Warbird Information Exchange

Friends and Members of the 7th Fighter Command Association,

I have had an exciting past week and wanted to share a few details with you all.

If you didn't get a paper copy of the newsletter I sent out last week, you can read a copy here:

http://www.7thfighter.com/newsletter/su ... g_2008.pdf

I headed to Japan last Wednesday for week to achieve a couple of goals.

1) To attend a ceremony in Shizuoka Japan to honor 23 B-29 crewman who perished in a mid-air collision over that city on June 20, 1945. 2000 Japanese civilians also died in the fire bombing raid of that night.

A Mr. Ito found the wreckage of the two bombers and took it upon himself to bury the B-29 crewmen alongside of his countrymen in the local cemetery. Several years later, he quietly erected a memorial to both the American and Japanese dead upon a small Mountain in the center of the city. A Dr. Sugano, who had witnessed the tragedy as a boy, came across the memorial and took it upon himself to continue the tradition of holding services each year to honor the dead. In 1991 some members of the B-29 crewmen visited the memorial and in 2006 Jerry Yellin of our 78th Fighter Squadron was invited to the ceremony and Jerry and has since helped Dr. Sugano get the message out to the world to the selfless act that Mr. Ito made. This year there were over 600 participants, including Jerry, George O'Conner (a nephew of one of the crewmen), Jim Belilove ( who donated a plaque with the B-29 crewman's names on it), myself and my wife Glorene, and about 60 Yakota USAFB
members.

It was a very moving ceremony and one that highlights how a the selfless and potentially dangerous action by Mr. Ito, has grown to strengthen our ties with our former enemies.

I will be creating a webpage with photos and more extensive articles in the future, so please stand by.

2) The main reason I wanted to travel to Japan though was to investigate the possibility of finding and recovering Gordon Scott's 78th FS P-51 from Lake Kasumigaura. My only real hope for this trip was to get the permissions I needed to proceed with a surface scan of the lake.

What I got was so much more. I have been working for 4 years with the Zero Fighters Pilot Association (now known as the Zero Admirers Club) and had not gotten very far with my goal of getting the permissions I needed to go and do a search of the lake. Then Jerry Yellin introduced me to a gentleman who Jerry had met in the States while he was getting his education here.

As a consequence, I not only got the OK to go ahead and begin my searches, but they arranged for me to meet eye witnesses to Gordon's crash and recovery.

The interviews I conducted there reinforced everything that Gordon had recalled, plus more. I found witnesses to Gordon's combat with the Japanese Navy Seaplanes and witnesses to his capture at the lake. I was initially dismayed as some had witnessed a plane go into the lake that they said had been recovered by the Japanese and hauled up on shore on the other side of the lake in order to clear the fishing lanes. They indicated that the plane that was recovered had crashed and exploded into a shallow part of the lake and that they that had observed someone jumping out before it hit the water. They thought that person was Gordon. Since the plane came down near the area where Gordon ditched, they assumed they were one in the same. Gordon however did not crash and explode, nor did he bail. His plane was also in deep water as I have Japanese records from 1946 that state that it was in to deep of water to attempt recovery. Gordon also states that the lanyard on his life raft was 25 feet long and he was not able to pull it up when he escaped the cockpit underwater because he ran out of air and had to escape to the surface. I am still convinced that his P-51 may still be at the bottom of the lake.

My next step is to work towards raising enough money to head over with a crew to do a magnetic and radar scan of the lake. I also want to take Gordon over so that he can meet the families who rescued him. I say rescued, because for all of these years Gordon believed that all of the civilians wanted to kill him and that the Army finally came and saved him. What he didn't know is that the man who pulled him from the lake had taken pity on him and because Gordon had surrendered to him without a fight, he was determined not to let him be killed by the local unauthorized militia. He kept Gordon safe until the Army arrived and thus saved Gordon's life. Unfortunately, the man who saved him has now died, but some of his children who were there met with me and are overjoyed to hear that Gordon survived and is alive today. I really want to take Gordon and his wife on my next trip over and hope to raise enough money by next Spring to return.

Please put the word out to anyone who might be interested in helping. They can send checks to our treasurer at:

Jim Van Nada
7th Fighter Command Association
P-51 Recovery Project
4095 Berrywood Drive
Eugene, OR 97404

or to me personally at:

Mark Stevens
7th Fighter Command Association
P-51 Recovery Project
14629 SE 198th St
Renton, WA 98058

Though the generosity of Brian Bell, he has donated a painting to the effort and we are in the process of having lithographs made of the painting with all sale proceeds going towards the P-51 Project.

The order form for the painting and any contributions can be found at the end of the newsletter referenced above.

You can see some of the photos I took on our trip at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/stevensmw/OurJapanTrip

Thank You for all of your support and I will be personally contacting some of you for some specific help on the project

Sincerely

Mark