XIII. Books & Videos/DVDs

There are over 100 books in print written by or about POWs -- there are probably hundreds more unpublished memoirs. I've made just a short list of some of the books I have; I wish I could read all the ones that are out there. Many of these books have descriptions at Amazon.com and some have reader reviews that are very useful. If you want to purchase some of the harder-to-find titles, a good site for used books is Bibliofind.com. Dr. Charles Roland has a very extensive bibliography in his book. Feel free to send webmaster Wes Injerd your recommendations.

One of the largest collections of POW books and interviews has been assembled by Robert S. La Forte, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Texas, to which he donated his collection (article here). "I collect books regarding prisoners and captives of the Japanese in World War II. I have donated over 800 volumes to the University of North Texas Archives, which also holds approximately 200 interviews of POWs of Japan. The North Texas Library also has about 50 volumes which I did not duplicate with my holdings. All the books in my collection are in English and concern mainly Americans, Canadians, Australians, British, and New Zealanders. They also include a few Dutch and Asian captives." Of note are the many books written just after the end of WWII. A listing of the books can be found here:

ROBERT S. LA FORTE COLLECTION AND U.N.T. ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS RELATED TO PRISONERS OF WAR OF JAPAN

LA FORTE COLLECTION ADDITIONS

Also view this search at Amazon.com for all books relating to POWs (ranked by latest publication date). A broader search here at Google Books. See Recommended New Books for a list of additions with descriptions.

POWs:

Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II, Yuki Tanaka, 1998

Prisoners of the Japanese in World War II, Van Waterford, 1994

This fact-filled reference book is a must for all students of POW history. It was compiled by one who knows what it was actually like to be a POW. The author (true name, Willem F. Wanrooy) was aboard the Junyo-maru when it was torpedoed on September 18, 1944. The ship was carrying 2,200 POWs of various nationalities as well as 4,320 Javanese conscript laborers -- a total of 6,520 souls! Only 880 survived, making it the worst maritime disaster in world history. Wanrooy was interned in POW camps for 3½ years.

NOTE on hellships: "More than 62,000 POWs were transported in 56 ships, of which 19 were torpedoed or bombed (and sunk) and one was lost in a typhoon. More than 22,000 (35.2 percent) -- or more than one in three -- lost their lives."

Prisoners of the Japanese: Pows of World War II in the Pacific, Gavan Daws, 1994 [A MUST-READ!!!]

In the Words of Gavan Daws...

Unjust Enrichment, Linda Goetz Holmes, 2001 [Excellent!]

"In these pages, American ex-POWs tell in their own words what it was like to be slaves for a Japanese corporation; to be used for medical experiments; to try and stay alive for weeks in the sealed hold of a Japanese merchant ship. Augmenting their words with secret Japanese orders, photos of POWs taken by Japanese companies and one brave prisoner, and her own research, the author pieces together how and why these things happened. It is a story being told fully for the first time. Unjust Enrichment makes powerful, authentic, and unforgettable reading. It also shows unmistakably why the companies of Japan owe thousands of American veterans compensation--and an apology."

Long Night's Journey Into Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941-1945, Charles G. Roland, 2001

Another entry in the MUST-READ category for books relating to POWs, especially those men and women who served in the British Commonwealth, more particularly Canadian. Good coverage is given on seven POW camps in Japan: Osaka #2 (Narumi) and #3 (Oeyama), Niigata #5, Kawasaki (Yokohama) #3-D, Fukuoka #5 (Omine), Sendai #2 and Omori (Tokyo); also two Tokyo-area POW hospitals, Sagamihara and Shinagawa. The final two chapters are well worth the purchase of this book. The chapter Less Than Perfect Soldiers gives the reader much insight into understanding Japanese brutality.

Sickness, starvation, brutality, and forced labour plagued the existence of tens of thousands of Allied POWs in World War II. More than a quarter of these POWs died in captivity

Long Night's Journey into Day centres on the lives of Canadian, British, Indian, and Hong Kong POWs captured at Hong Kong in December 1941 and incarcerated in camps in Hong Kong and the Japanese Home Islands. Experiences of American POWs in the Philippines, and British and Australians POWs in Singapore, are interwoven throughout the book

Starvation and diseases such as diphtheria, beriberi, dysentery, and tuberculosis afflicted all these unfortunate men, affecting their lives not only in the camps during the war but after they returned home. Yet despite the dispiriting circumstances of their captivity, these men found ways to improve their existence, keeping up their morale with such events as musical concerts and entertainments created entirely within the various camps

Based largely on hundreds of interviews with former POWs, as well as material culled from archives around the world, Professor Roland details the extremes the prisoners endured -- from having to eat fattened maggots in order to live to choosing starvation by trading away their skimpy rations for cigarettes

No previous book has shown the essential relationship between almost universal ill health and POW life and death, or provides such a complete and unbiased account of POW life in the Far East in the 1940s

Charles G. Roland is Jason A. Hannah Professor Emeritus of the History of Medicine at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Other papers by Roland: Patterns of Disease among World War II Prisoners of the Japanese: Hunger, Weight Loss, and Deficiency Diseases in Two Camps (1991); Allied POWs, Japanese Captors and the Geneva Convention (1991); Massacre and Rape in Hong Kong: Two Case Studies Involving Medical Personnel and Patients (1997); The ABCs of Survival behind Barbed Wire: Experience in the Far East, 1941-45 (1999). These may be obtained directly from the author; quantities, however, are limited.

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission, Hampton Sides, 2001

"Among the plenitude of wartime horrors, the Japanese treatment of POWs in World War II was among the most horrific, the Bataan Death March being one of the most notorious examples of the victors' brutality. By January 1945 a few hundred survivors were in a squalid work camp on Luzon, and Sides' book recounts a gung-ho military raid to rescue them--and to assuage American humiliation for their surrender in 1942. Sides opens with the proximate motivation for the mission: the Americans' fear that as they closed in on an increasingly beleaguered Japanese military, the Japanese would vengefully massacre their prisoners. Just such an atrocity had been perpetrated in December 1944 upon about 100 American POWs on Palawan. So as the Americans fanned out on Luzon, a unit of army rangers with Filipino support was sent ahead of the front line. Their plan, laid and led by Henry Mucci, worked perfectly, as does Sides' skillfully modulated narrative of the atmosphere, courageousness, and human cost of the operation." -- Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

Death on the Hellships: Prisoners at Sea in the Pacific War, Gregory F. Michno, 2001

The Japanese treatment of prisoners of war in World War II has been written about before, but only with this chronicle will readers come to appreciate the true dimensions of the Allied POW experience at sea. It is a disturbing story that for many made the Bataan Death March pale by comparison. The survivors describe their ordeal in the Japanese hellships as the absolute worst experience of their captivity. Crammed by the thousands into the holds of ships and moved from island to island and put to work, they endured all the horrors of the prison camps magnified ten-fold.

Gregory Michno draws on American, British, Australian, and Dutch POW accounts as well as Japanese convoy histories, recently declassified radio intelligence reports, and a wealth of archival sources to present for the first time a detailed picture of what happened and the extent of the prisoners involved. His findings are startling. More than 150,000 Allied prisoners were transported in the hellships with more than 21,000 fatalities. While many of the deaths were attributable to beatings, starvation, disease, and lack of food and water, the most, Michno reports, were caused by Allied bombs, bullets, and torpedoes. He further reports that this so-called friendly fire was not always accidental--apparently at times it was more important to sink Japanese ships than to worry about POWs. The statistics led Michno to conclude that it was more lethal to be a prisoner on the Japanese hellships than a U.S. Marine fighting in the campaign. His careful examination of the role of U.S. submarines in the sinkings and the rescue of POWs makes yet another significant contribution to the history of the war in the Pacific.

Belly of the Beast -- A POW's Inspiring True Story of Faith, Courage, and Survival Aboard the Infamous WWII Japanese Hell Ship Oryoku Maru, Judith L. Pearson

On December 13, 1944, POW Estel Myers was herded aboard the Japanese prison ship Oryoku Maru with more than 1,600 other captives, almost 1,300 of them would be dead by journey's end ...

Those who emerged from the BELLY OF THE BEAST, and the souls of the departed who marched home with them, merit the recognition Pearson offers in this searing tribute. -- Senator John McCain

An inspiring look at one of World War II's darkest hours. -- James Bradley, author of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, James Bradley, 2003

Flyboys is the true story of young American airmen who were shot down over Chichi Jima. Eight of these young men were captured by Japanese troops and taken prisoner. Another was rescued by an American submarine and went on to become president. The reality of what happened to the eight prisoners has remained a secret for almost 60 years. After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth. Not even the families of the airmen were informed what had happened to their sons. It has remained a mystery--until now. Critics called James Bradley's last book "the best book on battle ever written." Flyboys is even better: more ambitious, more powerful, and more moving. On the island of Chichi Jima those young men would face the ultimate test. Their story -- a tale of courage and daring, of war and of death, of men and of hope -- will make you proud, and it will break your heart.

My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March, Lester I. Tenney, 1995 (Also in Japanese, Bataan: Toi Michinori no Saki ni, 2003)

Rising from the Shadow of the Sun: A Story of Love, Survival and Joy by Ronny Herman de Jong, 2011 -- A historical account of 4 years in the life of women and children under Japanese oppression on the island of Java, based on the author's mother’s diary. Click here for the author’s website.

My Time in Hell: Memoir of an American Soldier Imprisoned by the Japanese in World War II, Andrew D. Carson, 1997

Prisoner of Hope, Jesse Miller, 1989

Jesse Miller died on February 22, 2001. His wife, Nettie, recently sent me an article from The Denver Post about Jesse's life. It is another story about a hero, though Jesse probably would never have called himself that. Yet heroes are those who have qualities about them that others want to emulate -- like courage, the strength to go on, hope..... and forgiveness.

This story is really what it is all about -- forgiving those who trespass against you. In the midst of the inevitable contention and bitterness between peoples over past history, a story like this reminds us of the real lesson that we must learn and have the courage to follow, in order to have that lasting peace.

Itchy Feet, Ted & Ardes Spaulding, 1999

In this down-home type book, Spaulding tells of growing up in North Dakota, joining the Coast Artillery and being transferred to a tank battalion which would later bring him to the Philippines. There he was captured while in Bataan and was on the Death March, and then later herded with some 1600 other POWs onto the hellship Oryoku-maru. He arrived at Fukuoka Camp #1 in January 1945. Read the excerpt below describing life at Fukuoka Camp #1.

Spaulding recalls that not all Japanese were cruel and inhumane:

"I was a cigarette smoker in those days and I used a little trick that hardly ever failed for me. Whenever new guards appeared on the scene they would shake down their captives for anything they might still have on them such as smokes and lighters. I always offered them a cigarette from my pack that had just two cigarettes left in it. Almost every guard would see that I was almost out and pull out his own pack to offer me one of his. I ended up with a full pack. The Japanese soldiers were usually quite average people, a lot like Americans in interests and emotions. If I took out my photograph of Catherine and showed it to a guard he would bring out a photo of his girlfriend or wife to show to me. Some of them were not mean for the sake of being mean but they could and did get vicious if we did not follow their orders. Then there were large numbers of those who were cruel."

You may purchase this book by writing directly to Mrs. Spaulding: 938 Custer Ave. NE, Huron, SD 57350. Cost is $20 plus shipping.

Wake, War and Waiting.., Rodney Kephart, 1950

Read about Kephart's "Victory Flag" here. Captured on Wake Island on December 23, 1941, Kephart was shipped to mainland Japan to spend the remainder of the war in POW camps: Sasebo #18, Miyata #D12, Koyagi #2, and finally Orio #D9 (Mizumaki #6). While aboard a hospital ship, the U.S.S. Haven, anchored in Nagasaki Bay at the end of the war (see similar hospital ship), Kephart wrote home to his mother:

I am almost at a loss as to what to do with myself after being cooped up so long... I am making every effort to bring myself back to the life that now presents itself before me. After the three years and nine months of slavery, torture and starvation, one is a little slow of thought and ignorant of the up-to-date things of life. I have found in the last 24 hours, from listening to the radio, many things mentioned that are absolutely foreign to me... It is such a relief to get away from the barbarous screaming of the Japs, the brutal treatment and the starvation and confinement. Then all of a sudden to be free, have plenty of food, good clothing, talk to civil people who talk and understand as yourself, and on top of all, be taken into this haven and treated like a royal guest. By the time I get home, I hope to have my head cleared and be ready to drop into life and make the most of my experience.

