Landing in Japan

Former World War II fighter ace and USAF test pilot Clay Tice died on July 15. He was 79. Clay was an active participant on CompuServe's AVSIG (aviation) Forum for quite some time before a tragic stroke stole the keyboard from him. Clay's stories of his experiences as both a fighter pilot and test pilot provided both entertainment and history lessons to all who read them. Here is Clay's account of his historic landing in Japan at the end of WW II, starting with the official report he submitted way back then and then continuing with his personal recollections of the event.

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Col. Clay Tice, Jr,, USAF (Ret.)NewsWireIf you are a WWII history buff, you probably knowthat Gen. MacArthur landed in Japan on 30 August 1945 and acceptedthe surrender of Japan on 2 September on the battleship Missouri. And according to William Manchester’s "American Caesar -Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964" … "Japan, the only majorpower whose soil had never been sullied by the boot of an enemysoldier, lost that distinction at dawn on Tuesday, August 28,when Colonel Charles Tench, a member of MacArthur’s staff, steppedfrom a C-47 and set foot on Atsugi’s bomb-pocked runway."

History is in error on two counts. MacArthur wasnot the first to take the surrender of Japan nor was Col Tenchthe first to sully the Japanese soil.

The following is a verbatim copy of my report:

HEADQUARTERS, 49TH FIGHTER GROUP

ARMY AIR FORCES

APO 337

26 August 1945

The following is a statement of Lt. Col. CLAY TICE,JR., 0-421355, Commanding Officer, 49th Fighter Group, in regardto the emergency landing on the Japanese homeland on 25 August1945.

I was the leader of Jigger Red flight on 25 August1945 when two planes of that flight landed on the mainland ofJapan. Our mission was a combat sweep around KYUSHU, across thesouthern tip of HONSHU, thence around SHIKOKUand return to base. The plotted distance of the patrol was 1370 statute miles andflying time was estimated at six hours and forty-five minutes. Instructions were given to hang a 310 gallon external tank inaddition to the bomb load, and to fill the tanks to capacity. Pilots were briefed thoroughly on the mission by myself and thelength and duration of the mission were stressed. Fuel consumptionwas estimated at 610 gallons allowing a one hour reserve. Totalgas carried was approximately 700 gallons.

The flight, composed of eight P-38s of the 7th FighterSquadron, plus one spare, was airborne from MOTUBA Strip at 0805. Cruise on course and during sweep was 1800 rpm and 30"Hgin auto lean as briefed, with an indicated air speed of 180 mph. Prior to making landfall on KYUSHU, two aircraft aborted andreturned to base due to mechanical difficulty. I made landfallat MAKURAZAKI at 0950. A course was then set for NAGASAKI withslight deviations to check shipping, arriving over NAGASAKI at1025. I proceeded to ISAHAY to OMUTA thence to YANAGAWA toKURUME to NAKATSU. Time over NAKATSU was 1100. My course wasthen over NAGASU to TOMIKUDURA to YA SHIMA Island to NAGAHAMAat 1122. Approximate air mileage to this point was 600 miles. Flight Officer HALL, number two (2) in the second flight, calledfor a reduction in rpm because he was low on gas. His radiotransmission was very poor and all messages fromhim were relayed through his flight commander, Captain KOPECKY.I asked Flight Officer HALL how many gallons of gas he had leftand answer was approximately 240 gallons. At that time we were540 miles from base and I reduced power settings to 1600

rpm and 28"Hg. Low visibility forced me aroundthe peninsula to SHONE and down to SAEKI. I then called FlightOfficer HALL again on his gas supply and understood him to saythat he had about 140 gallons. I decided that his rate of fuelconsumption and gas supply would not permit his return to a friendlybase and turned out to sea off FURUE to jettison bombs at 1143.

No flak had been encountered over Japanese installationsand I believed that a landing at a suitable Japanese airdromewould be preferable to the certain loss of a plane and the possibleloss of a pilot in the event a forced ditching at sea was made.

