P.O.W.: A Sailor's Story

Ralph C. Poness, who died in 2002, spent most of WWII in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. Although the memories of WWII brought him "anxiety and sometimes great pain," he began to write about his experiences as a POW. Telling these grim stories, however, became "almost unbearable" for him. In 1991, he wrote, "The story of my capture at the fall of Corregidor Island and of my internment by the Japanese for almost four years is one of brutality, degradation, torture, and witnessing agonizing death." He describes the chaos in the Philippines on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. One of the last to leave the navy yard in Manila, he headed for action in Bataan: "This small group of sailors and marines, ill-prepared, lacking logistical support, and poorly equipped, had been ordered to attack and defeat a well-trained, well-equipped, and fanatical enemy." After his capture at Corregidor, Poness details deprivations, humiliations, and horrors at the Cabanatuan POW camp, where 15%E2%80%9330 people died each day. He and his fellow prisoners were then taken to another camp in Japan where "daily beatings, deaths from dysentery, pneumonia and malnutrition were considered routine." Poness documents his survival strategies amid these nightmarish experiences, but his closing chapters are filled with joy and emotional resonance, as he recalls the relief and exhilaration of the Allied victory and his journey back to America. Poness's son has skillfully edited his father's drafts into a vivid memoir of WWII.