Herman “Smitty” Edward Smith DOB April 18th, 1920,Brookhaven, MS d. December 22, 2012 Leakey, TX. POW 3 years 8 months

It was January of 1938 and Herman “Smitty” Edward Smith had bigger fish to fry. At seventeen, Smitty quit high school early, lied about his age and joined the Marines. There was a pride and acknowledged responsibility in those days and Smitty knew what he was called to do. He was soon to be in the 4th Marine Division, 2nd Battalion, Company F, serving first under C.O. Chesty Puller, led by General Wainwright and commanded by General MacArthur.

For Smitty’s first assignment, the Marines shipped him off to Shanghai, China to Soochow Creek. Since 1927 the men of the Fourth Marines had been answering the call to protect American interests in what was called the International Zone in Shanghai. Caught in the middle of a growing conflict between China and Japan, a conflict in which the U.S. Government was loath to take sides, the Marines held their ground and waited. Smitty soon found himself a long way from Wesson, Mississippi.

Late in 1941, seven days prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Smitty had been sent to the U.S. Naval Base at Subic Bay in the Philippines. There he helped escort a U.S. convoy over the mountains to Mariveles, where he boarded a ship to the island of Corregidor. Corregidor is an island in the entrance of the Philippines’ Manila Bay. Due to its position in the bay, it has served as a focal point for the naval defenses of the capital city of Manila. During World War II, Corregidor was the site of several battles and its fall to the Japanese forces was instrumental in the subsequent capture of the Philippines and the retreat of the United States in the early stages of the war.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese pressed hard onto the Philippines. Fierce battles in sued in and near starvation engulfed those that fought. The Bataan Pennisula fell on April 9th, 1942, but the 4th Marines held off the Japanese for twenty seven additional days knowing all along their fates. The surrender of Bataan would hasten the fall of Corregidor, a month later. Corregidor, where Smitty found himself, fell on May 6th,1942. Without this hard and fast stand by the allied troops, the Japanese might have quickly overrun all of the U.S. bases in the Pacific. Bataan forced them to slow down, giving the allies valuable time to prepare for conflicts such as the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway which followed closely thereafter. Ultimately, more than 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war were captured. Smitty was one of those POWs.

 

Upon capture, Smitty and the other POWs were taken to an area called the 92nd Garage and held there for several days. They were then loaded onto a ship and relocated to Manila. The boat was docked about three hundred yards out in the bay and the Japanse forced the tired and hungry men into the water and forced them to swim to shore. Once on land, they were then herded along Dewey Boulevard where the Japanese had lined the street with the local Filipino people in an attempt to ridicule and persecute the POW’s. The Japanese ordered a local Filipino band to play marching songs as the POW’s marched. The Japanese wanted the local people to witness the broken and battered American soldiers. Unknown to the Japanese, the Filipino band started playing God Bless America along with other patriotic songs, which struck an overwhelming sense of pride in the captured men. They now stood proud which confounded the Japanese. As they marched down the street to Bilibid Prison, they all held their heads a little higher. It wasn’t long that they were relocated to a POW camp set up in the Marsmen Building.

There, Smitty was give eighteen inches of space and a straw mat. There, Smitty and the other POWs were forced to unload the Japanese ships that began arriving in Manila.While being held captive in the Marsmen building, Smitty was under the command of Lt. Commander G.G.Harrison. The soldiers were a crafty bunch. They stole food and supplies to stay alive. They sabotaged the Japanese ships by adding sugar to their fuel tanks. And they intentionally loaded Japanese bombs to one ship while loading their fuses to another. Word spread within the ranks, and soon they had earned the name G.G. Harrison and His Band of 400 Thieves. Lt Commander Harrison told the POWs that they would be sent to Japan soon and that he would not be going with them. It was an emotional fairwell, but he reassured his men that when they returned to the States, they could rest assured that one of their own would be there waiting for them when they arrived!

On July 17th 1944 Smitty and 1599 other POWs bound for Japan, boarded a Hell Ship called the Nissyo Maru (http://www.west-point.org/…/japane…/PhotoFile/Nissyo.jpg). The ship was a target for the US Navy. US bombs and torpedoes were launched against the ship, but knowing that in it’s belly lie 1600 of their own, they chose to narrowly miss their intended target. However, not all of the POWs survived. Hundreds of our men died of exposure, thirst, and dysentery. When they finally arrived in Moji, Japan on August 3rd, 1944, they were escorted up the mountains and forced to work the coal mines of Kamiyoka.

Three days later on August 6th, 1945, the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Not knowing or fully understanding the magnitude of what had taken place, the POW’s stayed in the confines of the mine, fearing that they may be executed if they were to leave.They waited it out until September 14th and finally exited the mines directly into enemy territory. Struggling down the mountain, crossing a rope bridge, they boarded a train that set them on a course for freedom. The train took them directly through the devastation of Hiroshima, exposing them to untold amounts of radiation. The men ultimately arrived in Yokohama where they happened upon an American correspondent that guided them to the American Navy ship, the USS Ozark LSV. Finally departing Japan by ship, they traveled to Guam, then Pearl Harbor, then finally onto American soil via the San Fransisco Navel Hospital. As the brave men exited the ship towards the dock, there stood Admiral G.G. Harrison, stoic and proud, the first person to greet his men off the gangplank. Holding his promise that one of them would be there to welcome them home back in the States. Admiral Harrison shook every man’s hand, looked them straight in the eye and called each by his name. It had been four years since Smitty had seen his family.

“Welcome home son.”

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July 4th, 2010 http://www.gregdavisphotography.com