I called Jukebox 36 (B-17 of the 6th Air Sea RescueSquadron) and informed him of my intentions and requested assistance. I landed at NITTAGAHARA, 450 miles from base, at 1205. Therewere no Japanese in sight after landing and I checked the gassupply in flight Officer HALL’s plane. He had dropped his externaltank previous to informing me of his difficulty and upon inspection,I found that his wing tanks were dry and I estimated his fuelat 150 gallons in mains and reserves by visual check of fuel indicatorsand tanks.

At 1305 we were contacted by officers and men ofthe Japanese Army and although conversation was difficult, wewere greeted in a friendly manner. Jukebox 36 landed at approximately1315 and with a fuel pump and hose furnished by the Japanese,we transferred approximately 260 gallons of gas from the B-17to the P-38. After landing at NITTAGAHARA, I dropped my externaltank on the runway still containing 25 to 50 gallons. I had usedbut 15 minutes of my internal gas supply by that time.

Flight Officer HALL and I were airborne behind theB-17 at 1445 and set course for base where we landed at 1645 aftercruising at 1800 rpm and 28"Hf. I had approximately 240gallons of gas left after landing. All cruise settings were inauto lean. Flight Officer HALL had approximately 210 gallonsremaining.

As far as it is possible to ascertain from interrogationof line personnel concerned, Flight Officer HALL’s plane was servicedwith 300 gallons in the external tank and all internal tanks toppedoff. From preliminary investigation, it is believed that thecross feed valve was defective thus permitting siphoning of thefuel supply.

I carried out my landing on Japanese territory inthe belief that Flight Officer HALL could not safely return tothe nearest Allied base and that under the circumstances it wouldbe the safest course of action if I landed prior to Flight OfficerHALL because I thought that in the case of difficulty with Japanese,my rank and experience would be of benefit. Flight Officer HALL’slack of combat experience and the nervousness that he showed afterlanding and when confronted by the Japanese confirmed my belief.

Instructions in all details of the fuel system andgas consumption characteristics of the P-38 are now being givenand will be followed by actual demonstrations and written examinationsby all pilots of this organization. All efforts will be made toprevent any possible reoccurrence of this situation either bypilot error or mechanical failure.

/s/ Clay Tice, Jr.

CLAY TICE, JR.

Lt. Colonel, Air Corps

If confirming references are required:

"General Kenney Reports" by Geoge C.Kenney
Duell, Sloan And Pearce, New York
Pgs 573 & 574

"Flying Buccaneers – The Illustrated Storyof Kenney’s Fifth Air Force" by Steve Birdsall
Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NewYork
Pgs 289 & 290

Note: I still have one of the officer’s sword inmy hall closet.

This is the official record — all of the detailsare missing.

Now that you have read the official report of thatfirst landing in Japan on 25 August 1945, here are the details.That report was written immediately upon landing in reply to arequest from Fifth AF Hqs and the politic thing to say was that the fuel problem leadingto the landing was caused by material failure, i.e., cross feedsiphoning. I couldn’t admit to any 49th Gp pilot error — whichit was.

Now I must admit that, over the bar in our OfficersClub tent, we had talked about being the first to land in Japanby lowering the gear and making a touch-and-go but the idea hadbeen discarded because of intelligence reports that there were still some military hold-outs against the armistice at many bases in southern Japanand that on some of the closest airfields, the runways had beenmined or covered with sharp objects to prevent landings. So beinga hero in that respect was out.

Flight Officer Hall was a newly assigned pilot andthis was his 1st mission so my pre-mission briefing was most comprehensive. We were flying fairly new P-38L5s with leading edge ‘Tokyo’ tanks. The fuel system setup with these leading edge tanks requiredthat the tops of each set of tanks be knocked off right aftertakeoff to prevent siphoning of fuel overboard. The squadronwas briefed in the standard procedure of taking off on mains,switching to leading edges for about 5 minutes, then to reservesfor 5 minutes and then to switch both engines to the one 300 gallondrop tank on the left pylon. A 1,000# GP was hung on the rightpylon and our mission was surveillance of the eastern half ofKyushu and then up at far as Hiroshima before returning to base. Our orders: To strike any movement of Japanese military forcesland or sea. Our flight plan was detailed in official flightreport previously rendered.

