Publisher's Synopsis
The Story of a Captured WWII B-29 Airman Awaiting Trial and Execution by the Japanese as an American War Criminal
"A must read about Japanese atrocities inflicted on American B-29 airmen prisoners of war."
--General Hamilton Howze
"Tells the story of a condemned prisoner of Japanese awaiting execution.
A horror story that must be told!
--Governor Harold E. Stasson
Wartime Commander, USN; Adm. Halsey's Deputy Chief of Staff,
"What makes Hanley's tale stand out is that it is not simply about a survivor in a POW camp; it is about a survivor in a special POW camp that was the worst of the worst, approximating (but not equaling) the horrors of Holocaust camps."
--John Carland
Consultant/Senior Historian, Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense
"Hanley tells a story that will resonate with both military historians and the general public.
The tragedy of being held prisoner, of being targeted as a war criminal, and of being constantly reminded that you will not survive the war, is tempered by the elation of coming home."
--Ron Milan
Author of Not a Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War
In January of 1945 Flight Engineer 2nd Lieutenant Fiske Hanley departed from the U.S. mainland as part of a crew of 11; their ulitmate destination: an airbase on Tinian Island in the South Pacific; their mission: the bombing of Japan. Three months later, his B-29 shot down, he was a prisoner of Japan's Kempie Military Police. Kept in an overcrowded and filthy dungeon in Tokyo, he and his surviving fellow airmen were not treated as prisoners odff war but rather as "Special Prisoners" to be tried and executed for the killing of innocent women and children. While awaiting trial they lived on half-rations, with clothing, medical, and hygenic needs unattended; they were allowed to suffer and die from neglect and torture.
Accused American War Criminal is the story of this ordeal written by one of the few "Special Prisoners" to survive their internment.
