A Citizen Soldier Wins the Navy Cross

 

By Mark Hubbs

I had intended to post this blog on April 29, the birthday of the hero in this story.  However, travel away home distracted me.  Here is the story of Dr. Shank.

Lawton Ely Shank is one of America’s forgotten heroes.  The Indiana doctor is the only civilian, and, to my knowledge, the only Army Reservist to receive the Navy Cross.

The Navy Cross

Lawton Shank was born in the little town of Angola, Indiana in 1907 to Lyle and Lulu Shank.  After medical school he worked in a local hospital where he met his future wife.  He was only married for four years to the former Ruby Ricker before he left the hospital to work for Pan American Airways.  This was near the end of the Great Depression, and we can only surmise that the airline offered pay and travel they he could never expect to enjoy in small town Indiana.

Shank's first assignment was in Canton China, the terminus of the Pan American’s China Clipper route.  In early 1941 he was reassigned to tiny Wake Atoll on at the Pan American layover station in the mid-Pacific.  Pan Am maintained a four star hotel on Peale Island at Wake Atoll.  The China and Philippine Clippers of the Pan Am fleet made over night stops at Wake during trans-Pacific flights to Asia.  The wealthy passengers paid dearly for their seats on the clippers and demanded the finest lodgings during layovers at Wake.



The Pan American China Clipper at the seaplane dock on Peale Island, Wake Atoll c.1937.
 From: http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/sfo_museum/exhibitions/aviation_museum_exhibitions/K3_archive/china_clipper/03.html#top

 

War clouds were gathering in the Pacific.  The US military began to fortify several islands in the Pacific to serve as a first line of defense should Japan flex its military muscle.  A consortium of several construction companies formed the Contractors Pacific Naval Air Bases (CPNAB) to construct naval and airbases and Wake and other remote locations.  Civilian construction contractors, mostly employed by the Morrison-Knudson Company - part of the CPNAB,  began deploying to Wake Atoll soon after Shank arrived on the island.  Although his Pan Am duties included caring for sick passengers and workers at the Pan Am Hotel, the doctor was also "loaned" to CPNAB to care for their workers until a physician could be hired and brought to the island.  Within a few months, over 1,000 CPNAB workers were busy building a new submarine, seaplane and airfield on the atoll.

Dr. Shank left his Pan Am job and Wake Island for home in July 1941.  Remarkably, he was back in just three months later, this time on the payroll of the CPNAB.  As the threat of war intensified, the military presence on the island also grew.  By November, over four hundred Marines and sailors were assigned to Wake. 

The predictions were correct and war came on December 8th, 1941.  Within a few hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Island flew 600 miles north to bomb Wake.  Wake is east of the International Date Line, so it was a day later than Hawaii.  This was the first of a series of almost daily air and sea assaults from Japanese forces. 

Dr. Lawton Shank, "Lew" as his friends called him, was the only medical doctor on the atoll.  Almost 1,600 hundred men, civilian and military, would rely on him in the days to come.  He and his small staff were ill prepared for war.  Scores of men were killed and wounded on the first day, and the makeshift hospital that was established to care for them was bombed on the second day.  The care that Dr. Shank provided for his patients, usually under fire in the worst conditions possible, earned him the respect of every man who knew him.  Below is the citation for the Navy Cross awarded posthumously to Dr. Shank after the war.

To All Who Shall See These Presents Greeting:

This is to Certify that The President of the United States of America Takes Pleasure in Presenting

THE NAVY CROSS TO

SHANK, DR. LAWTON E. (POW)

Citation: The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Dr. Lawton E. Shank, Civilian (U.S. Army Reserve), U.S. Civilian, for extraordinary heroism in action against the enemy as Physician to American Contractors, Naval Air Station, Wake Island, while associated with the naval defenses on Wake Island on 9 December 1941. At about 1100, while in the camp hospital, during an intensive bombing and strafing attack in the course of which the hospital was completely destroyed and several persons therein killed or wounded, Doctor Shank remained at his post and supervised the evacuation of the patients and equipment. With absolute disregard for his own safety, and displaying great presence of mind, he was thus enabled to save those still living and to establish a new hospital in an empty magazine. Doctor Shank's display of outstanding courage and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. Born: April 29, 1907 at Steuben County, Indiana Home Town: Angola, Indiana

An American ammunition bunker near the north end of Wake Island.  This is probably the bunker that
Dr. Shank used to shield his patients. Photo by author.

