Lambert’s team had come across photos: Dan Bailey obtained the photos at a book-signing event in Davis, California, where he happened to have a table near Bush’s biographer, Robert Stinnett. “He’s looking over at my book, and I’m looking over at his book, and he said, ‘You know, I have some information you might find interesting—have you seen these photos before?’” Interview with Dan Bailey, August 15, 2012.
“What we wanted to do”: Interview with Chip Lambert, August 12, 2012.
scouring the continental shelf for abalone: Snail diving preoccupies a small but fervent community, among whom Buller is considered one of the best. He has recovered more than two hundred abalone larger than ten inches.
the gear shaft of a sunken destroyer: Bailey and the Lamberts discovered the Japanese destroyer Samidare beside the Ngaruangel reef in 1990. Bailey, 194.
“strong circumstantial evidence”: The article relied heavily on such innuendo, acknowledging at one point, “The document, as incriminating as it appears to be, doesn’t constitute irrefutable proof of guilt. Bush may have a convincing explanation.” Hertsgaard, 44.
“the trawler sank within five minutes”: Mission Report, VT-51, Air Group 51, Task Force 58, July 25, 1944.
a gunner on the mission, who said he couldn’t remember: By 2011, the author of the Harper’s story took a similar position himself. When asked if the abundant munitions on the ship changed his reading of the mission report, he replied, “I don’t recall the details well enough to offer any opinion that could be helpful.” Written exchange with Mark Hertsgaard, June 2, 2011.
“If Chip wanted him along”: Interview with Chip Lambert, August 12, 2012.
“He didn’t really contribute”: Interview with Dave Buller, August 29, 2011.
“Hey!” he cried out to Buller: Interview with Chip Lambert, August 12, 2012; interview with Dave Buller, August 29, 2011.
None of them doubted: Interview with Pat Scannon, December 1, 2009; interview with Dave Buller, August 29, 2011; interview with Chip and Pam Lambert, August 12, 2012; interview with Dan Bailey, August 15, 2012.
“This was a four-engine plane”: Drawn from numerous interviews with Pat and Susan Scannon, as well as Scannon Logs, Book 1.
there wasn’t much record of the air campaign: There still isn’t. Although a handful of books have appeared over the last decade, few of them mention the Thirteenth Air Force, which flew the longest missions of the campaign and wrought the most damage on Palau. For example, the 2010 book Whirlwind: The Air War against Japan, 1942–1945, refers to the Thirteenth only once, as the “least known of all the air forces that fought Japan.” Tillman, 237.
“The bloody, grinding warfare”: Costello, 497.
“the majority of above-ground buildings”: Bailey, 117.
“All of a sudden, he’s calling all these old guys”: Interview with Susan Scannon, July 14, 2011.
Everything Scannon could find out: In time, he would discover four additional B-24 crashes within a thirty-mile radius. See Chapter 13.
“This is the opening of my log”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 3.
“Plane down here”: Missing Air Crew Report #8641, September 2, 1944.
CHAPTER THREE: AIRMEN
“Will the B-24 Ever Replace the Airplane”: Bowman, 113.
one B-24 . . . on a secret photographic mission: Two crew members died in the attack, and have been memorialized by the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. “These airmen,” the text notes, “arrived in Hawaii two days prior to the attack to outfit their plane for a secret photo mission. They were killed on the ground and their B-24 was destroyed near Hangar 15.” The wreckage of that plane is also pictured in Arakaki and Kuborn, 67.
“the armament and armor of the B-24 were inadequate”: Letter from Jimmy Doolittle to Lieutenant General Barney M. Giles, Army Air Forces chief of air staff, January 25, 1945. Johnsen, 54.
“no curtailment”: Estimated Refinery Output Analysis, Energy Oil Committee, Western Axis Subcommittee, September 10, 1943.
one of the largest imperia: The size of an empire can be measured many ways. By population, Japan’s empire was about the fifth largest in history, with 135 million subjects. By area, it was the thirteenth largest, with 2.8 million square miles—or twice the territory of Nazi Germany at its peak.
The American conquest of the West: See, for example, the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears, about which President Martin Van Buren remarked, “No state can achieve proper culture, civilization, and progress in safety as along as Indians are permitted to remain.” Mankiller, 93.
more than four hundred people per square mile: With sixty million people spread across 142,270 square miles, Japan’s population density was about twelve times that of the United States. US Census Bureau, 1930. Johnson, 189.
“China was twentieth-century Japan’s manifest destiny”: Chang, 27.
the largest factory in the world: Willow Run figures compiled from Bowman, Kidder, St. John, and Weber.
“Asiatic intruder”: Lindbergh had famously argued in 1939, “These wars in Europe are not wars in which our civilization is defending itself against some Asiatic intruder.” Berg, 396; Lindbergh, Reader’s Digest, 65.
“The Willow Run factory is a stupendous thing”: Lindbergh, Wartime Journals, 613.
18,000 models were built: The precise figure varies by source. St. John explains why: “There were so many modifications of existing aircraft one can easily be trapped into counting one airplane twice (or more times). If we can add up all the B-24 type aircraft built of all models . . . we arrive at a number quite close to 18,500.” St. John, 10.
