Terror Over Tokyo: Part II
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was pictured as it fell from the sky. The photo, taken my someone on another B-29 during the mission, shows the ceiling of Uncle Tom’s Cabin facing the aircraft, inverted as it spiraled downward. (Submitted photo)
In the first part of Osseo’s Morris Tyler’s fateful flight of December 27, 1944, aboard the B-29 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, we learned how the aircraft was brought down over Tokyo by Japanese suicide pilots willing to die to keep the bombers from raining devastation on their homeland.
Rammed by two Japanese fighters and riddled by hundreds of cannon and machine gun rounds, the dying B-29 was plummeting to its final end in Tokyo Bay. When Major Krause ordered survivors to bail out, three men did, and survived their journey to earth. During this time, they were lucky because Japanese pilots often strafed parachuting men. Landing in Tokyo Bay, 2nd Lieutenant Stan Rebicki, Corporal Richard Sandlin, and Major William Walker were picked up by a fisherman and taken prisoner. Also fished out of the water was a tire, the tail, and other parts of the ill-fated bomber, which were all displayed in Tokyo’s Hibaya Park for three weeks in February 1945. The Japanese often did this to show they were indeed destroying the armed invaders.
Now prisoners of the Japanese, the three men were once again fortunate. Oftentimes, captured American airmen were put on “trial” as they were all deemed to be war criminals by the Japanese, and these trials almost always ended in the execution of the prisoners. In some instances, prisoners were stripped naked and held in zoo cages, on full display to abusive Japanese citizens. However, those who fell to earth around Tokyo, though typically beaten and otherwise mistreated upon capture, were taken to prisoner of war camps.
All three survivors of Uncle Tom’s Cabin were transported to the Omuri POW camp near Tokyo, a man-made island camp constructed by slave Allied labor in 1942. When they arrived there, Louis Zamperini, the Olympian who, with Jessie Owens, so embarrassed and angered Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was also a prisoner, following the ditching of his bomber in the waters of the South Pacific. Also, during their time there was the Japanese war criminal, Mutsuhiro Watanabe, a sadistic guard who reveled in the abuse and torture of prisoners. He especially took pleasure – but failed – in trying to break Zamperini. This story can be found in the excellent book and movie, Unbroken.
Prisoners here, as at all Japanese camps, were treated very harshly, enduring inhumane conditions – regular beatings, oftentimes for no reason; little food that was often rotten or pest-ridden; forced labor; poor sanitation; and practically no medical care. It is believed as many as 27 percent of all Allied prisoners of the Japanese died while in captivity.
The three survivors of Uncle Tom’s Cabin stayed alive during their POW camp ordeal, though, and were liberated on Aug. 29, 1945. Unfortunately, Major Walker had contracted a malnutrition-caused disease – beriberi – while incarcerated and died the following day aboard a hospital ship. He was buried at sea.
The other nine men aboard Uncle Tom’s Cabin – including Osseo’s Morris Tyler, Jefferson’s Gerald Westerman, Milwaukee’s Kenneth Beyer, and Richland Center’s John Krause – all perished either during the Japanese attacks on their B-29 or in its subsequent crash and explosion.
It was reported in Japan that thousands of Tokyo’s citizens watched the entire tragic battle unfold in the sky above them.
Several incredible photographs exist of this event. One shows the stricken B-29 falling with flames shooting from its right side, taken from another B-29 (aircraft is inverted in the photo). A Japanese civilian watching the battle above them took two photos, one of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in its final seconds, the second of the billowing smoke that followed after the bomb-laden aircraft exploded upon contact with the water. The smoking right wing is clearly visible in the one photo, and both photos were identified by date. Since it was the only B-29 to crash in Tokyo Bay on Dec. 27, 1944, it must be Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Major John Krause of Richland Center, the father of a young son, was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his efforts to save his doomed aircraft and its crew. The recommendation was denied, however, and both he and flight engineer 1st Lieutenant John Ray were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The other 10 aboard the fateful flight of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, including Staff Sergeant Morris Tyler, 21 years of age, were all awarded the Silver Star. The awards they received are the second and third highest for valor in combat.
Unbelievably, following the war, remains were found at the final resting site of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the shallow waters of Tokyo Bay. They were returned to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Missouri, where they were interred as a group on Sept. 7, 1949. Their gravestone is located, with all nine names inscribed, in Section 82, Site 54. Besides Morris Tyler, Gerald Westerman, John Krause, and Kenneth Beyer, the other names that appear are John Ray, Clarence Hewlett, Robert Rawlins, Kenneth Seely, and Edward Sienkiewicz.
Their stories of bravery cannot be overstated, and cannot be forgotten.
Michael Lyga can be contacted at: lyga@new.rr.com and 920-360-2326