 

The garrison endured daily air attacks and on December 11th repelled a naval and amphibious assault with its heavy seacoast guns. A larger, more determined invasion force arrived two days before Christmas and the well-trained force of Japanese Special Landing Force troops finally overwhelmed the garrison after heavy fighting. In the dawning hours of 23 December 1941, the Japanese captured 1,621 Americans with the fall of the atoll.

All but 360 of the Americans were transported to POW camps in China three weeks after the surrender.  Lew Shank stayed behind to care for those me who were put to work building island defenses for the Japanese.  In September, 1942 another 260 Americans were transported to Japan from Wake Island.  Lew Shank volunteered to stay behind and provide medical care for the remaining 98 POWs.  Dentist James Cunha, and a surgical nurse named Henry Dreyer also stayed to assist Dr. Shank.  Lew Shank was mentioned and praised by many men who knew of his dedication during the battle and during those first few months in captivity.  However, all that we know of Lew and the other 97 POWs left on Wake Island in September, 1942 comes from testimony during war crimes trials that occurred after the war.

Dr. Shank and 97 other American Civilians were murdered by the Japanese on October 7th, 1943. 



The beach where Dr. Shank and 96 other American civilians were murdered by the Japanese in October, 1943. 
Photo by author.

When the war was over, the murders had occurred more than three years previously.  The public had already been outraged with the news of similar massacres in the Philippines and in the European Theater.  No national acknowledgement of the Wake Island massacre ever materialized.  However, Wake Island commander Winfield Scott Cunningham did not forget the heroism displayed by Lew Shank and recommended the doctor for the Navy Cross.  The posthumous award was issued on May 6, 1947.

In Section G of the Punchbowl National Cemetery in Honolulu there is a large, flat, marble gravestone. At 5 by 10 feet it is the largest in the cemetery. On it are listed the names of 178 men. This common grave holds the remains of all the unidentified military and civilian burials repatriated from Wake Island in 1946.  Many of these men were killed during the siege, and circumstances did not allow proper burial and identification. Of these names, 98 represent the men who were murdered by the Japanese in October 1943.  Dr. Lawton "Lew" Shank lies mingled among them.

The memorial stone marking the unknown dead of Wake Island at the Punchbowl Cemetary, Honolulu. 
Photo by author.

 

Dr. Shank's parents lived long after World War II.  The family added a memorial to Lew Shank on their headstone in Angola, Indiana.  From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31644842

 

For more details about the ordeal of American POWs at Wake Island, see a series of previous blog entries that start here:    http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-wake-island-helmet-part-one-dodging.html

 

 

 

History That Tugs at the Heart

Not all history is about impersonal tales from the distant past.  Some stories, even those from several generations ago, can have an closeness and intimacy that can stir emotion.

Christmas Card sent home by Carlton Church, his last correspondence before
capture by the Japanese in December 1941.

I started writing about Wake Island almost 15 years ago. First in magazines and later in my blog. I get correspondence off-an-on from family members of men who served at Wake Island or were murdered by the Japanese there in 1943. They used to come by US mail, but they increasingly come by email, especially since I launched my blog last year.  When I did the first article on the massacre of 98 Americans on Wake Island by the Japanese in 1943, I mentioned in the article that I wondered if there were still sons or daughter or brothers or sisters who still remembered and thought about these men.  I have learned that after that after seventy years have passed, there are indeed many family members who still mourn the lost.  I suspect the dead of WWII, from all over the world, still have family who think of them. 

Some, like my new friend Gary Binge, tracked me down and phoned me.  The story of Gary's grandfather, and the helmet he brought home from the War, generated the article you can find linked below, and much of the new correspondence that I have received.

http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-wake-island-helmet-part-one-dodging.html

 

Some letters seek information, that sadly I usually cannot provide.  Some write to give me more information, which is very much appreciated.  Some just write to thank me and let me know that families of the "Murdered 98" have found my articles and appreciate them.  I was surprised by how many loved ones did not know the details of their loved one's death, until they found my articles.  Those are the most precious to me.  Here are parts of emails I've received over the last few months.  I've removed full names and hometowns so I would not violate the privacy of these fine folks.  These letters are humbling and gratifying at the same time.  It makes all the research and writing worthwhile. 

 

Dear Major Hubbs,

I'm writing to thank you for helping solve a long standing family mystery. My wife is the great-niece of Charles M Villines, one of the Wake 98. For all of her life, the ultimate fate of Charles had been unknown to her family. The family had known that he was on Wake island, and had assumed that he had been taken to China, although no record was ever found of it. Charles had married and had had a child before he went to Wake, but his wife had divorced and he and the rest of my wife's family lost contact with her before the war started. We assume that the notification sent in 1946 to the families went to her, although she may well have not received it, having moved in the interim. We do know that his mother, Zula Villines never received any notification and never knew what had happened to her son.

