WWII ... T/4 Frank L. Beaver
The war came to the Philippines the same day it came to Hawaii and in the same manner – a surprise air attack - followed by a full-scale invasion of the main island of Luzon three days later.
T/4 Frank L. Beaver from Piqua, a 26-year-old tank radio operator with the Army’s 192nd Tank Battalion, was among the American and Filipino forces that fought to retain Luzon from an untenable position on the island's western Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese navy blockaded Bataan and nearby Corregidor, and prevented any food, ammunition or medicine from reaching the U.S. troops. They held out for 4 months but by the first of April 1942 most of the starving men had lost as much as thirty percent of their body weight and became so weak that they could barely lift their weapons. Malaria, dysentery and other tropical diseases decimated their ranks. On April 9 U.S. General Edward King Jr. surrendered.
Immediately after the surrender of the US troops, the Japanese began to march the 76,000 prisoners of war (12,000 Americans, the remainder Filipinos) on a hellacious 65-mile trek to prison camps.
Japanese butchery, exposure to the blazing sun, and lack of food and water took the lives of approximately 5,200 Americans along the way. Many prisoners were bayoneted, shot, beheaded or just left to die on the side of the road in what became known as the Bataan Death March - one of the worst atrocities in modern wartime history.
Survivors of the Bataan Death March were interred at prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines – Frank Beaver was held at Camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan - where there was little running water, scant food, no medical care, and only trenches along the sides of the camp for sanitation. The heat was intolerable; flies rose out of the latrines and covered the prisoner’s food; malaria, dysentery, beriberi and a host of other diseases ravaged the men who died at the rate of four hundred a day.
In 1944, as U.S. forces pulled closer to the Philippines, the Japanese, at the request of the Japanese industrialists, began to evacuate the American POWs to Japan to use as slave laborers in their factories and coalmines.
That July Piquad Frank Beaver was herded aboard the Nissyo Maru with 1,538 other Americans from POW camps on Luzon, for a horrific journey to Japan.
The Japanese crammed thousands of men into the dark holds of cargo ships - so tightly that they could not sit or lay down. Again, food and water were scarce, sanitary facilities were virtually non-existent, and the heat in the closed holds of the ships was unbearable. Men suffocated to death standing up. In some cases, the guards would not even let the dead bodies be removed from the holds.
The Japanese ships carrying the POWs were unmarked. Some of them were attacked and sunk by American planes and submarines.
Frank and the other surviving POWs aboard the Nissyo Maru arrived 2 Aug 1944 at the slave labor camp, Fukuoka #4, on Honshu Island, Japan. After a two-month recovery period, they were assigned to heavy labor in the Moji area.
On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua.
By the time Japan surrendered and the U.S. Army liberated the Bataan Prisoners of War, two-thirds of the American prisoners had died in Japanese custody.
After the war, General Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese troops in the Philippines was tried for war crimes. He was convicted and executed by a firing squad on 3 April 3 1946."On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua...."
===
This is a cenotaph. View burial and family links at ACTUAL BURIAL HERE.
The war came to the Philippines the same day it came to Hawaii and in the same manner – a surprise air attack - followed by a full-scale invasion of the main island of Luzon three days later.
T/4 Frank L. Beaver from Piqua, a 26-year-old tank radio operator with the Army’s 192nd Tank Battalion, was among the American and Filipino forces that fought to retain Luzon from an untenable position on the island's western Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese navy blockaded Bataan and nearby Corregidor, and prevented any food, ammunition or medicine from reaching the U.S. troops. They held out for 4 months but by the first of April 1942 most of the starving men had lost as much as thirty percent of their body weight and became so weak that they could barely lift their weapons. Malaria, dysentery and other tropical diseases decimated their ranks. On April 9 U.S. General Edward King Jr. surrendered.
Immediately after the surrender of the US troops, the Japanese began to march the 76,000 prisoners of war (12,000 Americans, the remainder Filipinos) on a hellacious 65-mile trek to prison camps.
Japanese butchery, exposure to the blazing sun, and lack of food and water took the lives of approximately 5,200 Americans along the way. Many prisoners were bayoneted, shot, beheaded or just left to die on the side of the road in what became known as the Bataan Death March - one of the worst atrocities in modern wartime history.
