Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942

by Ian W. Toll

In China, the Japanese army launched an operation called “Sei-Go,” with the goal of capturing the airfields that had been constructed to receive Doolittle’s planes. The Japanese were well aware that B-25 airmen had been sheltered by local civilians or guerrillas, and the offensive seems to have degenerated into a mass reprisal against the population of Chekiang and Kiangsu provinces. Japanese troops laid waste to the region, routinely slaughtering the inhabitants of entire towns suspected of aiding the American aviators. Biological warfare units spread cholera, typhoid, and dysentery pathogens. Chiang Kai-shek cabled FDR: “The Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman, and child in those areas—let me repeat—these Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman, and child in those areas.” It is impossible to know precisely how many were murdered, but the toll certainly ran into the tens of thousands.