Chippewa Chief in World War II

Book excerpt: This is the true story of Oliver Bullard Rasmussen, a U.S. Navy aircrewman who avoided capture after his plane crashed in Japan on July 14, 1945, leaving his pilot dead and him seriously wounded. He dodged the Japanese on Hokkaido for 68 days until he saw his first fellow American. Rasmussen healed himself, relying on his Chippewa knowledge of how to survive in the wild and staying alive by raiding farms at night. The account is drawn from tapes of interviews with Rasmussen about his ordeal and personal records and other material from his family. Beginning with Rasmussen’s life as a young boy growing up on a poverty-stricken Chippewa reservation in northern Wisconsin, the book then details at length Rasmussen’s almost unbelievable ordeal. Also included is information on his top-secret role in the Navy’s only nuclear weapons squadron.