Chico Enterprise Record
November 5, 1945
Myers Father, Son Saga In Japanese Prison Camp Not Soothing Bedtime
Story
by
Gene Davis
The Myers Father and Son saga covering 44 months in Japanese prisons
of war does not sound like a soothing bedtime story. Yet
Charles Myers, 49,
and his son Leroy,
25, have related only some of the milder details of their imprisonment
“because there aren’t enough printable words to describe the real
horrors of Japanese sadism.” Myers and his son left Chico
in March 1941 for Wake Island where they were to be employed as
contractors for the Pacific Naval Air Base. On December 22,
1941 they became prisoners of war along with approximately 1100
other civilian contractors and 500 Marines garrisoned on Wake Island.
During their entire internment the Chicans were classified as prisoners
of war instead of civilian internees. The Japanese insisted
upon this because the Chicans, along with the other Wake Island
contractors, had taken up arms against the Nips during the battle
for Wake. October 16, 1945 is the date they like to remember
best, because on that day they sailed into San Francisco harbor
and found their family eagerly awaiting them at the dock.
Their homecoming wasn’t without heartbreak. Upon their return
the Chicans learned for the first time of the death of Mrs. Charles
Myers. Mrs. Myers died in Chico September 2, 1944 without
knowing the fate of her husband and son. The Wake Island contractors
were not registered as prisoners of war until October 1943.
In December 1943 the Red Cross notified the Myers family here that
Charles and Leroy had been interned. All mail to and from
them was at least one full year in transit. They received
their first letters from home in October 1944. The last mail delivered
to them before their release was written in Chico in April 1944.
The meager messages they were allowed to send from the camps did
not reach here until after Mrs. Myers had died. American heroism
was never greater than at Wake Island. Charles Myers proudly
describes the destruction 1600 contractors and Marines inflicted
upon an overwhelming Japanese force. “A few hours after the
attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese planes attacked Wake Island
and found us wholly unprepared. The Japanese came in at about
1200 feet elevation. They just appeared all of the sudden
from behind a rainsquall and they machine gunned and bombed everything
in sight. Those first two days of the air attack we lost more
men than during the entire 14 day battle which followed. There
were no fortifications on the island and our only guns were a very
few batteries of 1917 models. In spite of this the Japanese
themselves admit we killed over 5000 of them and sunk seven Japanese
boats including one submarine. We could keep no accurate account
of the Japanese planes we destroyed but we sent a number of them
away smoking. Before the Japanese finally took the island
they were forced to move in a good sized navy.”According to Myers, more than 1300 Americans were taken alive on
Wake. The contractors were segregated from the Marines and
the Chicans, along with 350 other skilled workers, were kept on
the island for nine months. During this period they worked
12 hours a day repairing the damage to the airfield and other installations.
Japanese mechanics supervised the work and checked carefully to
prevent sabotage attempts. The Nips only shipped six new cars
and five or six gas fuel trucks to the island. All their other
equipment was captured American machinery which they repaired.
Myers explained the Japanese seemed to have skilled men for all
types of repair work but no one able to operate the American made
equipment. Although the captured Americans had little opportunity
to sabotage, they did manage to slow up their work so that the Wake
Island airfield was never resurfaced for use by the Japanese. (to
be continue)
Stu’s Notes: National POW/MIA Recognition Day, 1984. By
the President of the United States of America, Ronald Regan. “We
accept and remember our obligation to these missing servicemen.
Until the POW/MIA issue is resolved, it will remain a matter of
the highest national priority. On July 20, 1984 the POW/MIA
flag will fly over the White House, the Departments of State and
Defense, and the Veterans Administration a a symbol of our unswerving
commitment to achieve the fullest possible accounting for the servicemen
and civilians”…The date was changed in 2003 by President Bush to
the third Friday in Sept.
Tonight, at 7PM, we hope to see a big crowd at the steps
of the Veterans Memorial Hall, on Montgomery Street in Oroville
when we hold a candle light service in honor of POW/MIA recognition
Day The stories about our POW/MIA are still to be found, for
many years into the future new information and remains of our 1,000’s
of MIA’s will be uncovered. That’s why what we do here in
Oroville tonight is so important. Let’s not ever forget them.