After making landfall, the first thing of interestwas Nagasaki which had been the most recent recipient of a nuke. The city was divided by a ridge running east/west and the bombhad fallen on the northern half. The ridge apparently had beenhigh enough to shield the southern portion of the city from theblast as things were fairly normal there, with cars and streetcarson the streets. The northern half was still burning in some sectionswith rest of that part of the city just a blackened rubble.

Later, when it became obvious that F/O Hall didn’thave enough gas to return to Okinawa, a decision as to what courseof action was necessary. Usually on flights from Oki to Japan,we had a sub on rescue patrol midway in addition to an RB-17 witha para-drop boat stationed about half way between the sub andKyushu. On this day we had no Navy support, I guess they thoughtas the war seemed to be over, the hell with it, and had gone home. Anyhow, it narrowed down to finding the RB-17 and having Hallditch or bail out OR finding a Jap base and land. As Hall wasa brand new pilot, I had no confidence that he could ditch the38 safely nor bail out without hitting the horizontal stabilizerwhich extended between the two booms.

The only way to guarantee a reasonably safe bailoutin a 38 was to roll inverted, trim nose up and drop out. Butthere was another problem with bailing out. Given that he wouldbe in good enough shape to get into his rubber raft and the RB-17dropped the boat to him, could the boat be dropped exactly upwindof his raft and could he get to it in time? There had been reportsof boats being dropped but being blown away before the pilot couldget to it. Seems that the higher freeboard of the rescue boatacted like a sail while the pilot in his raft sat there and paddledlike mad to catch it to no avail.

As we were on course back to Oki, I pondered thechoices. The thought of being first to land in Japan never enteredmy mind at that time as saving Hall was uppermost in my thoughts. Landing on a small Japanese strip seemed the best way to savehim. Checking my maps I found that there was a little airfieldon the east coast of Kyushu at Nittagahara and decided to landthere if it appeared safe to do so and it was big enough for the38. After landing I planned on taking Hall aboard on my lap andflying him back to Oki.

En route to Nittagahara, the gray matter startedkicking in and the idea of having the RB-17 come in and pickup Hall seemed a good one. Of course, the RB-17 pilot, 2nd LtEdwin Hawkins of Bountiful, UT, agreed in a hurry — anythingto break the monotony of circling over a barren expanse of ocean!Don’t give my memory any credit for remembering Hawkins’ name,I had to refer to the Vern Haugland by-lined story of the landingthat appeared in the L.A. Times of 27 August 1945. When we reachedthe Nittagahara strip

I left the squadron under the leadership of Capt.Kopecky and went down to circle the field at about 3,000′. Encounteringno flak or sign of opposition, I dropped down to drag the fieldwith instructions to Kopecky

to strafe if I was fired upon. There were severalTonys [inline engined fighters similar to the P-51 in configuration]scattered around the field but no sign of activity or people.

After two or three more low passes, I landed on theshort [2,500] asphalt strip laid out on a grass field and taxiedto the west end of the runway which had a circular turn-aroundpad. Positioning my 38 facing the length of runway and keepingthe fans turning for a rapid departure if necessary, I calledHall in and had him taxi up and park beside me and keep his fansturning also. After a few minutes there was no sign of activityso we shut down and got out of the birds.

I asked Hall about his fuel handling procedures andwhen had he dropped his 300 gallon tank. He told me that he droppedit just before we made landfall because the fuel pressure on bothengines dropped and when the engines started to sputter he switchedto mains and dropped the ’empty tank.’ When asked about the procedurehe used to drop the tank he replied that he had just pulled thetank release handle while cruising in formation as tail-end charlie.

Now the 300 gallon tank was a ferry tank and notnormally used on combat missions except those requiring them forvery long range flight such as those made from Leyte to the Halmaheras. Great care had to be taken when dropping empty 300s. You hadto slow the a/c down to just above a stall and push over whenyou pulled the release handle. This permitted the tank to clearboth the pod and the tail boom on that side. If you were jumpedby enemy fighters and didn’t have time to follow this procedure,you dropped and accepted the damage. I looked over Hall’s 38very carefully to see if there was any damage to the pod or theleft boom — there wasn’t a mark. From straight and level flightat cruising speed, the tank had to be full when dropped. Theprobability of his dropping 300 gallons of fuel made sense whenthe fuel remaining in his 38 was checked. Apparently he had mistakenlyleft both engines on one reserve tank after takeoff and when thatran dry, thinking that the 300 was empty, dropped it. This hedid despite being briefed NOT to drop the tank unless jumped byenemy fighters!

