Fiske Hanley II was born in January 1920 in Brownwood, Texas. The Hanley family moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, then later in 1930 to Fort Worth [Annotator's Note: Fort Worth, Texas]. Hanley's father was in the oil business and was able to maintain employment throughout the years of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. Although his family was comfortable, they were very frugal with their money. Hanley would spend his allowance money on model airplanes. He holds a record for flying one. From a young age, Hanley was fascinated with airplanes. He got his first flight in the corporate aircraft owned by Gulf Oil [Annotator's Note: now Gulf Oil International] and flown by one of his father's colleagues. He father paid for flights for him whenever an aircraft was around offering them. After graduating high school, Hanley attended Texas Technical College [Annotator's Note: now Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas] where he majored in aeronautical engineering. He was driving his uncle's car while on a date, when he heard over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He never heard of Pearl Harbor, but soon found out America was at war. The city of Lubbock was very active in the war production soon after the United Stated entered war. Hanley was a senior in college when he received his draft notice in the Fall of 1942. He wanted to finish school before going into the service so he went to the United States Army recruiting office in downtown Lubbock to talk to the recruiter to see what could be done. He was able to finish his senior year of college if he signed up for the position of engineering officer in the Army Air Corps. [Annotator's Note: Interviewer interrupts Fiske because he hears someone trying to get in the interview room at 0:07:12.000. Video break at 0:07:16.000.] Hanley enlisted as an aviation cadet. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:07:40.000.] In the Spring of 1943, Hanley graduated from college. He had not heard any information about when or where to show up for orders after he graduated. So, the morning after graduation, he borrowed his parents' car and drove to the recruitment offices to find out what he should do next. A sergeant gave Hanley his orders and a train ticket. Hanley boarded the train to Florida [Annotator's Note: Boca Raton, Florida] to join his cadet class and train for three months. At the Boca Raton Club, Hanley learned how to march, dress, and behave in basic training. Three months later, he went to technical school at Yale University at New Haven, Connecticut for six months to learn to be a maintenance engineer. Hanley was commissioned a second lieutenant maintenance officer but was ordered to train as a B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] flight engineer. From Yale University, Hanley and 20 other graduate engineering officers left for Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington] for three months basic training on B-29s, then went for more education as flight engineers at Lowry Field in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado] for flight training and graduated with observer wings. However, with almost all B-29s involved in active duty, crews settled for training on B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] and B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] bombers. In the fall of 1944, Hanley left for Fairmont, Nebraska and met his 11-man combat crew, assigned to the 398 Squadron [Annotator's Note: unable to positively identify], for more training in aerial bombardment, firing weapons, and flying long missions. In December 1944, they arrived in Kansas to receive their brand-new B-29. They flew it a few times before given orders to fly overseas.

Fiske Hanley II, with his crew [Annotator's Note: with the 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force], began their overseas trip by flying to San Francisco, California. The plane [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] shook so badly during the flight that the antennae fell off. They were forced to land in Albuquerque [Annotator's Note: Albuquerque, Mexico]. A Boeing [Annotator's Note: Boeing Company] representative came out to fix the problem. The crew continued their flight to California and Hawaii. Because there were other issues going on with the plane, Hanley and his crew were given a two-week leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Hawaii. Hanley visited with a fellow Texas Tech graduate [Annotator's Note: now Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas] on the general's staff who told Hanley he would be based on Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Mariana Islands] and about Operation Olympic, the October 1945 invasion of Kyushu [Annotator's Note: Kyushu, Japan], and Operation Coronet, the April 1946 invasion of Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan]. Before going to Tinian, however, Hanley, a second lieutenant, and his crew were ordered to leave their B-29 in Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] because so many bombers had already been lost. His crew was flown three miles over to Tinian on a war-weary B-24, [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], arriving on 12 January 1945 with no airplane. The general had just been replaced by General LeMay [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces General Curtis Emerson LeMay] because the previous general was not being strategic, and bombs were missing their targets. LeMay was a very tough general. 24 January 1945, Hanley made his first practice run on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] in a B-29. They were simulating the future Tokyo missions. They missed their target and hit the water and beach instead due to the jet stream winds [Annotator's Note: a narrow variable band of very strong air currents encircling the globe several miles above the earth]. The Marines would later use those bomb craters as protection when they invaded the island. They flew more practice missions on other targets, but the jet air stream was really affecting the bombs hitting the targets accurately. LeMay gave orders for the B-29 crews to fly at low altitude during the night and see if that would increase the chances hitting the targets more precisely. On 9 March 1945, Hanley and his crew carried 29,000 pounds of bombs and hit their targets dead on like the rest of their squadron. They killed more people that night than the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Hanley flew two more missions wiping out other targets completely. It didn't take Hanley and others on the crew to figure out just how dangerous flying B-29s had become. Before his last mission, his crew was the last of three officer crews in his Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building], showing the high attrition rate. Before the crews could go home, they had to fly 35 missions. Most were lost before the war ended.

