On this Veteran's Day, and the 100th Anniversary of what for many years was Armistice Day (renamed Veterans after the War to End All Wars . . . wasn't up to its billing)
while Memorial Day is set aside to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to their country, and Veteran's Day to celebrate those who have served still among us, I'm going to have to cross the wires a bit, because I hadn't dug up this material in May, but I have it in November.
I bring you my Great-Uncle, Edward Dean Blaylock, youngest of his tribe.
Circa 1920. Evelyn, the second oldest and only girl of the siblings with Chloe and Lee on either side of her, with Doris (Bob, my granddaddy) and Edward (Dean) in front. The eldest brother, Doorman, was likely no longer living at home and therefore not in the picture.
Some years later, presumably in the 1930s, another photographer caught these handsome young men
Bob on the left, his baby brother Dean on the right
Dean had volunteered February 13, 1941 for service and was assigned to the 60th Coast Artillery Division, arriving April 22 to the island of Corregidor.
He sent his mama, Janie, a letter in November 1941.
And then came Pearl Harbor.
December 7, 1941 is the date which will live in infamy. Within 24 hours, the Japanese forces were attacking the Philippines. Gen. MacArthur had a huge force of Filopinos, but only on paper. These men were untrained and unequipped and most became very ill with malaria, dysentery, Denge fever, and were severely malnourished within months.
By March, MacArthur had to steal away to Australia because the bombardment was destroying every building and blocking off crucial supplies. The men were living on 30 ounces of food a day. Drinking water was distributed only twice a day. When Cavalry horses died in the bombing, they were brought in for what meat could be scavenged.
Japanese propaganda kept sending news of the imminent fall of the islands. And the boys just kept holding them off. It was becoming a serious embarrassment for the Japanese
Bataan fell April 9, at which point they turned even more fire power on Corregidor: 1700 bombs dropped on the island in the next month, with more than 75 big guns that pounded the island 24 hours a day. It is estimated on May 4, 16,000 shells hit Corregidor.
April 28 brought the concentrated aerial bombardment that last until May 5.
The last American submarine to escape, on May 4, carried a complete roster of all Army, Navy, and Marine personnel still alive. There were 14,728. In addition, there were nearly 60,000 Filipino soldiers fighting under their flag to keep the Japanese from taking their islands. All of them became prisoners of war on May 6 when the Denver battery was captured on Corregidor.
In a radio message to President Franklin Roosevelt, Commander Wainwright said, "There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed."
The Japanese losses from January 1 – April 30 and from the initial assault landings on May 5/6, were about 900 dead and 1,200 wounded, while the defenders suffered 800 dead and 1,000 wounded.
And because they had held out for so long, it created ripples of problems for the Japanese planning of taking the Pacific.
They did their job honorably and heroically.
The General of the Japanese force was humiliated at the losses and time wasted. He had boasted they would take the islands in two months. It took them five. He was never given another command during the war and was executed by a U.S. firing squad after being found guilty of war crimes.
Typically, if you received a letter informing you that your son was a prisoner of war, any war really, prior to involvement with the Japanese, you could be relatively assured he was being treated fairly and with respect.
And so when Janie received the news, it became a waiting game of hoping for letters, but with the substantiated belief that, because he had not died in combat and was now waiting out the war as a prisoner, he would eventually get to come home.
But the Japanese culture saw any surrender as a humiliation not worthy of respect. You were to kill yourself with your last bullet. And thus, they treated the POWs as subhuman, forcing them on starvation death marches. Thousands were shipped to Japan as slave labor.
Janie would not know this at first.
Her first communication regarding whether Dean was alive at the island's capture came in August 1943, a year and ten months since she had last heard from him.
In August, she received a postcard with Dean's signature
December 1943
A month later, January 28, 1944, headlines of the atrocities that had occurred on the Bataan Death March and in the Prisoner of War Camps took center stage. Lt. Dyess, who had died the month prior, had given an interview that the Army & Navy agreed to be released, per his wishes, to the Chicago Tribune detailing the brutalities dealt to the POWs. It was picked up by papers across the country.
All Janie could do was hold vigil and wait. And hope.
I located Dean's POW number at Camp #7, #31 on a list of 131 men November 13, 1942 (the document was declassified in 1957)
It would be another 8 months before any word came again.
August 17, 1944
This is likely something signed in May, as Camp #7's prisoners were sent to Manila June 8, 1944.
He does appear on the roster of men still working at the Corregador Camp #7 May 12 of that year.
There would be no additional word received from Dean.
The war in the Pacific ended August 14, 1945.
Across the country, families waited for word of their POWs.
A week after the Japanese surrender, came a sliver of news that he had been moved from Camp 7 in the Philippines to Camp "Huryojohokyohee" in Tokyo. There is no record of a camp by this name.
We know Camp #7 transferred all its prisoners to Manila in June 1944. From there, Hell Ships were packed with thousands of POWs for weeks with no room to move as they were sailed into Japan. Many died on route.
In September, three POWs arrived home to Aransas Pass, and Cpl. McCormack gave the paper an interview.
I imagine Janie poured over every detail, enraged. There was no news of Dean.
March 28, 1946 he is moved from Missing in Action to Presumed Dead.
In 1947 he is posthumously awarded the Purple Heart
as Truman is president, I cannot figure out whose signature this is
In November 1948, the 40th anniversary of Armistice Day a week prior, the First Baptist Church had a special service for its new Annex, in which the Gold Star mothers of Lt. Ives and Sgt. Blaylock were honored.
"Mrs. Ives placed a service flag in the wall receptacle"
I believe this old photograph, on which I had no prior information, must be of this day, with my great grandmother Janie standing behind Mrs. Ives.
It was not until 1950 that Janie received an official death date for Dean of March 2, 1945 -- the day MacArthur recaptured Corregador Island from the Japanese.
0 comments:
Post a Comment