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Mic Johnson was honored as a World War II hero.
John Hernandez | CBN
Kearny, Arizona On Jan. 12, 1942, more than 1,200 prisoners of war captured at Wake Island were marched to a dock where they boarded the Nitta Maru, a converted passenger ship. As they boarded the ship, many of the prisoners had to walk a gauntlet across the deck between two lines of Japanese sailors who punched, kicked and spit on them. They were then jammed into the ship’s hold. Three hundred prisoners were left on Wake Island but all but 98 civilian heavy equipment operators would be sent to POW camps in late 1942.
The prisoners were given a copy of the Japanese naval regulations for prisoners of war written in English. The regulations began, “The prisoners disobeying the following orders will be punished with immediate death.” The punishment of death could be given for simple actions including disobeying orders and instructions, talking without permission and raising loud voices, climbing the ladder without orders, and those walking and moving without orders.
Toilets were buckets or cans set up in the four corners of the ship’s hold. When they were full, a prisoner was selected to carry the buckets to the center of the hold where they were pulled up to the deck by a derrick. Within 48 hours of departing Wake Island the temperatures dropped from subtropical to freezing.
“It got damned cold,” said Mic Johnson.
The POWs had no warm clothing; the hold was not heated or ventilated. They were given blankets but had to sleep in shifts as they were jammed in so tight there was not enough room for everyone to lie down. They endured the cold and starvation for 12 days. During the voyage, they remained in the hold the entire time. Some of them were beaten by their Japanese captors.
The Nitta Maru stopped in Yokohama, Japan to drop off 20 of the prisoners. On the crossing between Japan and China, Lieutenant Toshio Saito, the head of the ship’s guard ordered his men to randomly select five American military personnel and bring them up to the deck of the ship. Three sailors and two marines were blindfolded and forced to kneel on the deck. Saito ordered them beheaded. The bodies of the Americans were then used for bayonet practice before being tossed overboard.
The 98 civilian workers who stayed on Wake Island were forced to work finishing the runway, roads and the rest of the naval base. In 1943, fearing an invasion by American forces, Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibra ordered the prisoners taken to the north end of the island where they were blindfolded and executed by machine gun fire. One American prisoner managed to escape. He returned to the site of the mass burial and, on a coral covered rock nearby, carved 98 U.S. PW 5-10-43. It has become a monument to those who died there. The prisoner was later captured and Sakaibra personally beheaded him. After the war, Sakaibra was tried and sentenced to death by a military tribunal. He was hanged for the war crime in 1947 on the island of Guam.
The Nitta Maru made port in Shangai, China on Jan. 24, 1942.
“The temperature was 35 degrees when we landed,” said Mic.
The prisoners, weakened by a near starvation diet and living in cramped quarters disembarked from the ship and were forced to march, some of them barefoot, 12 miles to a prison camp known as Woosung.
NEXT: Life in the POW Camps.
If you missed the first part of this story, you can find it online at: http://bit.ly/1Z6Qhqe
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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