After the war, I was called on to testify at the trials of some of the Japanese military for Japanese war crimes. This infuriated me as I believed this was little more than "victor's justice". In the spring of 1947, convinced that the Americans had treated the Japanese the same way and determined to bring that evidence to the next trial, I went to Uraga Harbor near Yokosuka to meet a group of returning Japanese prisoners of war. I was surprised to find my former flight engineer, Kazuo Kanegasaki, who all had believed had died in the Battle of Midway. When questioned, Kanegasaki told me that they were not tortured or abused, much to my disappointment, then went on to tell me of a young lady, Peggy Covell, who served them with the deepest love and respect, but whose parents, missionaries, had been killed by Japanese soldiers on the island of Panay in the Philippines.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Response to Hitler
After the war, I was called on to testify at the trials of some of the Japanese military for Japanese war crimes. This infuriated me as I believed this was little more than "victor's justice". In the spring of 1947, convinced that the Americans had treated the Japanese the same way and determined to bring that evidence to the next trial, I went to Uraga Harbor near Yokosuka to meet a group of returning Japanese prisoners of war. I was surprised to find my former flight engineer, Kazuo Kanegasaki, who all had believed had died in the Battle of Midway. When questioned, Kanegasaki told me that they were not tortured or abused, much to my disappointment, then went on to tell me of a young lady, Peggy Covell, who served them with the deepest love and respect, but whose parents, missionaries, had been killed by Japanese soldiers on the island of Panay in the Philippines.
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