This is the story of Henry Clay Henderson
His service to
his country during WWII
This story is told in three parts: "Official
Navy": in the form of naval historical reports; A short commentary by Henry
Henderson recorded sometime after
WWII. Henry Henderson's diary - kept during
the actual events as they took place. While the "official Navy" version
offers some confirmation of the literal hell that our men went through; and
the short comments by Mr. Henderson gives a bit more detail - the
diary plunges the reader mercilessly into the reality of man's brutality
to man during war.
CPO, Henry Clay Henderson with Family, wife “Lee”,
baby Brenda Lee, Garnet Lynn, in December, 1951, Dallas, TX
This is part of the Official Navy Record regarding
Prisoners of
War held by the Japanese: US Submarine Losses Navpers 15,784 1949 issue,
WWII.
November 13, 1944, A dispatch originated by Commander Naval Unit,
Fourteenth Air Force, stated that a Japanese ship enroute from Manila to
Japan with 1800 American prisoners of war had been sunk on October
24,
1944 by an American submarine in a torpedo attack. No other submarines
reported the attack, and since USS Shark had given USS Seadragon a contact
report only a few hours before the sinking, and could not be raised
by
radio after that, it can only be assumed that Shark made the attack, and
perished during or after it. Five prisoners who survived and subsequently
reached China stated that conditions on the prison ship were
so intolerable that prisoners prayed for deliverance from their misery by
a torpedo or bomb. Because many prisoners of war being transported had been
rescued
from the water by submarines, US submarines had been instructed to
search for Allied survivors in the vicinity of all sinkings of Empire bound
Japanese
ships. Shark may well have been sunk trying to rescue American
prisoners of war. All attempts to contact Shark by radio failed and on
November 27, 1944, she was presumed lost.
Service Record:
Henry Clay Henderson
Texas National Guard
5/ 8/ 1932 - 8/25/ 1933
Troop
E 112th Cavalry, 56th Brigade, 36th Division
Private First Class.
US
Navy
1933-1935
Havana Cuba, Revolution of June 1934, as Fireman
1st
Class, USS Bainbridge. DD246.
1936-1939
USS S40. SS145.
Fireman, 1st Class
Shanghai, China, during the Japanese Invasion
North
China
1940-1942
Submarine Division 203 serving USS Perch
SS176,
USS Otus AS-20, USS Canopus AS-9
US Philippines Defense Forces,
Cavite, Agaloman Point
and Corregidor
1942-1945
Prisoner of War,
Imperial Japanese Forces
1946-1950
{missing
data}
1950-1953
USS YOG33 Chief Motor Machinist Mate
During the
Korean "Police Action."
1953
Transferred to the Fleet
Reserve
1962 Listed as "retired"
Citations:
1. Purple Heart
Medal, wounded May 6, 1942.
2. Army Distinguished Unit Badge, with Oak
Leaf
Cluster.
a. March 31, 1942 through April 9, 1942,
Philippine
Defense.
b. April 29, through May 6, 1942,
Philippine
Defense.
Defining a word like "hell" is one thing -
living it -
quite another...
Henry Henderson's comments about his WWII
experience:
When that Damn Yankee, General William Tecumseh Sherman,
made the remark "war is Hell" he knew very little of the meaning of the word
hell, in that
context.
The men fighting in the Philippines in the early
part of WWII, that had been taken Prisoner of War by the Japanese Army,
knew they would suffer every indignity, live like dogs, and be worked like
oxen. They also knew they would be almost starved to death. On October 1,
1944, we marched out of Bilibid prison, in Manila, and were herded on board
transports to be moved to
Japan, little did we know what a horrible place
hell really was.
Our own armed forces started
unwittingly slaughtering POW's on these transports as they were being
moved to Japan. It would be two weeks before our convoy would see the same
unbridled fury as unleashed on the earlier convoys. Before we would arrive at
our destination in the Tokyo area, it is estimated that in excess of over
4000 Allied POW's would meet their maker at the hands of our own submarines
and aircraft.
One transport that sailed with us was sunk by the USS Shark
2, SS-314, and American submarine, claiming the lives of 1850 Allied POW's.
Only five survived and were brought to our transport, one of which died
three months later. We were so miserable, we prayed that a torpedo or bomb
would hit our transport and relieve us of our misery. There was no way that
we would be able to escape from the hold we were in, if we sustained
a hit. An oil tanker in our convoy was sunk and there could well have been
other ships sunk.
