Sept. 15 is this year’s POW/MIA Recognition Day, celebrated each year on the third Friday of September.
To learn more about the prisoners of war and those missing in action from McKean County, visit the website jfgvictoryverlag.com, which is the work of Joel Gilfert, local military historian. The site has a list of 96 troops from the county who suffered as prisoners of war in World War I, World War II or Korea, or were Missing in Action.
About halfway down the page is the entry for Private Walter Arnold Johnson, 1917-1944, a Kane native serving in the 803rd Engineer Aviation Battalion in World War II.
This year, his story was featured by the non-profit Stories Behind the Stars as a POW lost in the Sept. 7, 1944, sinking of the Japanese ship Shinyo Maru.
Johnson was drafted, joining June 21, 1941. He was taken prisoner May 6, 1942, at Corregidor, Philippines, and was being transported on the Prisoner of War “Hell Ship” Shinyo Maru when it was torpedoed and sunk accidentally by the U.S. submarine USS Paddle on Sept. 7, 1944, off the coast of Mindanao, Philippines, Gilfert’s site reads. Of the 750 American prisoners on board, 668 drowned and 82 survived.
Stories Behind the Stars gave a more complete picture.
Johnson was born June 9, 1917, to Carl and Sally Carlson Johnson of Kane. He had three brothers and three sisters. Johnson attended school in Kane until his sophomore year when he left to work as an auto mechanic at the Midway Garage. In early 1941 he moved to Erie, and worked for General Electric until he was drafted a few weeks later.
“On June 21, 1941, Johnson left for Fort Belvoir, Va., which was a primary training site for the Army Engineers. In October, he was assigned to the 803rd Aviation Battalion of the Army Air Forces and sent to the Philippines where the unit was to complete work on Clark Field,” the story read. “Johnson was taken prisoner on May 6, 1942, when the last Allied forces surrendered to the Japanese at Corregidor, Philippines.
“The Shinyo Maru was a merchant cargo ship that the Imperial Japanese Army impounded in 1941. It was converted into a hell ship for use to transport POWs.”
The POWs called them “hell ships” because of the inhumane and unsanitary conditions onboard, as the ships were overloaded with POWs to take them for internment elsewhere in the Japanese empire.
The Naval History and Heritage Command described the ships as such: “The holds were floating dungeons, where inmates were denied air, space, light, bathroom facilities, and adequate food and water — especially water. Thirst and heat claimed many lives in the end, as did summary executions and beatings, yet the vast majority of deaths came as a result of so-called ‘friendly fire’ from U.S. and Allied naval ships, submarines, and aircraft.”
The account from Stories Behind the Stars continued, “Japanese merchant sailors crewed the hell ship and soldiers of the Imperial Army manned the machine gun and guarded the 750 POWs aboard. The Shinyo Maru was one of dozens of hell ships used by the Japanese in violation of the Geneva Convention. Many of those involved in the program were convicted of war crimes and were imprisoned or executed after the war.
“Of the 750 Allied prisoners, all but five were Americans and nearly 300 had survived the Bataan Death March. All had become forced labor on Japanese airfields before they marched shoeless and in loincloths into the hold of a ship for a five-day transit to Zamboanga. The POWs waited ten more days in the fetid, overcrowded cargo hold before being transferred to the Shinyo Maru on Sept. 4, 1944.
“American intelligence intercepted several Japanese naval messages and learned Shinyo Maru was in a convoy of two torpedo boats, two tankers, and three other cargo ships to transport 750 troops to Manila. There was no indication that the troops aboard were POWs.
“The American submarine USS Paddle (SS-263) — on its fifth patrol — was ordered to sink the ship. On Sept. 7, 1944, the USS Paddle located the convoy off the west coast of Mindanao and identified the Shinyo Maru. The USS Paddle fired a spread of four torpedoes. Two detonated in Shinyo Maru’s hold,” the account stated.
Two huge explosions went off aboard the ship. Debris and heavy obstacles rained down on the POWs, leaving many with serious injuries. Because of damage to the hatch doors, some POWs were able to make it to the deck, and saw many Japanese lying dead.
“Imperial Japanese guards opened fire on the prisoners using captured Thompson submachine guns. Over 100 men were able to fight their way through the guards and abandon ship. Fifteen to twenty were recaptured by torpedo boats and executed as punishment,” the story continued. “While others continued to swim and distance themselves from the ship, there was the loud sound of something cracking. The swimming POWs could see the Shinyo Maru breaking apart and sinking under the surface of the water.
“A total of 668 Allied POWs were killed. Among the Japanese, 47 of the 52 perished. Filipino guerrillas and the Volunteer Guard rescued 83 Americans on Sindangan Bay shore. One POW died the following day and one remained with the guerillas to fight the Japanese. The American submarine USS Narwhal evacuated the rest of the freed POWs. The crew of USS Paddle (SS-263) were not told of the Allied soldiers on board the Shinyo Maru until after the war.”
Johnson was memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines. A cenotaph was placed in his honor at the World War II Memorial at Memorial Point in Evergreen Park in his hometown of Kane. Johnson was posthumously awarded the Prisoner of War medal and the Purple Heart.
Stories Behind the Stars memorials are accessible for free on the internet and via smartphone app at gravesites and cenotaphs. The non-profit organization is dedicated to honoring all 421,000 fallen Americans from World War II, including 31,000 from Pennsylvania.
To volunteer or to get more information, contact Kathy Harmon at kharmon@storiesbehindthestars.org or visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org.