Survivors of the Bataan Death March were interred at prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines – Frank Beaver was held at Camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan - where there was little running water, scant food, no medical care, and only trenches along the sides of the camp for sanitation. The heat was intolerable; flies rose out of the latrines and covered the prisoner’s food; malaria, dysentery, beriberi and a host of other diseases ravaged the men who died at the rate of four hundred a day.
In 1944, as U.S. forces pulled closer to the Philippines, the Japanese, at the request of the Japanese industrialists, began to evacuate the American POWs to Japan to use as slave laborers in their factories and coalmines.
That July Piquad Frank Beaver was herded aboard the Nissyo Maru with 1,538 other Americans from POW camps on Luzon, for a horrific journey to Japan.
The Japanese crammed thousands of men into the dark holds of cargo ships - so tightly that they could not sit or lay down. Again, food and water were scarce, sanitary facilities were virtually non-existent, and the heat in the closed holds of the ships was unbearable. Men suffocated to death standing up. In some cases, the guards would not even let the dead bodies be removed from the holds.
The Japanese ships carrying the POWs were unmarked. Some of them were attacked and sunk by American planes and submarines.
Frank and the other surviving POWs aboard the Nissyo Maru arrived 2 Aug 1944 at the slave labor camp, Fukuoka #4, on Honshu Island, Japan. After a two-month recovery period, they were assigned to heavy labor in the Moji area.
On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua.
By the time Japan surrendered and the U.S. Army liberated the Bataan Prisoners of War, two-thirds of the American prisoners had died in Japanese custody.
After the war, General Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese troops in the Philippines was tried for war crimes. He was convicted and executed by a firing squad on 3 April 3 1946."On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua...."
===
This is a cenotaph. View burial and family links at ACTUAL BURIAL HERE.
WWII ... T/4 Frank L. Beaver
The war came to the Philippines the same day it came to Hawaii and in the same manner – a surprise air attack - followed by a full-scale invasion of the main island of Luzon three days later.
T/4 Frank L. Beaver from Piqua, a 26-year-old tank radio operator with the Army’s 192nd Tank Battalion, was among the American and Filipino forces that fought to retain Luzon from an untenable position on the island's western Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese navy blockaded Bataan and nearby Corregidor, and prevented any food, ammunition or medicine from reaching the U.S. troops. They held out for 4 months but by the first of April 1942 most of the starving men had lost as much as thirty percent of their body weight and became so weak that they could barely lift their weapons. Malaria, dysentery and other tropical diseases decimated their ranks. On April 9 U.S. General Edward King Jr. surrendered.
Immediately after the surrender of the US troops, the Japanese began to march the 76,000 prisoners of war (12,000 Americans, the remainder Filipinos) on a hellacious 65-mile trek to prison camps.
Japanese butchery, exposure to the blazing sun, and lack of food and water took the lives of approximately 5,200 Americans along the way. Many prisoners were bayoneted, shot, beheaded or just left to die on the side of the road in what became known as the Bataan Death March - one of the worst atrocities in modern wartime history.
Survivors of the Bataan Death March were interred at prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines – Frank Beaver was held at Camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan - where there was little running water, scant food, no medical care, and only trenches along the sides of the camp for sanitation. The heat was intolerable; flies rose out of the latrines and covered the prisoner’s food; malaria, dysentery, beriberi and a host of other diseases ravaged the men who died at the rate of four hundred a day.
In 1944, as U.S. forces pulled closer to the Philippines, the Japanese, at the request of the Japanese industrialists, began to evacuate the American POWs to Japan to use as slave laborers in their factories and coalmines.
That July Piquad Frank Beaver was herded aboard the Nissyo Maru with 1,538 other Americans from POW camps on Luzon, for a horrific journey to Japan.
The Japanese crammed thousands of men into the dark holds of cargo ships - so tightly that they could not sit or lay down. Again, food and water were scarce, sanitary facilities were virtually non-existent, and the heat in the closed holds of the ships was unbearable. Men suffocated to death standing up. In some cases, the guards would not even let the dead bodies be removed from the holds.