About three months later, American
fighter/bombers made one hit on the transport we were on, but no one was
killed, however several sustained injuries as a result of this bombing.
The trauma these Submariners and pilots suffered, knowing full
well the large numbers of allied POWs they were slaughtering must have been
unbearable, also the trauma us POWs suffered is far beyond belief.
The
American POWs that lived through to the Wars end, were promised promotion up
to the level of their contemporaries. The Navy being true blue,
denied promotions to a very few of these men for various reasons.
During my rehabilitation leave, I was denied the promotions on the ground
that I not physically qualified for promotion to Commissioned Rank. This
was a horrible price to pay for a small indiscretion.
I feel I was due
these promotions as a result of my original recommendation in 1941, as
substantiated by Admiral Eliot Bryant. Due to some oversight,
this
recommendation was never received by the Navy Department.
Come
to think of it, maybe General Sherman was right.
War is Hell.
The Diary
of Henry Clay Henderson
Part One:
from: December 8, 1941 (Which was
December 7, 1941 in the US) to: January 25, 1945
The Defense and
Loss of the Philippines
The March of Bataan, Bilibid Prison and Transport
in Hell
Dec. 8, 1941 Monday morning 0235 hrs. General quarters was
sounded on board the submarine tender, USS OTUS. It was in the dry dock in
Marivelas, Bataan Peninsula, Luzon, Philippine Islands, under going
emergency repairs on its propeller. I was on board, serving with the
Commander Submarine Division 203, Flag Allowance, in charge of submarine
spare parts. Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, and Baguio, Luzon,
Philippine Islands, US Protectorate, were both being bombed by the
Japanese Air Force. This signals the beginning of World War II for the United
States.
December 10, 1941, Wednesday 1200 hrs. Fifty four Japanese Air
Force heavy bombers made bombing runs over the Navy Yard at Cavite,
completely destroying all facilities. I went out on the dock from the
USS OTUS AS-20 with the Commander of Sub-Div 203 so he could give orders
to the Commanders of the USS Sealion SS-194 and the USS Sea Dragon SS-193 to
get under way and make preparations for starting War patrols against all
Japanese vessels. As he was giving these orders, a bomb landed on the USS
Sealion SS-194 rendering it useless as a combat vessel. How he and I were
spared being hit by fragments of this bomb in particular, or for that
matter, how we escaped without injury by any of the hundreds of bombs that
rained down on this small US Navy Repair Facility is only known to
God. The alert lasted less than one hour.
The USS OTUS AS-20 got underway
for Port Darwin, Australia. The Commander of the Sub-Div 203, gave me orders
to
commandeer a small motor launch and take us across Manila Bay to the
USS Holland. HE conferred with the Commander of Submarines Asiatic, Captain
John Wilks. Orders were issued for the USS Holland to proceed to Port
Darwin, Australia. The Submarine Tender USS Canopus was ordered to remain
behind and service the USS Sea Dragon, making it sea worthy for the voyage
to Australia. The USS Sea Lion was towed out to sea and sunk. I remained
in the Port Area of Manila working with submarine spare parts, doing what I
could to service the US Submarines helping to make them ready
for war
patrols. Some of these submarines intercepted the Japanese landing in
Linggyen Gulf in Northern Luzon.
Dec. 12, 1941 Fri. morning. I went to
the Cavite Navy Yard to try to salvage any submarine spare parts
or torpedoes. GOD what a sight. Dead bodies every where. Dog, cats,
chicken, and pigs were eating the flesh of these bodies. It was a scramble to
find a place to put my foot down without stepping on some one or
some dismembered part of a body.
Dec. 23, 1941 The USS Canopus sailed
to Mariveles Bay, opposite Corregidor at the entrance of Manila Bay
to service submarines. I was sent to Corregidor to work with the spare
parts.
Dec. 27, 1941 0900 hrs. Japanese heavy bombers started the
first of a great many bombing runs on Corregidor inflicting very heavy
damage.
Jan 2, 1942. All flag Personnel were assembled on the USS
Canopus for assignment to submarines that would ultimately take then to
Australia. This included every one except submarine spare parts personnel.
When the
Submarine Officers left the area, us so called stragglers were
fair prey for any and all dirty details the ARMY could come up with. Some of
us were
assigned to the PT Boat Command. I was put on a small unarmed
craft, the Fisheries II, to accompany the PT Boats on inshore patrol missions
from Corregidor to seaward up to Alongpo. One night we jumped a
Japanese
landing craft way down inside our combat lines. This was a hell
of a tussle. The PT Boat was armed with torpedoes and fifty caliber machine
gun mounts. We had a Lewis machine gun and Browning automatic rifle
and
also several 1916 Enfield 30 caliber bolt action rifles as armament.
