[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 146 (Tuesday, October 15, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1516-E1518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FOURTH U.S. POW DELEGATION TO JAPAN, OCTOBER 13-21, 2013
______
HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor veterans from America's
greatest generation and thank the Government of Japan for recognizing
the sacrifices of these men. On Sunday, October 13, seven former
members or widows of former members of the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Air
Corps, and U.S. Marines who fought in the Pacific Theater of World War
II--and who were once prisoners of war of Imperial Japan--will travel
to Japan as guests of the Japanese government. Marking an act of
historic reconciliation and remembrance, this is the fourth delegation
of U.S. POWs to visit Japan through this program.
Their first trip to Japan was on aging freighters called
``Hellships,'' where the men were loaded into suffocating holds with
little space, water, food, or sanitation. The conditions in which they
were held are unimaginable. At the POW camps in the Philippines, Japan
and China, they suffered unmerciful abuse aggravated by the lack of
food, medical care, clothing, and appropriate housing. Each POW also
became a slave laborer at the mines, factories, and docks of some of
Japan's largest companies. In the end, nearly 40 percent of the
American POWs held by Japan perished; compared to two percent of those
in Nazi Germany's POW camps. The POWs of this delegation slaved for
Mitsubishi, Nippon Express, Sumitomo, Nisshin Flour, Hitachi, Dowa
Holdings, and JFE Holdings.
In September 2010, the Japanese government delivered to the first
American POW delegation an official, Cabinet-approved apology for the
damage and suffering these men endured. Although the Japanese
government had hosted POWs from the wartime Allies of the United States
since the late 1990s, the 2010 trip was the first trip to Japan for
American POWs. It was also the first official apology to any prisoners
of war held by Japan.
I know that the American POWs fought hard for this recognition. Dr.
Lester Tenney of California, a former POW who mined coal for Mitsui,
was instrumental in persuading the Government of Japan to offer the
apology and initiate the trips of reconciliation. He says he is
``honored to have had the opportunity of assisting the U.S. State
Department and the Japanese Embassy in arranging this year's POW
Visitation Program. Like the years past, the visit will no doubt yield
many memories while at the same time erase many bad experiences that
left its mark on the POWs. This year, for the first time, Japan's
Minister of Foreign Affairs has allowed three widows of former POWs to
participate in the program and visit the sites of their husbands'
Japanese prison camps located in various cities in Japan.''
I thank the POWs for their persistent pursuit of justice, and commend
the U.S. State Department for helping them. I also appreciate the
willingness of the Japanese government to pursue an historic and
meaningful apology. It is my hope that the POW Visitation Program
continues to expand, and that it will be a healing mechanism for the
POWs, their families and communities.
Now, it is time for the many Japanese companies that used POWs for
slave labor during World War II to follow the example of their
government by offering an apology and supporting programs for lasting
remembrance and reconciliation.
Mr. Speaker, I wish these men a fulfilling trip to Japan, and I hope
that their trip contributes to securing the historic peace between the
U.S. and our important ally Japan.
Fourth U.S. POW Delegation to Japan, October 13-21, 2013
Phillip W. Coon, 94, is a full blood Muscogee Creek who grew up in
Oklahoma. After graduating from the Haskell Institute (today's Haskell
Indian Nations University) in Lawrence, Kansas, he enlisted in the U.S.
