August 1944 and the American POWs of Japan

Saipan

75 years ago, August 1944, the the end of WWII in the Pacific was in sight.

Whereas in Europe there was June's D-Day at Normandy, July in the Pacific saw a series of equally dramatic D-Days. The campaigns to capture the Mariana Islands–Saipan, Tinian and Guam–would cut off Japan from its resource-rich southern empire and clear the way for further advances to Tokyo. At Saipan and Tinian, the islands nearest to Japan, U.S. forces could establish crucial air bases from which the U.S. Army’s new long-range B-29 Superfortress bombers could inflict punishing strikes on Japan’s Home Islands ahead of an Allied invasion. Guam was personal. On December 10, 1941, it was the first U.S. territory to fall to Japan.

The Marines stormed ashore on Saipan on June 15, 1944 planning for a 3-day fight. Japanese forces proved greater and more ferocious than anticipated. U.S. bombing of the island had been ineffective. The bitter and bloody battle, the first conducted around a substantial civilian population, lasted three weeks through July 9. How the U.S. finally won, became the template for the rest of the war in the Pacific.

The first American POWs on Saipan were from a B-24 Liberator that crashed into the waters near Saipan on May 29, 1944. Piloted by Captain Loren Arthur Stoddard (CA), the 10-man crew was on a photo reconnaissance mission leading up to the American invasion of the island. Six of the men died on impact. Four survived in a raft for four days that drifted towards Saipan. On June 2, the men were picked up by a Japanese patrol, questioned for four days then flown to Japan where they were taken to the Ofuna Naval Interrogation Center in Kamakura, the infamous torture facility. Paralyzed from the waist down, Bombardier 1st Lt. Ernest Ferdinan Peschau, Jr. (NC) died en-route from Saipan on June 8th. Captain Stoddard, Co-Pilot 2nd Lt. Peter Hryskanich (NY), and Radio TSgt Lincoln S. Manierre (CT) survived their ordeal.

suicide cliff

The conclusion of the battle on Saipan made a lasting impression on American war planners. At dawn on July 7, the Japanese launched a gyokusai attack. (roughly translated as broken jewels, a reference to the destruction of an entire Japanese unit, a suicide attack that is sometimes called a banzai attack) The exact number of attackers will never be known, but it is estimated that more than 4,000 Japanese participated in this last-ditch assault on the American forces. A dozen or so Japanese soldiers carrying red flags led the way. Behind them came the remaining able-bodied Japanese soldiers. Behind that group of 3,000 men were the wounded, many on crutches and unable to carry a gun. Along with the wounded were the civilians of Saipan, carrying bamboo spears. The battle lasted 15 hours, leaving 650 American soldiers dead or wounded, and 4,300 Japanese killed.

As the fighting on Saipan continued, Japanese citizens headed to the Northern tip of the island. There they chose two specific areas, known today as Banzai Cliff and Suicide Cliff, and jumped to their deaths as families. The majority of the suicides happened in the last four days of fighting, between July 8th and July 12th.

By the end of the fighting, nearly 30,000 Japanese soldiers were dead, 5,000 by their own hands, including the island's Commander General Gen. Yoshitsugu Saito , who was found dead in a cave alongside Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the Naval commander who lead the Japanese carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor. Only 921 prisoners were captured. Of the 25,000 Japanese civilians on Saipan, 22,000 were dead as well, almost all of them having taken their own lives. Total casualties for the Marines and soldiers who fought on Saipan amounted to 786 officers and 13,438 enlisted men killed, wounded or missing in action.

Saipan showed American war planners that there were long, hard battles ahead against an enemy determined not to surrender, but to ensure as many casualties, military and civilian, as possible.in their defeat. Saipan became the measure for a future battles, especially in planning for the invasion of Japan. The battle for Japan was expected to look much like the battle for Saipan: large ground forces, air support, a civilian population, rugged terrain, a suicidal defense to the last man. The “Saipan Ratio” was developed to determine how the future battle would unfold. For example, on Saipan the Americans lost four soldiers for every seven Japanese. Planners figured there were roughly 3.5 million enemy soldiers waiting for them on Japan. As they applied the Saipan Ratio of 4:7 to the invasion of Japan, they estimated American casualties would be roughly 2 million, 500,000 of which would be killed and the rest wounded. This assumed a battle lasting roughly two months. If it dragged on, casualties would go up from there.

Another lesson of Saipan, was that America's African American Marines were more than ready and able for battle. Saipan was the first use of the Montford Point Marines in combat during World War II. First used to unload food and ammunition from landing vehicles and deliver the supplies under fire to troops on Saipan's beach, they were soon in combat fighting alongside the white Marines. The Montford Point Marines were awarded the Congressional Gold medal in 2011 in recognition of their personal sacrifice and service to their country during World War II.

MacArthur, Roosevelt, Nimitz

The loss of Saipan stunned the political establishment in Tokyo. Many of Saipan’s citizens were Japanese, and the loss of Saipan marked the first defeat in Japanese territory that had not been added during Japan’s aggressive expansion by invasion in 1941 and 1942. Worse still, General Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister, had publicly promised that the United States would never take Saipan. He and his cabinet, which included Kishi (Abe's grandfather) was forced to resign barely a week after the U.S. conquest of the island, July 18th.

After Saipan, American troops turned toward Guam and Tinian. On July 8th, cruisers and destroyers of Task Group 53.18, commanded by Rear Adm. Charles Turner Joy, began daily bombardment operations on Japanese defenses in Guam. Battleships joined the bombardment group on July 14. U.S. Marines and soldiers made amphibious landings on July 21. Guam was secured August 10. The assault on Tinian began July 24 and formal fighting ended by August 1.

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And not to be forgotten, on July 13, 1944, after being adrift in the Pacific for 43 day when his B-24, Green Hornet, crashed during a rescue mission, California Olympian and Airman Louis Zamperini (CA) is captured by the Imperial Japan Navy near the Kwajalein Atoll known as “Execution Island.” He is transported to Kwajalein after three days. In his cell he discovers carved on the wall “Nine Marines marooned on Makin Island, August 18, 1942,” followed by their names). The Marines, he learned, had been executed. He was soon taken to Japan and the Ofuna Naval Interrogation Center in Kamakura,

In the midst of these battles, July 26-27 , the Pacific Strategy Conference was held in Hawaii. President Roosevelt met with Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur at Pearl Harbor to decide the next priority of the war in the Pacific: Formosa or the Philippines. On the island, Roosevelt witnessed exercises in preparation of the invasion of Japan.

ROOSEVELT'S 1942 STATEMENT ON PUNISHMENT OF WAR CRIMES

DOCUMENT ON THE HISTORY OF THE  POWS OF JAPAN
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S STATEMENT ON PUNISHMENT OF WAR CRIMES
August 21, 1942
White House news release.

The Secretary of State recently forwarded to me a communication signed by the Ambassador of the Netherlands and the: Ministers of Yugoslavia and Luxembourg on behalf of the Governments of Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the French National Committee in London, calling attention to the barbaric crimes; against civilian populations which are being committed in occupied countries, particularly on the continent of Europe.

In this communication, attention was invited to the declaration signed in London on January 13, 1942 by the representatives of nine governments whose countries are under German occupation. This declaration affirmed that acts of violence thus perpetrated against the civilian populations are at variance with accepted ideas concerning acts of war and political offenses as these are understood by civilized nations; stated that the punishment, through the channel of organized justice, of those guilty and responsible for these crimes, is one of the principal war aims of the contracting governments; and recorded the determination of the contracting governments in a spirit of international solidarity to see to it that those guilty and responsible, whatever their nationality, are handed over to justice and tried and that the sentences pronounced are carried out.

The communication which I have just received from the chiefs of mission of the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and Luxembourg states that these acts of oppression and terror have taken proportions and forms giving rise to the fear that as the defeat of the enemy countries approaches, the barbaric and unrelenting character of the occupational regime will become more marked and may even lead to the extermination of certain populations.

As I stated on October 25, 1941:

"The practice of executing scores of innocent hostages in reprisal for isolated attacks on Germans in countries temporarily under the Nazi heel revolts a world already inured to suffering and brutality. Civilized peoples long ago adopted the basic principle that no man should be punished for the deed of another. Unable to apprehend the persons involved in these attacks the Nazis characteristically slaughter fifty or a hundred innocent persons. Those who would 'collaborate' with Hitler or try to appease him cannot ignore this ghastly warning.

"The Nazis might have learned from the last war the impossibility of breaking men's spirit by terrorism. Instead they develop their 'lebensraum' and 'new order' by depths of frightfulness which even they have never approached before. These are the acts of desperate men who know in their hearts that they cannot win. Frightfulness can never bring peace to Europe. It only sows the seeds of hatred which will one day bring fearful retribution."

The Government of the United States has been aware for some time of these crimes. Our Government is constantly receiving additional information from dependable sources and it welcomes reports from any trustworthy source which would assist in keeping our growing fund of information and evidence up to date and reliable.

The United Nations are going to win this war. When victory has been achieved, it is the purpose of the Government of the United States, as I know it is the purpose of each of the United Nations, to make appropriate use of the information and evidence in respect to these barbaric crimes of the invaders, in Europe and in Asia. It seems only fair that they should have this warning that the time will come when they shall have to stand in courts of law in the very countries which they are now oppressing and answer for their acts.

Rediscovered but not recovered

Tayabas by Ben Steele

On Memorial Day, May 27, 77 years after his death, Gordon B. Northrup II of Spring Street in Pembroke, Massachusetts was remembered. A plaque and a wreath were placed near the Northrup family home on Spring Street, at the intersection of Pleasant and Oak streets.

Pvt. Northrup was a member of the Army Air Corps, 3rd Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group At Iba, Zambales Province, Luzon. The 3rd Pursuit Squadron was based at Iba, a small grass field on the China Sea across the 2,000-foot Zambales Mountains from Fort Stotsenberg and Clark. Iba Field was barely large enough to accommodate the 18 Curtis P-40Es that made up the 3rd Pursuit Squadron, but it was the closest fighter airfield to the approach routes to the American military installations around Manila. Previously, Iba had been used primarily as an advanced field for gunnery training on the ranges in the nearby Zambales.

Because of its location, Iba was a logical choice for a radar site. In all, seven radar sets had arrived in the Philippines by early December, but Iba was the only one operational when war came on December 8, 1941. Iba was also the first Air Corps field to be attacked. The Iba attack came shortly before Japan's planes descended upon Clark Field. By evening of the 8th, both Iba's radar command and the air field were destroyed. Half the men on the ground were dead.

In mid-December, the men of the Army Air Corps and Navy in the Philippines, had lost their planes, hangars, ports, and ships. They were given WWI rifles and reassigned to provisional infantry units to fight off the invading Japanese on Bataan. Many first learned to shoot and fight in combat.The US Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) on Luzon soon all retreated to the Bataan Peninsula. All were seasoned, hardened soldiers by the time they were surrendered on April 9, 1942.

The surrendered were gathered at various points on Bataan with many at the city of Mariveles on the tip of the peninsula. The trek up and out of the peninsula, became known as the Bataan Death March. It was made of up of three phases each punctuated by brutality, cruelty, and death from thirst, starvation, disease, and murder.

First was a 65 mile march to the San Fernando train station. There they were packed standing in unventilated boxcars for a 24-mile train trip to Capas. From there the survivors were marched seven more miles to Camp O'Donnell, a makeshift POW camp from an unfinished training facility.

To escape the hellish conditions at O'Donnell, a number of men volunteered for work details outside the Camp. One was the infamous Tayabas Road Detail. Ptv Northrup was among the 300 POWs who arrived at the work site on 29 May 1942. With no shelter, mosquito nets, clean water or medicine men sickened and died rapidly of malaria, pneumonia, and other tropical diseases.

On 28 July 1942, the Japanese finally closed down their road-building effort in Tayabas. Only 187 men were still alive, and all were deathly ill. Northrup was among the dead; he died June 30, 1942. The horrors of Tayabas, although documented in many memoirs, is best depicted in Montana's Ben Steele's drawings and paintings.

Northrup was buried in an unmarked grave in Tayabas. His body was never recovered. And his hometown never recognized his death.

