Elation & Aftermath: May 1942 to August 1945

The first, inaccurate reports of the mission came from Radio Tokyo. US newspapers picked up the broadcast story. The headline that Army bombers had attacked Japan electrified America. Uncertain of Raiders' success, Washington remained silent. On April 21, Arnold received a sketchy message from Doolittle, somewhere deep in China. Roosevelt then confirmed that US planes had indeed bombed Japan.

Doolittle and some twenty Raiders were ordered back to the United States; others remained in the China-Burma-India Theater and many rejoined the 17th Bomb Group, flying B-26 Marauders in Africa and Europe. Twelve Raiders died later during the war. Three became German prisoners and copilot Lieutenant Thadd Blanton escaped from enemy territory a second time after his plane crashed in Burma.

Instead of being court-martialed for losing sixteen bombers, Doolittle was promoted to brigadier general, skipping the rank of colonel. On May 19, Roosevelt awarded him the Medal of Honor, which he felt he didn't deserve. A month later, General Arnold decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross those Raiders who had returned Stateside.

The eight survivors of Hallmark and Farrow's ill-fated crews were tortured for information. Following a mock "trial," Hallmark, Farrow and Spatz were illegally executed on October 15, 1942. Meder died of brutal mistreatment and malnutrition alone in a squalid cell on December 1, 1943. Hite, Barr, DeShazer and Nielson endured starvation, privation and sickness nearly unto death in hellish prisons. They spent 34 of their 40 months' confinement in solitary, until released by Office of Strategic Services parachutists on August 20, 1945.

Barr, most diseased and weakest of the survivors, became progressively more "mentally disturbed." Unable to travel home from China with his three liberated comrades, he became lost in the post-war psychiatric system until found by his foster family. The still delusional airman's loved ones turned to then a lieutenant general Jimmy Doolittle, who promptly flew to Barr's asylum to convince him that he was no longer in Japanese custody.

The captives credited faith with their survival. Previously not religious, DeShazer became a devout Christian, forgave his tormentors and returned to Japan in 1948 as a Free Methodist missionary. After thirty years' service, he retired to his native Oregon, the state home to more Raiders than any but Texas.

Chiang's fear of Japanese retaliation was justified. Enraged Imperial leaders wreaked terrible vengeance upon East China. In May, more than six hundred air raids on towns and villages initiated the retribution. That summer, 100,000 Japanese troops shot, bayoneted, raped, drowned, burned alive and beheaded an estimated 200,000 Chinese civilians and killed up to 50,000 soldiers. As a warning against helping American fliers in the future and to prevent a repetition of the Raid, the Japanese razed to the ground villages through which the airmen had passed.

Sixty-one of eighty Raiders survived the war, many with wounds.