 Although Charles is listed as being from Salt Lake City, he was an Oklahoma farm boy, born and raised in Pottawatomie County. He had moved to Utah looking for work. Charles had two brothers, James and Tony. They both fought in the Pacific Theater and survived the war. Tony died in an oil-field accident in the 1950s. James is still alive, though in very ill health. James has one daughter (my wife's mother) three granddaughters (including my wife), and five great-grandchildren. For my wife and her sisters that unknown fate of their lost great uncle was a wound that was passed on from generation to generation.

 Today my wife was telling our daughters about her lost uncle and our elder daughter, became curious and started searching the Internet and found your account at yorktownsailor.com. I had done an Internet search years ago and found nothing. Knowing what happened to Charles, as horrible as the fate was, has brought a great deal of relief to my wife and her sisters.

 Thank you,

David S.

 

 (Author's note: This letter from Bonnie C. was especially poignant, and includes a poetic tribute to one of her WWII veteran uncles.)

Dear Friend

 Jack Fenex who was in the mass murder is my uncle. I wept when I read your account that my daughter found. We had many answers, but we had some doubts. My uncle, Elmer Christler was also there, but he became a prisoner of war for four years and came home. My Dad, Walter Christler, wanted to go, but he was turned down because of a bad knee (thank goodness). He served in the Army in the states and left just after I was born.

 I was a baby when the war ended, but the war stories have greatly impacted my life. My uncle Melvin Christler flew "The Hump." My uncle Bill Fenex, walked it. As a child, I remember my mother reading Uncle Jack's letter and crying.

 I know that the stories of sacrifice and service that I grew up with helped me face my trials. It was in my blood.

I was a fussy baby and my Grandpa Fenex rocked me as he listened for war reports. He wasn't sure if Jack had been beheaded because he heard there was a Jack that broke into the kitchen for food as well as the massacre. You simply can't judge.

 My uncle Bill Fenex passed away a short while ago. I wrote this tribute to him:

Good-bye, Uncle Bill

Uncle Bill fought for his country

As an "Honor and duty" with pride.
It scarred his mortal life for sure
In ways that he could never hide.
He held his head so very high
And conquered demons one by one.
May he find the peace he gave to us
With loved ones, the Lord, and blessings won.

 I have sent your article on to many family members and I told them to send them on their families. Again, thank you with all my heart.

 Sincerely, Bonnie C.

 

 

Maj Hubbs;

I just came across your article written about the POW Rock on Wake Island, and in it you mention that you travel there from time to time, I have a favor to ask.  If you should travel to Wake Island again, would it be possible to get a small amount of the coral sand from the area around the POW Rock?

Carlton Church's signature is partially obscured by a very fragile chin strap on Glen Binge's helmet.

 

 Please allow me to explain, though I never knew him, Carlton G (Graves) Church was my Great-Uncle, my Grandfather's brother on my mother's side of the family, and one of the 98 civilians murdered on Wake Island.  Ever since I took a simple picture of the memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific back in the 70's, I have been researching Uncle Carl and Wake Island.

 Just this past Tuesday, while going through old boxes of photos etc, I found a small metal lockbox that belonged to my Great Grandmother (Carl's mother), and in it I found a Christmas Card from Uncle Carl, bearing the return address of Wake Island, and written on the edge of the envelope is "last letter received"...it is postmarked San Francisco Dec 27, 1941.

 If you are interested, I can send you pictures of the cards, envelope and letter.

Thank you,

Philip M.


Carlton Church's last note home before his capture by the Japanese. 
Carlton was one of the 98 Americans executed by the Japanese in October, 1943.

 

Mark,



I want to thank you for the Blog you’ve established for relatives of Wake Island Americans who were attacked in 1941. My grandfather worked for the Morrison-Knudsen Co. as a dredge operator. I’ve read several books about the battle for Wake, but unfortunately, the military authors did not include much about the civilians who also bravely fought and suffered.

 Barbara M.

 

 

 Hello Mark.  

 My name is Ron.   Uncle, Redmond James (Jim) Wilper was one of the “forgotten 98” on Wake Island.  I have seen photographs of the Binge helmet and I see that my Uncle Jim signed it because you have listed the names of all who signed.  I would like to see a photo of the signature.  Do you have photos of every single signature?  If so, could you possibly send me a photo of Redmond (Jim) Wilper’s signature?  Perhaps you know how I could get in touch with the Binge family or pass my inquiry on to them.  I appreciate your help and I really enjoyed your blog.  Ron

 (Author's note:  I provided a close up of photo of Jim Wilper's signature as soon as I found this email.  The owner of the helmet, Gary Binge, was more than delighted for me to pass on the photo to Jim's family.  I received this reply)

 

Redmond (Jim) Wilper's signature on Glen Binge's helmet. 
Jim was barely out of his teens when he was murdered by the Japanese.