This all changed Memorial Day 2019. Memorial Committee Chairperson Linda Osbourne organized the creation and installation of a memorial plaque to Ptv. Northrup. The Forgotten Soldier of Pembroke is no longer forgotten.

USS Missouri (BB-43) Forever

Today, on the 75th anniversary of her commissioning, the famous American battleship USS Missouri (BB-43), will sail again via the nation's mailstream with the issuance of the USS Missouri Forever stamps.  The U.S. Postal Service dedicated the stamps today during a ceremony on her deck at the Battleship Missouri Memorial pier side in Pearl Harbor. The public is asked to share the news on social media using the hashtag #USSMissouriStamps.

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USS Missouri Battleship Sails Again on US Postage Stamp

"The USS Missouri is one of the most famous Naval battleships to ever sail the sea and now the Postal Service is proud to add her to our roster of commemorative stamps," said Jeffrey C. Johnson, U.S. Postal Service acting enterprise analytics vice president, who dedicated the stamp. "As a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, I had the honor to serve in the United States Navy and I recognize the importance this great ship brings to American history and this Forever stamp will continue to help tell that vital story."

Joining Johnson in the ceremony was USS Missouri Memorial Association President and CEO Mike Carr, Rear Adm. Brian P. Fort, U.S. Navy Region Hawaii, and Rear Adm. Samuel Cox, US Navy (Retired), Director, Naval History and Heritage Command, Curator of the Navy.

The USS Missouri was commissioned on June 11, 1944. As a fast battleship, she was affectionately nicknamed "Mighty Mo." She was heavily armed and armored and capable of very high speeds for a vessel her size.

She joined the military efforts of the United States in the Pacific theater of operations during the last months of World War II. On Sept. 2, 1945, in a ceremony that was broadcast around the world, USS Missouri played one of the most momentous roles in the conflict when military officials from the Allied powers and Imperial Japan convened on her deck and signed the documents confirming Japan's surrender and ending the war.

USS Missouri earned numerous combat awards and citations during her decades of service, which also included deployments during the Korean War and Operation Desert Storm. Decommissioned for the second and final time in 1992 and removed from the Navy's ship registry in 1995, USS Missouri now rests as a memorial and museum at the Battleship USS Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The stamp art depicts USS Missouri from a low vantage point almost at sea level, cutting through the water at a moderate speed commensurate with entering or leaving port. Large and imposing in the frame, USS Missouri is shown in the disruptive camouflage she wore from her commissioning until a refit in early 1945. Clouds loom in the background, tinged with gold and rose from the sun's rays.

Designed by art director Greg Breeding, the stamp features a digital illustration created by Dan Cosgrove.

The USS Missouri stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.  

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at usps.com/shop , by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), by mail through USAPhilatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide. DIRECT LINK TO ORDER   https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/uss-missouri-S_478704

Alaskan POWs of Japan

On Sunday, June 7, 1942, in the midst of the Battle of Midway (June 4–7, 1942) and six months after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the 301st Independent Infantry Battalion from the Japanese Northern Army landed unopposed on the Alaskan islands of Attu and Kiska.

Attu’s radio operator and handyman, Charles Foster Jones, was executed (his wife was told he committed suicide) during the invasion and his wife Etta, the island’s schoolteacher, taken prisoner. To prove to her that he was dead, Etta's Japanese capturers presented her with Charles' body. And then, before her, beheaded him.

Mr. Jones is the only non-military-related civilian buried in the military cemetery at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage.

Etta Jones' story
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The traumatized Mrs. Jones was sent to Yokohama, Japan (4573 Izumi-cho, Totsuka-ku) as a prisoner of war in July 1942. Alone for few weeks until July 16, she was joined by 18 Australian nurses captured in Rabuel, New Britain. The young women helped her heal from the traumas she experienced on Attu.

The Aleut (Unangan) villagers were also considered prisoners of war and confined to the immediate vicinity of the village. The Japanese fearing that they would become a fifth column, shipped them to Northern Japan in September. They were lodged in the small rooms of dormitory for single employees of the National Railroad in Wakatake-Cho, Otaru City in Hokkaido.

Of the 42 Aleut captives sent to Japan, 16 (40%) died from disease, despair, and starvation. None were allowed to return to their island home.

