The men of the 5th Air Base were stationed at Del Monte Field. Their mission was called PLUM (Philippines, Luzon, Mindanao). Stationed on Mindanao, they were to build an airfield for the 7th Bomb Group. By the time these men capitulated to the Japanese on Mother’s Day, May 10, 1042,...

History Speaks ~ are We Listening? is the current program now being offered to high schools and the other venues throughout the state of Wyoming. These programs are paid for with a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, a program of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources....

Corregidor Surrender About 4,000 of the 11,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war from Corregidor were marched through the streets of Manila to incarceration at Fort Santiago and Bilibid Prison, criminal detention centers turned POW camps. US Army and Navy nurses (the “Angels of...

The Japanese landed troops on Luzon on December 10 and 12, and on Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, on December 20. At the time of the invasion, MacArthur’s troops  numbered some 31,000 well-trained forces composed of both American and Filipino (12,000 of the men were the crack...

SHIRAKAWA POW CAMP Camp Opened: 06/06/43 – Camp Closed: 08/26/45 Shirakawa POW Camp was opened in June 1943 with the transfer of over 300 POWs from Karenko Camp. It was formerly a Japanese army training camp and barracks. The camp was near a wooded hillside occupying around 10,000 sq....

TAMAZATO POW CAMP Camp Opened: 04/02/43 – Camp Closed: 06/24/43 23° 20.4600′ N 121° 18.6867′ E In April 1943 it was decided to send 117 of the higher-ranking POWs and governors who were being held in Karenko Camp to another camp inland south of Karenko called Tamazato as the...

It is believed that Irvine Scudder served in World War I, and continued to serve in the military until his return from being a prisoner of war in the Philippines after World War II, in 1945.   Letter from Hazel Jones Scudder   Colonel Irvine Scudder, served on Cebu as part of the...

The Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast, was a Northampton-class heavy cruiser of the US Navy, and was the second ship to bear the name “Houston.” On January 10, 1931, the cruiser departed for the Pacific after a stop at the Panama Canal and the Hawaiian Islands. The Houston arrived...

USS Perch SS176, the lead ship of Perch-class submarines of the United States Navy, is the first Navy ship to be named for the perch. THE WAR YEARS At the outbreak of hostilities, Perch – commanded by David A. Hurt – was in Cavite Navy Yard. She took part in the rush to clear the...

The USS Pope (DD-225) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy that served during World War II. She was the first ship named forJohn Pope. The battle occurred in the Makassar Straits. The message received was to “Defend the Isle of Java to the Last.” Receiving that...

Camp Opened: 08/17/42 – Camp Closed: 06/6/43 – There is some discrepancy on the close date. 23° 58.9083′ N 121° 36.7083′ E    After the Japanese conquered all of the Asian colonies in late 1941 and the spring of 1942, they got the idea that they should separate the...

Japanese Attack on Manilla . . .   Pearl Harbor was not the only attack the Japanese conducted against the Americans on December 7, 1941. Across the International Date Line, the same day, December 8, 1941, the Japanese invaded Luzon, the largest island in the Philippine chain. Much of...