Editing Jimmy Doolittle (section)

==Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign==

{{main|Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign}}
After the raid, the Japanese Imperial Army began the [[Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign]] (also known as Operation Sei-go) to prevent these eastern coastal provinces of China from being used again for an attack on Japan and to take revenge on the Chinese people. An area of some {{convert|20000|sqmi|km2|abbr=on|sigfig=1}} was laid waste. "Like a swarm of locusts, they left behind nothing but destruction and chaos," eyewitness Father Wendelin Dunker wrote.{{sfn|Scott|2015}} The Japanese killed an estimated 10,000 Chinese civilians during their search for Doolittle's men.{{sfn|Yamamoto|2000|p=166}} People who aided the airmen were tortured before they were killed. Father Dunker wrote of the destruction of the town of Ihwang: "They shot any man, woman, child, cow, hog, or just about anything that moved, They raped any woman from the ages of 10–65, and before burning the town they thoroughly looted it&nbsp;... None of the humans shot were buried either&nbsp;..."{{sfn|Scott|2015}} The Japanese entered [[Nancheng County|Nancheng]] ([[Jiangxi]]), population 50,000 on June 11, "beginning a reign of terror so horrendous that missionaries would later dub it 'the Rape of Nancheng.' " evoking memories of the infamous [[Nanjing Massacre|Rape of Nanjing]] five years before. Less than a month later, the Japanese forces put what remained of the city to the torch. "This planned burning was carried on for three days," one Chinese newspaper reported, "and the city of Nancheng became charred earth."{{sfn|Scott|2015}}

When Japanese troops moved out of the Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas in mid-August, they left behind a trail of devastation. Chinese estimates put the civilian death toll at 250,000. The Imperial Japanese Army had also spread [[cholera]], [[typhoid]], [[Plague (disease)|plague]] infected fleas and [[dysentery]] pathogens. The Japanese biological warfare [[Unit 731]] brought almost {{convert|300|lb}} of [[paratyphoid]] and [[anthrax]] to be left in contaminated food and contaminated wells with the withdrawal of the army from areas around Yushan, Kinhwa and Futsin. Around 1,700 Japanese troops died out of a total 10,000 Japanese soldiers who fell ill with disease when their biological weapons attack rebounded on their own forces.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lILltXBTo8oC&dq=10%2C000+summer+1942+biological+weapons+chekiang&pg=PA19 Chevrier & Chomiczewski & Garrigue 2004], p. 19.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzlNgS70OHAC&dq=10%2C000+summer+1942+biological+weapons&pg=PA171 Croddy & Wirtz 2005], p. 171.</ref>

Doolittle went on to fly more combat missions as commander of the 12th Air Force in North Africa, for which he was awarded four Air Medals. He later commanded the 12th, 15th and 8th Air Forces in Europe.<ref name="army.mil">{{Cite web |url=https://www.army.mil/article/36934/from_shangri_la_to_tokyo_the_doolittle_raid_april_18_1942 |title=From Shangri-La to Tokyo: The Doolittle Raid, April 18, 1942 |website=www.army.mil|date=April 6, 2010 }}</ref> The other surviving members of the Doolittle raid also went on to new assignments.

Doolittle received the [[Medal of Honor]] from President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] at the [[White House]] for planning and leading his raid on Japan. His citation reads: "For conspicuous leadership above and beyond the call of duty, involving personal valor and intrepidity at an extreme hazard to life. With the apparent certainty of being forced to land in enemy territory or to perish at sea, Lt. Col. Doolittle personally led a squadron of Army bombers, manned by volunteer crews, in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland." He was also promoted to brigadier general.<ref name="army.mil"/>

The [[Doolittle Raid]] is viewed by historians as a major morale-building victory for the United States. Although the damage done to Japanese war industry was minor, the raid showed the Japanese that their homeland was vulnerable to air attack,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47875466 |title=Last of WW2 'Doolittle Raiders' Dick Cole dies aged 103 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=April 9, 2019}}</ref> and forced them to withdraw several front-line fighter units from Pacific war zones for homeland defense. More significantly, Japanese commanders considered the raid deeply embarrassing, and their attempt to close the perceived gap in their Pacific defense perimeter led directly to the decisive American victory at the [[Battle of Midway]] in June 1942.

When asked from where the Tokyo raid was launched, President Roosevelt coyly said its base was [[Shangri-La]], a fictional paradise from the popular novel and film ''[[Lost Horizon]]''. In the same vein, the U.S. Navy named one of its [[Essex-class aircraft carrier|''Essex''-class]] [[fleet carrier]]s {{USS|Shangri-La}}.<ref name="army.mil"/>