The PT Boats had both speed and maneuverability, but we were sadly lacking in
both
area. This Japanese landing was at Agaloman Point, near the Section
Base at Marivelas. As a result of our discovery, we later made a raid on this
so called
small pocket of Japanese. Boy what a surprise. They massacred us
and they left the area and went back to their own lines. Several of our own
landing party were killed or wounded.
Feb. 17, 1942. The Commandant of
the 16th Naval District Cavite, issued a Directive authorizing Commanding
Officers authority to advance personnel on their ships to Chief Petty
Officer, that had successfully passed the Bureau of Navigation examination
given on Oct. 31, 1941.
Mar 1, 1942. Lt. Commander E.E. Paro,
assumed authority as Commanding Officer of us stragglers for the purpose
of complying with the Com-16 directive pertaining to promoting personnel.
This was very nice, except for one thing. I went from Senior Petty
Officer First Class to Junior Chief Petty Officer. This was a whole new
wrinkle, when something had to be done, who
did it? Naturally, the Junior
Chief had the honors. The USS Canopus was eventually bombed and had to
be scuttled. This crew, as well as all of us stragglers were put in the
Beach Defense Sectors, serving under the US ARMY. The US MARINES also
suffered this same fate. They were put in charge of training us in the use
of the rifle, bayonet, pistol, hand grenades,
knife, garrote, and hand to
hand combat. BOY!!! They made MARINES out of us in short order. I got so
adapt with the Enfield rifle that during the invasion of Corregidor, when
I got one of the enemy in my sights, he was a downed man. The training was
ordered as a result of that fateful miscalculation we made at Agaloman
Point to roust out the so called small pocket of infiltrators that had landed
behind our lines.
I tried to continue caring for the needs of
the Submarines by giving them spare parts, and also technical advice when
asked for. Many of the supplies
had become exhausted or damaged by the
incessant bombings and shelling.
March 15, 1942. I was transferred to
the Beach Defense Sector on Monkey Point on Corregidor with the
Marines and other stragglers like myself. Being the Junior Chief, I was
put in charge of this group. This was a sorry lot, each of us knew just
exactly what we were, Cannon Fodder.
April 9, 1942. Bataan had been
run over by the overwhelming odds of the Japanese Army.
May 5, 1942.
Wed. 2230 hrs. The alert was sounded to repel boarders. The Japanese had
landed and whereelse? Right on top of us stragglers. Now I know this was not
planned, but none the less, it happened that way. The battle raged until
we were told the next morning to resist until NOON, strip our guns and
dispose of them and surrender. However, by 1000 hrs. this morning, we
knew the end had come, after all my Enfield was no match
for the TANKS
that had followed the Infantry ashore and stomped us into the ground. As all
of this was happening, a big shell dropped in on top of us. A
small piece
of shrapnel hit my left ankle and the concussion stunned me. We had been
subjected to seven days and nights of constant bombing, shelling
and strafing without a let up of any kind. Food and water was very short
in supply and had been for the past few months. The Japanese wasted their
time invading us. If they had waited a few more days, we would
have finished starving to death. This is the GODS Truth. In my opinion,
this was one of the contributing factors of why so many of the POW's died so
early after the
surrender on Bataan and Corregidor.
As a result of
the enemy action, we were awarded the Philippine Defense Medal, The US Army
Distinguished Unit Badge, with Oak Leaf Cluster covering the period of
March 31, 1942 through April 9, 1942 and April 29,
1942 through May 6, 1942.
I was also award the Purple Heart Medal for wounds received in action on May
6, 1942.
I don't know how long I was in this stupor, some
time later, I came to. My rifle had been fired for so long and so many
times, that the protective wood around the barrel showed signs of being
charred by the heat of this rapid firing. A Japanese soldier was nudging
me with his bayonet and pointing in the direction of the 92nd Field
Artillery garage. I didn't think I could, but he convinced me otherwise. We
were all moved to this location to await further developments.
General Sharp of the US B17's on Mindanao would not surrender, so the
Japanese Bombers hovered overhead above us about 12,000 ft. and he was told
to surrender or the war on us would resume again. General Sharp
complied immediately.
The shrapnel in my ankle was killing me by this
time. A Corpsman from the USS Luzon, a river boat from China, removed this
sliver from my ankle with a pair of needle nose pliers. He sewed the wound
up, using needle and thread from a sewing kit one of my friends had on
him.
May 23, 1942. It rained all night, however it hadn't rained once
since the fighting began in Dec., 1941.
May 24, 1942. We were moved to
some Japanese transports to carry us to Manila and into Bilibid Prison. I
had a new blanket slung around my shoulder.
A Japanese soldier on the small
craft ferrying us to the transports swapped my new blanket for one that
was full of holes. I thought this was a real good deal. HE WAS VERY
Convincing.
May 25, 1942. The transports got under way instead
of tying up to the docks in to port area, they went way out on Dewey Blvd.
and dumped us off into the water. Now these were conventional landing craft
and they could have went right onto the beach, but this was more fun. OLE
Lucky me, I was number One man in the front rank, right behind some cavalry
horses. This was also a lot of fun. We walked in formation, not
hop scotch. We made the Victory March from this point into Bilibid Prison.
I was born and grew up in a blacksmith shop in Dallas Texas, so I was used to
horseshit.
May 27, 1942. We were Marched to the railroad tracks, to be
hauled to Cabanatuan to the POW Camps. These box cars were the narrow gauge
type, groups of one hundred men each were crowded into them to wait transportation
to our new home. There was no ventilation and several of us
were almost overcome by heat exhaustion. We unloaded and stayed in a very
crowded enclosure for the night.
May 28, 1942, 500 hrs. We were fed
some rice and started a twenty five kilometer march without food or water.
Now this is quite a chore, because all of us had diarrhea. Many of us were
recovering from wounds, also a great number had malaria. In general, we were
a sorry lot. At 1400 hrs., we arrived at Camp Number Three. Some one
tossed me a canteen of water, I drank
all of it and threw it back to him.
What a Life Saver that was. Several men died in the next day or so
from heat exhaustion as a result of these two ordeals.
After we
arrived at the camp, four men walked out the front gate and as they walked
down the middle of the road, they were apprehended and brought back to
camp. They were tied to some corner posts for the next two
days without
food or water.
May 30, 1942. We witnessed our first execution of these
four men. During the next two months, many, many of the POW's would die of
disease.
July 28 1942. Three hundred of us were assembled with orders
to go back to Bilibid in Manila to be further assigned to construct Air
Bases.
July 29, 1942. We marched down to the docks and boarded
Japanese transports to be moved to Puerto Princessa, Palawan Philippine
Islands.
August 1, 1942. The ship docked at our destination and we
were billeted in a deserted Philippine Army Scout barracks. From our physical
immobility during the stay in Cabanatuan, we were so weak, it was
almost impossible to work. We were immediately introduced to the VITAMIN
STICK, now one of these is adequate incentive to work. As a result of this
hard labor, our hands were bloody pulps form using the Juji (pick ax) and
the IMPI (shovel). We worked almost naked in this boiling hot sun for the
next twenty seven months. We constructed a 1200 meter landing strip with
turn tables at each end. The jungle had to be cleared. Try cutting down
coconut, mahogany and bamboo clusters with primitive hand tools. Making cuts
and fills with the Juji and Impi. Moving the soil in hand operated push
carts on small light narrow rails.
Early Aug. 1944. A note was thrown to
one of our POW's that was working in a shed across the street form
our barracks. The note stated they were McLaughlin, Martin, and Poston,
survivors from a US Submarine that had been sunk about a month ago a few
miles off the west coast of Palawan. They have no idea where they are
now.
August 14, 1944. We came in from work and were told to line up in
two ranks, ten paces apart. The first rank was told to go inside the barracks
and pack our gear, we were going back to Bilibid in Manila. There was
309
POW's in camp. Nine were classified as sick and the other one hundred
and fifty was in the first rank with me. We marched down to the Japanese
transport and went aboard. Little known to us, Admiral Halsey's
seventh
fleet of Carriers and Admiral Spruance's submarines, were sinking
almost all shipping and all war crafts in the Philippines. We continued to
work from the hold of the ship for the next month.
Sept. 15. 1944.
The ship got underway for Manila, arriving late in the day of Sept. 18, and
we debarked the next morning marching off to Bilibid prison.
Sept. 20,
1944. Gad, PAY DAY. Being a non commissioned officer I was paid fifteen
centavos per working day Sixty per cent was invested in Japanese War
Savings.and the other 40 per cent was paid in cash. With my twenty seven
pesos, I bought one coconut. Now one might surmise that I was grossly over
paid for my 27 months of hard labor in Palawan. After all, a coconut is a
coconut.
