Marcus McDilda

First lieutenant Marcus Elmo McDilda (December 15, 1921 – August 16, 1998) was an American fighter pilot who was shot down over Japan during World War II. Under interrogation, he gave false information to the Japanese regarding the atomic bomb.

Biography McDilda, who was from Dunnellon, Florida, was a P-51 fighter pilot. On August 8, 1945, two days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, his plane was shot down during a strafing mission over Osaka and he was taken prisoner.

After his capture, McDilda was paraded through the streets of Osaka, where he was blindfolded and beaten by civilians. He was then interrogated by the Kempeitai, the Japanese military police, who tortured McDilda in order to discover how many atomic bombs the Allies had and what the future targets were. McDilda, who knew nothing about the atomic bomb nor the Manhattan Project, initially admitted that he knew nothing about the atomic bombs, but, after a Japanese officer threatened to kill him, McDilda "confessed" that the U.S. had 100 atomic bombs that would be dropped on Tokyo and Kyoto, the only Japanese cities he knew the names of, within "the next few days". McDilda's "testimony" included the following nonsensical description of the A-bomb, which seemed to confuse it with an antimatter weapon: quote|text=As you know, when atoms are split, there are a lot of pluses and minuses released. Well, we've taken these and put them in a huge container and separated them from each other with a lead shield. When the box is dropped out of a plane, we melt the lead shield and the pluses and minuses come together. When that happens, it causes a tremendous bolt of lightning and all the atmosphere over a city is pushed back! Then when the atmosphere rolls back, it brings about a tremendous thunderclap, which knocks down everything beneath it. The move to Tokyo had probably saved McDilda's life; after the announcement of the Japanese surrender, fifty U.S. soldiers imprisoned in Osaka were executed by Japanese soldiers.

This case has been cited as evidence that interrogational torture is ineffective, as his "confession" might have been counterproductive to Japan's intelligence-gathering.