On 27 March 1945, Fiske Hanley II and his flight crew [Annotator's Note: with the 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force] were chosen to go on a mission to drop naval mines in the major Japanese waterway of Shimonoseki Straits [Annotator's Note: Kanmon Straits, also called the Straits of Shimonoseki; stretch of water separating the islands of Honshu, Japan and Kyushu, Japan]. The crew thought themselves lucky on this mission since it involved flying over water with little to no risk of attack from anti-aircraft or fighters. The mines had to be dropped with precision since they had to be swept [Annotator's Note: cleared out] before American forces could invade Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] on 1 April 1945. Unbeknownst to Hanley and his crew, the Japanese had broken the communication code of the Americans, and they knew about the invasion of Iwo Jima. Major units of Japanese fleet, including the Japanese battleship Yamato, were underneath them in the major waterway when they were accurately dropping these mines. They were stuck. Hanley tried to keep the engines running, but the plane was totally on fire – all four engines. The navigator on board tried to extinguish the fire, but to no avail. He was incinerated along with the radioman. Hanley could hardly breathe because of the heavy smoke, but still tried to keep the engines running. Soon the nose gear died, and Hanley and another crewman [Annotator's Note: the co-pilot, Al Andrews – phonetic spelling] bailed out and parachuted down over a rice paddy. On landing, an angry mob of civilians, incensed with earlier incendiary bombing of Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan], tried to kill him. A Japanese police officer intervened, grabbed Hanley, and threw him in a firetruck. He was taken to the mayor's office of the local town and received some medical attention because he was wounded from shrapnel while parachuting down. Then special police came in to take Hanley. He was not considered a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] to the Japanese, but a Special Prisoner to be tried and executed for killing innocent women and children. Most of the B-29 crews were killed as Special Prisoners. Hanley soon learned that Special Prisoners had special rules – including no medical attention, given half the POW rations, no sanitation, sat in a cell with a rope around the neck, handcuffed and blindfolded. There were thirteen crewmen taken the night of the mining mission over the Strait. Hanley and his co-pilot were the only two from his crew captured. The prisoners boarded a train and were taken to Japan's Special Intelligence building, Kempeitai [Annotator's Note: Kenpeitai, also called Kempeitai; military police arm and secret police force of the Imperial Japanese Army, 1881 to 1945] in Tokyo, across from the Emperor's Palace, where he shared a cell with the rest of the prisoners located in the dungeon of the building. For months, his cellmates died from lack of medical attention, starvation, or were killed by the Kempeitai. Hanley knew that air raids by the Americans continued over Tokyo, and he welcomed them because he knew he was going to die anyway. Most Special Prisoners were continually interrogated, and the Kempeitai questioned flight engineers the most, believing they knew the most information. The Japanese officers told Hanley that they knew about the upcoming invasion on mainland Japan. Hanley complained about his wounds, so some Kempeitai officers purposely infected his wounds. Hanley was told that he was going to be transported to another prison camp, but when it was time to go, the Japanese mixed him up with another prisoner and Hanley was one of two prisoners that remained. The other 62 prisoners were taken away. Hanley learned after the war that all 62 were massacred by the Japanese.

