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iSnuffyJcouldnshake prison camp horrorsVeteran’s death leavesonly three surviving members of Janesville 99By Mike DuPre’Gazette StaffThe horrors of Japanese prison camp deviled Emil Schmidt for the rest of his life.“He couldn’t hold a job. He had mental problems, just about from when he got home,” said Diane Schmidt, one of Emil’s sisters-in-law.That Schmidt got home was remarkable. He was one of only 35 men of The Janesville 99 to survive World War II.The other 64—young National Guardsmen from Rock County—died in combat, on the Bataan Death March, inJapanese POW camps and when the unmarked transport ships carrying them were bombed and torpedoed by American forces.Janesville men were killed as they tried to halt the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. One died from the tortures of the Death March. Many died from dehydration, starvation, disease and brutality. Fifteen were killed when their transport ships were sunk or bombed.Schmidt died Sunday at the Veterans Hospital in Tomah. He was 87. Only three other members of the original 99 survive today—to the best of The Janesville Gazette’s knowledge.A handsome young man, Schmidt never married. He worked on the railroad for years before the war but could not keep a job after it.He was in and out of veterans hospitals because of the mental damage done by 3H years as a POW. knowing any day could be his last, seeing buddies and comrades killed or dying from disease, neglect and slave labor.“He didn’t hardly say anything about it,” said Don Schmidt, Emil’s younger brother by 15 years and Diane’s husband.“Once in a while he’d talk about a guy they had to operate on because he had appendicitis,” said Don, who lives in Neenah.That would have been Wesley Elmer, one ofthe 35 survivors, accordingto “The Janesville 99” by Dale Dopkins.Elmer’s appendix was removed with a razor blade.“And he told me one time he was scared to death while they were puttinghim on this boat. He was afraid of the American bombing,” Don said. “It was really black down there. They could see nothing. They shoved him in the hold.” That was one of the “hell ships” that the Japanese did not mark as POW transports. The prisoners packed the ships’ holds. They had to stand, jammed shoulder to shoulder, back to front. The holds steamed with tropical heat and stunk from human sweat and waste.Three of the hell ships sunk by friendly fire carried Janesville soldiers. Another local fellow, LeRoy Scoville, was killed when his ship was bombed but not sunk off Korea.The hell ship carried Schmidt to slave labor, probably in Japan.“He never said anything about theTurn to PRISONER/2BSchmidtHe was one of only 35 men of The Janesville 99 to survive imprisonment.
Newspaper Details
Janesville Gazette
Janesville, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Mar 22, 2003
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
James O.
USA 23 Sep 2019
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