Olmsted, James Newton, MGySgt

Golden Dragon Certificate

Shellback Certificate

This Military Service Page was created/owned by Cpl Richard Campfield (gyrene79) to remember Marine MGySgt James Newton Olmsted.

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On December 14, 1944 more than 1600 American POWs left the Philippines bound for Japan on a hellship called the Oryoku Maru. Later that day aircraft from the USS Hornet found the ship in Olongapo Bay near Subic and strafed and bombed it  but did not sink it. The following day they returned and sank the crippled ship, with the loss of more than 300 POW lives. Following the bombing of the Oryoku Maru, those POWs who survived were re-assembled at San Fernando La Union, PI and put aboard two more hellships to continue their journey to Japan. About 1,040 men were forced into one hold of the Enoura Maru, and the remaining 240 men went on the Brazil Maru. The Enoura Maru had previously been used to transport horses and the hold was filthy with manure. On its last trip the Brazil Maru had carried coal. Neither hold was cleaned out before the POWs were forced down into them. Some of the POWs were so hungry that they ate grain that had been dropped by the horses when they were feeding, and which was now mixed in with the manure. The Enoura and Brazil Marus left the Philippines on December 27, 1944 and headed north. All of the POWs on the Enoura Maru were crammed into the second hold aft of the bow. The POWs suffered terribly from hunger, thirst and the filth that pervaded the holds of the two hellships. Diseases broke out and many of the men were violently ill. On December 31 â?? New Yearâ??s Eve - they reached Takao ( Kaohsiung ), Formosa. MGySgt James Newton Olmsted died while a POW on the Enoura Maru.