Sorties Into Hell (Paperback) | Released: 01 Apr 2005

In October 1946, Colonel Presley Rixey arrived by destroyer at the island of Chichi Jima to return 22,000 Japanese, who had been bypassed during the war in the Pacific, to Japan. While waiting for a Marine battalion to arrive, the colonel met daily with a Japanese commission assigned to assist him. When asked what had happened to American prisoners on the island, the Japanese hatched a story to hide the atrocities that they had committed.
In truth, the downed flyers had been captured, executed, and eaten by certain senior Japanese officers. Rixey's suspicion of a cover-up was later substantiated by a group of Americans returning from Japan who had lived on Chichi Jima for generations. It would take five months of gathering testimony to uncover all the details. Thirty war criminals were eventually tried at Guam in 1947, five of whom were hanged.
Sorties Into Hell is the story of the investigation, the cover-up, and the last hours of those Americans whose remains were distributed to the cooking galleys of Chichi Jima. Drawing on research into long-classified files, author Chester Hearn has added an important and largely overlooked chapter to the history of World War II, and his contribution will be welcomed by the general reader and serious enthusiast alike.

." . . The tragic and heartbreaking story of how a dozen captured American pilots were tortured, mutilated, murdered, and--in some cases--eaten by officers in the Imperial Japanese Army in Chichi Jima . . . A remarkable read with important information."
--"Marine Corps Gazette
"Throughout the Pacific War, the Japanese frequently killed captured American flyers, and cannibalism was also not uncommon. But the Chichi Jima atrocities and their subsequent investigation were properly unique and have not previously been so fully described in published works." --"Military History
In October 1946, Colonel Presley Rixey arrived by destroyer at the island of Chichi Jima to return 22,000 Japanese, who had been bypassed during the war in the Pacific, to Japan. While waiting for a Marine battalion to arrive, the colonel met daily with a Japanese commission assigned to assist him. When asked what had happened to American prisoners on the island, the Japanese hatched a story to hide the atrocities that they had committed.
In truth, the downed flyers had been captured, executed, and eaten by certain senior Japanese officers. This is the story of the investigation, the cover-up, and the last hours of those Americans whose remains were distributed to the cooking galleys of Chichi Jima.
Rixey's suspicion of a cover-up was later substantiated by a group of Americans
returning from Japan who had lived on Chichi Jima for generations. It would take five months of gathering testimony to uncover all the details. Thirty war criminals were eventually tried at Guam in 1947, five of whom were hanged.
Drawing on research into long-classified files, author Chester Hearn has added an importantand largely overlooked chapter to the history of the Second World War, and his contribution will be welcomed by the general reader and serious enthusiast alike.