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Ashes of Yank PrisonersEn Route Home from Japanon Big Transport PlanesBy TERN HAUGLAND En route from Tokyo toThe 14 wooden boxes were slacked neatly in the center aisle of the plane. They were lashed down firmly against the bumpy weather. Some were the size of orange crates. Others were larger. or smaller.We 30 passengers, mostly beaded homeward, were aligned along the walls in bucket seats of the big, four-motored C-54 transport. We could see the black stenciling on the side of each box. Each bore a quartermaster address and a notice “Air shipment required— officer courier.”“Do you know those boxes have a No. 2 priority out of Tokyo, and tliat' when we get to Manila, where more pianos arc available,they will have a No. 1 priority altthe way to the states7” asked a crewmember.“I bet some of these passengers wouldn't be so comfortable if they knew wfoat is in them. It’s listed on the manifest—ashes of 1.1391 former prisoners of * war. That lieutenant with the glasses is in charge of them.”A bit reluctantly, 2nd Lt. Roy Carter, Port Huron* Mich., talked about the boxes—weighing from 15 to 85 pounds each—containing earthen jars. More than half of the 1,091 were . Americans. Most of the remainder were Dutch. There were seven Italians and one Norwegian. Carter said: !“Most of them were fellows captured at the start of the war in the Philippines, East Indies and Malaya. Most of them died long ago, although there were some B-29 fliers who died within the last1year.“This is the first shipment of ashes from Japan to the United t States, I am informed- But it is just the beginning. All of these jars were on shelves in just one temple—Ju Gangi, at Osaka. There were others all over Japan/' ^Taking information from * dog tags and other records, the Japanese engraved the name of each victim—in Japanese—on a jar and also noted the date and “cause of death.” Carter said the Japanese cremated the bodies and'kept the ashes in a temple, where a Buddhist priest prayed over them daily.
Newspaper Details
Janesville Daily Gazette
Janesville, Wisconsin, US
Wed, Oct 24, 1945
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
James O.
USA 28 Sep 2019
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