Beginning with the very first air raid against Japan (the Doolittle Raid of April 1942), the issue of how captured bomber crews were to be treated was a major concern for both the Japanese and American governments. The United States insisted such crews be accorded the same protections as all prisoners of war. The Japanese government, however, maintained that airmen were subject to military tribunals–and could even be given the death penalty if found guilty of committing atrocities against noncombatant populations.
Re Treatment of Flyers of Enemy’s Air Raiding Planes is a PDF collection of seven short Imperial Japanese Army documents on the subject taken from the papers of Tadao Inoue. The English translations were likely done by Japanese citizens cooperating in postwar war crimes trials. The original copy is now a part of the Yasukuni Kaiko Bunkoshitsu collection.
For more on Inoue and his work, see the Inoue Collection page in the Japanese Documents section.
As time permits, translations of other documents from Inoue’s collection will also be posted to this page.
Table of contents for Re Treatment of Flyers of Enemy’s Air Raiding Planes:
- Army Secret 2190, Re Treatment of Flyers of Enemy’s Air Raiding Planes. –28 July 1942.
- Reference on Handling of Enemy’s Air Raiding Crews. –28 July 1942.
- Military Regulations on Air Raiders. –19 October 1942.
- Ground for receiving instructions from Minister to mete out the death penalty on war criminal suspects after the Military Commission Trial. –21 February 1944.
- Military Regulation on Air Raiders. –12 May 1945.
- Regulations on Military Commission Judgment of the 1st So-Army. (April 1945).
- Regulations on 1st So-Army Confinement Camp. (November 1942).