In his farewell address, Ronald Reagan pleaded with his fellow Americans to instill in our children an “informed patriotism”: “So, we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important – why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant.”
Why did the Gipper equate the importance of the Pilgrims bringing their faith and our first charter, the Mayflower Compact, to these shores, with a WWII air raid? The answer lies in the circumstances of that raid, the ingenuity, the thinking “outside the box,” the courage and sheer mendacity of pulling it off, and the results that went far beyond the actual damage done. In that raid, Americans made a statement about who we are and what we are capable of.
Throughout the 1930s, the imperial Japanese leaders had spread the myth of the Kamikaze, the “divine wind” that was said to have driven off the invading Mongol fleets of Kublai Khan not once, but twice in the 1200s, and would always protect their islands from invasion. (This was, of course, the origin of the name given to the young men late in the war who were to personify that “wind” by sacrificing their lives.) School children were inculcated in the myth, and it was propagandized in their media — Japan was superior, invincible, and untouchable.
April 18, 1942: It was a tense atmosphere in the wardroom of the USS Hornet. No one had ever tried to launch B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from an aircraft carrier before, even though they had secretly trained at Eglin Field in Florida to get off the ground in less than 500 feet. These B-25s had been modified with extra neoprene fuel bags and, to save weight, had their rear guns replaced with broomsticks, in the hope of discouraging a fighter attack from the rear. Now, Lt. Col. Doolittle had to tell the five-man crews of these 16 bombers that they had been spotted by a Japanese picket boat, which had time to get off a message before it was sunk.
If they were going to launch at all, they would have to go now, 200 miles from the intended launch distance. That would mean there was a good chance there would not be enough fuel to reach the Chinese airfields as intended, and they would have to bail out or crash land, hopefully in areas of China not controlled by the Japanese. They were all volunteers, and any man, due to family or other concerns, could withdraw, and nothing would be said. Not a man took up the offer, because they were going to bomb Tokyo, and every one of them wanted payback. The Hornet turned into the wind.
Doolittle was the first to give it a try. Fists were clenched, and hearts pounded as his B-25 cleared the deck and then disappeared. Doolittle pulled frantically on the stick and pulled up just a few feet from the sea. Cheers went up all over the ship. The rest did better, and all 16 were airborne. They flew just above the water to avoid detection. Six hours later, at about noon Tokyo time, they dropped their payload on some industrial sites in Tokyo and other targets. The damage was not significant and would be easily repaired.
As was feared, none reached the planned airfields in China. They bailed out or crash-landed all over, with one pilot deciding to take his chances by landing in Vladivostok, Russia. Three men were killed in bailing out or crash-landing. Eight crewmembers were captured by the Japanese, and three of those were executed. Doolittle and his crew bailed out and were rescued by friendly Chinese and local missionaries. Having lost all his planes and their crews scattered, Doolittle was certain he’d be demoted and his career basically over.
Instead, he was double-promoted to Brigadier General and awarded the Medal of Honor. America had gone wild upon hearing that we bombed Tokyo, the Japanese capital, just four months after the devastation of Pearl Harbor. Morale soared.
Back in Japan, there was consternation and panic. Having propagated the myth of the Kamikaze, the military leadership had been shamed and dishonored. Something had to be done about this, and quickly. Admiral Yamamoto, who studied in the United States and knew our potential, warned them that time was not on their side. After Pearl Harbor, he had said that “I fear all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant.”
When asked where those bombers had launched from, FDR played it coy and said they came from “our new base in Shangri-La,” having fun with a mystical valley in Tibet from James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon. The Japanese were not sure whether the bombers had come from a base in the Aleutians or if the Americans had somehow managed to launch them from a carrier, a wild proposition. They decided in haste to send two carriers to the Aleutians and four carriers to the central Pacific to lure out the American carrier fleet and annihilate it. Their objective was the island of Midway. That is a subject for another day.
Today, we see the seizure of Nicolás Madero in Venezuela and the rescue of downed airmen in Iran, among many other examples, showing that America still has that certain “it” factor the Doolittle raid demonstrated. Those who oppose America should understand that one way or another, we will find a way to “reach out and touch” whenever and wherever we please.
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