Posted on 01/31/2015 2:18:26 AM PST by WhiskeyX
SEATTLE — Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, one of four surviving Doolittle Raiders who attacked Japan during a daring 1942 mission credited with lifting American morale during World War II, has died. He was 94.
Rod Saylor said his father died of natural causes on Wednesday in Sumner, Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantoday.com ...
We are one hero poorer...
Condolences to family and friends of Lt. Col. Edward Saylor.
RIP.
Rest now, true and worthy hero.
I hope to meet you someday, God willing.
I was able to talk to Doolittle one-on-one at his home in Carmel, CA in 1985. He was a very impressive man and was able to tell me all about the Tokyo mission and other interesting things. I was stationed at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey at the time
One pic he had on his wall was getting his fourth star from Ronald Reagan.
It was very cool.
Would like to have participated in that interview. Did he have anything to say about Spencer Tracy’s depiction of him?
“credited with lifting American morale during World War II”
Just as importantly, it led the Japanese civilians know early on that their government was deceiving them. Bombing Tokyo when we were supposedly on the ropes must have terrified them.
IIRC, the theme of the movie “Midway” was that the Doolittle Raid spooked the Japanese high command into prematurely sending in their fleet to score a knockout against the U.S. aircraft carriers, instead of consolidating their holdings in the Pacific.
Will never forgive the Japs for executing those captured Doolittle crewmen who were merely doing their jobs.
In fairness to the Japanese, they expected the same treatment to be meted out to them; they were shocked that we even bothered to hold trials for their leaders, and that everyone else was basically given a pass. As bad as their treatment of our prisoners was, their treatment of civilians on the Asian mainland was much worse.
Lt. Col. Dick Cole, Doolittle’s co-pilot, is 98.
He attends the Wings and Wheels event in Georgetown, DE in early October for the past few years.
Of the last four, he was the only one who could travel.
Saw him give a talk in Oct. 2013 in Georgetown, he was tremendous.
Sharp, funny, humble.
The crowd loved him.
A living part of history which will soon be no more.
Yep, the Japs murdered 10,000 Chinese civilians just in their search for downed Doolittle crewmen.
Not to mention millions more Chinese who had the misfortune to be regarded as subhuman by the invading Japs.
Any credit should go to the Emperor, who in his broadcast told the Japanese people to accept defeat & occupation as absolutely inevitable. He defused an entire nation that had been prepared to fight to the last human standing.
Then MacArthur arrived and said, “I have deprived Japan of its divine emperor, but I’m giving you another - me!”
;^)
May he rest in peace.
Sigh* Yet another real hero passes on. Thank you Sir for your sacrifices like so many from that era and OUR era. RIP...
I think the Emperor got off easy; those people willing to fight to the death were doing so for him. Japanese rifles from the war are more valuable if they have the chrysanthemum emblem on them because the owner probably died in action; at the end of the war the Japanese soldiers filed those off before turning them in to avoid disgracing the emperor.
They slaughtered people across Asia and the throughout the islands (from the Philippines to Indonesia, Korea to Burma); unfortunately, in losing the war they lost their way, and the culture today is dysfunctional and dwindling.
Interesting. The rest of Asia is still seething at modern Japan’s inability to acknowledge WWII atrocities committed by Imperial Japanese forces. But in disconnecting themselves from their unsavory wartime past, today’s Japanese have also forsaken their classical roots which valued hard work, respect for elders & ancestors, and appreciation of the higher esthetics in art & literature.
`Anomie’ is the correct term for this societal malaise & lack of higher purpose in life, IIRC.
Only their geographical advantage as an island nation prevents Japan from sinking into multicultural dissolution. For example, they have almost no Muslim problem over there as muzzies are treated as the worst sort of foreigners, and are deported at the first sign of causing trouble.
Meanwhile, Japan’s birth rate is well below replacement level.
Doolittle Raid Over Tokyo WWII Newsreel (Great Original Footage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yXzYxUC93A
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