“Relentless. Unceasing. On time”: The newsreel is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYAEBIywGtg.
“He was my pet”: Interview with Melba Moore, July 15, 2008.
breached the pages of the New York Times: New York Times, January 31, 1927.
“Earl Yoh leaves his way with women”: Fast, 17.
“I’ve been on two gunnery missions”: Letter from Johnny Moore to Mary Harvey, March 26, 1944.
“If you do not have a sense of humor”: Now You Are an Officer Navigator, 32.
“a broadcasting of resources”: Hastings, 31.
without a single bag of luggage: Zuckoff, 50.
“strict, but actually quite warm-hearted”: Testimony of Michi Inoue, Guam War Crimes Trials, August 5, 1948.
CHAPTER FOUR: DISCOVERY
“4:30 pm, over Pacific”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 22.
“Travel—Overnight—Ugh—Jet lag”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 22.
“I can help you,” Mad said: I have based the scenes and dialogue in this chapter on repeated interviews with Scannon and on his log, Book 1, 22–70.
“It was almost too much”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 67.
“On both the Custer and Dixon sites”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 69.
“a secret voyage to China”: Peacock, 13.
“I tried to hear the anti-aircraft rapid fire”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 61.
“Arnett—needs to be found”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 136.
CHAPTER FIVE: LANDFALL
By the end of May: The description of Los Negros is drawn from letters, journals, unit history reports, and published accounts, including Zellmer, 76–87.
“the South Pacific island I dreamed of”: Zellmer, 67.
beer and cigarettes made up roughly 70 percent: The adjutant reported the value of the unit’s full inventory at $32,000. “However, all we turned over to the island was $9,000 worth of stock. The rest of the stock was in beer and cigarettes which they would not take. At the liquidation we had the second-largest inventory on the island. The beer, cigarettes, and tobacco that the island PX could not buy, will be rationed out to the enlisted men free.” Monthly History Report for June 1944, 307th Bombardment Group, Major Saul C. Weislow, adjutant.
“they’d sell wounded parrots”: Interview with Al Jose, April 23, 2009.
“one of those big lizards”: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, June 8, 1944.
a studious air that belied a limited education: Interviews with Diane Corrado, August 26–27, 2008.
“Do you remember when”: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, May 31, 1944.
“I go to the show about three times a week”: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, June 15, 1944.
“Now that,” he said, “is real service”: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, June 16, 1944.
“The attack on the Palaus”: Peattie, 290.
“With operational control”: Lippincott, 97.
“This move seemed to symbolize”: Harvey and Hamilton, 64.
“the most important single target”: Parrott, July 23, 1944.
“These men are men”: Faith, 165.
“It was almost a caste system”: Interview with Helen Coorssen, April 23, 2009.
“‘Gee, that’s the front line’”: Interview with Gary Coorssen, April 22, 2009.
CHAPTER SIX: ARNETT
laughing at bombs away: In a pinch, the men took a more direct approach, opening the bomb bay doors, squatting on the catwalk, and relieving themselves directly into the wind. Occasionally this got messy. Zellmer, 78.
“Crew voted him out”: Scannon Logs, Book 1, 82.
“The Pacific isn’t exotic to me”: Interview with Susan Scannon, July 14, 2011.
“I want you to take the door off”: Interview with Pat Scannon, November 14, 2011.
“like we had gone into prehistoric times”: This scene is drawn primarily from an interview with Pat Scannon, December 3, 2008, and an interview with Chip and Pam Lambert, August 12, 2012.
“I learned from ninety-six”: Interview with Pat Scannon, August 18, 2011.
“It was skydiving for the sake of skydiving”: Interview with Pat Scannon, September 22, 2011.
He cracked open the front: Scannon Logs, Book 2, inside cover.
“there’s an empty chair at the dinner table”: Interview with Pat Scannon, December 5, 2009.
“‘We have data on this, but no theory’”: Interview with Pauline Boss, July 9, 2012.
“Unlike the Holocaust”: Hunter-King (ed. Danieli), 254.
“I learned more about my dad”: Interview with Tommy Doyle, March 17, 2008.
“flirting with the wives and daughters”: Interview with Pat Scannon, September 10, 2011.
CHAPTER SEVEN: PLEDGE
“thrown by the hundreds”: Faust, 102.
“When he asked, ‘Any scars’”: Sledge, 5.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m not interested’”: Interview with Johnie Webb, December 8, 2008.
“you didn’t need to be certified”: Interview with Eric Emery, March 14, 2008.
“He was gray . . . and his eyes were open and fixed”: Interview with Jon Faucher, April 10, 2008.
CHAPTER EIGHT: COMBAT
Early on the morning of June 24: Mission Report, 424th Bomb Squadron, 307th Bombardment Group, June 24, 1944.
“First time I was ever away”: Letter from Johnny Moore to Mary Harvey, July 11, 1944.
“The only thing that saves boys out here”: Hope, A6.
“Darling . . . you know how very glad”: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, July 5, 1944.
