Second Lieutenant Minoru Wada , a Japanese Army transport officer who was captured after living an animal existence on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines , volunteered to guide Marine fighters and bombers to the long sought headquarters of the 100th Japanese Army Division still operating in the area . A graduate of the University of Tokyo and the Military Academy of Kyushu , Lieutenant Wada is probably the first enemy officer in the Pacific to brief American pilots for a strike against his own command . The Japanese officer ' s name was added to the flight manifest and while on the mission he gave directions over the intercom via an interpreter as tons of bombs plummeted on the Nipponese command post concealed in the deep jungles of Mindanao . From the waist of a Marine Billy Mitchell bomber , Japanese Lieutenant Minoru Wada scans the terrain below , picking out landmarks and transmitting the data to the air strike coordinator in the nose of the ship . Framed in the port of the bomber are other units of the striking air force . 10 August 1945