[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15923-15925]
[From the U.S. 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

[[Page 15924]]

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 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

[[Page 15925]]

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. 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

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