Sept. 21, 1944. One hundred and seventy planes from Admiral
Halsey's seventh fleet carrier task force bombed Manila. The port area was
severely damaged as well as the Clark Field installation. Many
gun emplacements throughout the city were rendered useless. Some were so
close to Bilibid that debris from the bombing rained down on us inside,
injuring several POW's.
Sept. 22, 1944. More of the Same. These planes
sank Japanese transports carrying POW's from Malay to Japan. The survivors
were brought to Bilibid.
Oct. 1, 1944. Our group of 1,000 men were
numbered, lined up and ready to march down to the docks to board a
transport bound for Japan. We were scheduled for a very large, modern ocean
liner for this voyage. As usual, we would be crammed in a lower hold of the
ship like rats. A Japanese colonel pulled rank on our Japanese Major,
waiving us to one side. There was 1856
POW's in his group. Our 1000 was up to
1165 by adding the 165 survivors of the transport that was sunk by Admiral
Halsey's planes. There was possibly 1200 POW's on board the ship that had
been sunk. As you can see,
not too many souls survived these bombings
and strafings.
We marched down to the dock and were put on a
small miserable ship City of Sidney captured from Australia, for our
voyage to Japan. We were stuffed into two holds of this ship and told to make
our selves comfortable as the trip would take twelve days. Pea coal had
been placed across the bottom to make it about level. There was absolutely no
room to lay down, just sit. Bodies on all sides touched each other,
and also, there was absolutely no ventilation.
Oct. 8, 1944. The
northern coast of Luzon, Philippine Islands. This is my Birthday and I am
grateful to be alive. So many of my friends are not.. We were in a convoy
of ten ships heading for Japan. Late in the afternoon, an oil tanker off our
starboard bow was struck by a torpedo. It was so close to us, the
spray and debris was strewn on the decks of our ship. God it looked like
the end was at long last in sight. We were all so miserable, many of us
welcomed the chance to end it all by going to the bottom with the
ship,
because we already knew it was impossible for us to get out of the
hold of the ship if it was sunk.
We had been getting one canteen of water
a day, but when the submarine attacks began, the water was shut off. We
were smack dab in the middle of a large Japanese battle fleet. But they were
no deterrent to the US Submarines. The submarines had a job to do and they
did it. We were without water for about 40 hrs. the bad part was, over half
of the men had water before the attack, and the others had not.
This created a horrible situation. People that had water were reluctant to
share, because there was no reason to believe the rations would start again.
Men started dying from the lack of water, dehydration, dysentery and other
causes began to take it toll. We changed
course and headed for Hong Kong as a
haven of safety.
A friend, Zigman Budjac, even though he did not
get his water ration either, shared a small amount that he had saved from
the day before. He rationed it out, a teaspoon full at a time to both of us.
Had it not been for Ziggie, I would not be here today writing this account
of the most bizarre ocean voyage imaginable, that is a testimony of mans
inhumanity to man. A typical reveille consisted of yelling, shake the
man next to you and start sending up the dead bodies. In situations like
these, it is imperative to have a friend you can trust your very life with.
Before you can have a friend, you have got to be an absolute unselfish
friend. My daughter Garnet said that Ziggie’s daughter saw my diary and
wrote her back. She was glad to know what happened to him.
Oct. 13,
1944. The ship anchored in Hong Kong harbor just in time for some US P-51
fighter/bombers to start their strafing and bombing runs over us. We would
go back to sea only to run into the US Submarines again. These seesaw
tactics grew very frustrating. One night a large flight of US B-24 heavy
bombers made runs over the Ship repair facilities as well as selected
parts of the city. These air alerts continued as long as we were in the
harbor.
The large ocean liner previously mentioned with the 1856
allied POW's on board was sunk in the US Submarine attack and I do not know
how many survivors there were, but we got four, Bender, Warrant officer US
Navy, Brodsky, Sgt., Hughes, Private, and ---,---, the last three were US
Army personnel. There was a great many Japanese Nationals as well as a
large
contingent of Japanese Military personnel on board.
Nov. 5,
1944. We sailed for Toroku Formosa, Taiwan and arrived three days later. The
ship was ordered out to sea because Nov. 8, 1944 was election day in
the States. This twelve day voyage grew to thirty nine days and we had
already buried at sea the same amount of our ship mates.
Nov. 9, 1944.
