Accused War Criminal: An American Kempei Tai Survivor

by Fiske Hanley

Overview

On the morning of May 31, 1943, less than twenty four hours after his graduation ceremony at Texas Technical College, Fiske Hanley’s boarded a train and changed his life forever. The train was to take him to Florida to begin his cadet training – he had been drafted by the US army to serve in the Second World War.

This is Hanley’s powerful account of his experience as a flight engineer on a B-29 bomber squad, and eventually as a POW in Japan in World War II. From his training and commissioning, to his deployment and failed mission, to his imprisonment, all the way through his rescue and recovery, Hanley bravely includes it all. With vibrancy and detailed honesty, this account amazes, humbles, and touches the reader as only stories of this level of heroism can.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612544274
Publisher:	Brown Books Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

On his seventh mission, Fiske Hanley and the nine other men of his crew were shot down over Japan. Lieutenant Hanley arrived on Japanese soil via parachute and thus began his harrowing experience as a prisoner of war—an accused American war criminal.
On August 29, 1945, Lieutenant Hanley was liberated by a Navy-Marine task force led by Commander Harold E. Stassen, Deputy Chief of Staff to Admiral Halsey.
Hanley returned to the United States. He remained an Air Force reservist and pursued a forty-three-year aeronautical engineering career with Convair/General Dynamics. Hanley checked out the first Air Force crews in the B-36 Peacemaker bomber and helped engineer the B-36, YC-131, B-58, F-111, and the F-16. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

1 What Happened? 1

2 Tinian Island Beginning 47

3 To the Target 87

4 Shot Down 99

5 Captured 115

6 Kokura Imprisonment 125

7 The Train Ride 173

8 Tokyo Reception 183

9 Kempei Tai Imprisonment 193

10 Camp Omori 293

11 Liberation 311

12 To the West Coast 327

13 Home at Last 353

14 A Civilian Again 361

Afterword: One Man's Legacy 373

Appendix A Japanese vs. American POW Treatment 381

Appendix B Air Raids 391

Appendix C Affidavits 397

Appendix D War Crime Trials 433

Appendix E Geneva Convention (III) Rules Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War 443

Appendix F Horse-Stall Cell Prisoners 447

Appendix G Our Crew Missions 451

About the Author 453

Photos 455