 

Mark: Thank you so much. It came through just great. Jim's little brother Frank, age 88 will greatly appreciate this as will my siblings and our children. It is very thoughtful of you Mark, and you Gary for sending this to us. The saga of Wake Island is still well remembered here in Boise. Best wishes. Ron

 

The Hating has to Stop - The "Railway Man" dead at age 93

'Some time the hating has to stop': A tortured war hero, his Japanese tormentor, and the redeeming power of forgiveness.

Re-blogged.  See the complete story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215357/Eric-Lomax-A-tortured-war-hero-Japanese-tormentor-redeeming-power-forgiveness.html

Beaten to a pile of broken bones, caged, starved and tortured, Eric Lomax was convinced he would never see Britain ever again.

He had already experienced the lottery of death among the chain gangs on the Burma-Siam Railway. Now things were even worse. Accused of being a spy, he had been left to the mercies of the Japanese army’s secret police.  Among their specialities was what is today known as ‘waterboarding’, when a prisoner undergoes near-drowning. It was surely only a matter of time before he would be put out of his misery.

As his interrogator had explained to him on arrival at the prison camp in 1943: ‘Lomax, you will be killed shortly whatever happens. But it will be to your advantage in the time remaining to tell the whole truth. You know now how we can deal with people when we wish to be unpleasant.’

Eric Lomax was put to work building a railway by his Japanese captors during the Second World War, before he was accused of being a spy and interrogated by Nagase Takashi (below)

    

   

And yet Eric Lomax would somehow survive an ordeal so unspeakable that when he was later transferred to Singapore’s notorious Changi prison, he described it as ‘heaven’.

After the war, like so many of those who had survived the atrocities of Japanese captivity, he could barely discuss his experiences with anyone.

He bottled it all up, although he found that tiny things –particularly inaccurate bills or bureaucratic requests for personal information – could almost paralyse him with fury.

 Through it all, he retained a loathing for the Japanese, particularly the infernal interrogator still haunting his dreams with the same words: ‘Lomax, you will tell us . . .’  Yet nearly 50 years on, Eric Lomax did something extraordinary. He not only tracked down the man – he met him, befriended him and forgave him. And in 1995, he published a powerful account of his experiences.

Called The Railway Man, it swiftly became a bestseller and won a cluster of literary awards. Indeed, so remarkable is the memoir that it is about to come to the big screen – with Mr Lomax played by Oscar winner Colin Firth, no less –and with Nicole Kidman as his wife.

Sadly, Mr Lomax will not see the film. In the early hours of last Monday morning, he died at his home in Berwick-on-Tweed at the age of 93. He leaves a widow and daughter.

   

Eric's wife Patti (left) encouraged her husband to get in touch with his erstwhile torturer

 But he also leaves an enduring story of the healing power of forgiveness that will be retold long after we are all gone.

 

A Wake Island Helmet - Part Four "The Forgotten Ninety Eight"

The Forgotten Ninety-Eight

 





Glen Binge with his sons soon after his release from Japanese POW camps in 1945. 
He, nor any of the other survivors, knew the fate of their comrades who were left on Wake Island.
Courtesy of the Glen Binge family.

 



The day-to-day record of POW life at Wake ended when Russell clambered aboard the Tachibana Maru.  The routine of the remaining 98 did not change, however.  Only increasing U.S. bombing raids and the loss of one of the ninety-eight interrupted the monotony.  An American was caught stealing food in July 1943.  After a brief investigation, a Japanese lieutenant wielded the sword that removed the head of the unknown American.  Captain Shigimatsu Sakaibara, the new island commander who had been whisked ashore by an Imperial Navy bomber from Kwajalein in December 1942, presided over the murder.

 

Captain Shigimatsu Sakaibara, later promoted to Admiral.  The fate of the 98 Americans rested in his hands.
National Archives and Records Administration

 

The U.S. Navy also was tightening a noose around the atoll. Extensive submarine patrols harassed all shipping coming in and out of Wake.  This increased attention aggravated the island commander.  Sakaibara and his subordinates were certain that an invasion was imminent. In reality, the United States had no intention of forcing a landing on Wake.  As with most Japanese-held islands that did not have a tactical or strategic role for further campaigns, they were merely isolated from their source of supplies and left to wither on the vine.  Bombings were designed only to deprive the enemy of the use of their airfield, seaplane base, and port facilities.

