive your Japanese car?
My car was not made by WWII Imperial Japan. So, yes, I feel fine whenever I drive my Toyota.0 -
I have worked for, and with, orientals.
They have a culture that encourages the application of barbarism.
Doug0 -
Doug,
Really? Because I've worked for and with many Asians myself and their culture seems to promote a reverence for tradition, education, frugality, and humility.
Of course, I haven't ever worked with the war criminals, so maybe I'm just hanging out with the wrong Asians.0 -
Japanese soldiers ate Aussies, Brits, and Philipinos too. If you were white, you were "white pig". If you were Asian, you were called "red pig".
There was a unit, 631 or some such number, that conducted experiments in chemical and biological ways to kill using prisoners. It was at least the equal in atrocities compared to the Nazis. Unlike the Nazis though, most Jappers were given immunity from war crime trials if they turned over their data.
I've lived in Japan and love the beauty and culture that is there. That doesn't mean one need to turn a blind eye to the barbarity of which anyone is capable of given the proper cirumstances. Unfortunately, given the suicidal nature of the average Japanese soldier, flame throwers and sealing in caves was the only way to deal with them.
To what lengths would we as Americans NOT GO if starving and fighting a foreign invader on our own soil?
People are the same all over and since most of you have never been hungry, I mean REALLY hungry, I doubt you can honestly refute that.
Jap cars roll as good as a Zeke flew which was damn good![;)]0 -
The handwriting is on the wall for the Japanese economy. China's expansion will eventually put all of SE Asia out of business.
It's possible China will get their revenge for Japanese atrocities
against them that began in 1936 or 1937.
We knew all about it before the war but were isolationist then.
Children's playing cards that came with bubble gum were either war cards depicting the Japanese atrocities against Chinese or baseball cards.0 -
Very good book! IMHO, much better than "Flag of our Fathers." As far as Japanese cars, I learned all I needed about that from my Grand-dad. He served in the Pacific Theater. My mom was 1 when he left and grand-ma was pregnant with another daughter when he got on the train heading to Seattle. Didn't see any of them until 3 1/2 years later. He finally ended up, and spent most of his time, on the B-29 base at Tinian. In 1965 he bought a Datsun Fairlady, and drove Datsun's and later Nissan's until the day he died. He always said he had no more fight with the Japanese, the war was over, and people needed to get on with their lives and the business of forgiving. I figured that if someone who was actually there could adopt that attitude, I could too. Still took me until 1998 to buy a Japanese made car though, and even though we sold it last year, it is still, by far, the best car we have ever owned. 0 -
Have you ever noticed that most Asian restaurants are right next to veterinarian clinics? 0 -
quote:My car was not made by WWII Imperial Japan. So, yes, I feel fine whenever I drive my Toyota.
And we're supposed to believe that the children and grandchildren of these monsters have magically transformed into decent humans. My dad was a WWII Navy vet. When I was 19 and had no credit, and was stupid to boot, I wanted to buy a new Datsun pickup. I asked Dad to come and co-sign the note. He asked what I was trying to buy and I told him, and he said, emphatically, "NO. Son, go make you a deal on a Ford or Chevrolet and I'll be there, but I am not signing a note for you to buy a Japanese vehicle."
After I got done being mad, he explained why, and I understood. Some people just have shorter memories than others.0 -
How many American cars are allowed to be made/sold in Japan? Every time Occidentals deal with Orientals it seems the former gives away the farm. If you could be a mouse in the corner of the corporate boardrooms of most large Jap corporations you'd find they'd do it (WWII) again if they thought they'd get away with it. They definitely think we're economic fools. My personal interactions with Orientals is that they're all smiles until you're gone and they have their private time.
Viet Nam, being a more recent conflict, is probably more proof
of the general Oriental mind set. Through lack of value of life and "the patience of an oyster" they got their way. They still, like the Arab, begin influencing the minds of the populace in early grade school-largely denying or ommiting their role in war. Look how long it took for them to apologize for the "comfort women" they enslaved during their occupation of China.
For years I've said "Ya don't want two cars in every garage in China." Now look (there and India and So. Am.)-more competition for
gas-pray for your grandkids.........
Any society that has one basic religion and one race vs. dozens
upon dozens of religions and numerous races and combinations has advantages that can only be neutralized by superior strength and the latter's willingness to use it. Buying "Made in America" (getting more and more impossible to do) and no, NOT "Made in America but Profits GO Back To Japan", will increase the latter's strength and
economy. Competition is great until you get too much and when it becomes unfair. Pray for your grandchildren.....
That's why illegal immigration is so poisonous-our kids and work force have ENOUGH headaches/competition without importing more. Pray for your grandchildren......0 -
I'll play the devil's advocate here. It is true there were acts of cannibalism out in the South Pacific by the Japanese. Cannibalism has been around since dawn of time even the Westerners ate their own in times of desperation. So that alone can't make the whole Asian Nation responsible for what some did in war time. Look what the Germans did with the Jews, Homos, Gypsies and what have you. These days most have no problem driving in a BMW, Benz or a VW. Is it because they didn't eat them? Just rounded them up, penned them up and forced labor upon then until they died or killed off for tests. Kind a like what the US did with the Japanese Americans in their "Interment Camps". Sure they weren't out right killed off but if they just happen to die so what right?
