Hiroshima historian returns fragments of shot-down bomber to loved ones in U.S.

[unhappycamper]

The wreckage of the Taloa, a U.S. Army B-24 Liberator that was shot down July 28, 1945, after bombing a Japanese warship.


Hiroshima historian returns fragments of shot-down bomber to loved ones in U.S.
By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The remnants of a U.S. Army B-24 Liberator shot down over Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II were returned to U.S. soil last week.

The pieces of fuselage from the "Taloa" had been kept in a local farmer’s barn for more than six decades. The farmer, who refused to disclose his name to Stars and Stripes, feared being punished for disobeying a Japanese military police order in 1945 to not touch the wreckage.

The Taloa was shot down as it returned from a mission to bomb the Japanese warship Haruna, harbored in Hiroshima.

The homecoming of the fragments was made possible after more than three decades of dedicated research by Shigeaki Mori, 70, a Hiroshima historian and a survivor of the U.S. atomic bomb that incinerated his city. He has devoted himself to honoring Americans who died in his hometown.

Mori discovered that 12 Americans — detained as prisoners of war after their airplanes went down — were killed in the atomic blast on Aug. 6, 1945. Mori detailed their fate in his recently published book, "A Secret History of U.S. Servicemembers Who Died in Atomic Bomb."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58865

[shireen]

1. an important story. thanks for posting. nt