The Patriot Files Forums  

Go Back   The Patriot Files Forums > Conflict posts > World War II

Post New Thread  Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 07-23-2017, 12:38 PM
Boats's Avatar
Boats Boats is online now
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Sauk Village, IL
Posts: 21,784
Arrow Former World War II POW honored as he reaches 100

Former World War II POW honored as he reaches 100
By GARY WHITE | The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla. (Tribune News Service) | Published: July 23, 2017
RE: https://www.stripes.com/news/us/form...9#.WXT6tNTyuM8

LAKELAND — During three years as a Japanese prisoner of war in Manchuria, Randall Edwards was certain he wouldn't survive World War II. The leaders of the camp had orders to execute all the prisoners if American troops ever invaded the main island of Japan.

But when the liberators arrived, the Japanese guards fled. Not only did Edwards survive the war, he is still around to recall those events with extraordinary clarity.

Family members, friends and admirers threw a 100th birthday party for Edwards on Saturday at the Club at Eaglebrooke. (His birthday is today.) Family members traveled from as far away as Alaska and Canada to celebrate with the Navy veteran.

Lt. Ida Quigley of the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division in Orlando presented Edwards with a framed letter from acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley.

Gary Clark, chairman of the Polk County Veterans Council, gave Edwards a medallion and pledged to secure a Purple Heart for him, a medal Edwards doesn't already have.

Edwards' son, Dr. Randy Edwards, a retired internist at Bond Clinic in Winter Haven, recalled seeing a photo of two Russian soldiers holding his wraith-like father up soon after the liberation of Mukden Prison Camp. Randall Edwards weighed 165 pounds before the war and 98 pounds when the camp was liberated.

Clark expressed admiration for Edwards and others who endured prison camps in World War II.

"They are heroes," he said. "They are the guys whose shoulders we stood on, those of us that came after. These are the guys that demonstrated what true honor and integrity and service was all about."

Vivid recollections

A day before the gathering, Edwards sat in his living room and discussed his war experiences in striking detail. Edwards enlisted in the Navy in 1935, soon after graduating from high school in Ruskin, Neb. Early in World War II, he was serving as a first class radioman aboard the USS Canopus, a submarine tender in the Philippines.

When Army Maj. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, commander of Allied forces in the Philippines, surrendered to the Japanese in May 1942, Edwards joined some 1,200 Allied personnel taken to Mukden Prison Camp in Japanese-held Manchuria.

Edwards said he and other POWs served as slave labor for the Manchurian Tool Company, toiling seven days a week in a factory that made bullets for the Japanese military, among other items. Edwards said he joined other American POWs in a campaign of sabotage. He was moved to different positions as the Japanese noticed his faulty work.

"And, of course, I'm getting knots on my head every time I change because I screwed up," he said. "If you got through a full day without one, you'd consider you had a good day."

Temperatures in the winter dropped as low as 50 below zero. Prisoners, given minimal clothing, had to hike three miles to the factory. Edwards said both of his feet froze during those walks, causing permanent nerve damage.

The Japanese guards fed prisoners nothing but cabbage soup for the first year, and Edwards said 169 of the 1,200 prisoners died during the first winter.

"I had one man tell me, 'Randall, I can't stand it anymore,' and 30 minutes later, he was dead," Edwards said.

He recalled one prisoner who grew so desperate working in a coal mine that he intentionally stuck his leg under a coal cart to amputate it.

Prisoners captured and ate all the mice and rats they could find, Edwards said, and did the same with wild dogs in the area. He said some prisoners lost their appetite for dogs when one morning as they walked to the factory they saw a pack of dogs feeding upon a pair of dead Chinese civilians in a ditch.

At one point, three American prisoners managed to escape, but they were caught within three days, Edwards said.

The guards lined all of the prisoners up in the yard and forced them to watch as they beat the three escapees to death.

Wily prisoners

Not all of Edward's memories of the camp are gruesome. He and other prisoners became adept at stealing items and selling them, either to Japanese soldiers or to Chinese residents. For example, he pilfered diamonds from a grinding wheel in the factory and sold them to a Chinese man for a ball of cheese.

On one occasion, prisoners were unloading a boxcar full of meat when they realized a deep snowbank blocked the guards from seeing them. The prisoners stuffed pieces of meat into the snowbank, which served as a refrigerator, and dined on purloined pork through the winter.

The prisoners also managed to reach the guard's supply of sake, or rice wine, and drain out half the barrel. Having topped off the tank with water, the prisoners later heard the guards complaining about the poor quality of their sake.

Asked whether he relied on thoughts of his family to sustain him, Edwards named a different coping strategy.

"I think the main exercise in that entire camp was preparing menus of what we were going to eat," he said. "We had menus from soup to nuts, everything from filet mignon to roast pheasant under glass, you name it."

Unexpected freedom

Liberation finally came in August 1945.

"They lined us all up and told us the war was over and you could have heard a pin drop in that entire complex," he said. "Nobody said a word. We just wandered off."

American B-29 bombers dropped cases of food into the camp. Edwards recalled getting a gallon can of peaches and gorging until he vomited.

During the first phase of his journey back to the United States, Edwards was aboard a ship that struck a mine in Buckner Bay, near Okinawa, Japan. The blast killed one Marine who had been rescued from Mukden Prison Camp.

"After all that crap, going through everything else, and he didn't quite make it home," Edwards said.

Edwards said he promised himself during his time at Mukden that if ever got back home, "I would cut a swath 100 miles wide from coast to coast." He did just that, traveling from San Francisco to Virginia and back home to Nebraska.

With 11½ years of Navy service, Edwards re-enlisted. To his surprise, the Navy soon sent him back to Japan as part of the occupation force.

Edwards said he had nightmares about the war for years and for a long time the slightest touch would trigger a fear of being battered by the Japanese guards in the camp.

"I still have flashbacks occasionally, and it's been an awful long time," he said. "It's very rare, I'll admit, but it's still there. Something will trigger it. It might be a scene on TV or something. It might be God knows what."

Coming to Florida

After retiring from the Navy in 1955 as a warrant officer, Edwards enrolled at the University of Florida and completed a five-year electrical engineering program in three years.

He spent 25 years working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. He then moved to Lakeland to be near his son, who lived in Winter Haven.

Edwards became a national service officer for the American Ex-Prisoners of War Organization and American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. He said he worked 16 hours a day for 10 years helping other veterans obtain their earned compensation and health benefits from the Veterans Administration.

Edwards is nearly deaf, and he traces his hearing decline to frequent slaps on the sides of his head from guards at Mukden. He began losing his vision about 15 years ago and is now legally blind.

Despite all the ailments, Edwards said in retirement he played golf every day until a few years ago. He is still able to walk without a cane.

After all the tributes were finished as Saturday's celebration, Edwards addressed the assembly.

"I would like to welcome you to my next century birthday party in 2117," he said.
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:06 AM.


Powered by vBulletin, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.