A Grumman TBF Avenger seen in the water near Truk Lagoon in April 1944, with its crew on a raft nearby. Future president George H.W. Bush lost a similar aircraft near the Japanese island of Chichijima, and narrowly escaped capture by its garrison. (US Navy)

A US Navy Pilot Was Nearly Eaten in World War II—and Later Became President

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Eight out of nine US Navy airmen downed near Chichijima were killed, and four cannibalized, by the island’s Japanese garrison. The sole escapee was a young pilot named George Bush.

Many people know that former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who led the United States from 1989 to 1993, served as a US Navy combat pilot during World War II. Some even know that his TBF Avenger torpedo bomber was shot down in September 1944, leading to his rescue by an American submarine.

Very few Americans today know that Bush’s harrowing ordeal could have been far, far worse. Bush was the sole survivor from a group of nine pilots shot down in the so-called “Chichijima incident”—and he escaped a truly horrifying fate at the hands of a Japanese island garrison in the remote Pacific.

In 1944, the US Navy Was on a Winning Streak in the Pacific

By the fall of 1944, it was clear to all parties that the United States was on track to victory in the Pacific War. The summer had seen a string of remarkable advances for US forces. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June, US aircraft achieved a severely disproportionate loss ratio on Japanese aircraft, leading pilots to describe it as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.” The battle opened the gateway to the Mariana Islands, and in July, US troops captured the strategically vital island of Saipan. Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the operational commander of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, was one casualty of the battle for Saipan, killing himself rather than surrendering to the United States. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack, had been killed in a US aircraft raid the previous year.

The capture of the Mariana Islands was crucial because it put the Japanese Home Islands within range of American B-29 bombers. Previous bombing raids on Japanese territory, including the famed “Doolittle Raid,” had been sporadic and intended to send a message of resolve rather than a strategic purpose. After securing the rest of the Mariana Islands in 1944, the strategic bombing campaign could begin in........

© The National Interest