First Command 1941: Our Family’s Survival Story: Struggle, Heartache, and Hope in World War II

By Judy Warwick

AWAITING THE DREADED WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM.

After twenty years at sea dreaming of commanding his own ship, Malcolm Peters finally gets his wish. In early December 1941, Peters sails from San Francisco bound for Hawaii on his first voyage as captain of the 324-foot S.S. Malama, a Matson Lines freighter. But the new commander’s triumph is short-lived.

Captain Peters and his young family are torn apart in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that pulls the U.S. into World War II. Within weeks, the Malama disappears at sea. Left alone to make ends meet and to care for two small children, Leone Peters fears delivery of a dreaded Western Union telegram with bad news. What has become of her husband? Will she ever see him again?

With refreshing candor, author Judy Warwick writes about her father’s mind-numbing years in Japanese POW camps and her mother’s struggle and heartache on the home front. First Command 1941 is an absorbing, extensively illustrated family memoir about unlucky timing, courage, strength, and survival.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: May 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662923487

Book preview

FIRST COMMAND 1941: Our Family’s Survival Story: Struggle, Heartache, and Hope in World War II

Published by Gatekeeper Press

2167 Stringtown Rd., Suite 109

Columbus, OH 43123-2989

www.GatekeeperPress.com

The cover design, interior formatting, typesetting, and editorial work for this book are entirely the product of the author. Gatekeeper Press did not participate in and is not responsible for any aspect of these elements.

© 2022 Judy Warwick. All rights reserved.

The content herein may not be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Permission is given for brief excerpts published in book reviews and marketing materials.

Publication management: Kent Sturgis Publishing Services, LLC

Editor: Kent Sturgis

Researcher: Karen Cedzo

For more information, contact:

Judy Warwick

3190 Riverview Dr.

Fairbanks, AK 99709-4738

Photo credits: The photographs herein are from the Warwick family collection, except as otherwise credited: Golden Gate Bridge construction, Prewar Years section, Golden Gate National Recreation Area archives, Fort Point Photo Collection; men enlisting in the military, 1941 section, Wikipedia; War headline, chapter 5, Honolulu-Star Bulletin archives; U.S.S. Arizona, chapter 6, Wikipedia; U.S.S. Nicholas, chapter 7, U.S.Navy archives, Library of Congress; Mitsubishi F1M, chapter 9, Wikipedia; dive bombers at Battle of Midway, U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Wikipedia; Aikoku Maru, chapter 10, Wikipedia; Shanghai soldiers, chapter 11, Wikipedia; B-29 assembly line, 1943 section, Wikipedia; Gen. Douglas McArthur, 1944 section, U.S. Navy courtesy of Wikipedia; Enola Gay, 1945 section, Wikipedia; Red Cross parcel, chapter 30, Wikipedia; Tokyo bombing, chapter 31, Wikipedia.

Copyright for the images: iStockphoto.com/anielsbfoto (grunge cruise deck background), Tolga TEZCAN (white frames)

Notice to readers: Every effort has been made to assure the accuracy of information published in this book. However, if you do notice an error, please call it to our attention by emailing [e-mail].

ISBN (paperback): 9781662923470

eISBN: 9781662923487

In loving memory of my parents, Leone Olson Peters and Malcolm Rutherford Peters

Acknowledgments

For the year and a half I have been writing and rewriting this account of my family’s lives from November 1941 to October 1945, my husband Andy has cheered me on. He and our children, Sydney and Jesse, encouraged me every step of the way. I have had the absolute freedom to pursue this project, thanks to them.

The story could not have been shared without my father’s journals, written in the late 1970s; the news articles and letters he saved; and the interest of my sister, Tricia Patty Benesi, in writing a more detailed account of our dad’s World War II experiences. I owe Tricia a great deal of gratitude for starting this project, collecting valuable first-hand accounts, and for her own wartime recollections as a young child. She has been my resource, sounding board, and source of encouragement.

A special thanks to those who encouraged me. To Karen Cedzo, my friend of many years, who made long drives between Delta and Fairbanks to help design the map illustrating Dad’s movements, and whose keen eyes and intellect benefited my work immensely. Her research skills were invaluable.

To friends Karen Fox, Debbie Tilsworth, and Sue Rainey-Johnson, who made many helpful suggestions and were constant in their encouragement, I am deeply grateful. To Sue Wilken—what would I have done without her sage advice suggesting I contact Kent Sturgis about possibly editing my manuscript?

What a pleasure it has been working with Kent. He made many astute suggestions. What he initially received from me was a distant, bland chronicle. His questions and observations, along with his editing skills, elevated it into a more readable and hopefully more compassionate recounting of those difficult years. Thank you, Kent. I have enjoyed every step of the way with your guidance.

Waterborne transport was never more vital than during World War II, and men serving in the merchant marine suffered a higher rate of casualties (one in twenty-six) than in any other service during that global conflict. Despite these facts, few Americans know of the service and sacrifice of the merchant mariners who transported vital supplies from the United States, the Arsenal of Democracy, to Allied forces around the world.

—George & Christine Billy,

co-authors of Merchant Mariners at War

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Prewar Years

Chapter 1 Malcolm

Chapter 2 Leone

Chapter 3 Malcolm and Leone

1941

Chapter 4 Malcolm’s First Command

Chapter 5 Attack on Pearl Harbor

Chapter 6 Declaration of War

Chapter 7 New Orders for the Malama

Chapter 8 Christmas without Lights

Chapter 9 Abandoning Ship

1942

Chapter 10 Interrogation at Sea

Chapter 11 Shanghai

Chapter 12 Fearing the Worst

Chapter 13 Leaving Libby

Chapter 14 Life in a POW Camp

Chapter 15 An Unwelcome Letter

Chapter 16 No Escape

Chapter 17 Camp Visitors

Chapter 18 Good News

Chapter 19 Prison Routine

Chapter 20 Back in San Francisco

Chapter 21 Kiangwan Prison Camp

1943

Chapter 22 Hard Labor

Chapter 23 Life Back Home

Chapter 24 Still Waiting for Mail

Chapter 25 Unhappy Birthday

1944

Chapter 26 Mail, Finally!

