Accused War Criminal: An American Kempei Tai Survivor

$28.95

On the morning of May 31, 1943, less than twenty four hours after his graduation ceremony at Texas Technical College, Fiske Hanley’s boarded a train and changed his life forever. The train was to take him to Florida to begin his cadet training – he had been drafted by the US army to serve in the Second World War.

This is Hanley’s powerful account of his experience as a flight engineer on a B-29 bomber squad, and eventually as a POW in Japan in World War II. From his training and commissioning, to his deployment and failed mission, to his imprisonment, all the way through his rescue and recovery, Hanley bravely includes it all. With vibrancy and detailed honesty, this account amazes, humbles, and touches the reader as only stories of this level of heroism can.

On the morning of May 31, 1943, less than twenty four hours after his graduation ceremony at Texas Technical College, Fiske Hanley’s boarded a train and changed his life forever. The train was to take him to Florida to begin his cadet training – he had been drafted by the US army to serve in the Second World War.

This is Hanley’s powerful account of his experience as a flight engineer on a B-29 bomber squad, and eventually as a POW in Japan in World War II. From his training and commissioning, to his deployment and failed mission, to his imprisonment, all the way through his rescue and recovery, Hanley bravely includes it all. With vibrancy and detailed honesty, this account amazes, humbles, and touches the reader as only stories of this level of heroism can.

SPECS

  • Imprint: Brown Books Publishing Group

  • BISAC: History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II

  • Format: Hardcover

  • Page Count: 480

  • Publication Date: February 18, 2020

  • ISBN-13: 9781612544274

  • Dimensions: 6" x 9"

  • US List Price: $28.95

  • Carton QTY: 14

AUTHOR BIO

On his seventh mission, Fiske Hanley and the ten other men of his crew were shot down over Japan. Lieutenant Hanley arrived on Japanese soil via parachute and thus began his harrowing experience as a prisoner of war-an accused American war criminal. On August 29, 1945, Lieutenant Hanley was liberated by a Navy-Marine task force led by Commander Harold E. Stassen, Deputy Chief of Staff to Admiral Halsey. Hanley returned to the United States. He remained an Air Force reservist and pursued a forty-three-year aeronautical engineering career with Convair/General Dynamics. Hanley checked out the first Air Force crews in the B-36 Peacemaker bomber and helped engineer the B-36, YC-131, B-58, F-111, and the F-16. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas.