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Ensign (CEC), U.S.N. |
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The following is a statement
made by fellow POW, Edward Jackfert, in response to a query,
15 Oct 2001 by author, Roger Mansell. page 1 page 2 page 3 Main Index Guam Roster Kawasaki # 2 Camp The Tokyo Area POW Camp #2 [Kawasaki 2B] was severely bombed by B-29s on July 25,1945. The raid occurred at night and lasted around three hours. Lt. Carney was designated to stay in the camp compound and assist as fire marshall. There was an above ground shelter in the compound which was made of sand bags and dirt and a few wooden supports. The shelter that Lt. Carney was in was completely covered by dirt and debris from bombs that destroyed our camp quarters and killed 23 of our fellow POWs, including Lt. Carney. When we removed the dirt and debris from the shelter, we found that Lt. Carney had died of suffocation. He had a rosary in his hand when his body was recovered. It was our task also to pick up the pieces of flesh from POWs who were in a nearby shelter that had a direct bomb hit on their shelter. The remains were incinerated and the ashes were taken away and retained by the Japanese. Killed in this raid were two other Guam men, Snater and Strauch 10 Oct 2004: Additional note from Mr Jackfert We stayed in one of the nearby vacant warehouses for two days. During that period, we picked up the body pieces of those that were killed by a direct hit from a bomb. We also had to dig out the body of Lt. Carney whose shelter was completely covered by dirt and debris. He appeared to have suffocated in the shelter. On the 27th we were transproted to the Nishing Flour Mill POW camp. It was vacant at the time, however, and there was quite a bit of rice and millet in the camp warehouse for our use. There was no water, so we had details go out into the nearby community and obtained water for cooking purposes. At the Nishing Flour Mill camp we were bombed almost every day until the fifteenth of August. In addition, both Navy and P-51s continually strafed anything that moved in the area. However, we did survive. |