Home by Christmas: Memoirs 1940 - 1948, Gerry Nolthenius, February 1998 (Limited copies available; read the excerpt below) - February 2002 photo of Gerry and his wife, Hennie - Sketch of Hakozaki camp showing where bomb hit that was intended for Najima Power Plant

Any "book" has to have a title and this was a bit of a problem as "Memoirs" sounds a bit too expansive for a simple story. I remembered that during those years in captivity we were always rather optimistically talking about being "home for Christmas". In reality, it took me about eight years to get home for Christmas, but that is altogether another story.

We heard different horror stories about massacres in other places in the Pacific whenever we met newcomers and we did not want it to influence our optimistic outlook.

Now, more than fifty years after cessation of hostilities a lot of "dirt" is coming to light, for instance, political influence to let war criminals "go" (see: Betrayal In High Places by James McKay. Tasman Archives, New Zealand). But all this doesn't matter.

I can see the Lord's hand during my whole life and all the "disappointments" turned out to be the best for me. I've been very blessed indeed with a marvellous wife, children and grandchildren.

Finally, I don't want this 'story' to be a commercial product. Each one of my children will receive a copy and I have a few spares for friends who are genuinely interested.

HOME BY CHRISTMAS: Memoirs 1940 - 1948 by Gerry Nolthenius Published February 1998 Early in November 1944 rumours started to circulate through the camp that a group of P.O.W. was going to be assembled for some specialist work. We didn't know what to think of it but a change was not always an improvement. The whole business didn't appeal to me at all. I was in a sort I of a routine and could somehow feel at ease with the circumstances. I don't know what criteria our Nipponese masters were following but I found myself on their list. I've forgotten how many were in our group but if my memory is right there were about a dozen Dutch Navy boys. Our departure was scheduled early in December (5th?). It was hard to be separated from my mates Sam H. and Harry Z. We had been through so much in the previous two years and nine months. However, there was a consolation when I saw Dick M. in the same group. I was not as close with him as with the others but Dick was a good fellow, quiet but absolutely reliable. We were marched off late in the afternoon after the usual counting rigmarole. It was dark when we boarded the ferry to Nagasaki. In the city another bout of counting and recounting and then we had to run on the double to the railway station. To our surprise we had to board an excellent passenger train. The best part of it was that the wagons were beautifully warm and the seats nicely upholstered. The windows were blacked out but the guards were quite an agreeable bunch. One fellow even handed out some smokes, an unheard of thing. After a long wait we took off and traveled through the night but we had quite a few stops and waiting periods. In the morning we came to a large railway station, apparently a junction of several routes. I don't recall the name of the place. We were herded into a large hall where we found another group of P.O.W. from other camps. It was exciting to meet up with other Navy boys and exchange news. I met up with an old mate from High school but for Dick it was very hard to hear that his brother Sictus died about eighteen months before. I knew Sic very well; he was my partner when we were running the ambulance in Surabaja in February 1942. About midday we received the customary riceball with seaweed and hot green tea. We hardly had time to enjoy our lunch when we had to fall in again. We were divided up in different groups but Dick and I managed to stay together. After an hour or so our group was marched off and we boarded a train again. Good seats and lovely heated. The windows in our compartment were not blacked out so we had an excellent view of the landscape. The train followed a very pretty coastline with little islands, lots of pine trees and small villages. Towards dusk the blackout blinds were pulled down and the guards became quite hostile when we tried to peep out. About seven P.M. we arrived at a town, Fukuoka, as we found out afterwards. We had to fall in on the icy cold platform and were handed over to different guards again. These were really not very nice. Lots of shouting, hitting with rifle butts and kicking. Anyway, we started marching again, in a snowstorm and boy, it was "COLD". About nine-thirty we arrived at a camp [Mushiroda] with a bamboo palisade around it, with sentry boxes and searchlights. The usual roll-call on a sort of parade ground and then we were addressed by a British-Army Sergeant-major with a very loud voice and an unsympathetic appearance. What I specially disliked about this individual was the fact that he was very well dressed for a P.O.W. Good boots (polished), great coat, gloves, even a swagger stick. A perfect example of a drill sergeant-major. We were allocated into different barracks and Dick and I finished up as the only two Dutch amongst about thirty Aussies and thirty Americans. I spoke a few words of English, Dick almost nil, so the situation was not very bright. It was swim or sink. The sergeant in charge of our section was a lanky Australian. I only knew him as Lofty, but I really got to respect him for the way he was ruling the roost. He was very patient with the two "stupid" Dutchies but he was scrupulously honest, something I can't say about our American allies. They were civilian convicts captured on Wake Island and every single one of them had a rather colourful past of manslaughter, rape and so on. The camp was very primitive and our task was working on a nearby airfield. The "carriers" were issued with a flat basket to be carried in front of your stomach. This was filled by a couple of prisoners and we had to carry it a few hundred metres, dump the earth and walk back for the next load. Gets sort of monotonous doing it all day long. Lunch was brought to the job, the usual binto with pickled "Daigon" (horseradish) and some hot water. It was quite a dismal existence being in this camp. The only thing really outstanding in my mind is that it was very cold. If one had to go to the "benjo" (latrine) during the night it was quite rigmarole. As soon as you stepped outside the door opening one had to bow towards the sentry who was standing about 50 metres away on a hillock. If you straightened up before he gave his consent you were surely in trouble. One elderly American was caught and he had to stand at attention for the remainder of the night. Certainly not pleasant in sub-zero temperatures. Especially with a full bladder. Another episode comes to mind. One morning I was detailed to carry nightsoil, together with an Aussie Digger. Poor "Snowy" was about a foot shorter as I am and whenever our "friendly" guard urged us on, the contents of our 15-gallon container started sloshing out and Snow generally copped the lot of the smelly liquid. There was one particular Korean who was an absolute sadist. Personally, I considered him to be on the verge of insanity. One afternoon after our ordure carrying duty we came into our barrack and an American was sitting on his blankets repairing some clothing. Our Korean "Baboon" came in and went into a rage, called Brandy, the American, over and hit him hard over his head with his rifle. Brandy collapsed and "Baboon" screamed something unintelligible. To me it sounded like sickbay something or other. So, I went over to assist our American and next moment I was flattened and "Baboon" pushed his bayonet against my throat. I really thought that it was the end, but the Japanese guard commander happened to walk in and "Baboon" was restrained. I got off with a couple of kicks and about a week later Baboon disappeared when half of our guards were replaced with a group of war veterans. They were partly invalids but generally speaking quite agreeable. One thing what really struck us was the terrible corruption in the camp. Apparently, the Sergeant-Major, a Sergeant in charge of the cookhouse and half a dozen English cooks were running a flourishing black market in food to be exchanged for cigarettes or exorbitant prices in American dollars. Cigarettes were being sold for ten US dollars each. Christmas 1944 was celebrated as good as circumstances allowed. The usual Red Cross parcels, one parcel per six or seven persons. The only difference was that we didn't see any corned beef or meat and vegetable tins. These were all confiscated by the cookhouse and were supposed to be included in our Christmas dinner. Very hard to check whether we received our share but it was more than a mere coincidence that there were quite a few tins on the black market the week after. Difficult to prove but it is true. A few days after New Year there were rumours that we were in for another move. This proved to be true. We had the usual roll-call and they gave us ten minutes to grab our personal belongings and we were marched off. Our new camp was new indeed [Hakozaki]. Brand new as a matter of fact. It was situated amongst pine trees and the barracks were very low. A trench about two foot deep and eight foot wide and on either side a platform of pine planks laying on the sand. The roof was quite steep and near the eaves about eighteen inches high. The cladding consisted of layers of bark. Not 100% waterproof but as it was snowing and freezing it didn't leak. Actually towards the end of January we had about a foot of snow covering the lot and it became quite cozy and warm inside. Before we were allowed into the barracks we had to unpack all our gear and on this occasion my stamp collection was confiscated by Katsura the interpreter. Early in February something happened with the cookhouse gang. I never found out what did happen but the whole lot got beaten up and were subsequently sacked. The whole camp was called on parade and had to watch the gruesome business. The camp commander [Sakamoto] and Katsura marched along the lines and picked out a new team of cooks. Katsura grabbed me and said: "You speak Dutch and English and little Japanese, so you work in cookhouse". In a way I was not overly keen but had no choice. In the kitchen we were familiarized with our work and I had to give the Jap cookhouse "hancho" a hand with the scullery jobs. Washing buckets from the guardhouse, pumping water, tending the coal fires and so on. It was altogether a pretty good job after the initial "training" period. Tending the fires was the hardest because the coal we were allocated consisted of dust and more dust. One could pick out the cooks straightaway; they all looked like chimneysweeps. One set back was the amount of hours we had to work. I was generally woken up by a guard about 2 a.m. and had to start lighting the fire for an oven used by the Japanese to bake buns for the guards. But as I mentioned before, there were certain benefits. The guards were very well fed and generally there was sufficient left in the buckets to have a reasonable meal on the sly. The cooks who were preparing the food for the P.O.W.'s were allowed the normal rations, but we are all human after all and some pilfering happened, of course. But there was definitely no "black market" in food I was aware of. We all had our turn going around the barracks registering the number of sick, who were supposed to receive only half ration. We could generally arrange in the cookhouse that these half rations were near enough to full rations. The biggest problem, however, was the official little camp hospital. All sick and no workers and when the Jap "hancho" checked up and found the hospital buckets too full it was roaring and slapping of course. A few episodes come to mind, some not very nice. One day when a working party came back they were searched as usual and one South-African was caught concealing some potatoes he had pilfered, the Japanese commander held a speech haranguing the party and declaring that it was a criminal offence to steal food from the hardworking Japanese farmers and he was going to punish the culprit as a warning to the others. The poor South-African was tied to a bench and two soldiers were positioned on either side and had to administer fifty hits with baseball bats on his back, each hit a bit lower till they reached his ankles and back up again. It was horrible and when one of the soldiers didn't hit hard enough he was in turn punished by the guard commander with kicks and hits in his face The Japs went sort of berserk. When it was over the South-African was taken to the camp hospital but he died a couple of days later. This camp commander was transferred about three months before the war ended and his successor was a slightly better type but he was a man who liked his "sake" (rice wine) and when he had a bit too much he was liable to wander through the camp and paying attention to all sort of little things. Subsequently, he "lecture" the involved prisoner about it (slaps and kicks). It was a week or so after the above mentioned cruelty that I was approached by one of the doctors who asked me whether I was willing to donate some blood for a patient in the hospital who was critically ill. I was in a reasonable healthy condition so I agreed. I had to lie on a table and the recipient was on a straw mattress on the ground. Doc pushed a blunt needle in an artery in my arm and so we were connected by a tube. All I know about the other fellow was that he was English speaking and the whole procedure was in vain because he died the next day. Actually, the general atmosphere in the camp was not good. We all had a feeling of insecurity. In Nagasaki we had grown into a familiar routine which was bearable despite the hunger, dirt and cold. We all had our mates and we were taken prisoner as a group and we knew each other from pre-war happier times. In Fukuoka I it was a real hotchpotch of nationalities and people of all levels of society and worst of all, the criminal element was well represented. In February, I think, we were ordered out of the barracks late at night and we were put to work unloading some trucks. These trucks contained a few hundred American Army officers. Hardly any of them could walk and they were absolutely filthy and lousy. I'll never forget the stench. These poor fellows came from the Philippine Islands and they were survivors from the Death March from Bataan. Subsequently they were transported by ship [Oryoku-maru] to Japan. A few of them survived torpedoing and floating in the sea for a week or so. The journey from the Philippines to Japan took almost a hundred days. Water was rationed to a canteen cup (about a pint) of brackish fluid between three men per day. Hardly any food either. They were put in separate barracks and the death toll amongst them was horrific: ten, fifteen per day were taken out by horse and cart to be cremated. Percentage-wise Fukuoka I had some grim statistics. If I remember right the maximum number at one stage was 680, but at the end of the war there were about 280-300 left over. Amongst the American officers were some tragic cases: One fellow was absolutely starved close to death. He was a skeleton when he died. I had to help loading him on to the death cart. I guess that his weight wasn't over 40 kilos and yet when we took his belongings to the camp administration we found two tins of corned beef and a bar of energy chocolate (ex-American Red Cross) kept over for a rainy day as the saying goes. Fukuoka I was outstanding in the oversupply of vermin. Bedbugs galore, everyone was cultivating an abundant crop of body lice but worst of all became the fleas when the weather started to warm up. I found myself a good sleeping spot amongst the rafters where we normally kept our personal belongings. I could only sleep there when I knew that Winky (a Jap veteran with one arm) was on duty to wake me up at 2 a.m. That was about three nights a week. I used to jump down, grab my clothes and make a dash for the kitchen with only my G-string as covering. In the kitchen I grabbed a ladle and poured water over my legs to wash off a layer of fleas about 3.5mm thick. I don't know how the boys could put up with it for a whole night. I never slept much when I had to sleep on the platform. One night I was fiddling around trying to open up the kitchen door when I heard the sound of an aircraft pulling up out of a dive and then: whoosh! The ground shook and I saw a long torpedo-shaped thing laying about five metres away behind me. Next thing I remember was panting while lying on my stomach near the boundary fence at the opposite site of the camp. I must have broken the world record of the 200 metre dash, but nobody timed me so I didn't finish up in the records book. Of course, it was panic stations for the whole camp. The kitchen area was declared out of bounds and there were guards everywhere. As soon as it was daylight a truck came into camp and a few Navy types surveyed the situation. One fellow stalked the torpedo bomb and squatted down and after further examination started unscrewing some contraption and removed something and then his nerves apparently gave in, because he ran away from the bomb in quite a hurry. Nothing happened so after a while the truck backed up and the Kaigun boys loaded the bomb onto the truck. Quite a job because the thing was around 1300 lbs. in weight. If the bomb had landed a few metres to the left it would have finished up in the Jap bathhouse and the water could have triggered the delayed action and quite an explosion would have resulted. We presumed that the target was a power station [Najima] about half a mile downstream across the river and a railway bridge right next to it. The bomb was a delayed action time-bomb, which was activated by a device which dissolved in water. We could sense an increase in activity, lots of air raid alarms. Often we could see the vapour lines of the bombers heading over. It generally started as early as 7 a.m. and lasted well into the afternoon. We had our dugout air raid shelters but we didn't like the ventilation holes in the earthen covered roofs because right next to it were forty-four gallon drums with fuel. We actually spent only a couple of nights in the shelters. The first time nothing happened. A fortnight after we had an incendiary raid on the nearby city of Fukuoka [June 19 air raid]. No more raids in our vicinity after this, because Fukuoka was finished. It would have been late in July when I was working behind the cookhouse. Our water pump was mounted on a platform and the water ran through a bamboo