Hall was very nervous as I asked him to stay withthe 38s while I checked a couple of Tonys to see if I could getone started. I thought that it would clank up the troops backon Oki if landed there in a Jap Tony while Hall flew my 38 back. My good idea came to naught when I found that there was a starterlug on a shaft protruding from the prop nose cone — they werestarted by having a truck equipped with a motor and crank shaftbacking up to the a/c and engaging this lug to turn the engineover. Must have had a long drive shaft or it would been somewhatof a thrill for the mechs on the truck!

First Americans in JapanAfter about an hour a Japanese on a bicycle passedby and, seeing us, hurried off to one of the buildings at thefar end of the field. It was almost as though no one had heardor seen us up until then, but they may have been in their shelterswaiting for the bombs to fall. Shortly thereafter two Amy officerswith several soldiers approached from across the field. As theycame closer, Hall suggested that we take out our 45s to greetthe Japanese. I vetoed that immediately — when you are on theenemy’s ground and they outnumber you, discretion is the betterpart of valor. The Japanese walked up to about 10 feet in frontof us, stopped and the officers saluted. Now, remember, I hadbeen in New Guinea when the Japanese chopped the head off of anAmerican pilot as Kirby can tell you. I had been there when thecrew of an A-20, which had been shot down and bellied in on thebeach at Buna, had been taken into the village in front of thenatives, had their hands tied behind them around a couple of palmtrees and used for bayonet practice. I hated the Japanese whichwas completely different from my feeling towards the Germans inthe ETO. Based on that, you may understand my hesitancy about returningthe salute which I did — again discretion vs valor. The twoofficers broke out in big smiles and advanced to shake hands —and that was difficult — but I shook hands as they started aflow of Japanese. In retrospect, they were probably very relievedthat we were not going to treat them as they would have us ifthe conditions had been reversed.

I waved them off to indicate that I couldn’t understandJapanese upon which, one of the officers pulled ut a well-wornlitle pocket Japanese-English dictionary. Using the book I gotacross that one of the 38s was out of gas and that we had a bombercoming in to assist us — my sign language must have been comical. I was pointing to words in the dictionary, flapping my arms toindicate wings, pointing to the south, holding up four fingersto indicate the number of engines on the bomber — it was a gas! When one of the officers finally nodded that he understood, hebarked an order at the soldiers who raced off to return in about15 minutes with a fuel truck and pulled up in frontof Hall’s 38. I went over to check it out and was overcome withan odor of something that you more elderly types may rememberfrom the auto race days back at the county fairs — castor oil. Their fuel was doped with castor oil for lubrication! The officerswere crestfallen that their fuel wasn’t good enough for the 38and about then the RB-17 landed and taxied up in front of the38s.

By this time we had gathered a crowd of civiliansand other military who swarmed around the RB-17 pointing to thegun turrets and four engines, obviously awed by this tremendousmachine. A Shinto priest rode up on a bicycle wearing his flowingblack robes and his black fly-swatter hat, got off and came overto bless our a/c — at least that is what I took his motions tobe. He then got back on his bicycle and rode off. Next camethe local town Mayor wearing a long-tailed morning outfit completewith striped pants, gray spats and wearing his black top hat. He bowed so many times that I couldn’t keep up with him. Infact, I think that we must have been bowed to by half the populationof Nittagahara. Meantime, the RB-17 crew broke out all of theiremergency rations and gave the candy to all of the children whohad shown up. The Japanese parents reciprocated with their home-madecandy and it was local fair time.