At times of desperation one can and will do pretty much anything to over come.
From one "Monster" (as Nunn penned me as) to another. I will say this when the dust settles out in the Middle East how will the Americans be remembered? C.I.A. torture monkeys? Bringers of Western Chaos, A.K.A. Western Democracy (kind a like bringing "Spam" in a can "it's tasty but it goes against all your cultural ways). As I see it, it's not the American Service People it's the ones who sent them out that are monsters (they were just following orders). Sins of our parent's does not get passed on like hair or eye color. Unless it is taught to keep the hatred going (kind a like KKK, Neo-Nazi).
As for the "comfort women" in China set up by the Japanese it is true. As true as Military Cat Houses to service the GI's who landed on Japan (I'm pretty sure it was all Japanese women). I suppose they weren't sex slaves since the GI's did pay or bartered. But did the women really have much say in a male dominated society? Just the cycle of dominance. I do wonder what the Military Folks are doing out there today in a fatladyless society. Are hookers being shipped in from the US or abroad? I'm not making little of what the Service People are doing. I'm just curious since the Government saw to that "need" on the low down in the past.0 -
Everyone feels that modern day Japan is so wonderful! First off, the biggest differences in them becoming "civilized", came from being "Americanized" during the occupation.
Look at what they do to this day, as far as children, and sex,.........child pornography, is considered almost normal over there, as is the treatment of females, as inferior.
I stand by what I said about Orientals, and what they will eat! They are responsible for the black market, in animal parts from endangered species! The dumba**es, think that if they eat the liver of a grizzly bear, that it will make their little weenies work better!0 -
Yes, it was a great book and educated me as to the treatment given our GI's during the war.
The PC crowd today doesn't have a clue about true pain and suffering and the price we have paid for the freedom we enjoy. They are the product of a spoiled, feminized society, that feeds off a nanny government. Strong rant to follow!
But the book does give you a big picture perspective of what our parents and grandparents faced and why they savored freedom and protected our society to the extent that they did.
The PC agenda today can't give it away fast enough.0 -
quote:Originally posted by nunn
quote:My car was not made by WWII Imperial Japan. So, yes, I feel fine whenever I drive my Toyota.
And we're supposed to believe that the children and grandchildren of these monsters have magically transformed into decent humans. My dad was a WWII Navy vet. When I was 19 and had no credit, and was stupid to boot, I wanted to buy a new Datsun pickup. I asked Dad to come and co-sign the note. He asked what I was trying to buy and I told him, and he said, emphatically, "NO. Son, go make you a deal on a Ford or Chevrolet and I'll be there, but I am not signing a note for you to buy a Japanese vehicle."
After I got done being mad, he explained why, and I understood. Some people just have shorter memories than others.
Mitsubishi made good airplanes too.
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Quote: Now don't you feel great whenever you drive your Japanese car?
I'm going to buy one. Right after hell freezes over. Read "The Rape of Nanking," by Iris Chang. Unbelievable conduct of humans against humans.0 -
quote:Originally posted by nunn
quote:My car was not made by WWII Imperial Japan. So, yes, I feel fine whenever I drive my Toyota.
And we're supposed to believe that the children and grandchildren of these monsters have magically transformed into decent humans. My dad was a WWII Navy vet. When I was 19 and had no credit, and was stupid to boot, I wanted to buy a new Datsun pickup. I asked Dad to come and co-sign the note. He asked what I was trying to buy and I told him, and he said, emphatically, "NO. Son, go make you a deal on a Ford or Chevrolet and I'll be there, but I am not signing a note for you to buy a Japanese vehicle."
After I got done being mad, he explained why, and I understood. Some people just have shorter memories than others.
Next time I go speeding thru Texas...Be sure to pull me over...so I can shake your hand.... 100% Agree!!! I can't forget Pearl Harbor and crap they pulled all over the rest of the world...0 -
quote:Originally posted by john carr
Quote: Now don't you feel great whenever you drive your Japanese car?
I'm going to buy one. Right after hell freezes over. Read "The Rape of Nanking," by Iris Chang. Unbelievable conduct of humans against humans.
...Great book. On another note, I once dated a girl whose mother lived through the Japanese occupation of Manila. She told of soldiers walking the streets with babies impaled on their bayonets, some dead and some still screaming while the Japs laughed.0 -
quote:Originally posted by JamesRK
Mitsubishi made good airplanes too.
They weren't as good as the planes Grumman made.[:D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by nunn
quote:My car was not made by WWII Imperial Japan. So, yes, I feel fine whenever I drive my Toyota.
And we're supposed to believe that the children and grandchildren of these monsters have magically transformed into decent humans.
Actually, yes, but not "magically." We changed them through the US occupation. Just like Germany was purged of Naziism, Japan was purged of imperialism.0
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