War Crimes Trials & Shanghai Bridge Prison

Dear Ms. Ozuk,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the following records relating to the treatment of the eight American aviators held prisoner in Shanghai following their 1942 raid on Tokyo, and the subsequent war crimes trials of Japanese officers for their treatment of these prisoners of war.

• File No. 35-6 “Doolittle Flyer Case” [Box 615]. Case Files, 1944 - 1949. Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), Record Group 153. War Crimes Division.
• File No. 119-19-5 (trial of Shigeru Sawada and three others) [Boxes 210-211] Set-Up Files, 1944 - 1949. Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), Record Group 153. War Crimes Division.
• Shigeru Sawada et. al [Box 1659]. USA versus Japanese War Criminals Case File, 1945 - 1949. Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, Record Group 331. SCAP Legal Section.
• Shigeru Sawada, et al. (Review) [Box 9777]. Records of Trial Files, 1945 - 1949. Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, Record Group 331. SCAP Legal Section.
• Shigeru Sawada, Yusei Wako, Ryuhei Okada, Sotojiro Tatsuta - Public Trial (Vol. I - Vol. V) [Box 1728].  Philippines vs Japanese War Criminals, 1947 - 1949. Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, Record Group 331. SCAP Legal Section.

You or your representative can view these records in our research room at The National Archives at College Park, Maryland. You may also order reproductions of the records for a fee. For further questions about these files, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov.

We did not locate any films or photographs in these files, however it is possible that we may have some related records in our special media holdings. For questions about our motion picture holdings, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Motion Pictures (RDSM) via the email address mopix@nara.gov. For questions about our still pictures holdings, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures (RDSS) at stillpix@nara.gov.

The Library of Congress has made available online two publications which relate to your research topic.

• “Case No. 25. Trial of Lieutenant-General Shigeru Sawada and Three Others” Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Selected and prepared by the United Nations War Crimes Commision. Volume V. Pages 1-24.
• “Murder of Captured Aviators.” Judgement of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Part B, Chapter VII, Conventional War Crimes (Atrocities). Pages 1,024-1,031

The Legal Tools Database has posted a copy of “[Trial of Sawada Shigeru ] Review of the Record of Trial by a Military Commission”.

The National Museum of the US Air Force has a web page entitled “The Eight Who Were Captured” with information about capture and imprisonment of Doolittle flyers by the Japanese in Shanghai, including photographs of the captured airmen and one of the places they were imprisoned. They may have additional material in the collections about this topic. For information about conducting research at the Museum, see this page. Additional military organizations that might be able to assist you with your research include the Air Force Historical Research Agency and the U.S. Army Center for Military History.

We hope this information is helpful.  Best of luck with your research!