We sailed back into port and disembarked, marching to a small compound.
During our three months stay here, we worked in a sugar mill and
on the
vegetable farm. Our stay here will give us our first glimpse of the US B-29,
Super Fortress bombers. God!! were they Big. We remained here, working in
the sugar mill and on the farm until Jan 24, 1945. We boarded a train
and traveled from Toroku to Shirakawa on the northern end of the island.
We were put in groups of one hundred. And as luck would have it, one of the
POW's died. He was Pvt. Hughes, one of survivors of the large ship that
was sunk by torpedoes. We had to have him in the ranks every time we were
counted (Bango). The bango appears to be the national pass time of the
Japanese Army. If they don't know what to do, have a bango. We carried him
on the train until arriving at Shirakawa where he was cremated. Whooee!! what
a stinker he had become.
Jan. 25, 1945 We boarded a Japanese
transport and the next day we were given physical examinations. Over
700 of the POW's had sleeping sickness. They left the ship for a
destination unknown. While we were along side of
the dock, a US P-51
fighter/bomber made a bombing run over us and dropped four of the largest
bombs I had ever seen. A Chaplain on board gave us all the Last Rights of
the Sacrament as the bombs were falling. The
bombs landed on the ship next to
us, ripping it in half. Later our ship was hit with one bomb, causing the
survivors to be moved to another transport. We
moved to the outer harbor and
anchored, and waited about four more days for a convoy to make up so
we could sail for Japan.
Prisoner of War in Japan - Guilty by
association...
Feb. 14, 1945. We arrived in Moji, Japan. We
almost froze to death. Finally a Japanese Officer issued us over coats and
told us we were going to Tokyo. These coats come in real handy as the only
clothes we had were the very light things we wore in the
Philippines.
Feb. 15, 1945 Late Evening, we boarded a train bound for
Tokyo. This was a long ride.
Feb. 17, 1945. We arrived in Kawasaki, which
is across the river from Tokyo and we were assigned to the Tokyo War
Prisoners Camp number 23D. It sure was cold, snow was on the ground and ice
cycles were hanging from the
eaves of the barracks roof. We took off all
our clothes and all of our belongings were boiled to kill the lice and in
general, just sterilize everything.
Feb. 19, 1945. Admiral Halsey's
Carrier planes strafed and bombed every thing in our area
causing considerable damage. Kawasaki was a heavy
manufacturing, and
chemical complex plants. Just the right ingredients to cause heavy bombing
raids quite often. The US Marines were landing on Iwo Jima. Little did we
know the havoc they would rain down on us in just a few short
weeks.
March 8-9, 1945 1100-0130 hrs. USAAF General LeMay's B29
incendiary bombing of Tokyo and Kawasaki consisted of three hundred and
thirty four of these large SuperForts. We were right in the middle of all
this planned arson. Eighty three thousand people were killed and over
forty thousand injured, plus total destruction of a large part of the cities.
A gale type wind was also blowing, fanning the fires as they burned. It is
utterly unbelievable the amount of destruction and loss of life a fire storm
of this magnitude can cause. The plant where I worked, Kagaku (formerly
Suzuki) was totally destroyed. It appears these planes come so close to the
ground, we could
talk to the air crewmen. The more we yelled, the
more they bombed us. Boy, did they have fun. You could say there was a hot
time in the old town that night. It was this area, not Hiroshima or Nagasaki,
where the most loss of life and destruction took place. While I'm not down
grading the destruction power of the Atomic bomb, there are other means to
cause greater damage in a war.
April 1, 1945, NOON. The small
fighter/bombers started operating from the newly acquired landing strips
on Iwo Jima, hitting us before the air raid alarms could be sounded. Now
this was a new type of warfare we had to contend with. Hit and Run at will
with little or no opposition. This was the first time we saw the
planes firing rockets. This became unbearable as they strafed
and bombed
us. After all, we were the Enemy, and didn't practice discrimination. Weren't
we working in the Japanese Defense plants, and investing in Japanese War
savings bonds? This area was finally designated as
having no further
strategic value, so the bombings became sporadic in the next few
months.
June 1, 1945, 0800 hrs. You guessed it, another march. This
would be our last move. We were transferred to the Tokyo War Prisoners Camp
number 1. We continued working at Kagaku, doing salvage and clean up work
on
the premise.
August 15, 1945, 1200hrs. Over 1700 carrier
born planes plus a whole sky full of B-29 super-forts blacked out the sky.
