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."

Savages.



"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
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."

prescient savages

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Bob Crantz" wrote in message
k.net...
Savages.

You say prescient, so do you think they did it to scare us, or to
impress the other Japs?

Joe

Joe wrote:
You say prescient, so do you think they did it to scare us, or to
impress the other Japs?


I think they did it so that 60 years later, Bush-Cheney supporters could
say "See, you think a little torture is bad, well at least we're not
BBQing 'em"

DSK

I was just joking that if they had eaten Bush senior, we wouldn't have Bush
junior.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
You say prescient, so do you think they did it to scare us, or to
impress the other Japs?

Joe

Only you would

Joe

Would you eat Bush?



"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...
I was just joking that if they had eaten Bush senior, we wouldn't have
Bush
junior.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
You say prescient, so do you think they did it to scare us, or to
impress the other Japs?

Joe

Lower case b only.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Bob Crantz" wrote in message
k.net...
Would you eat Bush?



"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...
I was just joking that if they had eaten Bush senior, we wouldn't have
Bush
junior.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
You say prescient, so do you think they did it to scare us, or to
impress the other Japs?

Joe

Oh...I was kinda serious, and find it hard to find the funny side.

Why do you think the japs did this?
What was the motive?
Old Japanese customs?
A bonding thing between officers?


Joe