NIPPON STEEL DEATHS - October -1944

Fukuoka #3 POW Camp

NIPPON STEEL DEATHS - October -1944 

In the over three years that Nippon Steel used thousands of American and Allied POWs as slave labor, only one American was recorded as dying in an October.

The POW, Ken Davis, was a civilian, who had the misfortune to be among the construction workers on Wake Island building out a U.S. Naval facility. After the Japanese occupied the Pacific atoll, they declared everyone present a military prisoner of war, even though the majority were not. Among those stranded on the island and sent to Japan included an Liberty Mutual Insurance adjuster on his way to China. He appears to have survived the war. (See Bonnie Gilbert's website and book}

In the previous year, 1943, October was a particularly deadly day for the Wake Island civilian contractors. Fearing a U.S. invasion, the Imperial Japanese Naval commander of Wake Island, Rear Admiral Shigimatsu Sakaibara, ordered the massacre of the 97 POWs remaining in his care. On the evening of October 7, 1944, the men were lined up and seated along a ditch they had dug facing the sea.They were blindfolded with their hands and feet bound. Three platoons of Japanese sailors mowed them down with machine gun and rifle fire.They then were dumped unceremoniously into the ditch and covered with coral sand. (See: "Massacre on Wake Island" by By Major Mark E. Hubbs, U.S. Army Reserve (Retired), February 2001, Naval History, Vol. 15 Number 1.)

Nippon Steel and the companies it acquired used throughout WWII over 6,000 American and Allied POWs as slave labor in its mines, mills, factories, and transportation hubs. At least 600 POWs died in their care. Hundreds more likely did of illness and accident after liberation.

Nippon Steel, which now owns it longtime rival US Steel, has never acknowledged or memorialized their POW laborers. Two POW sites have even been designated UNESCO World Industrial Heritage locations. Again, there is no mention of the POW slave labor there.

As Nippon Steel tries to show its affinity to its American workers, it behooves them to honor the men who died working for their contribution to Imperial Japan's war effort.

To remind Nippon Steel of its obligations, you may want to send the list below with a note to "never forget" to Nippon Steel's US public affairs office: info@us.nipponsteel.com

DAVIS, Kenneth C. (CIV)

Unit: BYD, MK (Morrison-Knudsen), Wake

Date of Death: October 9, 1944

Cause of Death: Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Camp: Fukuoka No. 3 Branch Camp (Yahata/Tobata/Kokura)

Burial Site: Manila American Cemetery and Memorial

Home Town: Osceola Mills, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania

Gravesite: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56767120/kenneth-calvin-davis