According to the History Channel's presentation "Battle 360: Vengeance at Midway", after completing a successful dive bombing run on the Japanese carrier group at Midway, he and his radioman/tail gunner AMM 1/c Bruno P. Gaido ran out of fuel. They were captured & interrogated aboard the Japanese destroyer Makigumo. Following interrogation, the Japanese sailors tied weights to their ankles and threw them overboard to drown. [...]
Three U.S. airmen, Ensign Wesley Osmus (pilot, Yorktown), Ensign Frank O'Flaherty (pilot, Enterprise) and Aviation Machinist's Mate B. F. (or B. P.) Gaido (radio-gunner of O'Flaherty's SBD) were captured by the Japanese during the battle. Osmus was held on the destroyer Arashi, with O'Flaherty and Gaido on the cruiser Nagara (or destroyer Makigumo, sources vary), and it is alleged that they were later killed.[50] The report filed by Admiral Nagumo states of Ensign Osmus: "[H]e died on 6 June and was buried at sea." The report does not mention the death of O'Flaherty or Gaido.[51] The practice of burying the remains of the enemy at sea was common among all navies involved.
Sadly, O'Flaherty and Gaido were spotted and fished from the sea by the crew of the Japanese destroyer Makigumo. After interrogation, and when it was clear that the Japanese had suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Midway, O'Flaherty and Gaido were murdered by the angry and vindictive Japanese. The two unfortunate American airmen were bound with ropes, tied to weighted fuel cans, and then thrown overboard to drown. [...]
To be fair, rules are to be upheld. Otherwise war would really become hell.
I just want to be understood here, while this is understandable and it would be easy to find members of the Allies that would do the same thing, it is not justifiable. I understand all too well the importance of punishing war crimes but I feel that the fact that the Makigumo's crew did this is not very barbaric compared to everything else that was going on on both sides. The fact that they didn't get punished is still incredibly barbaric and inevitably led to an escalation of war crimes from the Japanese side of the war.