“He had too much time”: Browne, 184.
“The Joint Chiefs reflected the general confusion”: Manchester, 148.
“increasingly spoke of himself”: Manchester, 145.
a small fortune acquired illegally: Perret, 271.
The Blackfeet Indians: Manchester, 311.
“the humiliation of forcing me”: Manchester, 363.
“Nimitz conceived of war as something”: Sherrod, 234.
“a cross between a Jules Verne fantasy and a whale”: High, 30.
“a mean little dog which growled”: Hastings, 28.
“one lone figure—MacArthur”: Rosenman, 456.
“to keep him occupied”: Wilson, 50.
hosting stars and starlets like Amelia Earhart and Shirley Temple: The description of Holmes and his mansion is drawn mostly from the New York Times and the Evening Independent. The Times wrote in Holmes’s obituary, “Mr. Holmes had one of the most beautiful estates in Hawaii, built on a small island off the windward shore of Oahu. There he gave elaborate parties, outdoing even the famous luaus of the former Polynesian rulers of Hawaii. In recent years, however, he had become somewhat of a recluse. He kept a fleet of speed boats in which he dashed about Hawaiian waters at all hours of the day and night, dressed unconventionally in a loin cloth or wrap-around skirt.” New York Times, February 6, 1944.
“did not believe that if Mr. Roosevelt”: Lahey added, “I am putting this on record, I am asking that it be witnessed, sealed, and placed in safe keeping. It is to be opened and utilized only in the event that there might be criticism of me should this later eventuate and the criticism be directed at me for not having made this public.” Memorandum by Dr. Frank Lahey, July 10, 1944.
“Physically he was just a shell”: MacArthur, 199.
“Where do we go from here?”: Details of the Hawaii conference were recalled differently by various participants. I have tried to avoid details in dispute, but when a choice must be made, I rely on the great William Manchester biography American Caesar. Manchester, 368.
“Nimitz put forth the Navy plan”: MacArthur, 197.
“All of my American forces”: MacArthur, 197.
“I felt that to sacrifice the Philippines”: MacArthur, 197.
arguing since early summer: Halsey’s fierce objection to the Palau invasion peaked in September, but it first took shape in June, when, according to biographer E. B. Potter, he argued presciently that “US carrier aircraft could readily neutralize the Palaus” and “the advantages of capturing them . . . would not offset the cost.” Potter, 272.
“key point”: Unlike Halsey, commanders in the Army Air Forces would continue to describe Palau as a vital territory until the end of the war. It was only in later years that conventional wisdom came to support Halsey. “Thirteenth Air Force Command History,” January 1945.
Roosevelt announced in the morning: Exactly when and how Roosevelt told his commanders is unclear. The decision had yet to be ratified by the Joint Chiefs in Washington, but most evidence suggests that Roosevelt gave MacArthur the go-ahead before he left Hawaii. Just hours after MacArthur’s plane took off, Manchester writes, the president announced to reporters, “We are going to get the Philippines back.” Tugwell reports that when MacArthur returned to general headquarters in Australia, he “electrified the GHQ staff by telling them that Roosevelt was backing his strategy.” Manchester, 370; Tugwell, 407.
CHAPTER NINE: CONTACT
1949 war crimes trial of Sadae Inoue: Three kempei soldiers—Kazuo Nakamura, Chihiro Kokubo, and Yoshimori Nagatome—were prosecuted for murder and neglect of duty in January 1948. In March 1949, Inoue and his chief of staff, Tokuchi Tada, were prosecuted for “Violation of the Law and Customs of War.” National Archive Record 1661897; Navy JAG Case Files 162658 and 168346.
“They said if they ever met up”: Scannon Logs, Book 3, 49.
“I always have a very, very deep, deep level of skepticism”: Interview with Bill Belcher, December 8, 2008.
“if you skydive a thousand jumps”: Interview with Pat Scannon, August 18, 2011.
Nora’s family had sufficient money: The House of Esterházy, from which Scannon’s mother is descended, is one of the leading noble families in Hungary.
still illegal for a US soldier: Biddiscombe, 611.
Whether or not that story: The Scannon children have never been able to confirm the Göring story. Interview with Pat Scannon, June 10, 2011; interview with Harriet Sc
annon, July 12, 2012.
a staple of scholarly studies: For example, Bobrow, Moore, Wiarda, and Bernard Harvey. Moore wrote, “The concept of military civic action was first developed fully by Harry Walterhouse in A Time to Build.”
“There wasn’t a lot of joy”: Interview with Harriet Scannon, July 12, 2012.
CHAPTER TEN: WASTELAND
“Here I am at last”: Letter from Ted Goulding to Carman Graziosi, July 31, 1944.
“We sure got dunked”: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, August 5, 1944.
“I have read everything in the paper”: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, August 2, 1944.
“Why, on a clear day”: Philips, 4.
“Sorta got the blues in a way: Letter from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, July 12, 1944.
“Where is this farm of Tracy’s?”: Letters from Jimmie Doyle to Myrle Doyle, June 25, 1944; July 2, 1944; July 14, 1944.
Vanished Page 27