Half of these Native Alaskans -- twenty -- were already suffering from advanced tuberculosis. Their symptoms had been diminished by the hi-protein and hi-calorie diet (salmon, seal and whale) of Attu, but quickly resurfaced due to poor hygienic conditions on the ship and inadequate nutrition in the Japanese diet.

Aleut survivor's story
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The POW years for Attu's residents were the usual story of Imperial Japan's internment camps, forced labor, abuse, and rape. They were a slow torture of hunger and isolation. They could not adapt to the loneliness, the local diet, and often became sick.

The battlefield area on Attu was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service owns and manages Attu as a part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

For the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Attu, award-winner Japanese director Tadashi OGAWA premiered a documentary on the invasion,  When The Fog Clears.

Records show at least 12 Alaskans were POWs of Japan. Mrs. Jones and the 42 Aleuts are not counted among them. None of the prisoners received compensation from either Japan or the United States.

Hidden caves & sunken ships: 

Alaska's living museums of World War II

Soto Dam Memorial

Stars and Stripes. SASEBO, Japan (May 23, 2019) - For more than 70 years Soto Dam has provided water to the citizens of Sasebo, but the construction of this vital water supply cost more than money and material. Members of Commander, Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and Sasebo community came together to honor the 67 men who died in its construction during the annual Soto Dam memorial ceremony May 23, 2019.

Soto Dam was an Imperial Japanese Navy construction project that began in 1941 to alleviate water shortages in Sasebo. To complete the task 265 American civilian prisoners of war were used and the dam was completed April 1944. A total of 53 American POWs and 14 Japanese laborers died during the construction.

In 1956 Sasebo City erected a memorial tower beside the dam to honor all those who died during its construction.

“Their ability to look at the unpleasant events of the past and remember what occurred here permits us to come here together today and stand side by side to remember our fallen countrymen,” said Capt. Brad Stallings, CFAS commanding officer.

Remarks by Sasebo Mayor Norio Tomonaga, who was unable to attend the ceremony, were read by Sasebo City Base Affairs Administration Bureau Chief Director Ryuichiro Higashi.

The speeches were followed by the reading of the names of the fallen by members of the U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as wreaths were laid by Stallings and Higashi on behalf of CFAS and Sasebo, community leaders and the Navy League.

“We would like to remember in our hearts again that Soto Dam was built upon many sacrifices during the unfortunate history of war,” said Higashi during the ceremony. “I wish our friendship that has been built between U.S. and Japan will continue forever.”

The prisoners of war had been construction workers contracted to build the airfield and submarine facilities at Wake Island. When Wake was captured by Japan on Dec. 23, 1941 it had 1,100 civilian contractors on island, 265 of which were sent to work on Soto Dam in late 1942.

According to Phil Eakins, a local historian involved with the memorial, the POWs lived and worked in harsh conditions and received no medical treatment. Among the survivors it became known as the “Death Camp.” [The prisoner of war camp, Fukuoka #18-B, was primary labor source for construction of the dam.]

The dead were originally buried by fellow POWs on a nearby hillside but were repatriated to the U.S. around 1949.

CONVENTION ON POWS OF JAPAN

Learn about the American POW experience with Imperial Japan

10th Annual Convention 

American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society 

May 28-June 1, 2019

Norfolk, VA 

Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel

Working schedule


Highlights

>James SCOTT will be the banquet speaker and will be available to sign his book, Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila, after the banquet. Discounted copies to buy.


>Frank BLAZICH of the Smithsonian Museum of American History will also be there to sign copies of his book, Bataan Survivor: A POW’s Account of Japanese Captivity in World War II and copies will be for sale, also for a discount.

>There will be a visit to the MacArthur Memorial Museum nearby as well as a screening of Jan Thompson's documentary on artist and POW Ben Steele, Survival through Art.

>Cecilia GAERLAN, Founder and Executive Director of Bataan Legacy Historical Society will give a presentation on the group's efforts to teach the lessons of WWII in the Philippines from the perspectives of both its military and civilian participants.

> Gregory KUPSKY, a historian for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Arlington, Virginia, where he researches missing American servicemen from World War II will discuss "DPAA and the Search for the Missing in the Philippines."