We were told to sit down and the Emperor of Japan had a message for the
Nation. When he started speaking, we understood what he was saying.
He told us we had lost the war and were to resist no longer. We marched
back to the camp, and strangely
enough, the next morning the Japanese guards
were no longer in our camp.
August 16, 1945, 0800 hrs. Civilian
overseers came into the camp along with a Swedish representative
to inspect the camp and to tend to the sick and wounded. We were
instructed to remilitarize ourselves, what ever that meant. We had a USN
Captain and a few Chief Petty Officers to help organize the foreign
Nationals, as well as our own people in groups so that we would
be ready
to be liberated when the cease fire was at last finalized.
Colonel
Sakabaru, Imperial Japanese Army Commandant of all POW's in the area stated
he would place the Japanese soldiers on duty outside the camp confines
to protest us from any possible civilian uprisings. We did not know if
some hot head existed that would create a disturbance. Anywhere in the sky
that I looked, I could see our planes and felt safe enough. There were no
incidents.
Our Senior Officer, USN Captain Davidson and myself along
with some other Chief Petty Officers went on inspection tours of the other
POW facilities in our sector. All was quiet and no one was in danger of
life and limb. The B-29's started dropping food, medical supplies and
clothing. The Japanese civilians helped us to round up these things and bring
them into the
camps. We all got sick from eating all that rich food and
had to stop eating it for a while. They dropped everything but
ice-cream.
Aug. 17, 1945, 0800 hrs. The new civilian overseers cashed
in our War savings bonds and gave us a regulation Japanese Army hair cut.
This consists of clipping off all the hair on the head. Boy, with all that
money in my pockets a little of Y30, and a hair cut I felt like a new man.
For the next two weeks we
just lazed around the camp, reminiscing, just
waiting for the day of Jubilee.
Sept. 2, 1945, 0800 hr. Word came
down to proceed to the docks and await landing crafts to take us out
to the USS Benevolence, a hospital ship. In the late afternoon, a landing
party, headed by USN Commander Stassen, arrived and carried us out to the
USS Lansdown DD-856 for supper. Wieners and sauerkraut, boiled potatoes
and ice cream. After supper, we were taken to the USS Benevolence.
Now
talk about the uninvited guests. We were treated with disdain and scorned.
God Damn, we could walk. The bunks were forbidden to us on those grounds. It
gets cold in Tokyo Bay in September at night, and boy this
was night time.
We finally got some blankets and a few cots but we still had to sleep on the
deck outside. The next morning we were herded back to the fan tail of the
ship where the sterilizer was located. All belongings were placed inside and
the steam turned on. It was still damp and chilly, now this is no place
to be walking around with no clothes on. Someone started calling off the
Foreign National's names and had them fall in to be sent to their own
jurisdiction on other ships in the bay. After all foreigners had been
culled
out, and this took several hours, we were told to go below and get
some clothes issued to us. Later in the day we were sent to an LSV, the USS
Hovey, for transportation to the States. I ran into a friend of my earlier
submarine days named John Perks, a USN Chief Warrant Officer. He gave me one
of his old uniforms to wear on my way home. I was very grateful
for this
act of kindness as all I had on was a pair of dungarees. The next day he told
me Admiral Halsey had ordered three planes to fly a small token number of
us home. On board was the Submarine Commander that had
been awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor and the Admiral wanted him sent to Washington,
DC, so that President Truman could make the presentation to him. Commander
O'Kane was the Commanding Officer of the USS Tang SS-306, this submarine was
a one ship task force and caused tremendous damage to a convoy
single handed. The last torpedo fired made a circular run, sinking the USS
Tang. His submarine had sunk 13 ships in this large convoy.
Commander
O'Kane was having some kind of medical problem and the ships doctor would not
certify him for air travel. Hicks told me he would be the Officer of the
Deck when the 96 names were to be called off to go to the Haneda Air Port. He
said if the doctor did not allow the Commander to leave the ship he would
call my name and for me to jump in the landing craft as if
everything was
all right.
The USS Peavy would not arrive in San Francisco
until October. As I was browsing through a copy of News Week magazine,
I learned the fate of the 150 friends we lad left behind in Palawan. The
Japanese spotted a large
invasion fleet they thought was to invade them,
after they sounded the air alarm the third time and put all POW's in the
air raid shelter, the guards then tossed gasoline and torches inside the
shelter. When the POW's came out, they were all shot and bayoneted.
