|
Prisoners of war in a POW camp near Ohasi, Japan. The prisoners include
a dozen men from the U.S.S. Houston, several Americans from the 131st Field Artillery,
and Australians from the Australian Imperial Forces and the HMAS Perth.
Gift of Henry Thew.
|
Of the 1068 crew members on the Houston, 368 survived the sinking of
the ship and the hours-long swim to the shore of Java. Upon reaching shore,
many of the men immediately found themselves prisoners of the Japanese. Others
made contact with the natives of Java, who alerted the Japanese to the
sailors' presence. Once in the hands of the Japanese, the men of the
Houston began a life of primitive hardships and brutal treatment that
would last for three and a half years.
Following the weeks of fighting and the ordeal in the water, the men were
exhausted and hungry, many of them covered in oil from the ship. Some were very
badly burned. Groups of captives were marched and forced to endure
"bashings" from the Japanese, who used their rifle butts to keep the
men moving. The Japanese took their American prisoners to the town of Serang,
where they spent a week crowded into the local theater along with Australian and
Dutch prisoners, with little food and no medical treatment, before being moved
to the local jail, where conditions were equally bad.
|
| This spike was recovered from the site of the
Burma-Thai Railway many years after the war. Nearly 13,000 Allied POWs died building the "Death Railway."
Gift of Otto Schwarz. |
|
| A Japanese infantry sergeant gave this spoon to
POW George Detre when he was captured. For many months Detre was the only
person who had a utensil, and he used the spoon for 2 1/2 years. Gift of George Detre.
|
|
In April 1942, most of the men were transported to "Bicycle Camp"
in Batavia. Bicycle Camp, which had been the quarters for the Tenth Battalion
Bicycle Force of the Netherlands East Indies Army, offered the POWs the best
conditions they would experience as prisoners-of-war. The men had access to
showers and running water, and were housed three to a room in barracks with
cement floors. In Bicycle Camp, the men of the Houston were joined by
troops from the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, a National Guard unit from
Texas (dubbed "the Lost Battalion" because their whereabouts were
unknown during World War II).
In
October, the majority of the POWs were taken from Bicycle Camp to Singapore,
while the rest were sent to work in various camps throughout Asia. This
journey to Singapore was one of the most horrific experiences of their
captivity, as men were jammed into the holds of rusty old freighters such as the
Dai Nichi Maru. The POWs spent several days and nights on these
"hell ships" with no room to move and barely any rice to eat, amid men
who were now sick with dysentery. Upon arriving, the men spent several weeks at
Changi Camp before taking another hell ship to their ultimate destination in
Moulmein, Burma.
|
Allied prisoners-of-war helped to build the Burma-Thai Railway amid primitive living conditions like
these.
Gift of Betty Batchelor Miles.
|
|
| The belongings of this prisoner of
war were photographed upon the release of POWs from
Rat Buri, Thailand, in 1945. Gift of
Eugene Wilkinson.
|
|
The Japanese brought the American POWs to Burma to
become slave labor for a special project. Desiring to create a more convenient
route from Thailand to Burma for moving troops and raw materials, the Japanese
planned to connect two railway lines in an impossibly short fifteen months. They
put 61,000 Allied prisoners-of-war and over 200,000 Asian natives to work
building the Burma-Thai Railway, which would stretch 250 miles between
mountains, across rivers, and through jungles. American POWs in fifty-man teams
cut down trees, built road beds and bridges, and laid ties and rails for the
Death Railway.
Living conditions
for the laborers were appalling. Each man received half a cup of bug-infested rice a day,
and some POWs dropped below 80 pounds. Malnutrition brought on diseases like beri
beri, pellagra, and scurvy. The tropical environment bred more cases of
dysentery, plus malaria, cholera, and tropical ulcers that ate through flesh to
expose the bone. Although doctors were present in the camps, they were not
allowed any drugs or tools for practicing medicine. Those workers who were too
slow were beaten; those who were too sick to work received no food, and were
eventually sent to the notorious 80 Kilo Camp to
die.
| In August 1945, POWs learned that the war was
over and they were soon to be released after 3 1/2 years as prisoners of war. Gift of
Mrs. Jack (Doris) Smith. |
Nearly 13,000 Allied POWs and 100,000 Asian natives died building the Death
Railway, including 79 men from the Houston. Upon the railway's
completion in October 1943, the surviving POWs were scattered to various camps
in Singapore, Burma, Indochina, and Japan, where they performed manual work for
the Japanese until the war's end. On August 16, 1945, the POWs learned
that the war was over. Upon their release, they were sent to hospitals in
Calcutta, India and the Philippines before returning to the United States, where
they reunited with their loved ones and began the process of rebuilding their
lives.
Return to the University of Houston Special Collections Homepage.
Return to the University of Houston Libraries Homepage.
