The Things Our Fathers Saw—The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation From Hometown, USA-Volume I: Voices of the Pacific Theater

by Matthew Rozell

  Well, not quite a year later I knew where Pearl Harbor was because we came in on a ship, and when we entered the harbor—I’ll never forget this—you couldn’t hear a thing. The only thing you heard was the slush of the water as the boat was going in… And we saw all these ships leaning over on their sides, and so on, and so forth. So to answer the question, that’s where I was, and ended up in Pearl Harbor.[6]

  The Day of Infamy

  Dan Orsini, 2011. Portrait by Robert H. Miller.

  On December 8th, the President of the United States asked Congress for a declaration of war. Dante ‘Dan’ Orsini had graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in Glens Falls in 1939, and like so many others, decided to go into the service, as jobs were scarce at that time. By 1941, he was stationed in Washington, D.C., attending the Marine Corps Institute for specialized training; he was also assigned to a very special detail. At 21, he was the youngest sergeant-major in the Marine Corps.

  Dan Orsini

  I had only been in Washington D.C. three months; already I’m a member of the White House Guard, which was quite a thing! The White House Guard is made up of sixty guys, each with week-long duties, and our job was to be near and protect the President of the United States and go wherever he went, wherever the White House demanded that we go. So I had the opportunity to see many, many things that the normal person in life would not see.

  I went to many events with the President on several occasions. I went to Warm Springs, Georgia, twice with his train; that was the Little White House in Georgia; that’s where he died in 1945. I saw FDR swimming in his pool—nobody saw that; I knew that FDR was disabled, couldn’t walk. He had polio. He had to be lifted out of his chair; he had to be wheel-chaired to wherever he went—you know,things like that. He was doing this for the exercise more than anything else, and his little dog was standing next to him, barking like hell… and that was very thrilling, seeing the President go by, saying, ‘Hello, sergeant. How are you this morning?’…

  On December 7th I was playing basketball at the U.S. naval facility in Washington, D.C. It was about one o’clock in the afternoon, and they stopped the ball game, and they said, ‘We want you to know that we just found out that Pearl Harbor has been bombed.’ So we finished our ball game [laughs] because we weren’t sure how serious this was. We found out later.

  When I got back to the barracks that night—this was still December the 7th—my name was on a bulletin board, and it said, ‘You twenty will be at the House of Representatives tomorrow night; the President is going to address the nation.’ That’s when President Roosevelt gave his famous ‘Day of Infamy’ Speech. It still goes on record as one of the greatest speeches ever given by a President. He knew he had a job to do; he had to bring the country together to win the war. I was about 100, maybe 200 feet to him, right in the House of Representatives when he spoke. It was very inspiring, and he had everybody. He showed his leadership abilities then as President. Politics went out the window. He brought everybody together, and it’s the same thing as saying, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got a war we’ve got to win. What are we going to do?’ And then from then on, the world changed. That’s when America loaded its gun and decided, ‘Hey, this is serious, the Japanese have attacked us, they destroyed our fleet.’ It was a great victory for them, now it was our turn. We had to build our country up, and that’s where we started.[7]

  On that tragic day at Pearl Harbor over 2,400 Americans were killed, with another 1,100 wounded. In the following hours the Japanese struck U.S. bases in the Philippines, Wake Island, and Guam, and also began attacks on Thailand, Malaya, and Hong Kong. On the 9th, Japan invaded the Gilbert Islands and Germany and Italy declared war against the United States on the 11th. It was a shocking start to the war whose prospects had loomed uneasily on every American’s mind since the invasion of Poland two years earlier.

  In the Philippines, the attack at Pearl Harbor came at 3 AM local time. Warren County natives John E. Parsons and Joseph G. Minder were with the U.S. Army’s 803rd Engineer Aviation Battalion working on survey crews building runways to beef up military locations in the Philippines.

  At Clark Field in the Philippines on Dec. 8, 1941, John Parsons was sitting on the steps of a barracks with some fellow soldiers watching an approaching flight of 56 planes, which a passing officer described as a “Navy formation.” In a few minutes a thunderous crash of bombs began what would become a nightmare of horrors for Parsons and the other soldiers in the Philippines.[8] Due to confusion at high levels and conflicting reports, the Japanese bombers achieved almost complete tactical surprise, knocking out half of the U.S. Far East Air Force on the ground.[9]

  After entering the service in May, 1941, 24–year old Joe Minder began to keep a diary. Little did he know the tortured story his completed narrative would reveal about his subsequent three and a half years as a prisoner of war at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. His entries for December 1941 highlight the confused nature of the start of America’s war.

  Joe Minder

  O’Donnell Airfield

  November 3, 1941

  Arrived here at O’Donnell by truck. What a rough road and place for a camp—'cogon grass’ [kunai grass] is higher than a man’s head around here. There sure is going to be plenty of work building a camp here in this jungle! [This would be turned into the horrific POW camp several months later.]

