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Shobun, A Forgotten War Crime in the Pacific
STATED FIRST EDITION. 1995 Stackpole Books hardcover, Michael J. Goodwin, Don Graydon ( The Freedom of the Hills). The author's father, William Goodwin, the copilot of a PBY Catalina flying boat, was shot down off the Celebes coast during a night attack in October 1944. Goodwin and eight other survivors were picked up by the Japanese, interrogated, subjected to the customary beatings, and then ceremonially beheaded. - Amazon
- GenresMilitary History
176 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 9, 2019
This book has a special place in my library and my heart, as a dear first cousin, Jake Nilva, was among the eleven Naval airmen captured by the Japanese and later killed, who are the subjects of this story. The foreword was eloquently written by Robert W. Love, Jr. of the United States Naval Academy. This book of WWII history was diligently researched and written by Michael J. Goodwin, the only child of any of them.
All five of my male cousins went to war. Jake was the only one who did not return. I was eleven years old when the family learned of our loss and his mother, my aunt, changed forever in her abject grief.
Although history has made more bearable the facts of the horrid testimony of human against human that war provides, and I bear no personal ill will toward those long gone, the book gave me great emotional pause and made me wonder, especially in view of today's rising tide of hatred, what have we learned?
All five of my male cousins went to war. Jake was the only one who did not return. I was eleven years old when the family learned of our loss and his mother, my aunt, changed forever in her abject grief.
Although history has made more bearable the facts of the horrid testimony of human against human that war provides, and I bear no personal ill will toward those long gone, the book gave me great emotional pause and made me wonder, especially in view of today's rising tide of hatred, what have we learned?
December 30, 2025
A very factual book on the crew of a PBY and the Japanese killing of US Service members during WWII. We have seem to forgotten the brutality of the Japanese prior to and during WWII, not only of the military but civilians as well. The volume of atrocities committed by the Japanese is overwhelming and seemingly has been overlooked by society.
January 28, 2016
This is subtitled A Forgotten War Crime in the Pacific.
The book is about some men who had flown PBY No. 08233 which went down during an attack on a Japanese installation. The men who survived were captured by the Japanese.
The Japanese were particularly angry with U.S. airmen since there often wasn't much they could do to stop the constant attacks on their positions after the Japanese own aerial abilities had been reduced considerably. So they tended to take that anger out on any airmen they captured, often torturing them and killing them.
The book goes into detail explaining what PBYs were and what their role in the war was, then it goes into biographies of each of the men on this particular flight.
He points out that 3% of the American POWs taken by the Axis powers in Europe died in captivity, but 37% of those taken by the Japanese died in captivity, over twelve times as many.
He then goes into executions and mistreatment of American POWs by the Japanese in various places in the Pacific theater.
This particular PBY crashed and two of the men were killed in that crash, but that still left nine survivors. They were captured and taken to a place called Kendari and were put into the Tokkei Tai prison compound.
A message was sent by a Japanese admiral in late November of 1944 that was an order to kill prisoners at the prison. The deaths of each of the airmen is then discussed along with the trials afterwards of a couple of the men responsible for their deaths.
It's books like this that show just how barbarous some of the Japanese military were during the war.
The book is about some men who had flown PBY No. 08233 which went down during an attack on a Japanese installation. The men who survived were captured by the Japanese.
The Japanese were particularly angry with U.S. airmen since there often wasn't much they could do to stop the constant attacks on their positions after the Japanese own aerial abilities had been reduced considerably. So they tended to take that anger out on any airmen they captured, often torturing them and killing them.
The book goes into detail explaining what PBYs were and what their role in the war was, then it goes into biographies of each of the men on this particular flight.
He points out that 3% of the American POWs taken by the Axis powers in Europe died in captivity, but 37% of those taken by the Japanese died in captivity, over twelve times as many.
He then goes into executions and mistreatment of American POWs by the Japanese in various places in the Pacific theater.
This particular PBY crashed and two of the men were killed in that crash, but that still left nine survivors. They were captured and taken to a place called Kendari and were put into the Tokkei Tai prison compound.
A message was sent by a Japanese admiral in late November of 1944 that was an order to kill prisoners at the prison. The deaths of each of the airmen is then discussed along with the trials afterwards of a couple of the men responsible for their deaths.
It's books like this that show just how barbarous some of the Japanese military were during the war.
July 15, 2016
This account of just some of the atrocities that were done to American service members during WWII was well researched and well written. Written by the son of 1 of the men who was executed by the Japanese, it was full of information on most of the 11 members of the crew from the start of their Navy career until their death and the war criminal trials after the war was over. I cannot say I enjoyed reading this because of the content but it was well written and I learned a lot.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews