" THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO "
Craig Kodera

1000 s/n Limited Edition Print
34 " x 13"
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Ted Lawson and his crew were aboard the sixth airplane to be launched from the aircraft carrier USS "Hornet" and the title of this painting comes from Ted. There's a passage in his book of the same name in which he said, "We only spent thirty seconds over Tokyo."

The Raiders came in at treetop or water-level all the way from the carrier into Tokyo Bay, hopping over the hills. When they got to the target points, just before dropping the bombs, they hopped up to 1500 feet above sea level, opened the bomb bay doors and starting dropping their bombs.

Their targets were all along the waterfront of Tokyo Bay. Lawson said that from that distance, it looked a lot like Los Angeles. Their last target was the Mitsubishi Aircraft Factory. Then they dropped from 1500 feet and went back down to the deck and Lawson vividly recalls flying past a train and seeing the engineer's fact in the locomotive. They were really low.

It was almost a "piece of cake" mission, despite all the build-up and concern. The Raiders almost made it to the very end but most of them had to crash land on the Coast of China.

Signed in the original by Ted W. Lawson. 

Countersigners: Gen. James H. Doolittle, Col. Dean Davenport, Lt. Charles L. McClure and S/Sgt. David J. Thatcher.

 

Thirty Seconds over Tokyo - Craig Kodera

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