The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992 Page: 297
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Lone Star POWs
In prison camp on Java the 131 stjoined the surviving sailors and ma-
rines from the heavy cruiser USS Houston, which was sunk in the Sunda
Strait on February 18, 1942. The Houston survivors also included a siz-
able contingent of Texans, and this phenomenon helped bind the
ranks of the two groups of prisoners. The 436 National Guardsmen
and the 372 Houston personnel became a single POW unit under the
command of the senior American officer, Amarillo native Col. Blucher
Tharp of the 131 st.'
By October 1942, after seven months of captivity, the Americans had
adapted to the realities of POW life. In addition to being conscious at
all times to the importance of military discipline, nutrition, sanitation,
and personal hygiene, the young Texans had accepted Japanese rules
and adjusted to the mindset of their captors. These things were to play
a vital role in carrying them through the remainder of their ordeal.
Nevertheless, as bad as conditions were in Java, the POWs were still un-
prepared for what lay ahead.
On October 2 and 11, 1942, two POW contingents totaling 1,8oo
men of mixed nationalities left Java for Singapore. Included were 8oo
Americans from the 131st Field Artillery and the Houston. The smaller
American group under the command of Capt. Arch Fitzsimmons sailed
on October 2, while the second and larger American levie headed by
Colonel Tharp left on the 1th. The first group traveled aboard the
freighter Kinkon Maru, while the second and most numerous group
sailed on the Daz Nichi Maru.
The Dai Nichz Maru was a foul-smelling, dark, crowded hulk. Griff
Douglas, a nineteen-year-old sailor from Waco, described the ship as a
"hell hole." The Japanese crammed the POWs into a hold subdivided
into three tiers of wooden platforms with vertical space of only three
feet between each layer. Each prisoner had about thirty square inches
of space, so they were forced to sit cross-legged during most of the voy-
age. Artilleryman Roy Offerle, a member of D Battery from Wichita
Falls, observed that "sardines would have had lots more room in a can
compared to what we had.""
(OH 491), 56-59, Eldridge L Rayburn,Jan. 16, 198o, transcript (OH 499), 166-167, Luther
Prunty, Oct. 2o, 1986, transcript (OH 689), 42-48, Crayton R Gordon, Jan 31, 1977, tran-
script (OH 383), 48-133; .Jess Stanbrough, Apr 15, 1985, t anscript (OH 658), 88, and Lester
Rasbury, June 1o, 15, 1978, transcript (OH 438), 66-115. See also Fillmore, Piounei of Wa,,
17-28; Lionel Wigmore, The Japanese Thiust in Astiaha in the Wa) of 1939-1945, Series I
(7 vols ; Canberra. Australian War Memorial, 1957), IV, 533, Colin Sleeman (ed ), The Gozawa
Trial (London- William Hodge and Co, 1948), xx-xxv; Saburo Ienaga, The Pac/fu W Wo)ld
War II and the Japanese 1931-1945 (New York' Pantheon Books, 1978), 48-53; and Challotte
Carr-Gregg, Japanese Prisoners of Wat in Revolt (New Yolk: St Martin's Press, 1978), 28-31
0Hard (OH 510), 114-115, Reed (OH 486), 85-86, Wright (OH 466), 6o-61.
" Griff Douglas to R E M , Apr 18, 1978, inter view, transcript (OH 425), 71, Roy Offerle to
R E. M., Aug 14, 1978, interview, transcript (OH 457), 34 See also Rasbury (OH 438),297
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992, periodical, 1992; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117153/m1/357/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.