STEP BACK IN TIME FOLKS...WITH A GUIDE.
A million and one thanks to Malcolm for forwarding these photos and providing some interesting personal information as well! A lot of you younger folks may not know that "KIA" stands for "killed in action", or for that matter, even be aware that there was a raid on Tokyo by United States Army Air Forces (USAAF, predecessor to today's USAF) B-25 bombers. These were normally land-based airplanes , considered to be "medium" (barely) bombers, and they were used extensively in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters of war. The "Doolittle Raid" on Tokyo was a great surprise to the Japanese enemy and did a great job of destroying the image of invulnerability that the Jap leaders had encouraged in the citizenry, as well as a terrific morale builder back in the "states".
World War 2 -- what a terrible time it was. So many fine young men lost. Back in those days, a favorite radio personality was RED SKELTON. One of the characters he portrayed in his comical radio sketches was a naughty little boy whose favorite saying was, "I dood it!". Upon receiving news of the Tokyo Raid, the newspapers picked up on that and headlined "Doolittle Dood It!"
Now read Malcolm's note and view the photos. -Subject: Rare Photos - Doolittle raid on Tokyo from an aircraft carrier:1942 Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 This raid took place almost a year after the Japanese had occupied Shanghai. My father was about to be called up for the second internment camp in Shanghai (political prisoners such as teachers went into the first camp). He was due to go in alone but was temporarily exempted when the Japanese found he was married with children. He was convinced that his call-up was simply to have him leave his job as secretary and treasurer of the Shanghai Power Company. They did not let him go back to his job on the basis that he had "resigned'. He was lucky to find a job with the Swiss Red Cross in Shanghai at 1/20th of his salary keeping records of civilian internees. Our family finally went into the last camp in June, 1944, and released in August 1945 at the end of WW11. The pictures are worth waiting to be downloaded. It is staggering how the planes ever got off the carrier.