[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 177 (Thursday, November 9, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2152-E2153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE OF FRANCIS JOSLIN

                                 ______


                            HON. RANDY TATE

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 9, 1995

  Mr. TATE. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in paying 
tribute to Francis Joslin of Washington State.
  At 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 11, when we pause to remember the 
military veterans of our Nation who have fought to preserve our 
freedom, Francis Joslin should be in our thoughts. During world War II, 
Mr. Joslin exhibited the kind of courage and perseverance that most 
Americans of the postwar generations can scarcely imagine.
  As an 18-year-old Army recruit in the spring of 1941, Mr. Joslin was 
sent to the Philippines, where he was assigned to a coastal artillery 
battery. When World War II began on December 7, he was transferred to 
the 31st Infantry. He was among the American defenders of the 
Philippines who fought the Japanese invasion force from Luzon to 
Bataan.
  When Bataan fell on April 9, 1942, he and a small group of soldiers 
fled, swimming to the island of Corregidor, where he fought on until it 
too was surrendered on May 6. He was taken prisoner.
  By escaping to Corregidor, Mr. Joslin had avoided what was later 
named the Bataan Death March. But with the fall of Corregidor, he was 
to begin 3 years of imprisonment, slave labor, and torture that most of 
us probably would not have endured. At the time of his capture, he was 
6-foot-2 and weighed 190 pounds. At his liberation on August 15, 1945, 
he weighed but 105 pounds.
  At first imprisoned in Manila, Mr. Joslin, suffered from malaria for 
which he was given no medicine, was beaten and was not given enough 
food to sustain his health. He witnessed horrid acts of torture against 
fellow prisoners who had escaped to try to find food.
  Then that winter he and 1,500 of his fellow soldiers were moved to 
frigid northern China, where they were used as forced labor at a 
tannery and in lead mines. Survival again became a daily challenge. 
During that winter of 1943, they supplemented their inadequate rations 
by eating grass and capturing wild dogs.
  In the summer of 1944, suffering from fatigue and malnutrition, Mr. 
Joslin lost consciousness in the mine. When he awakened outside the 
mine 3 days later, his guards believed he had tried to escape. He was 
taken back to the mine and forced to stand naked for 2 days without 
food or water. That was followed by 2 days in solitary confinement, 
again without food or water.
  Shipped to Japan, he spent 10 days in solitary confinement without 
food or water and was repeatedly beaten. At the end of this chapter of 
his ordeal he was tried by a Japanese court for escape and sabotage and 
sentenced to life in solitary confinement.
  Mr. Joslin spent the last year of his confinement in an unheated, 
windowless cell in Japan. The cell was 5 feet wide and 10 feet long. 
The ceiling was 5\1/2\ feet high. A 40-watt 

[[Page E 2153]]
electric bulb lighted the cell 24 hours a day. He received one rice 
ball and a canteen of water each day.
  Mr. Joslin's solitude and prayers were interrupted only by beatings 
he received after Allied bombing raids. One day his guards removed him 
from the cell, placed his leg on a table and stabbed it repeatedly to 
see if they could make him scream. He was afraid that if he cried out 
that he would be shot. So he kept his silence. His untreated wounds 
grew infected.
  Finally in an August 14, 1945, radio broadcast, Emperor Hirohito told 
his people that the war was lost. The doors of the prison were opened 
the next day, and Mr. Joslin struggled his way to a United States 
prisoner of war camp where he was eventually liberated by Australian 
troops and shipped home to San Francisco for treatment.
  Mr. Joslin served his country for many more years in the Army and 
later in the Air Force. He is now retired, after 24 years of military 
service, and living in my home county, Pierce County, WA.
  A modest may, Mr. Joslin's story remained unknown to most of his 
family and friends until recently. When he recently wrote down his 
wartime experience at the request of his family, they were moved to 
honor him on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Japanese 
surrender at a special gathering.
  As we near Veterans Day in this 50th anniversary year of the end of 
World War II, it is fitting that we take note of the personal sacrifice 
and bravery of Francis Joslin and other former prisoners of war like 
him. In a profound sense our Nation owes that generation of heroes a 
debt which we can never repay. Please join me in acknowledging their 
special contribution to our country's history and offering a humble 
thank you.

                          ____________________