The Japanese ships carrying the POWs were unmarked. Some of them were attacked and sunk by American planes and submarines.
Frank and the other surviving POWs aboard the Nissyo Maru arrived 2 Aug 1944 at the slave labor camp, Fukuoka #4, on Honshu Island, Japan. After a two-month recovery period, they were assigned to heavy labor in the Moji area.
On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua.
By the time Japan surrendered and the U.S. Army liberated the Bataan Prisoners of War, two-thirds of the American prisoners had died in Japanese custody.
After the war, General Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese troops in the Philippines was tried for war crimes. He was convicted and executed by a firing squad on 3 April 3 1946."On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua...."
===
This is a cenotaph. View burial and family links at ACTUAL BURIAL HERE.
The war came to the Philippines the same day it came to Hawaii and in the same manner – a surprise air attack - followed by a full-scale invasion of the main island of Luzon three days later.
T/4 Frank L. Beaver from Piqua, a 26-year-old tank radio operator with the Army’s 192nd Tank Battalion, was among the American and Filipino forces that fought to retain Luzon from an untenable position on the island's western Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese navy blockaded Bataan and nearby Corregidor, and prevented any food, ammunition or medicine from reaching the U.S. troops. They held out for 4 months but by the first of April 1942 most of the starving men had lost as much as thirty percent of their body weight and became so weak that they could barely lift their weapons. Malaria, dysentery and other tropical diseases decimated their ranks. On April 9 U.S. General Edward King Jr. surrendered.
Immediately after the surrender of the US troops, the Japanese began to march the 76,000 prisoners of war (12,000 Americans, the remainder Filipinos) on a hellacious 65-mile trek to prison camps.
Japanese butchery, exposure to the blazing sun, and lack of food and water took the lives of approximately 5,200 Americans along the way. Many prisoners were bayoneted, shot, beheaded or just left to die on the side of the road in what became known as the Bataan Death March - one of the worst atrocities in modern wartime history.
Survivors of the Bataan Death March were interred at prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines – Frank Beaver was held at Camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan - where there was little running water, scant food, no medical care, and only trenches along the sides of the camp for sanitation. The heat was intolerable; flies rose out of the latrines and covered the prisoner’s food; malaria, dysentery, beriberi and a host of other diseases ravaged the men who died at the rate of four hundred a day.
In 1944, as U.S. forces pulled closer to the Philippines, the Japanese, at the request of the Japanese industrialists, began to evacuate the American POWs to Japan to use as slave laborers in their factories and coalmines.
That July Piquad Frank Beaver was herded aboard the Nissyo Maru with 1,538 other Americans from POW camps on Luzon, for a horrific journey to Japan.
The Japanese crammed thousands of men into the dark holds of cargo ships - so tightly that they could not sit or lay down. Again, food and water were scarce, sanitary facilities were virtually non-existent, and the heat in the closed holds of the ships was unbearable. Men suffocated to death standing up. In some cases, the guards would not even let the dead bodies be removed from the holds.
The Japanese ships carrying the POWs were unmarked. Some of them were attacked and sunk by American planes and submarines.
Frank and the other surviving POWs aboard the Nissyo Maru arrived 2 Aug 1944 at the slave labor camp, Fukuoka #4, on Honshu Island, Japan. After a two-month recovery period, they were assigned to heavy labor in the Moji area.
On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua.
By the time Japan surrendered and the U.S. Army liberated the Bataan Prisoners of War, two-thirds of the American prisoners had died in Japanese custody.
After the war, General Masaharu Homma, commander of the Japanese troops in the Philippines was tried for war crimes. He was convicted and executed by a firing squad on 3 April 3 1946."On 28 Mar 1945 Frank Beaver died at Camp Fukuoka of heart failure caused by pneumonia. His cremated remains were placed in a common urn and later inurned in a large burial crypt in Yokohama War Cemetery, Japan with those of other Allied POWs.
In October of 1948 a Memorial Headstone for Frank was placed in Forest Hill Cemetery, Piqua...."
===
This is a cenotaph. View burial and family links at ACTUAL BURIAL HERE.
Gravesite Details
buried 11/6/1948 age 27 born Ohio
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