41 years old; on 5 May 1945, about 1000 saw a B 29 catch fire, 6 parachutes descending, so get his shot gun, went to spot where a crowd was gathered around a flyer behind a tree. Sato shot at his legs, missed, thought the flyer was going to shoot. Tsunshiko Iwashita, with Sato, fired his shotgun and hit him in the chest, was still alive when Sato went to search for another flyer. This was at Minami-Oguni Mura. About 1 1/2 hours after the first flyer was killed, Sato was on the left flank of a searching party, saw a flyer 500 meters in a forest, motioned for him to come forward, and he gave Sato a pistol, a dogtag and chain. Sato gave the pistol to Yoshito Ishibashi, who sent it to Tsukamoto, a Manganji Area Policeman gave the chain and metal (dogtag) to Tsukamoto directly. The flyer was sent to Hoshiwa school. Sato searched for a third flyer, then joined the second at the school. With Sato on the searching party, which captured the flyer, were Yoshito Ishibashi, Sadao Ito and Asachi Morikawa and another. The photo of PLAMBECK (Dale E.) looked like the man they captured. the picture of Charles M. Kearns, reminds Sato slightly of the flyer he saw killed, but Sato is very uncertain. |