Chapter 27 Bringing Donny Home

Chapter 28 A Brighter Spring

Chapter 29 A Single Mother’s Routine

1945

Chapter 30 POWs on the Move

Chapter 31 Tokyo

Chapter 32 A Toast to Friends

Chapter 33 Liberators Arrive

Chapter 34 Sailing for Home

Post-War Years

Chapter 35 Thirty-Eight Years Together

Chapter 36 Dad

Chapter 37 Mother

Epilogue

Map

Afterword

Appendix

Index

Bibliography

About the Author

My sister Tricia Patty worked on Dad’s story until failing eyesight and her husband’s illness forced her to give it up. With her blessing, I continued her work.

Introduction

This book started as Dad’s memoir, written in the late 1970s. In it, he shared his experiences as a merchant seaman just before and during World War II, most of the latter spent in prisoner-of-war camps in China and Japan.

In 1993, a little more than ten years after Dad’s death, my sister Tricia Patty Benesi became intrigued with the idea of expanding his memoir into a book with personal stories and more details about his life. Patty was six when our father sailed out of San Francisco, not to return for four years. She added her own recollections and drew from wartime correspondence. Capt. Gordon Pollard told her about the extraordinary POW experiences he’d shared with Dad.

Seventeen tapes of interviews with Captain Pollard were recorded over several years. Gordon reviewed the transcripts, handwrote revisions, and drew diagrams and sketches illustrating life in the camps. Tricia and Gordon remained good friends until his passing in 2004.

The work stopped when Patty’s husband, Erv Benesi, developed Parkinson’s disease. She lovingly cared for him until his death in 2013. At the same time, Patty’s eyesight was deteriorating rapidly due to macular degeneration. She had hoped to resume work on the book, but her loss of vision made it impossible.

As a post-war baby boomer, I grew up hearing snippets of stories about our family’s life during the war. Like so many self-absorbed youngsters, no matter the generation, I gave little thought to the value of these stories. Looking back, I wish I had asked questions that would have given me more details and a context I came to crave.

When it became clear Patty would not be able to finish the project, I asked if she would share her research so that I might attempt to bring the story to life. My sister gave me boxes of photographs, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia from our parents. The pieces seemed to be falling into place.

I expanded the project’s focus to add the wartime experiences of my mother, sister, and brother, who had made sacrifices on the home front. Our father’s unpublished memoir is the framework for this work. Likewise, my sister’s childhood memories serve as the body of the chapters about life on the home front.

Tricia and Gordon Pollard became good friends while she interviewed him extensively about life in the POW camps.

The unfinished Golden Gate Bridge, seen from Fort Scott, 1930.

The Prewar Years

Americans didn’t know in the late 1930s that it was going to take a world war for the nation to shake off the last of the Great Depression.

The decade was a struggle for many Americans suffering due to hunger and poverty, unemployment, foreclosures, the collapse of banks, and mass migration precipitated by the devastating Dust Bowl in the Midwest.

Yet, for all of the troubles, life went on: the 1930 census counted 123, 202, 624 Americans; Clarence Birdseye introduced frozen food with a quick-freezing process (1930); gangster Al Capone was imprisoned for income-tax evasion (1931); Nevada legalized gambling (1931); the 102-story Empire State Building opened (1931); Wiley Post flew around the world in eight and a half days (1933); Prohibition ended (1933); Congress approved the Social Security program (1935); Alcoholics Anonymous was founded (1935); the Golden Gate Bridge opened (1937); Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds frightened a national radio audience (1938); and Congress enacted a federal minimum wage of twenty-five cents an hour (1938).

The Peters children, circa 1911. Back row, from left: Maxwell and Dayton. Front row, from left: Malcolm, Vernon, and Doris.

CHAPTER 1

Malcolm

My father, Malcolm Rutherford Peters, was born in Duluth, Minnesota on August 7, 1903 to Adolph and Tina Lulu Peters. He was the middle child among five siblings—four boys and a girl.

At age fifteen, Dad landed a job selling hot dogs on a Great Lakes excursion boat, the Rotarian, during his summer vacation. He was captivated by the experience. He loved the movement of the vessel on the water and the hum of the machinery. By the end of the summer, Dad had been promoted to deck hand and his employer, impressed by his work ethic, promised Dad a job the following year. Dad’s 100 percent Norwegian maritime heritage was beckoning.

During the school year, Dad had difficulty focusing on his studies because he was so looking forward to another summer on the Great Lakes. But it was not to be. Instead, in 1919, Dad and his family moved to Seattle, Washington, where his father found work on the Northern Pacific Railroad.

The move to Seattle proved to be a major event in my life, and I sometimes feel that it must have been predestined, for Seattle is a major seaport, with ships arriving and sailing to all the ports around the world, Dad wrote in his journal.

In Seattle, Dad enrolled in Queen Anne High School, where he excelled in basketball despite being only just five feet, six inches. Often, he was referred to as a runt by his brothers, all of whom were over six feet tall. Malcolm vowed that he would show them by making something of himself. Dad’s resolution was stymied by the challenges he faced as an extreme stutterer. But he consciously worked on his speech. Every day, he focused on repeating certain difficult words and speaking slowly. Gradually, as he matured, he was able to overcome the impediment that had embarrassed him and invited ridicule from