POW Rock.  In May 1943 some anonymous American chiseled this inscription in a large coral boulder on the lagoon shore of Wilkes Island.
This rock has become a lasting memorial to the 98 POWs.  Photo by Author.

A U.S. carrier task force, which included the USS Yorktown (CV-10), arrived offshore on 5 October 1943.  During the following two days the task force dropped 340 tons of bombs on the atoll, and the accompanying cruisers and destroyers hurled 3,198 eight-inch and five-inch projectiles.  The raid did extensive damage to the infrastructure on the atoll, and 31 Japanese planes were destroyed on the ground.  This was the largest U.S. raid on the atoll up to that time. Sakaibara was certain that the armada assembled offshore included a landing force.  He decided that the troublesome prisoners must be killed to eliminate the threat they might pose during the coming invasion.

An American aircraft over Wake Island during the massive raid in October 1943.
National Archives photograph

 A heavy cruiser’s 8-inch guns bombard Wake, as seen from USS Minneapolis (CA-36), 5 October 1943. The two following ships are (in no particular order): USS San Francisco (CA-38) and USS New Orleans (CA-32). National Archives photograph

The Headquarters Company commander, Lieutenant Commander Tachibana, was ordered by Captain Sakaibara to move the prisoners from their compound to an antitank ditch on the northern tip of Wake Island.  There, in the waning afternoon light of 7 October 1943, Lieutenant Torashi Ito, of the Headquarters Company, had the Americans lined up and seated along the ditch facing the sea.  They were blindfolded with their hands and feet bound.  Three platoons of Tachibana's company assembled behind them and opened fire with rifle and machine gun fire. 

The lonely stretch of beach on the north shore of Wake Island where the 98 Americans met their fate.  Photo by Author
 

A Korean laborer who witnessed the massacre testified later, "All prisoners, both dead and wounded were bayoneted."  The names of nineteen of the dead men appear on Binge’s helmet.

The Americans then were unceremoniously dumped into the ditch and covered with coral sand.  The indignity suffered by the prisoners was not complete, however.  The following day, a report from an enlisted man that he saw one of the prisoners escape during the confusion of the massacre prompted the disinterment of the bodies.  The corpses were dug up and counted, then hastily reburied.  The sailor had been correct; one American was missing.  The Korean laborer also saw the man flee and recognized him as "Mr. John" his favorite among the Americans.  That man, whose full name has never been discovered, was re-captured a week later.  Captain Sakaibara personally beheaded the lone escapee.  There were two men named John who were among those murdered by the Japanese.  One was John Martin of Pomeroy, Washington who autographed Glen Binge's helmet many months before.  Could he be “Mr. John?”

Next Time, Part Five - http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-wake-island-helmet-part-five-legacy.html

You can see a complete listing of all the names of Glen Binge's Sun Helmet at this link:  https://sites.google.com/site/markehubbs/home/names-on-the-wake-island-sun-helmet

A Wake Island Helmet - Part Three "I ate anything to stay alive"

"I ate anything to stay alive"

 

Japanese sailors herded the 265 Wake Island men aboard a crowded train when they reached Yokohama.  Soon after they pulled away from the station the train halted long enough for Leal Russell and four others to be taken off for interrogation.  Russell was never reunited with his crew.  He was liberated on September 15, 1945 at Ohashi, Japan.

Fukuoka No 18-B became the new home for the remaining 260.  This camp, near Sasebo Japan, was established to provide slave labor for the construction of Soto Dam.  The work was backbreaking and the rations slim.  Three small bowls of soupy rice per day was the standard fare.  One inmate confessed, "I ate garbage while at Camp 18.  A man will do anything for food if he is really hungry."   

The meager diet was enforced even if additional rations were available.  The Japanese pilfered or withheld Red Cross packages and punished men for "garbaging," trying to steal offal and vegetable peelings from Korean laborers.  One inmate who was six feet four inches tall was reduced to 110 pounds.  "I ate anything to stay alive. . . I ate toads, roots, grasshoppers - you string 'em on a wire and throw them in a fire, then eat 'em like peanuts."

 

US Sailors visit the Soto Dam in Japan during a ceremony to honor the 53 American POWs
who died during its construction.

 

A series of heartless commanders and senseless beatings by brutal guards exacted a horrible toll on the Wake Island men.  The slightest infraction of the rules brought extended beatings with clubs and baseball bats.  One survivor was hit repeatedly on the forehead with a rock by a Japanese guard.  "I thought my brains were going to explode," he remembered.