Army on September 29, 1941. He was assigned to the 31st Infantry
Regiment and sent immediately to the Philippines Islands aboard the
USAT Willard A. Holbrook arriving on October 23, 1941. At Fort McKinley
he trained as a .30 caliber machine gunner (M1919 Browning). He fought
on Bataan Peninsula against the invading Japanese forces and was
surrendered on April 9. Forced on the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death
March, he was subjected to capricious cruelty and abuse, denied water,
food, rest and protection from the sun. Nearly all on the March had
surrendered sick and malnourished causing thousands to die before they
reached their destination of Camp O'Donnell. Coon credits his survival
to God, or as he said, ``We ran out of food, ammunition and men, but we
didn't run out of prayer.'' His first POW Camp was Camp O'Donnell where
he worked burial detail. For the next two years, he was held at
Cabanatuan, Camp Lipa-Batangas, Camp Murphy-Rizal, and Bilibid. On
October 1, 1944, he was shipped via Hong Kong on the Hellship Hokusen
Maru to Taiwan where he was held briefly at the Inrin Temporary POW
Camp. From Taiwan he was sent to Moji, Japan, via the Hellship
Melbourne Maru arriving January 23, 1945. He was then shipped north to
Sendai and became a slave laborer mining cooper for Fujita Gumi Kosaka
Kozan (today's Dowa Holdings Co. Ltd.) at the Sendai-#8B Kosaka POW
Camp. After his liberation in September 1945, he returned to the U.S.
and was discharged from service as a Corporal on June 24, 1946. He
returned home to work as Union Painter doing
[[Page E1517]]
high-scaffold work. Helen, his wife of 67 years, died this spring. Mr.
Coon lives with his son, Michael, a Vietnam vet who works with DAV
Creek County Chapter #9 as a Service Officer helping veterans with
their disability claims. Six members of the Muscogee Creek Nation
became prisoners of Japan on the Philippines: five from Corregidor and
Mr. Coon who was on Bataan. POW#Unknown
Lora Cummins, 87, is the widow of Ferron E. Cummins (1917-1990). She
lives in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Cummins grew up in New Mexico where he
graduated in 1938 from Tyler Commercial College in Texas and went to
work as a bookkeeper for the First National Bank in Hagerman, New
Mexico (today's First American Bank). In November 1940, he enlisted in
the U.S. Army Air Corps and had his Basic Training at Brooks and Kelly
Fields near San Antonio, Texas. He was assigned to the V Interceptor
Command, 24th Pursuit Group, 34th Pursuit Squadron at Hamilton Field,
California. In November 1941, Cummins was transferred to the
Philippines Islands aboard the USS Coolidge. He arrived on November 20
and was assigned to Nichols Field. When the Japanese invaded the
Philippines on December 8, he was sent to Aglaloma Point, Bataan to
fight with the 71st Infantry joining men from all branches of the Armed
Services. He was surrendered on April 9, 1942 and forced on the
infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March on April 10, 1942 from Mariveles to
Camp O'Donnell arriving on April 21, 1942. From Camp O'Donnell, he was
moved to Cabanatuan, then Bilibid. At these camps he survived
sunstroke, dysentery, malaria, dengue fever, wet and dry beriberi,
yellow jaundice, and blindness. In August 1944, he was shipped to Moji,
Japan, aboard the Hellship Noto Maru. He was taken to Hiroshima and
became a slave stevedore for Hitachi Shipyard (today's Hitachi Zosen
Corporation) at Mukaijima [Mukaishima] Hiroshima Sub-camp #4. A
Japanese elementary school in Mukaishima today honors the memory of the
men of this camp. On August 6, 1945, he felt the air warm and watched a
three-mile high mushroom cloud rise above Hiroshima from the atomic
bomb. He was officially liberated September 14, 1945. He returned to
Lake Arthur, New Mexico where he remained in the Air Force and married
the girl down the street, Lora Mae Lane. Upon retirement, he owned a
laundry and vending machine business. In 1967, the family moved to San
Antonio, Texas where he worked for SEARS. He and Lora had one child,
Glenda, and were married 43 years. Lora was a civilian employee of the
Air Force. He passed away on March 26, 1990 of a heart attack just days
after returning from his second trip to the Philippines with his wife,
daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, Ferron. Mr. Cummins is buried at
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. POW# 115
Robert B. Heer, 92, lives in Sequim, Washington. He grew up in Iowa
and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in June 1940 becoming a carpenter
with the 30th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bomb Group (Heavy), V Bomber
Command stationed at March Field, California. He was stationed at
Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before being ordered to the
Philippine Islands in October 1941 He arrived on October 23, 1941
aboard USAT Willard A. Holbrook and was sent to Clark Field. On
December 29, 1941, the 30th Bombardment Squadron was evacuated to
Mindanao and he was sent to the Del Monte Airfield. He was surrendered
on May 10 and sent to Camp Casisang, about five kilometers southwest of
Malaybalay, Mindanao. On September 6, 1942, the Generals and Colonels
were removed from Camp Casisang and sent to Formosa (Taiwan). Heer
served as an orderly to Brig. General Joseph P. Vachon, the former C.O.
of the Philippine Army's 101st Division on Mindanao, with whom Bob Heer
was sent to Karenko POW Camp via the freighter Suzuya Maru. At Karenko
he wrote a message to his family that the Japanese broadcast to the
U.S. over shortwave radio. In May 1943, he was shipped to Heito POW
Camp to clear and work in sugar cane fields. He remained there nearly a
year before being moved to Taihoku POW Camp #6 where he slaved at
building a memorial park for Japanese soldiers and a man-made lake for
the irrigation of rice fields. In early 1945, he was shipped to Japan,
first to the port of Moji on Kyushu and then north to Hokkaido. There
he was first a slave stevedore for the Hakodate Port Transportation
Company at Hakodate 2-D POW. In late May 1945, he was moved north to
become a slave laborer mining coal for Sumitomo Mining (today's
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.) at Hakodate #2 Akihira POW Camp. He was
liberated in early September 1945, when American Army records clerks
arrived and told them the war was over. After liberation, Heer
remembers eating well and gaining 40 pounds in Japan, making friends
with post-war civilians there. ``I was giving food to the Japanese,''
he said, even eating dinner with one family who invited him in after he
gave them matches and soap, which was in short supply. On April 20,
1946, Heer was honorably discharged from the Air Corps at Camp Beale
(Beale A.F.B.) in California. He used the GI Bill to earn a degree in
photography from the Fred Archer School of Photography in Los Angeles,
California. Missing friends and the military life, he returned to
active duty with the Air Force in 1950, retiring in 1966 as a Technical
Sergeant. In retirement he has worked as an amateur historian of
American POWs of Japan and embarked on a ``third career'' as a house
husband. He has been married to Karen Harper since 1989, and has four
children from two previous marriages. POW# 330
Esther Jennings, 90, is the widow of Clinton S. Jennings (1919-2004).
She lives in San Francisco, California. Mr. Jennings, a California
native, served in the Civilian Conservation Corps before enlisting in
the U.S. Army in 1941. He was sent to the Philippine Islands the same
year aboard the USS Republic (AP-33). He was stationed on Corregidor to
join Battery ``K'' 59th Coast Artillery Regiment where he helped man
fixed 60" Searchlights No. 1 through 8, plus a number of 60" and 30"
mobile seacoast searchlights. Surrendered on May 6, 1942, he was sent
to a series of POW camps on the Philippines: Bongabong, Cabanatuan,
Lipa-Batanga, and Bilibid. In July 1944, he was herded along with 1,600
other American POWs aboard the Hellship Nissyo Marti to be shipped to
Japan. The nightmarish two-week voyage to Moji, Japan included an
attack by an American submarine wolfpack on the unmarked transport.
Jennings was first held in Fukuoka-23-Keisen as slave laborer mining
coal for Meiji Mining [Meiji Kogyo] Hirayama Mine (The company was
dissolved in 1969, but its exploration and research division became
independent as Meiji Consultant Co., Ltd. in 1965, and still exists).
He was then transferred to Fukuoka #9B, located near the town of Miyata
(now the city of Miyawaka), again to be a slave laborer mining coal,
but for Kaijima Coal Mining Onoura Mine (the company no longer exists).
After the war, he spent 25 years in the Army working in finance. He
retired in 1965 and worked in public finance at the Bank of America
retiring again in 1985. Jennings was a dedicated volunteer: he spent 27
years at KQED; 24 years at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and
20 years for the San Francisco Opera Guild where he enjoyed being a
supernumerary. He was a member of American Defenders of Bataan &
Corregidor; American Ex-Prisoners of War; Philippine Scouts Heritage
Society; American Legion; San Francisco History Association; VFW;
Military Order of the Purple Heart; Past President of Golden Gate
Chapter #18 of National Sojourners; Native Sons of the Golden West,
Guadalupe Parlor; The Great War Society; Past Master of Masonic Lodge
San Francisco #120; Scottish Rite, Shriners; President of the National
Assn. of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni; The Retired Officers
Association and the Reserve Officers Association. He was married to
Esther Bloom for 34 years and had three children from a prior marriage.
He succumbed to cancer on October 28, 2004. Mr. Jennings is buried at
Hills of Eternity, Colma, California. POW# Unknown
Erwin R. Johnson, 91, divides his time between Wynantskill, New York,
outside of Albany and Lacombe, Louisiana. He grew up in New Orleans,
Louisiana, and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in September 1940.
He was assigned to the 48th Materiel Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group
(Light), V Bomber Command where he was trained as a mechanic for A-20
fighter planes. He was transferred to the Philippine Islands aboard the
USS President Coolidge in November 1941, arriving on November 20th and
was deployed to Fort McKinley south of Manila. When Japanese forces
attacked the Philippine Islands in December 1941, though not trained as
an infantryman, Johnson was issued a rifle and ordered to defend
against the Japanese advance. He and all American and Filipino troops
on the Bataan Peninsula were surrendered on April 9, 1942. Immediately,
he was forced on the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March to Camp
O'Donnell. He recalls many horrific events during the march; maybe the
worst was a Japanese guard bayoneting to death a Filipino mother and
her baby for trying to pass food to the starving, sick POWs. At Camp
O'Donnell he volunteered for work duty building bridges and other
projects. Later that year, he was transferred to Cabanatuan where he
volunteered for work details outside of the Camp. He was among 500
other American POWs shipped from the tropical Philippines to the
freezing Mukden, China (today's Shenyang) in October 1942 aboard
Mitsubishi's Hellship Tottori Maru via Formosa and Korea to Manchukuo
(Manchuria). None of the men had winter clothing. Johnson was housed at
the Hoten POW Camp and became a slave laborer at MKK (Manshu Kosaku
Kikai or Manchouko Kibitsu Kaishi, which some researchers believe was
owned by Mitsubishi and known as Manchuria Mitsubishi Machine Tool
Company, Ltd.). The camp was liberated in August 1945 by Russian and
OSS forces.
[[Page E1518]]
Discharged in June 1946, he used the GI bill to obtain a mechanical
engineering degree from Tulane University. He worked for a number of
technology manufacturing companies in Southern California including
North American Aviation (today's Boeing) and eventually returned to
Louisiana, retiring from the Port of New Orleans in 1993. In
retirement, he and his wife Margaret traveled throughout the United
States and were active in a number of veterans and POW organizations.
Margaret, his wife of 53 years, passed away in 2010. Together they
raised five boys. In 2011, he married Ann Wilbur Lampins whose brother,
Staff Sgt Charles S. Wilbur, was also a member of the U.S. Army Air
Corps. He was with the 28th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, Far
East Air Force in the Philippines. He too became a prisoner of Imperial
Japan and was also shipped to Mukden. He died of pneumonia soon after
arrival on December 28, 1942. The Johnsons are active members of the
Mukden POW Survivors group and other veterans' organizations. POW # 277
Marjean McGrew, 87, is the widow of Alfred Curtis McGrew (1922-2008).
