Heroic Survivor An Incredible Story of Survival in the World War II Pacific Theater

By Captain Lowell E Pursell USAF (Retired)

This is the story of the experiences of Captain Lowell E Pursell USAF (Retired) as he joined the Army Air Corps and was assigned to the 19th Bombardment Bomber Group stationed in the Philippine Islands at the start of World War II.

He tells of the attack on Clark Air Base on December 8, 1941, by the Japanese bombers and fighters as they bombed and strafed the American and Philippino personnel and our aircraft. As the Japanese pushed down the Bataan Peninsula, he fought them in hand-to-hand combat and was bayonetted in the side. He was captured and forced into the Bataan Death March.

Along with several other prisoners, he escapes from the march arriving on Corregidor Island where he continued to fight the Japanese. He was then assigned to Mindanao Island to repair heavy bombers. After the bombers were destroyed, he was assigned to a crew on a PT boat where he helped sink a Japanese cruiser.
When the island fell to the Japanese, he joined the resistance and went into the hills to continue to fight. He was captured a second time and sentenced to death for his resistance activities but escaped again the night before he was to be executed.

After months on the run, he was captured a third time. He was sent to Japan as a prisoner of war where he spent the next 39 months in Tokyo Camp 2B as slave labor to the Mitsiu Corporation. His story tells of the terrible treatment and the forced labor that he and the other POWs endured during their captivity. Many of these men went from 180 and 200 pounds down to 80 and 90 pounds during their captivity. As POWs, they were very inventive in getting rice, food and Saki from the guards and the storage warehouses to supplement their meager rations. They stole medical supplies to help keep each other alive. He ends his story with the liberation of the prisoners and their return to the "Good Old USA"!

This story was written by Captain Pursell, in his own words, upon his return to America in 1945. This story is a true piece of American history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Captain Lowell E Pursell USAF (Retired)
• Release date: Apr 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9780997482577

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

As war clouds gathered in the Pacific, the Japanese Empire prepared to conquer the East by eliminating their one great threat, the United States of America. On December 7, 1941, A Day That Will Live In Infamy, the Japanese Empire attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in a will planned, unprovoked, sneak attack destroying most of the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet and damaging many of the U.S. bases and planes along with killing and wounding thousands of American soldiers and sailors. This unprovoked, sneak attack effectively eliminated the ability of the United States to respond to and protect our allies in the Pacific including our own military in the Philippine Islands.

The Japanese attacked the Philippine Islands approximately 8 hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, bombing military and civilian targets including Clark Air Base where my father, Lowell E Pursell was stationed. He had been born in Montana and grew up on a ranch. He was a trick horse rider and was seen many times riding two horses at once, thundering through the rodeo arena and across the range. At age 16, he left the ranch to work on the Grand Cooley Dam in Washington State. Following his adventurous spirit, he joined the Army Air Corp in 1938 becoming an airplane mechanic in the 19th Heavy Bombardment Group, 30th Bomb Squadron, servicing B-17 bombers. His squadron was stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico for training. As with many pre-war relationships, six weeks after meeting and marrying his beloved wife at this post, he was shipped off to the Philippine Islands, not to return for 4 years.

After the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands and four gruesome months of fighting, much of it hand-to-hand, General Edward King was forced to surrender the American and Philippine forces on April 9, 1942. His soldiers, who had defended the Bataan Peninsula so valiantly, could no longer fight due to extreme exhaustion, lack of food and military supplies and illness. During the fighting, Lowell was bayonetted in the side but he kept fighting. The Japanese accepted General King’s surrender and the next day forced these brave and exhausted American and Philippine prisoners to start marching to prison camps over 65 miles away in what known as the Bataan Death March. Of the 12,000 American soldiers who started the March, only 1,700 lived through the brutality of their captivity to return home.

During the Bataan Death March, the prisoners were not allowed to stop for water, were not given any food during the 6 day march and could not even stop to relieve themselves. If they did, they were beaten, shot or killed by the bayonet or sword. Prisoners were run over by trucks and tanks and in one case, was buried alive. The prisoners helped to carry each other to keep from falling down as this was a sure way to be killed.

While my father was on the Bataan Death March, he was ordered back with 150 other prisoners to gather military supplies for the Japanese. He, along with several others, escaped from their captors to arrive on Corregidor Island to continue their resistance to the Japanese. Several days later, he was sent to Mindanao Island to assist with keeping what few bombers were left fling. When the planes were gone, he was assigned to P.T. Boat Squadron 3 where, along with the boat crew, they sank a Japanese heavy cruiser in a daring torpedo attack. He was captured again by the Japanese and sentenced to death for his actions of resistance. However, the night before his scheduled execution, he escaped into the hills joining the guerilla fighters. Eventually, my father was forced to surrender again to the Japanese after living with the resistance on Mindanao Island and he became a Prisoner of War for a third time. He was transported to Japan on a Hell Ship (name unknown) to Ofuma Camp, eventually ending up in Tokyo Camp 2B. For 39 months, he remained a POW but he never gave up. He kept faith with his GOD and country and he remained unconquered!

His faith is expressed in the following Psalm:

Psalm 118 (Living Bible) lines 10 – 21

Thou all the nations of the world attack me, I will march out behind his banner and destroy them. Yes, they surround and attack me; but with his flag flying above me I will cut them off. They swarm around me like bees; they blaze against me like a roaring flame. Yet beneath his flag I shall destroy them. You did your best to kill me, O my enemy, but the Lord helped me. He is my strength and song in the heat of battle, and now he had given me the victory. Songs of joy at the news of our rescue are sung in the home of the godly. The strong arm of the Lord has done glorious things! I shall not die, but live to tell of all his deeds. The Lord has punished me, but not handed me over to death. Open the gates of the Temple – I will go in and give him my thanks. These gates are the way into the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. O Lord, thank you so much for answering my prayer and saving me.

It is important to note that per a direct order given to the American Prisoners of War by the U.S. Military command upon their rescue and release from the Japanese prison camps, all American POWs were ordered not to talk about the experiences as prisoners of the Japanese or their treatment and the atrocities visited upon them by their captors. The order stated,

YOU SHALL NOT DISCUSS YOUR EXPERIENCES AS A POW WITH ANY SOURCE WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL FROM THE WAR DEPARTMENT. DOING SO MAY RESULT IN SEVERE PENALTIES OR COURT-MARTIAL.

This threat kept many of the former POWs silent and prevented their stories from being shared.

As his daughter, I felt it important that his story be released at this time as it is our history and it needs to be told and shared with all generations. It has been over 70 years since the end of World War II and only a handful of veterans who experienced the attack on the Philippines, the Bataan Death March and imprisonment in the prison camps of the Imperial Japanese Empire are still alive to share their stories.

It was an honor to know my father and to be his daughter. In this honoring of his memory, I choose to release his story, written in his own words, as he wrote of his experiences after his return home form the war in 1945.

PRELUDE

Brief Outline of Events –

The Japanese planned to strike several targets simultaneously including Pearl Harbor and the Philippine Islands along with other locations throughout Asia. The attacks were set for December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor and December 8, 1941 in the east (due to the date line change between Hawaii and the Philippines).

After Pearl Harbor was attacked, General Homma launched air attacks against