pipe into a square tub in the kitchen and it could be directed into the bathhouse as well. I was pumping away and all of a sudden I had a very uncomfortable feeling. Looking up l saw a big round red spot centrally situated on a wavelike profile and realised it was a single engine plane (Corsair F4U) diving toward me. I dropped off the platform and when the plane roared past I saw the American star on the side of the fuselage. Either the pilot was out of ammunition or he hadn't noticed a person standing on a five foot high platform. Practically every day we saw activities which showed that the war was getting nearer to the Japanese homeland. It was early August that I witnessed a funny episode: Scotty the camp bugler and Paddy Cavanagh were great cobbers, always arguing but inseparable. The Japanese camp commandant had a coop with half a dozen chickens and a nice big rooster. Scotsman, Irishman and chickens, indeed a dangerous combination. One very early, dark morning I was doing my chores, washing the buckets behind the cookhouse when I heard some muffled mutterings, certain curses with an outspoken Scottish accent. Looking up, behold, there was Paddy, holding head and neck of a great white rooster and Scotty, limping and stumbling behind, struggling with the wings and legs. Truly a joint effort with split second execution of a well planned expedition. I don't know what the normal reaction of the commandant would have been, but it happened after Hiroshima and before Nagasaki and our esteemed landlords were in a somewhat dazed condition and had more important matters on their minds than an unfortunate rooster. It was around the same time when a prisoner of war was brought in who happened to be an old acquaintance of mine from Nagasaki. He was Bertie F. who was lightweight boxing champion in 1940-41 on Java. He was involved in a fight with a Japanese civilian in the dockyard, was court martialled by the Kaigun (Navy) and sentenced to two years jail. He was in a way very fortunate it happened in Japan. The Japanese Kaigun had some respect for the Dutch Navy boys and treated us more correctly as we could expect from the Rikugun (Army). On the islands Bertie would have been beaten to death or bayoneted for the "lucky" (?) ones. Anyway, Bertie was taken to a civilian prison and when his time was up he was taken to Fukuoka I to await further transport to Nagasaki. He was kept in the dogbox in the guard house and received his ration straight from the kitchen. We didn't have much chance or time for conversation but when the invalid guards were on duty we could exchange some news items. In jail he was forced to do hard labour, working for an employer who was contractor to empty out toilet cess pits. He was forced to carry overflowing wooden containers (about 10 gallons) on his shoulders, the nights were spent in concrete cells with minimum covering in wintertime, only company Japanese or Korean criminals. During those two years several more Caucasian prisoners were brought in, but they were forbidden to contact each other. The majority went insane within a few months or died. The only good thing Bertie got out of it was an exceptional good understanding of the Japanese language. It was he who told me on the evening of the sixth of August that the Japanese were very upset about a disastrous event which destroyed the city of Hiroshima with hundreds of thousands of casualties. Three days later he said something similar had happened to Nagasaki. I didn't see Bertie any more after this. I don't know what happened to him. Very early in the morning of the 15th one of the invalid guards told Joe Truey (a Cuban who was sometimes "too" friendly with the Japanese) that the Emperor (Showa) was going to have a speech over the radio. All kinds of rumours circulated in camp of course. Sometime after lunch I was off as usual to go to the barrack to have a short afternoon rest (Because of my very early start I was allowed to do it). My mind was in a turmoil because of all the rumours and I forgot completely to make the usual bow for a sentry (being the representative of the Emperor) and was well past him before I realized that he didn't challenge me. I just couldn't resist the temptation to go back to him and I asked him straight out: Senso owari-ka? (Is the war finished?). He looked at me and bowed with his head: "Hai!" (yes). I was absolutely flabbergasted and didn't know how to react. I just walked off and sat for a while on my bunk before it really sank in properly. The rest of the day was like a dream. We had to provide food for the evening meal, but things somehow didn't seem right. We were allowed to give extra fishmeal and soybeans and the Jap kitchen hancho didn't show up. Next morning a live pig was brought in for the P.O.W. kitchen and Paddy was appointed executioner (he claimed to be a butcher by trade) but what a horrible mess did he make. He tried to stun the poor thing with a hammer but it didn't work too well and when he tried to cut it's throat Porky jumped up and floored Paddy. A couple of other cooks grabbed the animal and he was soon dispatched. Horrific squealing and blood everywhere but after all we produced a very nourishing stew for the fellows. The second day after V.J. Day (17th August) it was very quiet. I wasn't called for kitchen duty and slept rather late. We discovered that the guards had disappeared. Our senior officers decided that the P.O.W.'s were going to do our own sentry duties and they tried to draw up some rosters. Not very successful as most of the boys just went walk-about. Our Wake island Americans tried to catch some of the guards but I don't think they had much luck as the Japs just melted away amongst the population. I was feeling a bit off colour and the doctor decided that I should have a few days off. I turned quite yellow after some days and the prognosis was yellow jaundice. That was the end of my career as cook. One morning (day three) a Japanese motorbike roared into camp with a couple of American Airmen. They had landed on the nearby airfield, commandeered a motorbike with sidecar and proceeded to the P.O.W. camp which they had spotted on a previous reconnaissance flight. They were absolutely mobbed as everybody wanted to know what was going on in the world. They informed us that we had to put clear P.O.W. markers out so we could be supplied by air with food and further necessities. About the 20th August we had the first airdrop. What a beautiful sight: Three Liberator bombers roared low over the camp and on the second pass down came all coloured parachutes with containers with all goodies. Lovely tins of everything, boxes and drums with underwear, shirts, trousers, boots, medicines, vitamins and so on. Too much to take it in at once. Part of the drop landed outside the parade ground and fence and the boys rounded up youngsters and women from the Jap village to help carry the loot into the camp. They were rewarded with chocolate and cigarettes and so an excellent relationship was established. Everything was just stacked in a big heap and everybody could help himself. Nobody bothered about the kitchen anymore. The boys formed groups of four or five and started their own "messes". We had absolutely an abundance of everything. Two days after the first drop we had another "raid". This time only two Liberators. Something went wrong however. Some boxes and drums came apart from their parachutes and one box landed in such a way that it decapitated Joe Truey our "Jap friendly" Cuban. It is typical of the attitude of the average P.O.W. that hardly anybody was really upset. Some even commented: "It serves him right". Another: "No need to court-marshal him now". I went outside to watch the planes when they came over and when I went back to my place I discovered a hole in the roof and a large drum with boots laying on top of my bed. At that time it was considered that I was just a lucky fellow. Now, fifty years later, I realize that I was kept safely in the Lord's hand as happened more in my life. The Lord has a purpose for everything and I still cannot understand why I am richly blessed over the years. A lot of our boys went sightseeing. They just left camp, commandeered Army vehicles (no civilian ones around) or went to the railway stations to travel free of charge all over the country. A couple of fellows got as far as Tokyo-Yokohama and reports filtered back that when they called at Military Police headquarters our "esteemed" interpreter Katsura reported himself back into the US Army. He was executed on the spot according to one informant. I doubt whether this story was true but in those first weeks after the Jap surrender everything was possible. I still cannot understand the total reversal of the attitude of the Japanese. Wherever we showed up the people were overly polite and accommodating. When we happened to meet some military men we just had to look at them sternly and we were accorded full military honours (saluting, bowing, etc). One story comes to mind: There were a couple of Dutch Navy boys; one with the name of Roosevelt and the other was Donkelaar. They decided to have a look at a different camp "Fukuoka 17". They traveled by train, first class, of course, and on arrival at the destined town they walked out of the railway station and were accosted by a Military Police Patrol consisting of some ex-P.O.W., from camp 17. They had to give their credentials and state their business to be on the loose. Well, Roosevelt gave his name and the MP said: "You are a liar, the President died a few months ago. You are under arrest". Next Donkelaar gave his name and he was arrested being AWOL from camp 17. His twin brother happened to be an inmate from camp 17. It was hilarious, but at the time it was not funny. They were brought as prisoners to camp 17 and had quite a hectic time convincing the camp authorities that they had told the truth. The Donkelaar brothers had their reunion but the next morning Roosevelt and "our" Donkelaar escaped and told the story about the poor fellows in 17 having such an horrid time with their own overlords. We were certainly fortunate that in our camp the situation was different. A couple of English officers and Sergeant Major J. tried to re-introduce us to the strict pre-war discipline but they soon realized that it is very hard if not impossible to drill a mob of Aussies and American convicts. Regarding the Dutch, it was a matter of "No Understand" and a dumb look. The Dutch officer was a medical man who couldn't care less as long as his patients were treated well. So the British Army gave up. A lively black market developed. Red Cross supplies were in overabundance. A couple of Americans knew of a Japanese Army dump nearby and we soon had a few truckloads of Army blankets and other clothing "liberated" and the civilian population was very keen to obtain some warm merchandise for the coming winter. Our boys were after "kimonos" and other artifacts. Some started collecting "samurais" (swords) from Jap officers on the loose. It is still a wonder that nothing serious developed. If an officer was reluctant he was threatened with General MacArthur's name and rewarded with a signed chit that he had surrendered his weapon to "Captain Bullshit" or worse. On the 31st August we had another airdrop which was a "special". It was the birthday of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and our small group of Dutchies were spoken to by our Doctor and we sang the Dutch Anthem. Soon after the grocery plane arrived overhead and down came the "gifts". There was one parachute, an orange one, which was very conspicuous, orange being the colour of the house of "Orange" (Dutch Royal Family). The orange container was hauled triumphantly to the sickbay and the Doctor read the message printed on it. I forgot the wording but it was a congratulation for all the Netherlands servicemen and the box contained a special gift from such and such squadron to enhance our celebrations. The box contained prophylactics and condoms. As you can imagine it caused a lot of hilarity amongst our Allies but we didn't appreciate the joke at the time. Anyway, life in camp was very pleasant. August is a beautiful month, also the groups, messes, all had their territory staked out amongst the pine trees and we all slept outdoors and dined "all fresco". The barracks were simply impossible to live in because of the vermin. It was toward the middle of September that word came through that we were to be evacuated by train. On the 15th of September we were all transported by trucks to the railway station. What a complete reversal: as P.O.W. we had to run, encouraged by savage Army men with sticks, rifles and bayonets. Now as "victorious" men we were very politely helped on board of the trucks and the Army fellows couldn't do enough to help us carry our gear. We were very "generous" and rewarded them with smokes and weren't they flabbergasted. We boarded a very good train with windows we could see through, not blacked out and the countryside we traveled through was quite pretty. As soon as we approached a town or city, however, we could see a lot of damage caused by bombing. But when we approached our destination we saw how horrendous war is. We entered the precinct of Nagasaki and I can remember a peculiar smell. A stink of burning and carrion. The train went rather slow, the rails were not damaged as they were below normal ground level, but it gave us the opportunity to see what has happened. We were travelling through a desolate wasteland, everything looked like pulverised dust and on the hills on either side of the valley were skeleton-like trees all flattened out and pointing away from us. On the low wasteland were curious looking things like hardened lumps of cement. We realised these were skulls and bones and other remains which weren't obliterated completely. Despite our excitement about going home most of us quieted down. We slowly moved on and approached a makeshift railway station put up by the Americans. The platforms were still in good order and the ruins of the buildings were bulldozed away and the US Seabees had erected a reception centre especially for the ex-prisoners of war. As soon as the train stopped everyone jumped out and what a reception we received. A large Navy band burst out in the diverse national anthems. First the American, next "God save the King" and finally "Wilhelmus" the Dutch anthem. We were quite a hard bitten lot (otherwise we wouldn't have survived) but this was too much. Men were unashamed crying like children. There were dozens of American Navy girls and Red Cross women and they couldn't do enough for us. They handed out doughnuts and Coca-Cola and we were really sort of mothered. After a while we were gradually shepherded into lines for registration and that gave some light-hearted moments as well. Everything had to be done in English and that was quite difficult for those Dutchmen who didn't have much of the British language. One fellow's name was Corporal so he was registered as corporal Rudy (he was a sailor 2nd class) the next sailor's name happened to be "Admiraal" so the registering clerk jumped up and said: "You better go over there Sir, that is the reception line for officers". We had a good laugh about it. Next we were ordered into a passage between rooms and told to discard all our clothing and things and to put personal things of solid matter like spoons and other metal articles into little metal crates to be fumigated. Everything else was going to be incinerated. There went our nice new uniforms ex-airdrop, there went all the Kimonos the boys had bartered for their sweethearts. Samurai swords, Japanese pipes and so on were 0.K. We had to walk through successive showers, lukewarm, gradually warmer and we were grabbed by a couple of medical orderlies who gave a good scrub down, shampoo and so on. Rinse and another couple gave a rubdown and drying off. A couple with powder puffs and then we were ushered into another cubicle where medical doctors gave us a check over. For some boys it was quite embarrassing as some doctors were females. Something unheard of in the pre-war services. After the final 0.K. we went past counters to be dressed and outfitted again. Underpants size such, singlets size so and so on. Three of each, shirts, trousers, caps, the works. All brand new American Army issue. When we emerged into the "clean" section of the recovery building we were ambushed by more Red Cross ladies who supplied us with "comfort bags", a bag containing articles normally kept in a toilet bag: comb, shaving gear, hair oil, container with soap, shampoo, flannel. Then again past tables carrying food, drink, snacks. It was really too much at once. It was a world totally different to what we were accustomed to. Our previous masters were real slave drivers, everything had to be done in a hurry, on the run. We were always on the alert, looking over our shoulder to see whether anybody was chasing you up. And now this was like a very leisurely Sunday afternoon. Take your time, mate, help yourself to whatever you like or fancy. However, everything comes to an end and we were very gradually guided to an entrance ramp of a medium size aircraft carrier: "USS CENANGO" which was moored close by the reception centre. What really made a big impression on me was that there was not a Japanese in sight. Everywhere American men and women in uniform. On board we were directed down into the hangar deck and this was completely refurbished with hundreds of camping stretchers with pillow and blanket each. Over the Tannoy (P.A. System) were announcements about the mealtimes and the location of the different galleys and heads (toilets). It was a bit confusing for a lot of the Dutch, but there were sufficient English-speaking Navy men who could translate and explain to their fellow ex-POWs. It was great to meet up with my mates from Fukuoka 2. Harry Z. was in Fukuoka 2 till the end of the war and he told us about the actual "Bomb". The camp was well outside the direct danger zone but buildings facing the direction of Nagasaki had walls collapsing and roofs blown off. A ferry boat on the way from Nagasaki was completely lifted out of the water and finished up about 120 metres inland. The boys were not allowed out of the camp because of the radiation danger and they were very surprised that we had been adventuring all over the countryside. Herman H. (Sam) was transferred to a coalmine about two months after I left and he had quite a difficult and dangerous time working in the mine on very low rations. Thankfully we all survived and we soon had our stretchers re-organised so we were together again.