Only eleven survived and escaped to our own forces that had infiltrated
the area. Those that died are buried in a
common grave in Jefferson Barracks
in the State of Missouri near St Louis. There were 3 Hendersons in
the camp, the other 2 died, one on either side of me in the lines when we
were separated. They remained and I was sent to another camp. My daughter
Garnet, has visitied their grave every year after finding them. She is
grateful for her life and mine and sorry so many had to die for
us.
September 4, 1945, Late afternoon. We took off from the Hanead Air
Port and the pilot said he would make a wide circle over the area so we could
see all of the destruction and realize how lucky we were to still
be alive. For many miles in each direction, all that was still standing
were some metal or concrete smoke stacks that had not been blown down by the
bombs. It was unbelievable how much damage had been reeked on Tokyo,
Kawasaki, and Yokahama. If the rest of Japan looked like this area, with
winter coming on, I think I know how Napoleon's troops felt in Moscow. This
area had been reduced from a primary strategic bombing target to one of
little or no value as a target of any kind.
We arrived early the next
morning in Guam, immediately upon landing, this is what we heard. "Fall In,
Get a Move on, We got to Interrogate All of You. You gotta make out
depositions." We didn't hear any one say would you like a coke or a beer, or
maybe send a message home to let the folks know we had made it to safety.
Now I know they were all busy, but wasn't the
fighting done and wasn't it
time to relax and think of someone else? We were then sent to the field
hospital for a bath and physical, and clearance for the next leg of our
flight to the States.
September 6, 1945. The next morning we took off
for Palmyra, Kwajalein, and Johnston Island enroute to Pearl
Harbor.
September 7, 1945. We arrived at Pearl Harbor and stayed in
the hospital for the next two nights. During our stay here all submarine
POW's were taken to the Submarine base and awarded Purple Heart Medals
for wounds received in the fighting on Bataan and Corregidor, Philippine
Island in the early part of the war. Oh, Yes, I also received three months
pay, a whopping $434.00. (Not $6,076 for the 3 ˝ yrs I was a POW. I still
have never received that as of 1997)
September 8, 1945, 1800 hrs. We
boarded a PBY (USN pontoon type plane and headed for the Naval Air Station
at Alemeda, California.
September 9, 1945, late evening. We were sent to
the US Naval Hospital Oak Knoll, at Oakland, California. We stayed here
for the next eight days. We were taken to a clothing store and bought new
uniforms and other items of wearing apparel and in general just did a
lot of goin' ashore and doin' what sailors do.
September 17, 1945,
0800. Boarded a plane for Oletha, Kansas to stay for the
night.
September 18, 1945, 0800. Flew to Norman, Oklahoma to the US
Naval Hospital.
September 19, 1945, 0800. In compliance with a
Navy Department Directive, I was advance to Chief Machinists Mate,
Permanent Appointment. Now this was a joke, the effective date was March 1,
1943, for all purposes except pay. In those days, all CPO's were required
to serve one year, on a sea going vessel or foreign station as Acting
Appointee before being advanced to Permanent Appointment. The
Commanding Officer's recommendation was also required. Japanese CO's did
not apply in the situation.
September 20, 1945, 0800. Departed on 90
Days rehabilitation leave with orders to report to the Commandant of the
Eighth Naval District in New
Orleans, La. and upon completion of the leave
for further assignment to a permanent duty station.
One further
comment by Mr. Henderson:
While on leave, another article caught my eye,
of the 235,473 United States and the United Kingdom prisoners reported
captured by Germany and Italy together, only 4 percent (9,348) died in the
hands of their captors, whereas 27 percent of Japan's Anglo-American
POW's (35,756 of 132,134) did not survive. It did not take much
imagination on my part to realize that my chances of survival from December
8, 1941 to September 2, 1945, I had as much chance as a snow ball in hell.
I know: I've been in Hell.
My Father, Henry Clay Henderson was a
very happy, gay, funny, and friendly young man before the war, he came
back a different man only 3 ˝ years later. He died on 29 August, 1997 Dallas
Texas V A Hospital
20 days after an experimental surgery for a
brain anurisum. He always felt if he could something to help future
generation he would, he had asked to have his entire surgery video taped for
future research to help others and if he did not survive the doctors
could learn from it.
His ashes are buried in from San Diego Bay, CA. I
try to carry on his legacy, by volunteering in research and helping others as
much as I can, and always willing to help a VETERAN ORGANIZATION.
His
daughter,
Garnet Lynn Henderson Pettibone Murphey
Southlake TX
pettibone48@yahoo.com
