National Museum of the Pacific War - 4 Matching Results
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- Oral History Interview with a Palau Native
- The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with a native of Palau born in 1917. He lived briefly in Saipan and returned to Angaur, Palau, as a young man. In 1943 when the bombing of Palau first began, he volunteered for the Japanese Navy to avoid starvation, since natives were prohibited from buying imported food such as rice. He boarded a ship that was sunk by an American submarine and spent the night floating amidst 12-foot sharks. In the morning, he swam to a damaged but surviving Japanese ship and repaired their engine upon boarding. He then spent 10 months on an island at a Japanese airbase that sustained daily bombings. When the base was invaded by Australian troops, he hid in the jungle for three months before surrendering. He spent 10 months at a prisoner-of-war camp on Morotai. In 1946, he returned to Saipan and was reunited with his family.
- Oral History Interview with a Palau Native
- The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with a native of Palau born in 1917. He lived briefly in Saipan and returned to Angaur, Palau, as a young man. In 1943 when the bombing of Palau first began, he volunteered for the Japanese Navy to avoid starvation, since natives were prohibited from buying imported food such as rice. He boarded a ship that was sunk by an American submarine and spent the night floating amidst 12-foot sharks. In the morning, he swam to a damaged but surviving Japanese ship and repaired their engine upon boarding. He then spent 10 months on an island at a Japanese airbase that sustained daily bombings. When the base was invaded by Australian troops, he hid in the jungle for three months before surrendering. He spent 10 months at a prisoner-of-war camp on Morotai. In 1946, he returned to Saipan and was reunited with his family.
- Oral History Interview with John Reas, November 17, 2000
- The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Reas. Reas grew up in Indiana and Ohio and enlisted in the Navy in 1938. After training, he boarded the USS Houston (CA-30) at Charleston, South Carolina. He was assigned to the aviation unit. On February 28, 1942, he survived the bombing and sinking of the ship. He and other survivors in life rafts were picked up by the Japanese the next day and taken to Java as a prisoner of war. He was taken to a ship and then back to an island, where he met survivors of the Australian ship HMAS Perth (D29). They were moved from Serang to Batavia. He was told to record the POW's occupations and those idenitified as skilled were sent to Japan. Inspired by this, he kept a detailed and complete list of the survivors that he kept hidden. From Java, the survivors are put on a cargo ship to Singapore. Then they went to Pynang by train. He then boarded another ship to Burma. Allied forces bombed a ship next to Reas. He describes living in bamboo huts while building the railroad. During one of the routine abuses in camp, Reas got a fractured skull, which he did not know until after returning to the United States. He describes how he was able to stop a beating of a Dutch POW. Reas shared his list of survivors with a fellow POW who is able to funnel the list to an escaped POW who made contact with India and then Washington. This contact helped facilitate the removal of American remains quickly after the war. After the war is over, the POW's are flown to Egypt and then driven to Calcutta. Then they fly to New York and put in a …
- The Thai-Burma Railway and Beyond (The Railway of Death) 1942-1945
- Transcript by M.F. Seiker. Seiker was born in Holland and joined the Dutch Merchant Navy. He became a POW in Java in 1942. He went on a hell ship to Singapore and then on a train to Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Next, he was put to work building the Kwai River Bridge. He describes that death was a daily occurrence. He was caught and threatened with execution for stealing Red Cross shipments of food. The camp then found out about Hiroshima three days after it happened, since the Japanese abandoned the camp. The POWs began marching and taking trains and met with a Red Cross train. Later, Seiker exhibited his paintings of the time he spent at camp.