Under the Samurai Sword, Clarence M. Graham, 1998 (Cal was shipped to Japan in July 1944 on the Canadian Inventor and was sent to Fukuoka Camp #17, Omuta. From there he saw the mushroom cloud on that fateful day in Nagasaki. See his article here, and also a CNN broadcast transcript (link outdated) on Larry King Live with Tom Brokaw.)

This is a true narrative by Sargeant Graham, who tells of his amazing life of survival in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He starts with the peaceful life on a tripical island before the start of the war. He tells of battling the jungle conditions as well as the enemy during the battle of Bataan, then the battle of Corregidor and of being overwhelmed and captured by the enemy. He takes the reader through his three-and-one-half years in a prisoner of war camp under the inhumane treatment of the Japanese. Then the wonderful feeling of the return to freedom. It is a gripping true story of terrible atrocities told in a light and casual way.

I Solemnly Swear, Robert Morris Brown, 1957 (Excerpt telling of his arrival in Fukuoka)

I have in my possession an autographed first edition of the book "I Solemly Swear", written by my cousin, Sgt. Robert Morris Brown (1912 - 1998), in 1957. It is the true story of his experiences as a Japanese POW. Captured on Correigidor, he is a survivor of the Oryoku Maru. The book was not widely circulated at the time and is now almost impossible to find. He goes into great detail about both Japanese and American attrocities in the camps and on the prison ships, including black-marketeering, treason, vampirism, and cannibalism. Near the end of the book he talks about his experiences in Moji and Fukuoka. He tells the names and ultimate fate of many of the men who were with him, which may or may not be known. Before his death, I asked him if he belonged to any POW organizations, but he replied that he "was not a joiner."

I have made it into an eBook. It is available for $12.00. -- Richard H. Goms Jr., 320 Gordon Lane #E11, Salt Lake City, UT 84107

Here is a description of the book from the dustcover:

I SOLEMNLY SWEAR by ROBERT MORRIS "VANDERBILT" BROWN with DONALD PERMENTER

Perhaps no story to come out of World War II can match for sheer drama and horror the tale of "Vanderbilt" Brown.

A GI captured by the Japs in the fall of Corregidor, he spent more than three years in Japanese Hellcamps as a prisoner of war. To his humiliation, on Corregidor after its collapse, Brown suffered the degrading experience of being a lackey to the notorious Sergeant John David Provoo, who was later convicted of treason, then released on a technicality.

Accused on Corregidor of himself being a traitor, and with his life threatened by fellow American prisoners, Brown, in desperation, posed as a member of the Vanderbilt family. Though this ruse worked effectively for his self-protection as a prisoner, Brown returned from the dead only to find the ghosts of prison camp days waiting for him.

Here, in his own words, is the true, searingly realistic account of his experiences-of the prison camps where men traded their souls for a cup of rice crawling with weevils; of the doomed prison ship Oryoku Maru, where maddened Americans practiced cannibalism and even vampirism on their own comrades in order to stay alive one more day; of the Japanese "water torture," to which most prisoners preferred death; and of the heroes and traitors, the informers and black-marketeers, the dedicated nurses and resolute chaplains, jammed together in soul-rotting misery. . . .

But it is as a probing of the deepest reaches of man's inhumanity to man that I SOLEMNLY SWEAR has its greatest value for us today. For it also indicates that not even hell can crush the human spirit altogether.

"Notify Alec Rattray...", Meg Parkes, 2002

A story of survival during WWII, "Notify Alec Rattray..." tells of two captivities - one, a young Scottish soldier held by the Japanese in Java and Japan, and the other his relatives back home in Britain.

Capt. Atholl Duncan, Argyll & Sunderland Highlanders, was taken prisoner in Java in March 1942, aged 23. His fiance, Elizabeth Glassey was a medical student at St. Andrews university. For three and a half years he was held first in Tandjong Priok in Java then Motoyama, Zentsuji and Miyata prison camps in Japan. Covering the three years 1941-43, it tells of his arrival in peacetime Singapore and events as they unfolded.

Written by Meg Parkes using Atholl's secret diaries and their correspondence, she lets them tell their story in their own words. The book contains dozens of illustrations - photographs, maps, drawings, cards, letters, documents and even lists of names and addresses of fellow prisoners.

"Notify Alec Rattray..." will be invaluable to those who are searching for information about their relatives who were prisoners of war in the Far East. Fully indexed with a foreword is written by Major (Retd) Alastair Campbell A&SH. To order, visit: http://www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/books_alexrattray.html

Father Found, Duane Heisinger, 2003

Baby of Bataan, Joseph Q. Johnson, 2004

The Fallen, Marc Landas, 2004

A Long March Home, Clarence K. Larson, 1998

An Angel on My Shoulder, Geoffrey Monument, 1996

Conduct Under Fire, John A. Glusman, 2005

Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival As a Japanese Pow in World War II, Louis Zamperini, 2004

On May 27, 1943, Louis Zamperini's B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other survivors found a raft amid the wreckage and waited for rescue. Instead, they drifted two thousand miles for forty-seven days. Their only food: two shark livers and three raw albatross. Their only fresh water: sporadic rainfall.

On the forty-seventh day, close to death, Zamperini was captured by the Japanese. Thus began more than two years of torture and humiliation as a prisoner of war.

Zamperini survived and returned home a hero. The celebration was short-lived -- he plunged into drinking and the depths of rage and despair. It would take years, but with the love of his wife and the power of faith he was able to stop the nightmares that haunted him, overcome the drinking that imprisoned him, and lay to rest the ghosts of war.

A stirring memoir from one of the greatest of "the Greatest Generation," here is a living document about the brutality of war, the tenacity of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness.

Louis Zamperini appears regularly before students from primary schools to colleges, veterans groups, troubled youth, sports clubs, senior citizens, and religious organizations. Zamperini is eighty-six, lives in Hollywood, California, and only recently gave up skateboarding.

Horyo: Memoirs of an American Pow, Richard M. Gordon, Benjamin S. Llamzon

Knights of Bushido, Lord Russell, 1958

Frank Lovato's memoirs -- SURVIVOR: An American soldier's heartfelt story of intense fighting, surrender, and survival from Bataan to Nagasaki, Francisco L. Lovato, 2008 -- Here's what his son wrote me some time back:

I am searching for an English language speaking person to discuss a segment of my father's book on his experiences as a prisoner of war in the POW camp Fukuoka Camp # 1. He was in the camp for about one year prior to the end of the war. He witnessed the sad fire bombing of Fukuoka and related how at the end of the war Fukuoka women and children came to the camp with chickens for eggs and began the process of peace. My father and his men gave the happy children chocolate candy bars and their mothers food that was dropped by parachute two weeks following the war. All of the stories are emotionally moving. I would love to communicate with anyone that also remembered those times. Photos of the site would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks to your info, Dad and I spoke with Mr. Parrott last week for about 30 minutes. Hearing the two of them talk about common events and Japanese guards was remarkable. They do not remember each other specifically. Mr. Parrott was at the Fukuoka 1 camp for only about three months while he recovered from a foot injury, then was returned to the Mitsui coal mine Camp 17 at Omuta. My father was originally at the coal mines but was transferred to Camp Number 1 following a severe beating and death threat by a Mitsui overlord (work boss). I will send you the completed story in about one month. I am still editing the last review with my father.