Jesus Garcia, the Guamanian who had worked at the Pan American Hotel, barley escaped with his life.  He was pushed from a guard tower, and then beaten on the head with bamboo club for an hour.

 

Jesus Garcia signed just above John Niklaus.  Niklaus was the first of the Helmet signers to die. Courtesy Glen Binge Family

The first of the helmet signers to die was John F. Niklaus of Germania, Pennsylvania on January 26, 1943.  Japanese records claim he died of "acute pneumonia."  Julius Larson of Healy, Idaho, was next on February 18th.  James H. O'Neal of Worland, Wyoming followed on February 27th.  The Japanese listed the cause of death for O'neal as "cardiac beri beri."  Acute pneumonia also claimed Andrew Nygard of Long Island, New York on March 13th.

Thirty one year old Lester Meyer of San Francisco, California failed to salute a Japanese guard.  He was beaten with clubs and rifle butts off and on for three days.  He died on April 29, 1943 as a result of this torment.  The Japanese listed Meyer's cause of death as "right pleurisy."

Dick Myers was beaten to death on April 29, 1943. Courtesy Glen Binge Family

The next to die was Ted Hensel on May 5, 1943.  Hensel was the man who convinced Logan Kay and Fred Stevens to surrender back on Wake Island.  Norman Hill of Clarkston, Oregon succumbed to "malnutrition" on June 4, 1943.  The last of the helmet signers to die at Fukuoka No 18-B was Lloyd Kent of Burbank, California who passed away on March 3, 1944.

Thirty-seven year old Oreal Johnson of Boise, Idaho served as the chaplain and lay preacher for the Wake Island men.  He provided a short service for each funeral and sang I Need Thee Every Hour. Johnson and other men of the burial details were rewarded for their loathsome duties with extra food.  The guards enjoyed tossing the rice balls among the starving men to see the melee that would ensure.  By April 17, 1944 when the Wake Island men were moved to Fukuoka No 1, Fifty-three of the original 260 were dead. 

Rodney Kephart and Oreal Johnson survived Fukuoka #18. Johnson served as Chaplain during funerals of fellow POWs.
Courtesy Glen Binge Family

Fukouka No. 1 was a large camp that housed American, Australian, British and Dutch POWs.  Conditions improved to some degree at No. 1.  The rations were still sparse, but some Red Cross packages did get through.  The Japanese guards more often slapped their charges around instead of beating them with clubs.  The biggest difference was the nature of the work.  They built a new airfield at No. 1 and avoided the backbreaking labor that had killed so many men at the Soto Dam. 

The death rate plummeted and no more signers of Glen Binge's helmet met their end after leaving Fukouka N.18-B.  Binge also began to make friends outside his Wake Island family at No. 1.  Gunner William Davis, and Sgt Benjamin Regan, both from London and veterans of the Royal Artillery, added their names to the helmet.  The outside was covered with autographs, so they scrawled their names on the inside of the crown next to where Glen had placed his own mark so many months before.  Dutch soldiers, H. Buys, W.F. Zonneaberg and P. Van Veen signed near their British allies.  By enlarging his network of friends outside of his immediate circle, Binge also broadened his potential access to resources.  This may have contributed to his survival.

William Davis of London England was one of five allied
soldiers who signed Binges Helmet. Courtesy Glen Binge Family

 

"Can you make us an American Flag?"

 

During the last year of the war the surviving men who were evacuated from Wake in September 1942 began to be separated.  Labor details were dispatched away from Fukouda No. 1 without regard to the men's original organizations. 

In late August 1945 red, white and blue parachutes began floating to earth above food cartons at Fukouda No.6 near Orio, Japan.  Japan surrendered and hostilities ceased on August 15th.  American bombers began parachuting food and clothing to the starving allied POWs at camps all across Japan.  On the morning of September 1, 1945 several of the officer POWs approached Rodney Kephart with an armload of silk canopies.

"Can you make us an American flag so we can have a official raising of the colors at the same time the Japanese sign the surrender tomorrow morning?" they asked.  The POWs had learned that the official surrender ceremony was to take place the following day.  Kephart was the only man who knew how to operate a temperamental Japanese sewing machine at the camp.  Kephart and another POW, worked sixteen hours straight to have the flag ready in time.  He was too exhausted and overcome with emotion to attend the ceremony.  He lay in his bunk sobbing as his flag was raised over the camp.

