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Cpl Richard Campfield (gyrene79)
to remember
Marine MGySgt James Newton Olmsted.
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Contact Info
Last Address Gen. Del. Watervliet, MI
MIA Date Dec 31, 1944
Cause MIA-Died in Captivity
Reason Unknown, Not Reported
Location Taiwan
Location of Memorial Manila American Cemetery - Taguig City, Philippines
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.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Philippine Islands Campaign (1941-42)
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
May / 1942
Description The Philippines Campaign (Filipino:Labanan sa Pilipinas (1941–1942)) or the Battle of the Philippines was the invasion of the Philippines by Japan in 1941–1942 and the defense of the islands by Filipino and United States forces.
The defending forces outnumbered the Japanese invaders by 3 to 2, but were a mixed force of non-combat experienced regular, national guard, constabulary, and newly created Commonwealth units; the Japanese used their best first-line troops at the outset of the campaign. The Japanese 14th Army also concentrated its forces in the first month of the campaign, enabling it to swiftly overrun most of Luzon.
The Japanese high command, believing they had won the campaign, made a strategic decision to advance by a month their timetable of operations in Borneo and Indonesia, withdrawing their best division and the bulk of their airpower in early January 1942. This, coupled with the decision of the defenders to withdraw into a defensive holding position in the Bataan Peninsula, enabled the Americans and Filipinos to successfully hold out for four more months.