When I, through the little dictionary, asked theJapanese officer if they had any way to transfer fuel from the17 to the 38 he sent his soldiers off again to return shortlywith a hand-operated wobble pump with long hoses and they transferredgas from the 17 to the 38 under the supervision of the 17 crewchief. Just as they were completing the fuel transfer we heardthe sound of fighters and looked up to see P-51s in a long shallowdive toward the field, pull up, make a circle and leave the area. The 17 radio operator, who had been standing by on the RB’s radiostuck his head out of the pilots window and told us that he hadbeen monitoring the fighter frequency and heard a 35th Ftr GpP-51 patrol leader tell his squadron that the

Japanese had captured some U.S. a/c and he was goingdown to strafe them so that they couldn’t be used as Kamikazes! Thank goodness for that alert radio operator who told him whatwas happening on the ground. In that case, it turned out thatwe had been in more danger from our own forces than from the Japanese.

Just before the 17 loaded up to depart, I pointedto the sword of one of the officers who didn’t understand my meaningat first, but finally, after a couple of suggestive hunches ofmy shoulder holster, handed me his sword. I just wanted a souvenir. No thought of taking the surrender of Japan. I handed the swordto one of the 17 crew who quietly returned it after we were backon Oki. I never reported the sword because of the orders at thattime to turn in all souvenirs which would be returned after thewar. HA!! I still haven’t received my German pistol that I turnedin when I left the ETO in late ’44. Anyhow, the 17 departed andI sent Hall off to circle the field while I started up.

I decided to give the Japanese a show of what a 38flown by an American fighter pilot could do on takeoff. I plannedto hold the bird down, suck up the gear before lifting the nosewheeland then do an Immelman off the deck — a maneuver that I hadperformed before. Getting into my 38 I did so in the approvedhot rock manner by vaulting up on the horizontal stabilizer andrunning up one boom to drop in to the cockpit. The 38 had a ladderthat dropped down from the tail of the pod but it was hard toretract from the wing and, if left down, made a very noisy vibratingracket in flight. After firing up both engines I held the brakesuntil the tires started to slip and roared down the runway. AsI picked up speed the top of the canopy flew off and I had toscreech to a stop with smoking tires. I had failed to lock thecanopy. The 38 cockpit had two side windows which cranked up andown like an automobile and the top of the canopy was framed plexihinged at the rear and held down by two latches at the front ofthe canopy bow. I had really failed to latch the canopy! I couldn’tbelieve it! Turning around at the end of asphalt I started totaxi back to the pad at the east end. There in front of me wasa scene that I would love to have had a movie of. The Mayor,with tails streaming out behind him and with one hand holdinghis top hat on, was running towards me with my canopy top in hisother hand!

I sedately taxied back, shut down and, retrievingthe canopy from the bowing Mayor, managed to wedge it back onby bending the broken hinges and locked it from the outside. All of this time acting as though this was a common occurrenceon 38s. After making certain that the canopy top would stay onin flight, my next problem was getting in the cockpit. With thecanopy top locked and the side windows down there is about 12to 14 inches of vertical opening as I recall — might be moreor less. I finally got into the cockpit by getting prone on thewing, crawling through the cockpit opening until my head and shoulderswere out the other side, drawing my feet in and then worming myway back into the cockpit and harnessing up.

Hardly a graceful exit for the conquering hero. I started up again, cranked up the windows and with the villagersbowing steadily, and probably wondering what was going to happennext, I quietly took off, picked up Hall and proceeded back tobase on Oki.

The next day I was ordered down to 5th AF Hqs tobe interviewed by the Press. When I took the podium in the presstent before the top brass of all the correspondents gathered tocover the landing of MacArthur, I started off by saying that therewas nothing to write about as it was a routine fighter missionwith no highlights that made it newsworthy. I was promptly putin my place by being informed that my business was to fly airplanesand it was their business to decide what was newsworthy. Theinterview continued.

In more recent years, reading Japanese WWII history,I have learned that on many bases in southern Japan, there weremilitary fanatics who, for several weeks after the Armistice,swore to kill any Americans who set foot on Japanese soil! Thereagain that great skill and cunning got me down on a safe strip— no luck involved at all!

What happened to F/O Hall? He was transferred toHqs, 5th AF as assistant mess officer and returned to the ZI shortlyafter arriving in Japan. He is now an ordained minister somewherein New England.

End of another too-long story.

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