[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I wonder if our history buff knows who these men were.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

This pretty much speaks for itself, I think:

"Kill-All Order" of August 1, 1944
War Ministry, Tokyo
When the battle situation becomes urgent the POWs will be concentrated and confined in their location and kept under heavy guard until preparations for the final disposition will be made. Although the basic aim is to act under superior orders, individual disposition may be made in certain circumstances. Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, and whether it is accomplished by means of mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, or decapitation, dispose of them as the situation dictates. It is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces.

[wimpycat]

I can tell you who the men were in the picture you posted in #124. It is a picture of men whose B-29 was shot down over Japan. A number of them were surgically experimented on.


The fate of these men:

Watkins (pilot) -- Taken to Tokyo, interrogated, and interned at Omori POW Camp. Released at end of war. Died in 1989? in Virginia.
Fredericks (co-pilot) -- Died during vivisection experiment
Shingledecker (bombardier) -- Place & means of death unknown
Kearns (navigator) -- Died in vicinity of crash site
Plambeck (radar navigator) -- Died during vivisection experiment
Johnson (left gunner) -- Died in vicinity of crash site
Ponczka (engineer) -- Died during vivisection experiment
Williams (radio operator) -- Died during vivisection experiment
Czarnecki (tail gunner) -- Died during vivisection experiment
Oeinck (right gunner) -- Died in vicinity of crash site
Colehower (nose gunner) -- Died during vivisection experiment