Dad said Fukuoka Camp 1 was located about 5-7 miles from the town center in a foothill area where a stream/small river passed through. The railroad tracks that led to the loading docks by the port crossed over that same stream. He also said that nearby there were cliffs that they were ordered to dig out caves large enough for a small airplane to be launched out of with rocket propulsion. As they dug the caves out of the rock and dirt they dumped it into the sea straight out the front of the cave. They were never made operational as the war ended before they could build the "flying bombs".

I would like to get the story of the Fukuoka children who visited the camp the day after the war was over and were treated to Hershey chocolate and Juicy Fruit gum published in the Fukuoka newspaper. The next day the childrens mothers and grandfathers came to the camp with chickens for eggs. The beginning of peace and forgiveness. Chocoletto kudasai!

Building for War - The Epic Saga of the Civilian Contractors and Marines of Wake Island in WWII by Bonita Gilbert (2012) - a thorough account dealing with the background of the civilian contractors on Wake Island.

VIVISECTIONS:

The Sea and Poison (Umi to Dokuyaku), Shusaku Endo (fiction)

The Fallen: A True Story of American POWs and Japanese Wartime Atrocities, Marc Landas, 2004

When a rumor first crossed Special Agent Philip Cheles's desk in November 1945, there was no way to imagine the horror he would soon discover. Determined to uncover the truth behind an informant's report of a downed B-29 plane--and the assertion that one or more of the survivors had perished at the hands of local villagers--Cheles ultimately learned that nine soldiers had been captured and placed in the custody of the infamous Kempei Tai, the much-feared Japanese police. Further details surfaced about American POWs and their shocking fate. A benign investigation eventually exploded into the most sensational war crimes trial to come out of Japan.

The Fallen at last reveals the full story of these terrifying war crimes, which grew out of the little-known inner workings of Japan's World War II biological warfare program. In frank, riveting detail, Marc Landas unravels the story of thirty-nine American POWs who were beheaded by the Japanese military; of the B-29 crew, who suffered an even worse fate at the hands of Japanese scientists; and of the sole American survivor, Marvin Watkins, who refused to forget about his lost comrades even when his own country simply wanted to move on.

Drawing on meticulous research, Landas deftly traces the course of the investigation, from the elaborate cover-up by Japanese soldiers to Watkins's return to occupied Japan and his role in uncovering the crew's ultimate fate. Landas reveals the wretched conditions of Japanese POW camps, the astonishing witness testimony at the trial, and the awful truth about the missing G.I.s--that they had served as guinea pigs in unspeakable experiments by Japanese doctors. Landas pieces together the crewmen's horrific fate and in the process sheds new light on Japan's biological warfare program during World War II.

To compound the tragedy, the U.S. authorities released the convicted perpetrators for political gain. Landas explains how the push to establish a lasting friendship with Japan led to the cover-up of data and the granting of clemency. The result today is that the Japanese war crimes tribunal--and, indeed, the Americans who gave their lives--have all but been forgotten.

The Fallen at last reveals the truth about an episode that both Japanese and American authorities would rather have us overlook, offering an appalling, eye-opening tale of misguided science, corrupt justice, and man's inhumanity.

JAPANESE HISTORY:

Japan's Imperial Conspiracy, David Bergamini, 1971

The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family, Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, 1999

Gold Warriors, Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, 2002 (Sequel to The Yamato Dynasty)

"The Seagraves have uncovered one of the biggest secrets of the Twentieth Century." --- Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking

It has taken Holocaust victims nearly six decades to recover assets stolen by the Nazis and hidden by Swiss banks, and to win compensation for slave labor at German companies like Volkswagon and Bertelsman. This success has encouraged victims of Japanese aggression to come forth with valid demands for similar compensation. But these victims of Japan are being stonewalled by the White House and the State Department.

In 1951, since the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty ending the war with Japan, these victims have been denied all rights to compensation. The Treaty falsely declared that Japan was unable to pay significant reparations because the country was bankrupt by the war. Every president since Harry Truman has steadfastly backed up this assertion. As U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo, Thomas Foley declared in 1998, "The peace treaty put aside all claims against Japan." Foley now works as a paid consultant to Mitsubishi, helping them to block private legal actions being brought against the global enterprise by former slave-laborers.

While denialists maintain that Hirohito was a man of peaceful intentions who was manipulated by wicked advisors, the emperor personally authorized assassinations, was fully aware of medical experimentation on prisoners of war, and personally approved the policy of systematic looting of Asia. As Hoshino Naoki, head of the imperial heroin monopoly, reminded the emperor at a meeting of the Imperial Headquarters Liaison Conference: "There are no restrictions on us. We can do anything we want."

Although many books have been published about Nazi looting and economic conspiracy, records of Japan's looting and economic conspiracy have been removed from Western archives and remain under secret classification. Millions of victims who were robbed, enslaved and abused by the Japanese cannot get records on what they know to have happened to them. GOLD WARRIORS is the only book devoted completely to the history of Japan's looting of Asia.

GOLD WARRIORS lifts the veil of secrecy, drawing on thousands of pages of original documents and thousands of hours of interviews with eyewitnesses, confidential government sources, victims, financial experts and lawyers fighting to gain compensation and redress for Japan's war crimes. Twenty years of research back up this investigation of Japan's systematic looting of Asia, concluding with startling new evidence explaining why Japan has never paid significant compensation to her victims.

Drawing on thousands of pages of original documents and thousands of hours of interviews with eyewitnesses, victims, financial experts and lawyers fighting to gain compensation and redress for Japan's war crimes, the Seagraves expose one of the great state secrets of the Twentieth Century. GOLD WARRIORS is available exclusively at www.bowstring.net. The signed edition is available with two CDs containing thousands of pages of documents and photographs assembled in the course of the research.

Magic: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast during WW II, David D. Lowman, 2001

In late 1940 members of the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Service broke Japan's highest level diplomatic code and then constructed a machine that was an analog of the one used by the Japanese. This allowed the U.S. to read Japan's diplomatic traffic from then until after the end of the war. Intelligence thus gained was cover named MAGIC because it seemed that only magicians could have produced it.

Among the decoded messages of 1941 were a number detailing espionage planning and operations involving Japanese-Americans along the West Coast. In February 1942 President Roosevelt authorized the evacuation of all persons of Japanese ancestry.

In 1983 a congressional commission, ignoring available declassified intelligence and ignorant of MAGIC revelations, concluded the President's action was the result of racism, war hysteria and lack of political will.

Now for the first time David D. Lowman, using MAGIC messages and declassified Army, Navy and FBI reports, presents the real reasons for the evacuation. As a former high level officer in the National Security Agency and a witness before congressional committees dealing with the evacuation he was uniquely qualified to tell this story. Those who could never quite believe the base motives attributed to our wartime leaders and our country will find Lowman's story compelling.

BOOKS IN JAPANESE:

Disgrace: The Truth of the Kyushu University Vivisection Incident (Omei: "Kyudai Seitai Kaibo Jiken" no Shinso), Toshio Tono, 1979, 1998, Bungei Shunshu

The True Story of the "Kyushu University Vivisection Case": An Empirical Record of the Last Witness (Shinso "Kyudai Seitai Kaibo Jiken"), 2019, Bungei Shunshu

Vivisection: The Kyushu University Medical Department Incident (Seitai Kaibo: Kyushu Daigaku Igakubu Jiken), Fuyuko Kamisaka, 1982, Chuo Koron-sha
[NOTE: Dr. Tono does not have a very high opinion of this "tabloid-type" book.]

The Bell of Peace (Heiwa no Kane), Hiroshi Kudo, 1996 [About B-29 crash memorial in Takachiho]

A Bridge Across the Pacific Ocean: Beyond the Tragedy of a POW Camp (Taiheiyo ni Kakeru Hashi: Horyo Shuyojo no Higeki wo Koete), Joetsu Japan-Australia Society, 1996 [Tokyo #4 Naoetsu]

Preserving Peace: Beyond the Tragedy of Naoetsu POW Camp (Heiwa wo Mamoru: Naoetsu Horyo Shuyojo no Higeki wo Koete), Niigata Prefecture Board of Education, 1997 [Tokyo #4 Naoetsu]

At a Mine in a Strange Land: A Record of Forced Labor at the Mitsui Yamano Coal Mine (Ikyo no Yama: Mitsui Yamano-ko Kyosei Rodo no Kiroku), Kaichosha, 2000 [Fukuoka #8 Inatsuki]

VIDEOS/DVDs:

Japanese War Crimes: Murder Under the Sun, Lou Reda Productions (A & E Entertainment, 2000) [Soon to be in Japanese!]

History Undercover: The Bataan Death March, A & E Home Video, 2000

Sleep My Sons: The Story of the Arisan Maru, Shawnee Brittan Productions for Westar Entertainment, 1997

Wake Island (1942), Universal Studios, 2001

Three Came Home (1950), Gotham Distribution, 2002

Paradise Road, 20th Century Fox, 1997 ("Set in World War II Singapore, European women imprisoned by the Japanese seek solace from the horror of their imprisonment by forming a vocal orchestra.")

Song of Survival, Janson Associates, 1985 -- The documentary version of Paradise Road.

They survived three-and-a-half years in a Japanese prison camp in Sumatra during World War II. But these courageous women had something special going for them: the great music of Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin. Having no instruments but the human voice, they recreated from memory the complex symphonic music they had loved. Even as disease and malnutrition thinned their ranks, these Australian, Dutch and British women - missionaries, teachers, nuns, wives and children - used their unique choir to sustain a spirit that refused to accept defeat. Here is their remarkable story, told by the survivors themselves, aided by rare archival footage

To End All Wars, 2001, Argyll Film Partners

Changi, 2002, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Prisoners of the Sun, 2004, Uav Corporation (original Australian movie, Blood Oath, 1990)

Brian A. Williams (writer / producer of Blood Oath) was kind enough to share with us the following:

Blood Oath is based on a true story about my father, John Williams who was the Army prosecutor (Captain Cooper/ Bryan Brown) of the largest war crimes trial of alleged B and C class Japanese criminals. The trial of 91 officers and men was commenced on Ambon in January 1946 and completed in March 46 on Morotai island. Over 50% of the accused Japanese were acquitted, a testament to the extraordinary application of the presumption of innocence by the Australian War Crimes tribunals who supervised the trials. Even more extraordinary when one considers that the Ambon camp had the highest POW mortality rate i.e 75%, of any of the POW camps run by the Japanese in South East Asia. --> Read more

Bataan Rescue, Paramount Home Video, 2005 (PBS page American Experience: Bataan Rescue)

The Great Raid, Miramax, 2005

XIV. POW Issues

A. Lawsuits (LAWSUIT PAGE)

Lester Tenney (see the chapter on the Death March from his book) is the first American ex-POW to bring a lawsuit against a Japanese company asking for compensation for forced labor during his captivity in Japan. He visited us in December 1999 and we went down to where the largest POW camp in Kyushu once stood -- Omuta Camp #17. He often comes to Japan to give lectures. Following are some letters and articles telling about his lawsuit and visit to Omuta. Also included is his speech to the U.S. Senate and letter to former President Clinton.

Tenney's Letter to Center for Internee Rights magazine

August 18th, 1999

Upon advice of my council, I have been unable to tell you until now about my legal confrontations with the Japanese Company Mitsui, regarding my forced labor, personal damages and the need for an apology. As you may recall, Mitsui is the corporation that owned the coalmines in Japan where I was forced to work under inhumane conditions during my years as a POW.

At 8:30 a.m. on August 11th, 1999, my Attorneys filed a Lawsuit on my behalf in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, California. One of the reasons we decided to take this Action was Senate Bill 1245, which eliminated the Statue of Limitations for those cases involved with slave labor. This California Legislation was signed into Law by the Governor of California on July 27th, 1999.

A very important, but perhaps overlooked provision of the new Law is that it allows not only survivors of Japanese POW camps to bring an action, but also specifically allows heirs of survivors to bring actions.

The Law Firm representing me is Herman, Middleton, Casey and Kitchens, a national Law Firm that has a large number of outstanding trial lawyers in a number of states. The members of this firm have successfully sued many national and multinational corporations, including the tobacco industry, the asbestos industry and Exxon in the Oil Spill Litigation.

As you know, a lot of the corporations that used POW labor in Japan include some of the largest companies in the world today, such as Mitsui, Yodogawa Steel Corporation and others. It is clear that the requirement, both monetary and research expertise, needed to successfully sustain lawsuits of this nature requires a firm with substantial resources at their disposal, and I have such a law-firm.

