Book

[MikeB]

Besides flying and aircraft restoration one of my other hobbies is writing. During my teaching career at the local community college I wrote mostly technical materials. However over the past twenty or so years I've been researching and writing a book on the crew of a B29 lost over Japan shortly before the end of WW2. A friend of mine had a brother who was a gunner on the crew and he and two others were able to parachute out before the plane crashed on a mountain side (due to a collision with a Japanese fighter). They were captured by the local Japanese and eventually executed by the military on June 20th, 1945. A rather sad story at this point. However the local citizens took great care to properly bury those that were actually lost in the crash, marked their grave spots and in time a large peace park and monument to the air crew was built on the spot. Every May 7th at the exact time of the crash a memorial service is held by the Japanese near the crash site. My daughter and her husband were able to locate the memorial and document much of the site when they were teaching in Japan during the late 1990's

During my research I've been able to contact the pilot's son (born 2 months after his father was killed in the crash), the bombardier's brother, also a son and a daughter, all who have helped me by furnishing documents and pictures. I also was able to obtain a number of letters one crew member wrote back to his family during the time he was in training and combat. Another very interesting group of letters between air crew family members surfaced after the crew was declared 'missing in action' and I was able to include a number of them in the book. I have also included a copy of the Missing Crew Report dated one day after the mission and crash occurred.

I don't expect any great financial gain from the project as I originally wrote it on behalf of the families but because there were printing cost involved I printed 100 copies of the book to sell to interested parties. I think I may have about 8-12 left at this point and will most likely print another 100 for sale to the general public. I should also mention several copies went to a party in Japan who was going to place them at various institutions over there.

The books is called "The Fate of the Crew of the Empire Express and Peace on a Quiet Mountain in Japan" about 114 pages with many pictures. So far the book has been very well recieved. For anyone who might be interested in purchasing a copy the cost is $9 plus $3 shipping or $12 total. If you'd like a copy send me a PM with your address.

Not trying to put the arm on anyone but I thought there might be some on the Aeronca site who might be interested and I guess it is flying related.

Mike Berg

[joea]

Mike,

Please sign me up for one copy!

Thx,

Joe A

[MikeB]

Joe,
Replied to your email address. They've been going like 'hot cakes' and just ordered 100 more from the printer.
Thanks!
Mike