Rodney Kephart's flag made from parachutes.
From:   ttp://home.comcast.net/~winjerd/Kephart.htm

Logan Kay and Fred Stevens, the men who hid out for so long on Wake, somehow managed to remain together.  They were liberated on September 19, 1945 at Camp No. 23 at Izuka, Japan.  George Weller, a war correspondent for the Chicago Daily News accompanied the liberation teams and met Kay at Camp No. 23.  Weller recorded Kay's remarkable story and transcribed the diary he kept while on Wake.  Weller and Kay were photographed with a white sun helmet that bore the names of Wake Island dead.  Much like Glen Binge, Kay had saved his own souvenir helmet that bore the names of scores of Wake Island men.  That photograph was published in the Chicago Daily News with the caption "Memento of Terror." It is not known if Scotty Kay's sun helmet has survived.

From:  http://www.historylecture.org/wakeisland.html

As the survivors of the hell camp at Fukouka N.18-B began their long journeys home to the United States, they did not know that all ninety-eight of their comrades left on lonely Wake Atoll had been dead for almost two years.

 

Next Time - Part Four - http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-wake-island-helmet-part-four.html

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A Wake Island Helmet - Part Two, "Babe Hoffmeister Was Murdered This Morning"

Part Two of  "A Wake Island Helmet."  See part one at: http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-wake-island-helmet-part-one-dodging.html


With the exception of a handful of senior military officers and contractors held indoors, the captives remained three days and two nights on the rocky runway after the surrender.  Leal Henderson Russell of La Grande, Oregon, wrote in his otherwise optimistic diary: 23 December—". . . Rocks hard, rain, wind, no cover and few clothes.  Bread and water. Very uncomfortable night." 24 December—"Still on the rock-pile.  Very hard on the unclothed men and those who are ill.  Many have dysentery. . . Men hard to control while food and water being passed out.  Act like wolves. . . ."

Leal Russell's signature on the sun helmet. Courtesy Glen Binge Family.

Tensions of the previous days relaxed a bit on Christmas morning.  One contractor remembered that they were allowed to retrieve clothing, food, and tobacco from their dugouts. Russell recalled that the POWs were allowed to bury their dead and were fed well for the first time.  They were marched to the north end of Wake Island and put into the barracks they had used before the beginning of hostilities.  Several 40-man barracks were packed with 150 men each, but the men had shelter at last.  He recorded on 27 December: "Japanese treating us with reasonable consideration."  Rodney Kephart, the young carpenter from Boise remembered: "We slept so well even the screaming of the Japs didn't disturb us - that was indeed a welcome Christmas present."

The only known photo taken of US POWs on Wake Island.  Notice the white sun helmets. Nat Archives Photo.

Three weeks after the fall of Wake, the POWs awoke to see a large vessel, the Nita Maru, standing off the southern shore.  She had arrived to transport the POWs to camps in China. "About 350 including the key men were selected and were supposed to stay," wrote Russell.  He became the ranking civilian POW when the Nita Maru sailed away.  Another of the Morrison-Knudsen men, recorded in his diary on 12 January, "All but 360 of the contractors have been sent to Japan today. [He incorrectly assumed the destination was Japan.] Also the service men except 21 Marines who are too badly wounded to go." 

The Nita Maru.  She was later converted to an escort carrier by the Japanese and was sunk by an American Submarine.  She took 1,250 men to the bottom with her.  You can read more about her here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Ch%C5%ABy%C5%8D

 

 

"You're already identified as dead and buried!"

 Forty-seven year old Glen Binge was like many other men on Wake.  The promise of well paying work during a bleak economy lured him far from his Galesburg, Illinois home.  It would be almost four years before he would see his children again. Binge arrived at Wake on October 27, 1941 on a nine-month contract.  He came ashore with 175 other men from the USS Curtis (AV-4) a seaplane tender, which shuttled men and equipment between Honolulu and Wake Atoll.

 

Pre-War photo of Glen Binge from his local newspaper announcing his capture at Wake Island.

 

Sometime after January 12th, Binge began to have men sign his helmet.  Binge's sun helmet was not unusual.  Hundreds of the white sun helmets were issued by the CPNAB to its Wake Island men.  The Marines issued similar sun helmets that were tan and bore the Globe & Anchor emblem on the front.  There is evidence that many men recorded names of comrades, or had their mates sign their helmets as mementos, but the Binge helmet is the only one known to have survived.  It has been a family treasure for sixty years, but its existence has only been brought to light outside of the family in the past year.

All of the American names inscribed are from those men who remained on Wake after the departure of the Nita Maru.  The 360 contractors who remained were chosen because of their skills in operating heavy equipment.  They would continue the military build-up of Wake Island with the same supplies and equipment that they had used for the U.S. Navy.  This time, however, the new architects of the island defenses were the Japanese.