I realize the impact this Bill and my Lawsuit means to other POW or their heirs and because of that I hereby give you permission to share this information with members of CFIR, so that they may benefit from these events.

With best personal regards, I remain

(signed)

Les Tenney

Newspaper article re lawsuit (Aug. 13, 1999)

U.S. ex-POW sues Mitsui for forced labor

Visit to Omuta

Tenney overlooking former site of Omuta POW Camp #17

NishiNihon Shinbun (West Japan Newspaper)

December 9, 1999

Lester & Betty Tenney at news conference in Omuta

DECEMBER 8 -- 58 YEARS FROM THE START OF THE WAR

FORMER AMERICAN POW VISITS OMUTA

"MITSUI'S RESPONSIBILITY HAS NOT DISAPPEARED"

Former college professor from the U.S., Lester Tenney (79), on the 8th, after 54 years, visited Omuta City's old Mitsui Miike Mine site where he worked in forced labor during WWII.

At a press conference which was held afterwards at Omuta City Hall, Tenney made his appeal: "Mitsui profited from the forced labor, and for its own honor it must apologize."

Tenney told how he became a POW as a soldier in the Philippines and then was forced to work in the mine from September 1943 until the end of the war. "We had to dig tunnels using dynamite, very dangerous work. We were made to work 12 hours a day. I started out weighing 85Kg, but when I was set free I was only 40Kg," said Tenney, looking back on the harsh labors in the coal mine.

In July of this year, a new law was enacted by the State of California lengthening the statute of limitations for seeking war reparations by those forced to work during WWII. Tenney in August filed a lawsuit with the California Court asking for compensation from the Mitsui Mining Company.

In regards to his lawsuit Tenney remarked, "Even though the Mitsui Miike mine has closed down, Mitsui's responsibility for the inhumane use of POWs for forced labor has not disappeared."

• For more on the POW camp in Omuta, read the official Report on Omuta Camp #17.

• Also read Medical Officer Hewlett's account in which he describes the various maladies that afflicted Camp 17 POWs.

• Linda Dahl Weeks' project on Omuta #17 - detailed info and bio's of the men at Camp #17.
  

• Louis Goldbrum was at Camp #17 and wrote: "I was held in this camp and worked in the Mitsui coal mine for two years. My number was 45, I came with the original 500 Americans on the Mati Mati Maru. Because the good Lord selected me to be one who survived and returned home from a living hell, I am dedicated to help those who are in need of help and teach the Cost of Freedom to youngsters who are fortunate to be born Americans and take freedom for granted. I have formed and coordinate The Former POW Speakers Bureau, at the VA Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida. We visit schools and talk about The Cost of Freedom to the students. It is very gratifying to get the attention and response after speaking and answering the multitude of questions from them. Hello to any former Camp #17 survivors. I wish you well. Goldy, yon ju go ban"

• Read these articles about Frank Bigelow, one of the POWs interned at this infamous camp: A Soldier's Story, Bataan Death March and ORDINARY HERO. Frank passed away on July 9, 2003.

• Article by Clarence Graham who was a POW at Omuta #17 and saw the A-bombing of Nagasaki. See also his bio here.
  

---

Tenney's Speech to U.S. Senate

Dear Friends and Family:

I am taking this opportunity and method of sharing with you some new developments in my fight for the POW issue.

I have been asked by Senator Hatch to be a witness at a Senate Judiciary Hearing this coming Wednesday on POW issues. I had to prepare a written statement that I am to give at the hearing, and I thought you may find the speech interesting. It once again shouts out loud my feelings and gives you an insight into what makes me tick.

Regards,

Lester

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing
On Prisoner of War Victims of the Bataan Death March
June 28, 2000 at 10:00 A.M.
By Lester I. Tenney

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate. Being here today in the presence of this prestigious body of lawmakers is a most humbling experience. I am indeed honored to have been asked to be a part of this momentous and historic occasion.

In early 1942 I, along with 12,000 other Americans who were fighting and defending our country on the Bataan Peninsular, were promised from our Government supplies, food and reinforcements so that we could continue our defense of the Philippines. As history has shown, the promise made by our government was never fulfilled. During one of President Roosevelt's Fire Side Chats, made in February of 1942, we sat in our Tanks and listened as our President informed the American people that, "in every war there are those who must be sacrificed for the benefit of the whole war effort." We suddenly realized he was talking about us! We were being sacrificed, abandoned for the benefit of the over-all War effort. Well Senators, we were able to live with that, after all we were proud young men and women serving our country, and we took an oath to protect our country at all costs.

But on April 9, 1942 we, the defenders of Bataan were surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army and we found ourselves prisoners of war. I would like to share with you what exactly it means to be a prisoner of war. First of all you are stripped of every human right you thought you had. You are constantly reminded of the fact that you are cowards, you are lower than dogs, and you have no rights whatsoever. You are humiliated beyond belief and your faith and morals are challenged on a daily basis. Sickness and diseases like dysentery, malaria, beriberi, scurvy and pellagra run rampant in your body. The smell of death is everywhere; it lingers in your nostrils for what seems like a lifetime. Many of the survivors have stated that they would have preferred death rather than captivity by the Japanese if they had known ahead of time what was going to happen.

Now here we are 58 years later, survivors of these barbaric and sadistic events, and we are once again informed that we are again being sacrificed and abandoned by our own Government, but this time not for the War effort, but instead for the benefit of those large Japanese industrial giants who profited from our slave labor. I must say, I once again feel that I have been taken prisoner, but this time by my own country. My dignity and honor are slowly being diluted. The Japanese beat me with guns and swords, my country is beating me down with words. Please allow me to explain. Last year the State of California decided to seek justice for those veterans who were captured by the Japanese and made prisoners of war. The California Legislature unanimously passed a statute that was enacted into law allowing claims for compensation for those veterans who were used as slave laborers to go forward in the courts irrespective of the running of the statute of limitations. Pursuant to this law, I, along with many other former POWs who were enslaved by Japanese companies during World War II, have since filed lawsuits seeking equality and justice.

Shockingly, the U.S. Department of Justice has recently filed a court submission, the effect of which would nullify the action of the California

Legislature in seeking to open up State courts for American POWs who are pursuing fair compensation for back wages and injuries suffered at the hands of the many private profit-seeking industrial giants of Japan. Equally distressing is the fact that the same Justice Department has taken a "hands off" position with regards to the same treaty issue as that of the German Holocaust victims.

This is incomprehensible to me, especially as our government in recent years awarded reparations to Japanese American citizens, (thousands, who were classified as Japanese spies and Japanese sympathizers, were also awarded this compensation) who were placed into relocation centers during World War II. In addition, I am happy to say our Government worked diligently to help resolve the claims brought by victims of German atrocities during the Holocaust of World War II.

I am speaking as one of the survivors of the Bataan Death March who survived the atrocities of a barbaric group of victors. The beatings and torture we went through on a daily basis was not half as formidable as having to watch as the Japanese victors shot, bayoneted, buried alive or decapitated our friends who unfortunately were unable to continue the March, and we were then forced to witness these slayings.

After surviving the Bataan March, I was taken to Japan on a Hell ship. Once there I became a slave laborer in a coal mine owned by Mitsui. I was forced to shovel coal 12 hours a day 28 days a month, for over two years. And the reward I received for this hard labor was; beatings by the civilian workers in the mine. The reason for these beatings was because I did not work fast enough, did not shovel enough coal that day, or because the Americans won an important battle. We got to know how the War was progressing by the frequency and severity of the beatings, and the beatings were usually with a pickax, a hammer or a chain, whatever the Mitsui overseers in the mine were able to get their hands on.

Now I, along with many of my former POW friends, are seeking justice from the Japanese companies that placed us into servitude. Our plight for recognition of this wrong has been studiously ignored by our own government, and now we are slowly coming to the end of our lives and we would like once-and-for-all to see swift justice done on our behalf. We would like to gain back our honor and dignity, and have our country, in some small way, make amends for failing to fulfill their previous obligations and promises.

I feel as if I am once again being sacrificed, abandoned not for the War effort as in the past, but for the benefit of Japanese big business. We are being abandoned by our Department of Justice and our judicial system. I urge you Senators, use your position within our government to correct this wrong and to have our Justice Department turn away from this misguided course of action. We need all segments of our government to accept responsibility for their deeds and their actions.

The court papers recently filed by the Justice Department in the court proceeding (U.S.D.C., N.D. Case No. C000064) effectively takes away our right for recovery of a wrong perpetrated against us by a guilty and negligent Japanese Industrial giant who used us as their slaves, without compensation, without caring for our well being and without controlling the actions of their employees.

The Justice Department erroneously or negligently issued a formal submission to the courts of our Nation, omitting the most crucial issue of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which the Justice Department was asked to review, Section 26, known as, "The Most Favored Nation Clause," which states, "Should Japan make a peace settlement or war claims settlement with any State granting that State greater advantages than those provided by the present Treaty, those same advantages shall be extended to the parties to the present Treaty." Records of our State Department show that at least six other nations have been granted more favorable treaty terms than those given to the United States. Article 26 when properly interpreted allows victims of forced or slave labor to seek recovery for the wrong perpetrated against former prisoners of war during WW II. Yet, the Justice Department studiously ignores it in its statement of interest and mentions not one word about Article 26, even though it had been briefed on this issue.

Thank you Senators for listening to my statement about honor, injustice and responsibility. We served our country with honor, we have had our share of injustice and now we seek responsibility from our government.

Letter to former President Clinton

To my friends and family members who have been kind enough to be interested in my lawsuit against Mitsui Mining, I thought you may be interested to read my letter to President Clinton.

Thanks for being there for me.

Lester

Lester I. Tenney
Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University
1645 Caminito Asterisco La Jolla, CA 92037
Phone: 858-454-8310

October 2, 2000

Dear Mr. President:

Your personal letter to me a few years ago made a dramatic change in my life and restored my pride in knowing that what we accomplished on Bataan and what we went through while on the Bataan Death March would not be forgotten. (I have taken the liberty of enclosing a copy of your letter to me.)

Mr. President, as you are aware, while we were defending Bataan, our government was forced to sacrifice us for the benefit of the over-all war effort. After the surrender of the Philippines, we were taken to Japan and placed into servitude with many different Japanese companies. We received only enough food to work another day. Our medical care was practically non-existent and company employees often beat us. Some of us were injured severely or died due to the unsafe conditions in the coalmines, copper, lead and zinc mines or at the factories in which we were enslaved. The death rate for POW's in Japan was 37.3 per cent.

Knowing the history of our servitude and understanding that our cause of action is not against Japan as a nation, nor the Japanese people, why is the State Department now bending over backwards protecting the very Japanese industrial giants that enslaved us during WW II? Just last month in the courtroom where our case is being heard, our State Department took it upon themselves to argue on behalf of the Japanese companies. I cannot describe the feelings I had when my own government submitted voluminous briefs in favor of these industrial giants, and I was shocked to have to witness my own government's attorneys arguing in the courtroom for dismissal of my lawsuit and they did this as a friend of the Japanese companies that had brutally enslaved me and thousands of other Americans.

I was proud that the United States chose to champion the cause of those victims that were enslaved by the German Companies during the years of the Holocaust, and to know that our government helped to achieve a victory for justice and set an example for the world to follow. But what I cannot understand is why the United States has turned its back on its own citizens that were enslaved by Japanese companies and has gone to great lengths to legally assist these companies in their fight against we Americans.

After all these years, we victims of Japanese brutality in the workplace, are at last seeking an apology and some form of restitution for the crimes perpetrated against us by these private profit seeking Japanese companies. Mr. President, are we once again being sacrificed by our own government, but this time for the benefit of those very Japanese companies whose profits were made by forcing American citizens into slavery under inhumane conditions?

We are once again having our dignity and pride stripped from us. And in addition, our freedom and constitutional rights as citizens of the United States are also being taken away. I will not burden you, Mr. President, with the details of the action taken by the bureaucrats at the State Department, except to say that it very clear that the State Department has studied this issue in a cursory and political manner without considering any duty to U.S. citizens. We survivors of Bataan and Corregidor need your help, and we need it now. We are all witnessing a severe decline in our health due in large part to our being placed into servitude by these large Japanese companies. Needless to say, our ranks are rapidly dwindling due to age and infirmity.