  December 7, 1941

  Returned back to camp at 8:00 P.M. after spending the weekend on a pass at Baguio [resort city to the north near the Lingayen Gulf]. Traveled all over Baguio with Drake, a good buddy from Louisiana. Also went up on top of the mountain near a gold mine. That sure was a beautiful sight, going up the sharp winding zig-zag trail, cut in the side of those steep mountains. Had air raid practice at noon in Baguio.

  December 8, 1941—9:00 AM

  Paper just came in from Clark Field—‘Hawaii Bombed’! ‘War Declared’! [*]

  While we were eating… the first flight of Jap bombers went over our field to bomb Clark Field. Heard their explosions when the Japs dropped their bombs on oil dumps and ammunition dumps on Clark Field!

  3:00 PM

  Started tearing down tents, preparing to move all our equipment back into denser jungle to seek protection from Jap bombers.

  7:00 PM

  Just found out how much damage was done at Clark Field. Several hundred killed and injured. Much of the 803rd Engineers’ equipment was destroyed, also several of our men were injured. Our surveying job broke up at noon. I have been put on a machine gun. So far, no Jap planes have come down close enough to get a shot at one.

  December 9, 1941

  Awakened early this morning by Jap observation plane. Thank God, no other planes came back to bomb or strafe us after he left. Just finished moving machine gun nest to the hill overlooking the airfield. Ready for action in case some of those high flying bombers decide to come down and blow up our equipment on the field below us!

  December 10 to December 22, 1941

  For the past few days, hundreds of Jap planes have flown directly over our field on their way to bomb air fields, oil dumps, and ammunition dumps near here. So far, not a single plane has bothered us. We have been darn lucky! From this hill, I have seen many of the fires which they have set and heard the explosions of hundreds of tons of bombs. God only knows how many men were killed already.

  December 23, 1941

  Japs have broken through the lines and are now only a few miles from here. We are going to have to abandon this field and move to San Jose to construct an emergency landing field there. Things are getting hot!

  December 25, 1941

  Christmas Day! Sure doesn’t feel like Christmas! Nothing different from any other day, except we were fortunate to have a little turkey for dinner. Sent a telegram home yesterday. Hope their Christmas at home isn’t anything like this! Still on the machine gun here in San Jose.

  Japanese infantry continued their steady advance from the north. The 803rd and other units, along with tens of
thousands of Filipino troops, rushed to consolidated defensive positions on the mountainous Bataan peninsula. At the tip of the peninsula at the entrance to Manila Bay lay the fortress island of Corregidor, where General MacArthur maintained his headquarters.

  December 30, 1941

  Japs broke through again! We are going to Orani [on the Bataan Peninsula] to work on another airfield.

  December 31, 1941

  We were bombed for the first time, as we were eating supper. Koltoff almost had his leg blown off and two other men from my company also were injured by shrapnel. Two large air corps gas trucks were also blown up, across the road from where we are. Several Filipinos were also killed. Twelve were buried alive when a bomb landed near their bomb shelter. Some of our men dug them out, but only two survived.[10]

  chapter two

  The Defenders

  The degree of unpreparedness that faced the nation in the first months of the Pacific War was nearly overwhelming. Young Americans were hurled into a stratosphere of uncertain and unfolding events against battle hardened Japanese forces. In the Philippines, a three-month death struggle would be waged as American and Filipino forces desperately tried to salvage their positions. Ordered to fall back to consolidate their lines, the defenders were confronted with the day to day realities of dealing with an enemy of superior numbers and experience.

  By January 1942, the main island of Luzon was in the crosshairs of the Imperial Army and Navy, Japan now having a firm grip on all of Southeast Asia. After the fall of Manila on January 2nd, the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor were the only Allied holdouts in the region. The 803rd Engineer Aviation Battalion struggled valiantly to widen roads and repair airfields for the Allied reinforcements and counterattack that would never come. Fate would render her terrible hand to the 12,000 American troops and 65,000 Filipino defenders trapped here on Bataan. There would be no relief—only sickness and starvation, and tears of frustration and exhaustion.

  Route of Pvt. Joseph G. Minder in the Philippines, Oct. 1941-May 1942. Drafted by Susan Winchell-Sweeney.

  Joseph Minder was a country boy at heart, growing up in the Adirondack Mountains of northern Warren County with his brothers and sisters and a genuine love for people and the beauty of the natural world that surrounded him. He spent his days after school hunting and fishing or skiing on the mountain near his home. Like so many other young adults right out of high school, Joe would be literally thrust to the front lines of an unfolding titanic struggle that would engulf the entire world.

  Joseph Minder, 1941.

  Courtesy Minder Family.

  Joe Minder

  January 1, 1942

  Darn tired this morning. Greco and myself celebrated New Year’s Eve last night drinking warm beer in what was left of Orani. Spent the five dollars my sister Josephine sent me.

  11:00 AM

  Japs bombed and strafed while we were working on the field. Got my first shots at a Jap plane when I emptied my rifle as it came in to strafe the field. Saw the Jap plane catch fire and explode when it hit the ground!

  4:00 PM

  Japs spotted our foxholes and dropped frag bombs and strafed the heck out of us. One bomb landed 10 feet from the foxhole that John Delemater was in, knocking loose dirt from the sides of the foxhole on us. Although many bombs landed very near to many men and the entire area was machine gunned heavily, not a single man was injured today.

