Does anyone out there know the real names of each person depicted in the movie. I know that they changed their names in the movie, but who was each person in real life? i.e. what was Dana Andrews' character's name in real life, not his name in the movie? I would particularly like to know who was actually executed and who survived. And who played Jacob DeShazer's character.
Thanks!
Eight men captured by the Japanese - Hallmark, Meder, Nielsen, Farrow, Hite, Barr, Spatz, and DeShazer
Three executed by firing squad - Hallmark, Farrow, and Spatz
One died of beri-beri and malnutrition while in prison - Meder
Four survived 40 months of prison, most of which was in solitary confinement. -
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 larger 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.
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 POWs of 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 beri-beri as a result of the deplorable 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 4:30 p.m. 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.
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 and by sheer determination and the comfort they received from a lone copy of the Bible, they survived to 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.
For more information visit www.doolittleraider.com
I'm watching this film now.Thank you for the link.
shareWow, Todd. Thanks so much for your extremely concise and relevant history lesson. In just 4 paragraphs you filled in vital information pertinent to filling in the blanks. Your research embellishes the enjoyment of the film enormously. Good looking out, cuz!
shareAnd people wonder why we dropped the Bomb. They forget or are ignorant of the treatment of captives by the Japannese. Both military and civilian. They overlook the rape of Nanking. They do not know that the Japanese were harder on their Asian subjects than the European Imperialists and American Capitalists before them in places like the Dutch East Indies, Indo-China and the Philipines. In Korea, treatment of subject Asians to the Japanese Empire was even worse. The tenacious defences of Iwo Jima and Okinawa by Japanese forces is admirable to a point. But in fighting to the last man [in many cases, most of the few captured were unconscious when they were captured] after the Allied victory at Leyte Gulf (an even greater indicator of a lost cause than the Normandy Invasion) demonstrated the Bushido zeal with which the Japanese were willing to continue the war even to the point of their own near total demise as a people.
There were Japanese admirals that conceded the fruitlessness of continuing the conflict after Leyte Gulf, but their recommendations came second to the directives of the Army.
While Allied Forces in the Pacific Theatre of Operations were no angels (US Marines on the aforementioned island campaigns spoke of and implemented the practice of exterminating Japanese defenders), the Japanese fighting code gave little in the way of mercy to the vanquished. Todd's write up on the tribulations of the captured Doolittle flyers is a microcosm in the saga of Japannese treatment of captured persons.
Todd, thank you for the excellent work on the full and true story of those eight brave yet unfortunate men who gave their lives in a well-defined war against tyranny.
- JKHolman
So only 3 were actually tried ... which in my eyes makes this film complete balderdash!
shareWe should have shot.them.
share