Please don't once again allow our country to abandon us. Step in and make your voice heard on the issue of our seeking restitution from those Japanese industrial giants that tortured and enslaved us. Our Senate introduced the 'Hatch POW Resolution ' through the support and effort of Senator Hatch and Senator Feinstein, and our Congress, through the efforts of Congressman Gilman, introduced the 'Gilman POW Resolution.' These mirror image bills attempt to encourage our State Department to seek support for our cause and to fight to facilitate discussions designed to resolve all issues between we POWs and the Japanese companies who benefited from our slave labor. Please Mr. President, don't fail us now.

Thank you in advance for whatever you can do to help us in this hour of need.

Sincerely,

Lester Tenney
Author of "My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March"

See also Lester Tenney article at ABC-NEWS. He appeared both on 20/20 (May 25) and ABC Evening News (May 27, 2001).

You may follow the progress on POW lawsuits at Justice For Veterans and at War Compensation Claims by WW II Victims.

Lawsuit updates:

• Excellent article from June 17, 2001 issue of Parade magazine: "They Should Have Their Day In Court." Related article below:

U.S. House paves way for POW lawsuits Daily Yomiuri July 21, 2001 WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- The U.S. House of Representatives has passed by an overwhelming majority a budget provision barring the administration from blocking former U.S. prisoners of war from filing slave-labor compensation lawsuits against Japanese companies. The provision, which cleared the lower chamber Wednesday by a 395 to 33 vote, bars the State and Justice departments from using government money to oppose slave-labor lawsuits on grounds that the United States has given up compensation claims against Japan under the San Francisco peace treaty. The Senate has yet to act on the measure, which was sponsored by in the House of Representatives by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, D-Calif. The U.S. State Department has submitted briefs to U.S. courts in support of the Japanese government's rejection of lawsuits on the grounds that the 1951 San Francisco treaty had settled all wartime claims. According to historians, about 50,000 U.S. servicemen were taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. About half were sent to Japan, where many were forced to perform hard labor, mainly in steel mills and mines.

• About the San Franciso Peace Treaty of 1951 and its relevance to compensation claims:

• Update from The Quan:

• December 24, 2001 article from People magazine on Lester and Betty Tenney: "Lester Tenney's 60-year War"

• Lawsuit updates continued on LAWSUIT UPDATE PAGE.

• Lester Tenney died on Feb. 24, 2017; news article: Carlsbad's Lester Tenney, a Bataan Death March survivor, dies at 96.
  

B. Memorials

1. Mizumaki Cross Memorial

Fukuoka Camp #6, also known as Orio Camp, was located in Mizumaki, northeast of Fukuoka City. Since most of the POWs were Dutch, a group of ex-POWs from the Netherlands set up this gravesite memorial several years ago. You can read about Dolf Winkler and his desire to establish this memorial site, and the tireless efforts of Hiroshi Kurokawa in making Winkler's dream become a reality. This is truly a story of how wounds can be healed. The town of Mizumaki has a page on the Memorial Cross on its website as well. This article I found interesting, with large portrait of Winkler (Traces of war: Dutch and Indonesian survivors).

2. Soto Dam

A monument memorializing prisoners of war is at Soto Dam in Yunoki near Sasebo, set up in April 1956 by the city. The POWs were from Fukuoka Camp #18, located about a quarter mile above the dam construction site. In the mere 6 months this camp was in operation, some 65 POWs lost their lives during the construction of the dam. Read these excerpts from the affidavits of those who were there.

Photo of monument, Junshokusha no hi, "Monument to those who died in the line of duty" Photo of name plaque listing the 14 Japanese and 31 Americans who lost their lives Photo of top of dam . See Camp Profile PDF file (in Japanese only, listed as fk18_soutou_j.pdf in URL) for maps of this site. UPDATE: A new plaque was installed on May 30, 2010, which reflects an accurate list of the men who perished at this camp. See THE SOTO DAM MEMORIAL for more information and photos.

3. Taketa "Sky Martyrs" Monument

B-29 Crash Site: Erected on May 5, 1977, this cenotaph commemorates the 11 airmen aboard the B-29 as well as the Japanese pilot whose plane hit the B-29. See here for more about this monument and the airmen's fate. A memorial service is held each year at the monument on May 5.

4. Sanko Peace Park

B-29 Crash Site: At 9:10am on May 7, 1945, a B-29, the "Empire Express," went down on Mt. Hachimen in Sanko-mura, Oita-ken, after colliding with a Japanese twin-engine fighter. It had just finished "bombs away" over the target, Usa Airfield, when the fighter clipped the B-29's left wing. There were only three survivors: T/Sgt. Edgar L. McElfresh, Sgt. Ralph S. Romines, and Sgt. Otto W. Baumgarten, all from the 483rd Bomber Squadron, 505th Bomber Group, 20th Air Force Command. The "Empire Express" was the only aircraft lost out of eleven assigned to bomb Usa. Sgt. Tsutomu Murata, the 27-year-old pilot of the fighter plane, did not survive.

The three airmen were brought to the Fukuoka Detention Camp at Western Army HQ, and a little over a month later were taken out to meet their tragic and horrible deaths. That graphic story can be found here. See also Michael Berg's research on the Empire Express and executions. For a list of the airmen, see this Japanese webpage.

A peace monument was set up at the foot of Mt. Hachimen initially by the landowner, Masayoshi Kusunoki, in the early 50's as a memorial to both the Americans and the young Japanese pilot who died in the area. A larger monument (Japanese webpage here) was completed in 1970 by a group of Japanese along with some U.S. officers from Itazuke Air Base (see also this PDF, mostly in Japanese). Yearly memorial services are held at this site on May 3rd and include representatives from all over Japan, including Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, making this site the most prominent in all of Kyushu. In the words of one visitor: "I've been to the Washington D.C. monuments to the various wars, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Nagasaki and Hiroshima Atomic Bomb memorials and peace parks. None of them compare to the monument on Hachimen Mountain. It is unique because it was built and maintained as a monument to U.S. soldiers on the Japanese homeland."

Each stone imbedded on the face of this monument
represents a life expended in search for peace.
May this monument stand as a constant reminder of the futility of war.
--Inscription on the Sanko Peace Park memorial monument--

5. Takachiho "Prayer for Peace" Monument

B-29 Crash Site: The B-29 that crashed here on August 30, 1945, was enroute to Miyata POW Camp #12. It was on its final mission, loaded with relief supplies that were to be air-dropped over the newly-liberated, and very undernourished, POWs. Unfortunately, the supplies never reached their intended destination, for the plane went down due to poor visibility and crashed into the side of Mt. Sobo, killing all 12 crew members. (For detailed information and photos of target camp sites, see the 20th Air Force Report on POW Supply Missions to China, Korea, Formosa, Manchuria and the Japanese Home Islands. See also Relief of Prisoners of War and Internees.)

Some 900 POW supply flights were run right after the end of WWII, and most had to fly at dangerously low altitudes over mountainous terrain, often with limited visibility. A total of 8 aircraft and 77 airmen were lost.

Villagers nearby hurried up the mountainside in search of survivors. They only found their bodies amidst the charred remains of the aircraft and its contents scattered everywhere -- clothing, medical supplies, combs and toothbrushes, fruit juice, cocoa.

Through the efforts of many local Japanese, the "Prayer for Peace" Monument was erected on August 26, 1995, as a memorial to those who died. Each year around the 26th of August a memorial service is held at this site in Sanshudai. See this website for photos of the memorial stone and plaque showing the names of the airmen who died.

Hiroshi Kudo has written an excellent book (in Japanese with some English) dealing with some of the aspects of this fatal flight as well as a young Japanese fighter pilot whose plane also crashed in the Takachiho area only a few weeks earlier. This 222-page book, The Bell of Peace, is available from Mr. Shunsuke Ogata at The Takachiho Community Center, 1515 Mitai, Takachiho, Miyazaki 882-1101. The cost is ¥1500. You can read a translation of an article he wrote on how he discovered this crash site, as well as an assortment of other information on this flight (including a list of the airmen) and the monument on that same webpage.

6. Kihoku Crash Site Monument

B-29 Crash Site: This B-29 crashed on April 29, 1945, during a bombing mission over Miyakonojo Airfield in Kagoshima-ken. All crewmen aboard died in the crash; only 9 bodies were recovered and buried. See list of airmen here.

7. Naoetsu Peace Memorial Park

Outside of Kyushu, another important site is the Naoetsu Peace Memorial Park in Niigata in central Japan, built on the former site of the Naoetsu POW Camp #4B. Most of the POWs there were Australians. A book about the site and events leading up to its construction are recorded in A Bridge Across the Pacific Ocean. An excellent 80-page work for use in elementary and junior high schools was produced by the Niigata Prefectural Board of Education in 1997 and titled, Preserving Peace: Beyond the Tragedy of Naoetsu POW Camp (Heiwa wo Mamoru: Naoetsu Horyo Shuyojo no Higeki wo Koete). Additional website here.

8. Japan-U.K. Friendship Monument, Mukaishima

Located east of Hiroshima where mostly British POWs were interned at Hiroshima POW Camp #4B. For an explanation of this site, see the Peace & Friendship Monument and Wall Plaque. Also visit their website. Read about an American flag made by POWs at this camp. Another American flag story here (PDF file).

9. Emukae Memorial, Fukuoka Camp #24

This camp just north of Nagasaki was "home" to over 200 British and Australian POWs. See special page on Neil MacPherson and Owen Heron visit to Emukae and dedication ceremony for this memorial. See Camp Profile PDF file for more information (Japanese only).

10. Nagasaki Memorial for Alien War Victims: Fukuoka Camp #14

For British, American, Australian, Dutch, Indonesian and other Allied POWs who were at Fukuoka Camp #14 -- some 300 were exposed to the A-bomb with between 50 and 60 dying. See Camp Profile PDF file for more information (Japanese only). (Click on images for enlarged view. Images courtesy of Taeko Sasamoto.)

Other Memorial Sites in Japan

• Omori Peace Memorial, Tokyo: Tokyo POW Main Camp
• Kanose, Niigata: Building at site of Tokyo POW Camp #16
• Mitsushima Memorial Monument, Nagano: Tokyo POW Camp #12
  
• Iruka British POW Memorial Monument, Mie: Nagoya POW Camp #4 ("Iruka Boys"; Japanese only)
  
• Oeyama British POW Memorial Monument, Kyoto: Osaka POW Camp #3
• Omine Memorial Monument, Ube-Sanyo, Yamaguchi: Hiroshima POW Camp #6. Memorial stone, English -- Memorial stone, Japanese (Source: Arenan)
• Yokohama War Cemetery: More than 1,700 British Commonwealth POWs (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Pakistan) are buried here
• Juganji Temple, Mt. Ikoma, Osaka: Ashes of 1,086 Allied POWs interred here
• Memorial planned for construction at Ryuhoji temple where five Americans and a Norwegian were buried (died in Ofuna Navy Interrogation Camp, TOKYO POW CAMP MAIN CAMP DETACHED CAMP)
• Ishihara Sangyo factory in Yokkaichi, Mie Pref.: Yokkaichi Camp #5 (Inscription on the monument reads: "Nothing is more sublime than to give one's life for the sake of others. This monument is dedicated to those who fought and were killed for peace and freedom in World War II.")
• Hiroshima Peace Memorial for POWs: A dozen American airmen were captured and sent to Hiroshima Kenpeitai HQ just prior to the A-bombing of Hiroshima. Two Japanese websites show the memorial, including the plaque, photos of airmen, and related news articles -- US Victims of A-bomb and Memorial for US POWs
• Niigata Memorial: "The City of Niigata finally acknowledged the existence of the POW Camps in the mid 1990s. A lonely monument in a small park across the harbor of the Rinko Docks stands in testimony not only to the hundreds of POWs who were sent to Niigata, but also the thousands of Koreans and Chinese who were also slave laborers in Niigata during the war." (photos at bottom of webpage)
• Hakodate Eizenji Temple: Memorial for POWs who died at Hakodate POW camps. British POW visit noted here.
• Kobe Port Peace Memorial: For Korean and Chinese conscripted laborers as well as Allied POWs who were brought to Kobe Port by the Japanese government and companies during WWII and died while being forced to work there -- out of 5,700 Koreans workers, more than 47 died; of 996 Chinese, 16 died; of 1,400 Allied POWs, 190 died.

