Less merciful was the death of 8 men of a 12 man B-29 crew shot down over Kyushu. Under the pretense of medical research, on four occasions during May and early June of 1945 the Japanese jailer turned over their American Prisoners to members of the medical school of the Kyushu Imperial University for vivisection. None of the Americans survived the experimentation, which was observed by a number of the staff along with students of the University.

On June 19th, the city of Fukuoka was hit, and 6 fliers from a B-29 downed in the raid were executed without trial the following, day. This occurred because some staff officers of the western military district, headquartered at Fukuoka became infuriated over the destruction inflicted on the city.

A week later for similar reasons, officers at the Eastern Sea military district headquarters decided to forego time consuming military court proceedings and had 11 American B-29 airmen who had bombed Nagoya in May, executed in the mountains east of that city.

By the end of July forty-six of the smaller cities had been bombed, 11 of which had POW camps nearby. The Japanese would later report that about 50 POWs were killed and 21 injured as a result of these bombings. Though the exact number may never be known, it is reasonable to assume that many of them were Americans.

Meanwhile, the execution of captured airmen continued. On July 14th, 16 men were executed without trial at the rear of the headquarters of the Eastern Sea military district, which included the Tokyo area. In another instance, after a long delay, 2 airmen who had been held since the March raids on Osaka and Kobe were tried by military court and executed by a firing squad the same day as their trial.

Thirty-eight other B-29 airmen who had participated in subsequent bombings of these same targets were condemned without even the pretense of a trial. During July and August they were taken in several groups to a maneuver area and rifle range near Osaka and executed.

Though records are fragmentary, conflicting, and in many cases do not exist at all, it can be presumed that hundreds of other American fliers received similar treatment - immediate death. Then too, how many others received the same fate at the hands of civilian mobs? It is logical to believe that the number is staggering.