The Evening Star (February 11, 1946)
First war crimes trials begin in China theater
SHANGHAI (AP) – The identity of three American Superfortress fliers who were tortured and cremated in a Hankow blood orgy was disclosed today as 18 Japanese went on trial charged with their deaths.
The victims, named at the opening of the first war crimes trial in the Chinese theater, were 2nd Lt. Lester R. White, flight engineer; Sgt. Henry W. Wheaton Sr., gunner, and Sgt. James E. Forbes Jr., radioman.
Lt. Col. Willis A. West of Portland, Oregon, head prosecutor, included the names in his opening statement to the five-man military commission, headed by Col. John W. Middleton of Chevy Chase, Maryland, which will hear the case. The names were not included in the original indictment because identity then was not certain.
Today the identity was substantiated by an affidavit from Lt. Vernon Douglas Schaefer of Chicago, another crew member, who is recuperating in a hospital in the United States from his lengthy internment.