She lives in San Diego, California. Mr. McGrew grew up in Columbus,
Ohio. After high school and briefly working with the Civilian
Conservation Corps, he enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Hayes. In
January 1941, his unit sailed to the Philippine Islands aboard the USS
Republic (AP-33). He took Basic Training at the 92nd Garage on
Corregidor and was assigned to Battery ``D'' (Denver) 60th Coast
Artillery (A.A.). He was transferred to Battery ``H'' (Hartford) 60th,
Coast Artillery (A.A.) at Herring Field, Middleside and was taken
prisoner there on May 6, 1942, with the surrender of Corregidor and the
Philippines. He was held in the following POW camps: 92nd Garage,
Bilibid, Cabanatuan 2 and 1; Camp O'Donnell, Nichols Field. In August
1944, he was shipped to Moji, Japan aboard the Hellship Noto Maru. In
Japan, McGrew became a slave stevedore for Nippon Express (still in
operation) at Omori Tokyo Base Camp; then a slave stevedore for Nisshin
Flour Milling Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 24-D) (today's Nisshin Seifun
Group); and finally at Suwa Branch Camp (Tokyo 6-B) he was a slave
laborer for Nippon Steel Tube & Mining Company (today's JFE Holdings).
He was liberated in Yokohama on September 6, 1945. He later became an
Honorary Member and friend of the U.S. Army 503rd Parachute Regiment
Combat Team (RCT) who liberated Corregidor from the Japanese in 1945,
and the 4th Marine Regiment who had defended it. After returning to
Columbus, he met and married Marjean Herres of Bellefontaine, Ohio (the
love of his life for 59 years). They moved to San Diego to be nearer
the ocean and raise their two children, Vicki and Steve. He retired
from Control Data Corporation after 27 years when the manufacturing
division left San Diego.
In retirement, McGrew traveled back to Corregidor many times to
collect photos, documents, and data from those who served on
Corregidor. During his many trips back, he sat in the ruins of
Corregidor thinking of the great times and the bad times as well as the
many young friends he lost. As a long-time amateur historian, he
assisted many families and friends in their search for information on
their loved ones serving and/or captured on Corregidor. McGrew's
approach to life was to use humor as a base for survival and survive he
did several times in his life. For fun, he enjoyed scuba diving,
golfing, table tennis, camping, and traveling with his wife around the
U.S. in their R.V. Mrs. McGrew was a nurse and an avid folk dancer. He
succumbed to cancer on January 27, 2008, surrounded by his loving
children and his wife. Mr. McGrew is buried at Fort Rosecrans National
Cemetery, Point Loma, California. POW# Unknown
Marvin A. Roslansky, 91, lives with his wife Josephine in Mesa,
Arizona. Mr. Roslansky grew up in Minnesota and enlisted in the Marine
Corps in the spring of 1941. He was sent to Guam in September 1941. He
was one of 153 Marines assigned to defend Guam, a U.S. territory
administered by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. As a member of the
Insular Patrol Unit, he fought in the brief defense of the island
(December 8-9, 1941) and was captured by invading Japanese forces. On
January 10, 1942, the American prisoners of the Guam garrison including
five nurses and a civilian mother and child were shipped to prison
camps in Japan aboard the MS Argentina Maru, what was Mitsui's OSK
Line's fastest ship. Arriving in Japan on January 16, 1942, he was
taken to Shikoku and imprisoned at the Zentsuji POW Camp (Zentsuji was
originally built to house German prisoners of the Japanese in World War
I). The camp was on an island about 400 miles west of Tokyo. He spent
the rest of the war there as a slave stevedore for Nippon Express
(still in operation) working 12-hour days at the Sakaide Rail Yards and
the Port of Takamatsu. He was liberated September 27, 1945. After the
war, he lived in Racine, Wisconsin where he owned an auto parts
business. Retired in 1981, he volunteered at the Clement J. Zablocki VA
Medical Center in Milwaukee as well as doing veterans service work for
the DAV, the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, and the
Milwaukee Barb Wire, East Valley, and Prairieland Minnesota Chapters of
AXPOW. With his first wife, Iva, he raised four daughters and three
sons. He married Josephine Plourde in 2010. POW# Unknown
____________________