Fiske Hanley II, a Special Prisoner of the Kempeitai [Annotator's Note: Kenpeitai, also called Kempeitai; military police arm and secret police force of the Imperial Japanese Army, 1881 to 1945], was beaten and interrogated for several months while imprisoned in a dungeon located in Tokyo, Japan. Some of the other prisoners included three Japanese communist leaders, another Japanese solider, and four Americans. The Japanese communists seemed to know about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] when they heard the news that they had been dropped. Hanley was very happy to hear this news, and when the emperor [Annotator's Note: Emperor Hirohito, also called Emperor Showa, Emperor of Japan] surrendered a few days later on 14 August 1945. The very next night, Hanley and the other American prisoners were transported on trucks through Tokyo. Despite a blindfold, Hanley could see destruction everywhere and a body of water that turned out to be Tokyo Bay. The prisoners were told to remove their clothes and to clean up. It had been five months since he had a bath. He reunited with his co-pilot who had been placed in another prison. Then about 70 prisoners were then imprisoned in Camp Omori – a regular Japanese prison camp on Tokyo Bay and much better facility than the Kempeitai headquarters downtown. Because he was still considered a Special Prisoner, he was separated from the rest with barbed wire, but he was happy because he was clean. He was given food by other prisoners. He also received some medical attention. Navy planes began flying over the camp, dropping supplies like food and cigarettes. On 28 August [Annotator's Note: 28 August 1945], a Marine plane dropped a wrench with a note in the camp, saying that they would all be liberated the next day. On 29 August [Annotator's Note: 29 August 1945], American ships pulled into the harbor. Marines surrounded the prison and arrested all the Japanese guards. Hanley was one of the first prisoners to be removed from the camp and taken to the USS Benevolence (AH-13), a hospital ship, because he needed serious medical attention. Hanley was so happy to see the ship with the red cross on the side of it and all the nurses in white uniforms. He was given medical treatment and food. The next day, he was called over the intercom to report to the stern [Annotator's Note: rear of a ship or boat]. A reporter from a newspaper in Texas asked him if his family knew he was alive, to which Hanley responded "no." The reporter made sure that his family would be notified in less than 24 hours. From nearby LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank], Hanley and other liberated prisoners watched the peace treaty ceremony [Annotator's Note: Surrender ceremony; 2 September 1945 aboard USS Missouri (BB-63), Tokyo Bay, Japan]. He was then taken to an airport near Tokyo and flown out on a C-46 [Annotator's Note: Curtiss C-46 Commando transport aircraft] to a hospital at Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. Because his fever would not subside, the doctor refused to discharge him. Hanley was able to coerce the doctor to release him and Hanley was flown back to the United States. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:57:15.000.]

Fiske Hanley II was selected to go to flight engineer school after basic training because of his college degree in aeronautics engineering and because he had a civilian pilots license from a government civilian training program. He had great basic training at Boca Raton [Annotator's Note: Boca Raton, Florida]. A flight engineer had to know how engines worked, be familiar with aeronautics and mechanisms. They also had to know how to troubleshoot and how to manage the fuel for flights. He oversaw all the enlisted crewmen and most of them were 17- and 18-year-olds. He liked all his crewmen [Annotator's Note: in the 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force] as they were great guys. He was close friends with his bombardier, Rose [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], and there was only one man in his crew that was married, which was his co-pilot, Andrews [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. Andrews and Hanley were the only two crewmen to survive World War 2. Hanley once had a mission he took part in as a civilian observer but was forced to take command when the crew was about to lose the plane. That was his last flight.

Fiske Hanley II [Annotator's Note: with the 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force] was deployed to Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Mariana Islands]. There were two squadrons on the island, along with a nuclear facility [Annotator's Note: where the atomic bombs were kept]. He liked the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] and took them on flights. In return, the Seabees would treat them to Navy food. The Seabees also built the airmen a performance stage. He stayed in an officer Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building], while enlisted men lived in tents. After seven missions, there were only three other officers in his Quonset hut because the missions were so dangerous. For fun, Hanley would swim and relax at the beach. At one point, nurses were stationed on the island. The uniform codes were very relaxed on the island and there was a time when a few of the airmen dressed as Navy men to get on board a ship and eat some steaks. His crew's first mission was to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. They received a lot of flak trying to hit their target, but because of the jet stream, Hanley's plane was not severely damaged. On 9 March 1945, his crew received orders to bomb Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] which was the first time he bombed a city and not military targets. It was a terrible and awful experience seeing the city burn, knowing the amount of death occurred. It smelled like burned flesh. Before he was captured [Annotator's Note: Hanley describes this in Segment 03-Captured as a Special Prisoner of this interview series], he flew long missions over Tokyo and Iwo Jima. He often took naps on these long missions. They were given sandwiches for their long flights. When they completed a mission, the first thing they had to do was debrief. They were given a shot of whiskey [Annotator's Note: type of alcoholic beverage] prescribed by the military doctor. Then they would go to sleep for a day or two after the long missions. Hanley had an 1890 silver dollar [Annotator's Note: American one-dollar coin minted in 1890] that he carried with him as a good luck charm. He kept it with him all through prison camp.

