A PERSONAL STORY……

Detailed Accounts of Specific Events

By Francis (Lenc) J. Lencioni, PPC, Squadron 102, Crew 8

April 7, 1943

On this date, two weeks prior to the Squadron’s Deployment to the South Pacific, LT(jg) H. Bonn flew into the water on a night take-off during a Scheduled Training Flight.  I, obviously, was not on that flight and, therefore, became an Unassigned, Substitute PP2P.

July 7, 1943

On July 7, 1943, LCDR Van Voorhis and Crew were lost on a mission to attack and destroy the Japanese installations on the remote island of Kapingamarangi.  I flew as a replacement pilot with Crew 1 when the skipper did not fly his patrols.  On this mission, he did fly – I was bumped – and again spared to fly other missions.

May 30, 1944

This morning’s schedules training flight was a Fighter Affiliation Exercise.  The exercise consisted of a prearranged Mock Fighter Attacks on our flight formation.  This afforded our gunners defensive gunnery practice using gun cameras in lieu of live ammunition to be viewed and evaluated later for results.

On this particular flight I was flying the Tail Slot position (#4) in a Diamond Formation Pattern.  We were at 2,500 feet AGL (above ground level) over the Mt. Palamor area, when a fighter dove vertically through our formation, clipping off about 10 feet of #3’s wing tip and proceeded directly into the ground.  #3 plane spiraled in a tight, left turn and also into the ground killing the entire crew.  On a more somber note, at the Tactical Briefing, I was assigned to fly the #3 position in the Diamond Formation.  However, during the Formation Join-up, Luke “aced” me out of the #3 position so I had to take up the #4 position.  Spared Again. 

Chronology of World War II and Japanese-American Incarceration  

December 7, 1941    Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

December 8, 1941    United States and Britain declare war on Japan.

February 19, 1942    President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066.   This order leads to the assembly and incarceration of over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.

March 1942    The U.S. creates the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to assume jurisdiction over the Japanese and Japanese-Americans evacuated from California, Oregon, and Washington.

April 1942    Japanese-Americans sent to ten remote relocation centers scattered across the Western United States.

December 1944    President Rooselvelt rescinds Executive Order 9066.  The WRA begins a six-month process of releasing internees and shutting down the camps.

August 6, 1945    United States drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

August 9, 1945     United States drops the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

August 14, 1945    Japan agrees to unconditional surrender.

September 2, 1945    Japan signs the surrender agreement.

June 1952    Congress passes the McCarran-Walter Act granting Japanese aliens the right to become naturalized U.S. citizens.

1976    President Gerald R. Ford officially rescinds Executive Order 9066.

1981    Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians holds hearing across the country and concludes that internment was a “grave injustice” and that Executive Order 9066 resulted from “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

August 1988    President Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act apologizing to the Japanese-American internees and offering $20,000 to survivors of the camps.

January 1998    Fred Korematsu receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  (Korematsu was arrested for remaining in his home and not reporting to the local Assembly Center.  He was convicted of violating Executive Order 9066.  The judgment was later overturned.