  January 2, 1942

  Spent half the night blowing up dud bombs which the Japs dropped yesterday. Darn tired but will have to work like heck today, preparing to move again, to Bogani road on Bataan. This will make the fourth airfield that I have worked on, which they have captured.

  Retreat to Bataan

  January 3, 1942

  Started working on Bataan roads today. Shreppel and two other men were injured when Japs bombed us again today, as we were working, building a bridge bypass.

  January 4, 1942

  Things were too ‘hot’ yesterday, so we worked last night instead of today, to get away from the Jap bombings. Intended to sleep today but found out we are going to have to move to Kilometer No. 201. Japs have bombed all the bivouacs [improvised temporary camps] around us. If we stay here we will be next…

  January 5 to January 20, 1942

  Although the Japs have been keeping us in hot water, bombing and strafing roads, trucks, bridges, and bivouacs areas, we have managed to keep most of our machinery running, widening the roads and building bridges here on Bataan for these past 15 days.

  January 21, 1942: 9:00 PM

  Japs must have made a deeper drive into Bataan. Heavy guns can be heard much clearer tonight.

  1:00 A.M

  A lot of machine gun fire coming from the beach about a half mile from here.

  The Japanese had turned a landing on the west coast of the peninsula, and now were attempting to surround and isolate American and Filipino positions. The defenders fought on tenaciously and contained the Japanese breakout, protecting the further withdrawal of troops and tens of thousands of civilians. In the ‘Battle of the Points’, these sick and hungry men killed over 2,000 Japanese invaders.

  January 22, 1942

  Japs landed at Agloloma [Bay] behind the lines last night about a mile from here. We have been notified to move in there this morning and help other outfits who are already fighting them.

  January 23, 1942: 9:00 AM

  First food and water since 6:00 AM yesterday. Fought 26 hours straight, with only one casualty!

  2:00 PM

  Many Jap snipers were all around us. I almost got it when one spotted me and started firing at me before I had the chance to get my machine gun set up! It was thick with vines that we had to cut our way through with our bayonets.

  We managed to keep pushing the Japs back toward the beach till about 5:00 PM, at which time we ran into crossfire from Jap machine gun nests. Before we could fall back, they broke the line and killed or wounded half of us. Robert Ray and Kenny, two close buddies of mine, were the unfortunate ones. Thank God, they were both killed instantly and didn’t have to suffer like some of the rest did. The Japs tried to cut the rest of us off, but we waited until dark and managed to sneak back through their lines.

  January 24, 1942

  Found out at about 3:00 PM that we were being relieved by the Filipino scouts. The handful of us who were left went to Signal Hill [the reconstituted Army headquarters near the city of Mariveles on the southern tip of Bataan] to reorganize.

  January 26, 1942

  Left Signal Hill for Little Baguio [a bit further inland, to the engineer depot at Kilometer Marker 168.5] where we joined with Company B, 803rd Engineers to work on the roads again.

  January 28, 1942

  Visited men in Little Baguio hospital who were injured in Agloloma. Cappel and Peterson both lost their legs.

  Retreat to Corregidor

  February 4, 1942

  We were notified this morning that we are to move to Corregidor tonight and construct another airfield there.

  Corregidor was the fortified island at the opening to Manila Bay, about three miles off the tip of the peninsula. Dotted with bunkers and riddled with tunnels, it had nearly thirty heavy gun batteries and twice that amount of large cannons for the defense of the Philippines. Situated not unlike Gibraltar in Europe at the strait entering the Mediterranean, it was expected to be able to withstand any enemy attack.[11] The most formidable structure was the Malinta Tunnel, a fortified tunnel complex constructed between the wars that would go on to house General MacArthur’s command as well as a thousand-bed hospital.[12]

  February 5, 1942

  Arrived here about four this morning. Everyplace we go, the Japs seem to follow us. Corregidor was shelled, from Cavite [seven miles away, the by-now abandoned U.S. naval base for the Philippines] for the first time today. Several shells landed in our bivouac area, but no one was injured.

  General MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to leave the Philippines for Au
stralia to compose its defense in mid-March, leaving General Wainwright in charge. British Malaya and Singapore had fallen rapidly with the capture of 15,000 Australian soldiers and air attacks in Australia had already commenced, shocking the world. The Japanese were simultaneously consolidating positions in New Guinea and elsewhere for the possible invasion. Meanwhile, at Bataan and Corregidor, troops continued to struggle to hold the Japanese onslaught at bay. Rations became nonexistent; many of the men were subsisting on small handfuls of plain boiled rice twice a day. Enemy pressure continued to build.

  March 24, 1942

  The Japs have been shelling Corregidor every day since we landed here, but we didn’t lose any men until today. They caught us out on the field this afternoon and gave us a terrific bombing which lasted about a half hour. Karp and Harrington were killed and many others injured. Most of our equipment was blown up. I thought my number was up when I was bounced around in a foxhole by some large bombs which landed about a hundred feet from me! Large fires broke out, so we left for Malinta Tunnel to determine how many men were injured and killed in the bombing.