On 26 March 1945, Fiske Hanley II [Annotator's Note: with the 504th Bombardment Group, 313th Bombardment Wing, 20th Air Force] was sent on a mission to lay mines in the Japanese waterway of Shimonoseki Straits [Annotator's Note: Kanmon Straits, also called the Straits of Shimonoseki; stretch of water separating the islands of Honshu, Japan and Kyushu, Japan]. The planes flew in individually at night. As soon as he got to the area, he could see planes in front of him being shot down by Japanese naval ships. That's when one of the search lights from the big battleship caught them and all the other ships zeroed in. He never seen a B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] at night that got so illuminated survive. Hanley did not realize he was wounded by shrapnel until after he was captured by the Japanese. He only knew that one of crewman escaped from the plane. He learned after the war, that many of his crewmen were buried in a common grave in the United States. As soon as he landed from bailing out of his plane, Japanese farmers began beating him with spears. He would have been killed if a Japanese policeman did not pull him away from them. When he jumped out the plane, he could not find the rip cord for his parachute at first because it was hidden behind his steal plate vest. His plane was fire when he bailed out and he watched it crash. When he was taken into custody and sent to Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan], he learned in his interrogation that he was going to be treated as a Special Prisoner or criminal and not a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. He had no hopes of living because he was to be tried and executed for killing innocent women and children by the Imperial Japanese headquarters. He was also told by a Japanese Kempeitai [Annotator's Note: Kenpeitai, also called Kempeitai; military police arm and secret police force of the Imperial Japanese Army, 1881 to 1945] colonel that that all POWs were going to be killed when the Allies invaded the Japanese mainland. Hanley knew that he would be killed now or in a couple of months, so he had no feelings towards dying. His interrogations were terrible. They questioned him about how many bombs they carried, their flight route to their targets, and the performance of the plane. Hanley was told by his commander that if caught, he was allowed to tell the Japanese anything he wanted, and make sure to brag. They tortured him with a bamboo stick called kendo clubs. They would kill prisoners with bayonets, shoot them, or inject them with poison. The Kempeitai purposely infected his wounds to kill him. There was one officer, Shorty [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], who delighted himself in torturing prisoners. After the emperor [Annotator's Note: Emperor Hirohito, also called Emperor Showa, Emperor of Japan] surrendered, Hanley was transferred to Camp Omori – a regular Japanese prison camp on Tokyo Bay [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan]. During his interrogations, the officers told them that all other races are sub-human to the Japanese race. Hanley finally felt like he would survive the war when he made it on a hospital ship. He weighed 70 pounds when he was liberated. He would have died if the war did not end before the invasion of Japan's mainland. As daily rations, he was given a dirty rice ball and dirty water. Sometimes they were given fishtails and bones.

Fiske Hanley II was held captive by Kempeitai [Annotator's Note: Kenpeitai, also called Kempeitai; military police arm and secret police force of the Imperial Japanese Army, 1881 to 1945] during World War 2 in Tokyo, Japan. The Kempeitai were selected for their cruelty. After the war, Hanley met the Kempeitai again on his first trip back to Japan. He and a friend took several pictures while they were in the country and when they were in the airport, a group of Kempeitai dressed as commercial airline workers took his brief case with all the film in it. Hanley contacted the airlines company who then gave him and his wife a two-week trip to Asia for his troubles. Hanley had been liberated on 29 August 1945 and returned to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] the following October [Annotator's Note: October 1945]. He was discharged in July 1946 in San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] as a first lieutenant. He remained in the Reserves and was called up during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953], but his job got him out of serving. Hanley's most memorable experience was when he found out that he was going to survive, once was on a hospital ship in the hands of the United States. He fought because he received a draft notice. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] benefits after the war. The war changed his life, both mentally and physically.