B-29 Memorial Sites elsewhere in Japan (See also B-29 crashes & airmen killed)

There were some 3,600 crewmen who went down in their B-29's over Japan during World War II. Of those who parachuted out and survived, at least 150 were killed where they landed by local townspeople. Over 40 others soon died due to injuries. In Osaka, out of 53 airmen taken, 8 died of their wounds, 6 were given poison-laced coffee, and the rest were shot and then buried. In Kobe, 43 airmen were either shot or beheaded. In northern Japan, 47 were executed. In Kyushu, 43 airmen were either shot, beheaded or dissected alive. Out of the 530 airmen who became POWs, less than 50% came back to the U.S. alive.

• Nagara-cho, Chosei-gun, Chiba-ken: Requiem Memorial for crew of a B-29 (went down on May 26, 1945) and a Japanese officer executed for war crimes. Erected in 1996 by Choeiji Temple priest, Mr. Ohashi.
• Tonosho-cho, Katori-gun, Chiba-ken: Peace Tower erected in 1997 for crew of B-29 which crashed on December 3, 1944. Three survived, one of which was the pilot (Golswaji?), who later returned to the site for a visit in 1997.
• Higashi Murayama, Tokyo-to: Peace Kannon for crew of B-29 which crashed on April 2, 1945.
• Shizuhatayama? Park, Shizuoka: Two B-29's went down in the city on June 20, 1945, killing all 23 aboard. Yearly services are held with U.S. military representatives attending.
• Toyota, Aichi-ken: Crashed on January 3, 1945, after bombing mission over Nagoya.
• Joyo, Kyoto-fu: Memorial tablets for crew of June 5, 1945 crash on bombing mission over Kobe. Shot down by a Japanese fighter plane. Six survivors became POWs. Their interpreter at the time, a Mr. Takeda, later made the tablets.
• Ryujin-mura, Hidaka-gun, Wakayama-ken: For crash of May 5, 1945, on bombing mission over Kure.
• Yuasa-cho, Arida-gun, Wakayama-ken: Burial site of pilot of a P-51 which was shot down over the coast.
• Miyaura, Okayama: Crash of June 29, 1945.
• Yanai, Yamaguchi: Peace Memorial erected in 1998 for the 9 crewmen aboard a B-24 which crashed here on July 28, 1945. Eight survived and were interned. The villagers used parts of the downed aircraft for utensils and farming tools. These were returned to the pilot, Mr. Cartwright, in 1985, who later visited the site in 1999.
• Naka-ku, Hiroshima: The 11 survivors of two B-24's (one of which was the above-mentioned B-24) and a SB2C Helldiver were captured and interned in Hiroshima. They were all killed by the A-bomb. A sign to commemorate these men was set up in 1998 by a Mr. Morishige.
• Oga, Akita: For B-29 airmen

C. Assorted Articles and Images

Former Camp Commandant Shirabe:

Merry Christmas, Mr. Shirabe by Asami Nagai The Daily Yomiuri July 29, 2000 FUKUOKA -- On Oct. 31, 1998, N.G.J.W. Van Marle, a former Dutch prisoner of war during World War II, was finally reunited with Masaji Shirabe. The two men, bath wrinkled and. gray-haired now, had not seen each other for 55 years, not since the days Van Marle was a POW in Shirabe's labor camp near Nagasaki. As commandant, Shirabe, now 85, was known for his humanitarian treatment of internees in his charge. "It's been a long time and I don't recall much," he said. "My motto as a camp commandant was to treat internees as equal people with rights and dignity that should be respected. That's all." Shirabe was a would-be priest-turned-soldier who had studied theology at Doshisha University in Kyoto. On Oct. 22, 1942, he met about 1,200 Dutch, British and American POWs arriving at Nagasaki Port to transfer them to his camp on a nearby island, where they were to labor in the dockyards. As commandant; he allowed the prisoners a self-governing system under 27 officers, made possible through the preservation of the Allied troops' own military hierarchies. A Dutch officer who had long worked at a Kobe trading company acted as interpreter, liaising between the POWs and their Japanese overseers. Shirabe declared one day a week a holiday. As a devout Baptist, he permitted internees to celebrate Christmas, and even went so far as to invite a priest from a local church into the camp. In the climate of wartime Japan, it was perhaps inevitable that his way of treating POWs was criticized as "too lenient," Shirabe said, adding that on one occasion he even took them out of the camp to attend Mass at a Nagasaki cathedral. "I never saw them as enemies," he recalled. "Rather, Japanese soldiers gave me the biggest headache, because some of them stole internees' personal belongings." The organizers of an exhibition on the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, slated to open in Japan Aug. 1, decided to use Shirabe's story as one of the personal histories on display. "He decided for himself how to act in wartime. I think it is an important message that people have to make their own decisions in such circumstances," said Erik Somers, exhibition director of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation and curator of "Dutch, Japanese, Indonesians -The Japanese Occupation of Indonesia Remembered." Just before Shirabe was transferred to another camp in early 1943, he asked one internee to sketch all 27 officers' portraits, and requested each officer to add his signature. This memento, which the former commandant has treasured ever since, was of great help when Von Marle visited him two years ago. "He looked just like his portrait on this piece of paper. Seeing this, I soon remembered him," Shirabe said with a chuckle. The artwork and a photo showing the reunion of the two former enemies -with Van Marle pointing at his own portrait -will be on show at the exhibition. "With them, we wanted to suggest that there is a possibility that enemies can live together during a war," Somers said. Shirabe surely proved this point. A black-and-white photo taken on Dec. 25, 1943 at a camp in Yamaguchi Prefecture shows him smiling shyly while POWs raise a toast, surrounded by Christmas decorations. After the war, Shirabe became a priest and moved to Okinawa Prefecture, where he and his family remained for 35 years. These days, they tour nursing homes and kindergartens around the nation, using puppets to dramatize Christian teachings. "In the years following the war, we often wondered what those internees were doing when they returned home," said Shirabe's wife of 60 years.

Article on lawsuit to obtain war-time files:

POW Plight -- Allied WWII prisoners of Japanese still suffer:

Amazing Story of Rodney Kephart and the Victory Flag at Camp #6 -- Similar stories of other flags made and flown at POW camps at liberation:

Two days after the British discovered us, the first B-29s came over, and the sky seemed filled with parachutes, some red, some white, and some blue. Some of the larger loads were carried in two 55-gallon drums welded end to end and the remainder in single drums. Occasionally a chute would not open, and the load would plummet to the earth like a bullet and explode with a frightening force on impact. On one occasion, there were three or four Japanese civilians sitting a round a small table having tea and hoping to gather up some food left on the ground. A chute carrying gallon containers of canned peaches came plummeting to earth and landed squarely in their midst. They never knew what hit them: killed by canned peaches.

With these multicolored parachutes, men of the three nations represented in that camp began making handmade flags of their respective countries. They were crude, but to us they were beautiful. On September 2, 1945, we hoisted them from poles set in the ground on the beach as we sang our respective national anthems. Four hours later, the surrender documents were signed aboard the U.S. battleship _Missouri_ in Tokyo Bay. (The U.S. flag we made in camp is on display at the Pioneer Village Museum in Minden, Nebraska, Capt. Thompson's home state.) -- From "We Were Next To Nothing" by Carl S. Nordin (1997), POW at Yokkaichi Camp #5

See also Some men will never forget 'Bataan' --

While in prison camp Omtevedt, along with other prisoners, made an American flag from red, white and blue parachutes used by American planes to drop food supplies. [PHOTO OF FLAG]

It was 11 a.m. Aug 18 when the Japanese lowered their colors and the makeshift American flag was raised. It went up before any American forces reached Japanese soil and was the first to fly over Japan at the end of the hostilities.

It was raised daily until Sept. 13, 1945, when the prisoners marched to freedom. Omtvedt carried the flag at the head of the column.

Omtvedt kept the flag and later presented it to the U.S. Government. It was placed in the Pentagon and is now in the museum at F. Lee, Va.

Another story of a US flag made by POWs (PDF file)

Article by Hiroshi Kudo on B-29 crash in Takachiho:

The POWs of the "Doolittle Raiders" with Testimony by DeShazer

• For more on the inspirational story of Jacob DeShazer, visit these sites:
  • Official website for the movie, Forgiven
  • Seattle Pacific University article, including photos -- Flight Into Eternity
  • Christianity Today magazine article: From Bombs to Something More Powerful
  • Famed WWII Doolittle Raiders reunite at Air Force Museum
  • Now This Is Love... The Amazing True Story that Begins Where the Movie Pearl Harbor Left Off
• For the amazing "rest of the story" about DeShazer and how he met Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese fighter pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor:
  • From Pearl Harbor to Calvary! -- from the book, God's Samurai: Lead Pilot At Pearl Harbor
  • Google search on DeShazer and Fuchida
  • Melvin Bradshaw tells of when he met Fuchida in Kokura, just north of Fukuoka City
  • Fritz Springmeier's The Rest of the Story! about the missionary, Timothy Pietsch, who gave Fuchida the tract on DeShazer's story NOTE: We had the privilege of working with Timothy and Helen Pietsch in Tokyo in the late '80's. Helen, born in Kokura, was the daughter of C.K. Dozier, the founder of Seinan University in Fukuoka. Timothy passed away in 1992, Helen in 2005. See this scan of a Douglas MacArthur's April 4, 1949 endorsement of the Pocket Testament League where he mentions Pietsch specifically; of note also is MacArthur correcting the plan of distributing to the Japanese one million portions of the Scriptures to a total of 10,000,000. See also MacArthur's message commending Bible reading (from The Allied Occupation of Japan and Japanese Religions by William Woodard, 1972).

Medical Officer Hewlett's article on Omuta Camp #17, Nightmare Revisited:

Leaflet explaining contents of relief supplies air-dropped at Camp #24

Page on Marine Corporal Donald Versaw, POW at Futase Camp #7, including two chapters from his book, Mikado no Kyaku (Guest of the Emperor).

Allen Godfrey Jones -- interned at Fukuoka #1 and #17

Assorted images:

• 1930's: Mickey Mouse and Popeye as Japanese Army officers
• 1930's: Mickey's Army comic book
• 1930's: Betty Boop leading "A Charge on the Battlefield"
• Front page of April 1945 magazine for children, Children of Nippon, and subtitled, Destruction of the Enemy, depicting children practicing with bamboo spears. NOTE: Above four images from The Toy Museum, Vol. 24: A Short Historical Survey of Japanese Toys II, 1992
• "Emperor Hirohito was a lifelong fan of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters. As a child he called his hobby horse Snow White (the Imperial Household Agency told outsiders it was called White Snow) [NOTE: How this came about is unclear as Walt Disney was born in 1901, the same year as Hirohito, and the movie Snow White did not come out until 1937. The original fairy tale, however, came out in the early 1800's.]. When he made a state visit to America in 1975, Hirohito insisted on visiting Disneyland in California, where he signed Mickey's guestbook and purchased a Mickey Mouse watch, which he wore the rest of his life. Hirohito died in 1989 and was buried with his Mickey Mouse watch still on his wrist." -- from The Yamato Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave
• Japanese military poster asking citizens to help increase supply of coal for the war effort: "We're counting on you! Our planes, ships, ammo -- all from coal!"
• Naval Historical Center images of POWs and POW camps:
  • Tokyo area POW camp
  • Tokyo POW camp
  • Tokyo waterfront POW camp
  • Yokohama area POW camp
  • Fukushima area POW camp
  • Kobe POW Camp #14
  • Kobe POW Camp #18
  • Questioning Japanese about POW camps
  • Greek sailors interned near Tokyo
  • Released POW being taken to hospital ship
  • Released POW on hospital ship, USS Benevolence
  • Hospital ship, USS Benevolence -- a welcome sight to many a POW evacuated at the end of WWII
  • Emaciated POW at Aomori POW Camp #11
  • Released POWs at Aomori POW Camp #11
  • POWs celebrate at Aomori POW Camp #11
  • Cheering POWs at Aomori POW Camp #11
  • Allied POWs waving from POW camp
  • Liberated POWs onboard US ship
  • Jinsen, Korea -- where many POWs from Fukuoka were shipped in April 1945 (POW roster of Jinsen camp)
• Wake Island -- where many of the very first POWs of WWII were taken prisoner (Mansell's page on Wake Island; see also Wake Island Civilian Survivors Association)
  • Wake Island, May 25, 1941
  • Aerial mosaic of Wake Island, December 3, 1941
  • Japanese air raid on Midway Island, June 4, 1942