August 4, 2015: Our speaker was James Scott, author and former investigative journalist for the Post and Courier. He is a graduate of Wofford College and Harvard University. He has written three books on naval history, The Attack on Liberty, The War Below and his just released book, Target Tokyo.
Scott have us a detailed overview of the book: The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and sank half of the U.S. fleet. Within weeks military leaders began to plan a daring raid on Tokyo to boost morale and deflate Japan’s perceived invincibility. On April 18, 1942 a small force of land based B-25 bombers were launched from the carrier Hornet, led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, former boxer and stunt plan aviator.
Target Tokyo tells the story of the raid, including photographs never before printed, and details developed over three years of research. The aircraft carrier and support vessels were spotted so the planes took off farther away than planned, thus it was a one way mission. 15 of the 16 planes made it to the target. Due to the lack of zoning in Tokyo industrial targets were bracketed with housing and some civilians were killed. No plans were shot down over Japan, but only one made a safe landing in Russia. The rest crash landed in China many in territory occupied by the Japanese.
The effects of the raid boosted both military and the public’s morale and caused Japan to embark on an attack of Midway Island which became a turning point against Japan. The Japanese killed 250,000 Chinese in retaliation for the raid in a campaign of terror. Most of Doolittle’s flyers escaped capture due to help from Chinese. The book offers details about those captured and three who were killed.
Doolittle himself made it back to the USA and was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt.
— Fred Sales, Keyway Committee