 Sixteen hours after departure from the Hornet , the aircraft 's fuel exhausted , Farrow and his crew bailed out near Japanese @-@ controlled Nanchang , China . The Japanese captured Farrow and all members of his crew , and subjected them to imprisonment , interrogation , and torture . The men were subsequently tried and sentenced to death . Most of the crew members ' sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the Emperor of Japan , but the sentences of three men , including Farrow , stood . The night before their execution , the men were permitted to write final letters . The International Red Cross was to mail the letters after receiving them from the Japanese . The Japanese , however , did not pass on the letters , and they were never mailed . Farrow wrote letters to his mother and to a friend , Lt. Ivan Ferguson . In the letter addressed to his mother , Farrow wrote : 