Logan Kay and Fred Stevens remained hidden in the scrub brush of Wake Island.  They scavenged for food and moved every few days to avoid the Japanese.  On March 10th, after living in the bush for seventy-seven days, the fugitives stumbled upon 56 year-old Ted Hensel of Burbank, Washington.  "You can't be living men.  You're already identified as dead and buried!" Hensel retorted.  "You two look terrible.  Better give yourselves up.  The Japs won't hurt you.  They're treating us fine."  Hensel persuaded the ragged, starving men to surrender.

Ted Hensel drew a map of Wake Island to go with his sigtature.  Courtesy Glen Binge Family.

 

"A warning to some who still feel that they have some rights here."

 

Leal Russell paints a relatively optimistic picture of his life as a POW.  His keen eyes recorded the daily coming and going of bombers, fighters, and ships from Wake as well as the weather and day-to-day activity of the Japanese garrison.  He seemed to be very interested in his captors and cultivated cordial relationships with some, even arranging dental work for one of the Japanese with the U.S. contractor doctor.

Russell surely was aware of the suffering that was going on around him and indeed that he was probably experiencing himself.  His tone is up beat in the diary, however, and he refrains from recording adversity except in extreme cases.  One such case was the execution of one of his men who had broken into the Japanese canteen and gotten drunk on stolen alcohol.  On 8 May, Russell wrote:

After breakfast I found that they had arrested Babe Hoffmeister who was out of the compound during the night. Okazaki told me later he had broken into the canteen. . . I also heard he was drunk. It is apt to go very hard on Babe as he had been repeatedly warned.

Two days later the Japanese gave Hoffmeister a hasty trial.  He was found guilty, blindfolded and marched to his grave.  Logan Kay recorded:

The Japs made Hoffmeister crouch on his hands and knees.  A Jap officer took his sword, laid the blade on his neck, brought it back like a golf club and then down on his neck, severing his head with a single blow.

Of the execution Russell wrote: "May 10th—Julius 'Babe' Hoffmeister was murdered this morning.  Nearly all foremen and dept. superintendents were called to witness it.  Possibly it will serve as a warning to some who still feel that they have some rights here." 

The next morning, with Babe's murder fresh on their minds, the Japanese evacuated 20 Marines and sailors, who had been recuperating from wounds, from the atoll.  One of these men was PFC Richard L. Reed of South Whitney, Indiana.  Reed was the only Marine to sign Glen Binge's helmet.  Reed and the other recovering GIs sailed away on the Asama Maru, bound for camps in China.  Only the civilian contractors remained to toil for the enemy.

PFC Richard Reed was the only Marine to sign the helmet. Courtesy Glen Binge Family.

The Japanese did not observe the Geneva Convention restriction on using POW labor for war-related projects, and the workers worked at various military projects on all three islands of the atoll.  Extensive antitank ditches—protected by slit and communication trenches—were dug on the outer and inner periphery of all three islands.  Barbed-wire entanglements and land mines provided protection on potential landing areas.  Inshore from the narrow beaches, an elaborate system of concrete defenses provided interlocking fire at almost any point on the atoll.  An estimated 200 concrete and coral pillboxes, bunkers, bomb proofs, and command posts were constructed with POW labor.

One of the many Japanese defensive structures still extant on Wake Island.  Most were made of captured American Portland cement and built with American POW labor.  Photo by Author.

 

"Rumors fly but even they grow tiresome."

 

Only the occasional U.S. bombing raid or Japanese holiday (when no work was performed) punctuated the monotonous life of the POWs.  Russell wrote: "Washington's Birthday on Wake Island and still prisoners of the Japanese.  No change at all. We work, we eat, we sleep, and then we get up and do it all over again . . . Rumors fly but even they grow tiresome." The rumors of prisoner evacuation became reality on the last day of September 1942.  Two hundred and sixty five captives, including Glen Binge and twenty-one of his friends who autographed his helmet, were loaded aboard The Tachibana Maru and sent to Yokohama, Japan.  Ninety-eight Americans were chosen to stay and to continue their work on construction projects.

Most of the men were jubilant that they were leaving Wake.  They couldn't know that their lives as POWs on Wake for the previous nine months had been relatively easy, and that true hell awaited them. 

Go to Part Three - http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-wake-island-helmet-part-three-i-ate.html

You can see a complete listing of all the names of Glen Binge's Sun Helmet at this link:  https://sites.google.com/site/markehubbs/home/names-on-the-wake-island-sun-helmet