Mik Johnson: Coming Home

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The USS Missouri which is now permanently at port in Pearl Harbor was the site of the signing of the formal surrender of Japan, ending the war and bringing POWs like Mic Johnson home. John Hernandez | CBN

Mic and his family eating lunch at the Oracle Patio Cafe. Pictured with Mic are Chris and Lucy Postel, and Mike and Kiki Welfel (niece). John Hernandez | CBN

The exact spot where the signing of the formal surrender of Japan took place, ending the war and bringing POWs like Mic Johnson home. John Hernandez | CBN

Copper Area News

Although the American POWs in the Niigata prison camp had been treated somewhat better in the last weeks of the war, prior to that they had been forced to work long hours at different jobs. Many of them worked as slave laborers for private companies in mines and factories. The prison guards angered by the decimation of their homeland by American bombing raids took it out on the prisoners, often beating them. Mic Johnson’s job was loading and unloading of cargo from ships in the harbor.

After the atomic bombs were dropped on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, the Japanese military prepared for an Allied invasion. The Japanese high command had issued orders which would have had every POW executed had the invasion taken place. On Aug. 17, the prisoners learned about the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The following day a Japanese Army Colonel informed them that Japan was surrendering to avoid further bloodshed. The prisoners awoke one morning to find that most of the guards were gone. Mic said that “the bad ones disappeared”.

On Aug. 28 and 30, American B-29 planes dropped 55 gallon barrels filled with food, clothing and medical supplies by parachute on the camp. Many of the prisoners got sick from eating too much food. The POWs now knew that their rescue would be soon.

On Sept. 2, Japan signed the formal surrender on board the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II. In mid September, troops from the U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division arrived and took over the prison camp. The prisoners were now free! Their repatriation back home to the United States had begun.

It took Mic a few months to get back to Spokane Washington. He traveled from Japan to Okinawa. He remembers flying in the bomb bay of a B-24 to Manila in the Philippines where he spent a month. He traveled by ship for 14 days from Manila to Vancouver, Canada then crossed the border and arrived in Seattle, Washington.

Ironically, Mic received his draft card when he returned showing he was 1A (available for unrestricted military service) status.

“It was a whole different world,” Mic said about coming home. Like most of the POWs held by the Japanese, Mic was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Not much was known about PTSD following World War II. PTSD would not be added to clinical diagnoses until 1980. It would be many years before Mic and his fellow civilian POWs would begin receiving treatment.

Mic had trouble adjusting when he got back. Even seven decades later and he says, “I am still working on it.” He says he sometimes has dreams that he is back in the POW camp. When asked if he had problems with drinking alcohol when he got back, he jokingly said, “Yes, I couldn’t get enough.” Many of the returning POWs took to hoarding food. Mic said he prized food but never hoarded.

Studies of PTSD have shown that the most traumatized group were POWs held by the Japanese during World War II. The POWs had a rate of 84 percent suffering lifetime PTSD. Nearly one out of three POWs died as the result of malnutrition, disease or brutality. The camp at Niigata was one of the worst Japanese prison camps.

In 1946 Mic was awarded the Bronze Star with the combat “V” clasp by the Commander of the Spokane naval supply depot. It was rare that a civilian received a military medal and even rarer that the combat clasp was given to one. The citation from the President said, “For heroic service as a member of the civilian construction crew on Wake Island, when Japanese forces landed on the morning of Dec. 21, 1941. Volunteering to assist the men of marine aircraft squadron 211 when they went forward to make a final stand against an overwhelming enemy landing force, Johnson fought bravely for approximately nine hours in the brush along the beach, refusing to seek security in the rear despite his lack of training for combat and the insufficiency of weapons for all.” He also received the Purple Heart.

The surviving civilian POWs struggled for years with PTSD and trying to get benefits and pay they felt they were entitled to.

“Our government never did anything to help us,” Mic said.

It would take until 1981 after much lobbying before the civilian Wake Island survivors would be recognized as veterans. They then became eligible for veteran’s benefits including pay and medical services from the VA. Mic receives 100% disability benefits. The POWs tried to sue the Japanese government for their harsh treatment and pay for working as slave laborers but were unable to do so due to a treaty between Japan and the United States that had been negotiated following the war. Attempts were made to sue the Japanese corporations that had used slave labor during the war. These were also unsuccessful.

Mic returned home to Rice, Washington after the war. He worked with his father and brother running a diversified farm that included a dairy. Mic and his family moved to Arizona for the health of their son who had asthma. He went to work for Kennecott in 1959 where he worked 23 years electrowinning for the company and helped start the electrowinning plant in 1968. He now lives in Kearny with his stepson Chris Postel and his wife Lucy. Mic belongs to a Wake Island survivors group that has held reunions. The numbers of survivors has dwindled over the years as they have aged and passed on. Mic, now in his 90s, says there were only two at the last reunion and there are only 10 survivors left.

Mic Johnson is a true American hero. He did not ask to go to war, the war came to him. On this coming Veteran’s Day remember all those men and women who serve in the Armed Forces and thank them for their service.

Thank you, Mic Johnson, for your service and the sacrifices you made for your country. We only wish the U.S. government had treated the Wake Island survivors with the respect they deserved.

If you missed the beginning parts of this story, go online to read them.

Mic Johnson: POW and American Hero http://bit.ly/1Z6Qhqe

Mic Johnson and the Voyage of the Nitta Maru http://bit.ly/1R9abLa

Mic Johnson: Life in the POW Camps http://bit.ly/1RTXDsj

Mic Johnson: In the Prison Camps http://bit.ly/1NoBti9

John Hernandez (785 Posts)

John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.


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