They Shot Down Our "BLIND DATE" Over Tokyo

Author: Sgt. Robert Franz, B-29 Tail gunner
24th Squadron, 6th Bomb Group
Tinian 1945

At Kempi Tai I was reunited with most of my crew and placed in an 8×11 ½ foot cell which held sixteen captives. That was the last time I saw daylight until after the atomic bomb was dropped

Flak was pretty heavy that night (May 23, 1945) and so were the Japanese night fighters. Our crew was named Blind Date [aka Lady’s Delight] and our crew consisted of the following:

1^st Lt. John B. Boynton, AC
1^st Lt Rollin Heidlebaugh, Pilot
S/Sgt. Kenneth E Creech, Radar
1^st Lt. Albert S Romoser, Navigator
M/Sgt. Roger L. Townsend, Engineer
Sgt. Stephen Spega, Gunner
S/Sgt. Frank Massey, Radio
T/Sgt. Dave G. Farquhar, CFC
2^nd Lt. Franklin S. Green, Bombardier
Sgt. M. Emil Dananay, Gunner
Sgt. Robert A. Franz, T Gunner

We were shot down near Tokyo, but all members of the crew managed to get out alive. Most of the crew were taken prisoner soon after they bailed out. I managed to hide out for seven days on a wooded hillside.

Lady's Delight B-29 Crew, Pacific War. Crew 2404.

Blind Date crew, AC John B. Boynton

During the day I watched the Japanese people working in a rice paddy down below me and slept in my parachute at night. The only food I had during this time was two chocolate bars that I had with me when I bailed out of the plane. I would slip down at night and drink water from the rice paddy.

A Japanese lady happened to walk by one day and spotted me. She left the area and soon returned with several of the villagers who carried weapons of various types. I was turned over to the Japanese officers who walked me to their prison. I was then put aboard a train and taken to Kempei Tai, a prison which had previously been used as horse stables. It was used for “captives”—we weren’t considered prisoners. At Kempei Tai I was reunited with most of my crew and placed in an 8×11 ½ foot cell which held sixteen captives. That was the last time I saw daylight until after the atomic bomb was dropped.

USS Benevolence Tokyo Bay 1945

Around the 15th of August, the guards herded us into the bay to take a bath and try to rid ourselves of the sores on our bodies which had developed from flea bites we had received in our cells. This was our first bath since May 23rd. We had not even been given water to wash our hands.

We were taken to the Omari POW Camp which was located between Tokyo and Yokohama. Our rations were greatly improved from the daily rice balls we had received at Kempi Tai. Efforts were also made to improve our weakened physical condition before we were turned over to American control. After we were liberated, we were carried on stretchers on board the hospital ship Benevolence which was anchored in Tokyo Bay near the battleship Missouri where the surrender ceremonies took place. My brother was serving on the Missouri, but neither of us knew the other was in Tokyo Bay that day.