U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Daniel Crowley endured more than three years of slave labor while being held prisoner by Japan during World War II.
This week, the 96-year-old is in Hawaii to participate in a dedication that honors about 400 Allied prisoners killed when a Japanese ship transporting them to Japan from the Philippines was sunk by U.S. forces unaware they were on board. The men are in 20 separate graves marked as "unknowns" in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which is located inside an extinct volcanic crater also known as Punchbowl.
On Wednesday, Crowley will help dedicate a memorial stone for the prisoners at the cemetery in Honolulu.
In this Monday, Aug. 13, 2018, photo, Daniel Crowley, a 96-year-old U.S. Army Air Corps veteran from World War II who was held by Japan as a prisoner of war in the Philippines and Japan, speaks during an interview in Honolulu. Crowley is visiting Honolulu to help dedicate a new memorial marker honoring U.S. and Allied prisoners of war killed when U.S. planes bombed a Japanese freighter transporting the POWs. (AP PhotoAudrey McAvoy)
"These are men from the United States Armed Forces who were ignominiously thrown in a pit without marking by the country, our country," Crowley said. "It was a sad thing that they were never recognized before they were buried together in a mixed-up grave with no marker."
The men were on board the Japanese freighter Enoura Maru in what is now Kaohsiung, Taiwan, when planes from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier bombed it on Jan. 9, 1945. The Enoura Maru hadn't been marked as having POWs on board so the pilots didn't know they were attacking some of their own. The 400 were buried in a mass grave near the harbor. The U.S. military retrieved the remains in 1946 and sent them to Hawaii for burial.
The group includes not just Americans but also Australians, Canadians, British, Norwegians and citizens of what is now the Czech Republic.
In this Monday, Aug. 13, 2018, photo Daniel Crowley, right, a 96-year-old U.S. Army Air Corps veteran from World War II who was held by Japan as a prisoner of war in the Philippines and Japan, speaks with his wife, Kelley Crowley, during an interview in Honolulu. (AP PhotoAudrey McAvoy)
Crowley, who lives in Simsbury, Connecticut, is familiar with some of their ordeal as he experienced a version of it himself.
The Army shipped him to the Philippines in 1941 after he enlisted as an 18-year-old in Greenwich. It was a tropical paradise at first, he said, until Japan attacked in December.
The Army gave him and his fellow soldiers little to no training and equipped them World War I-era rifles. By April, his commanders surrendered thousands of U.S. forces at Bataan. Crowley escaped to Corregidor Island, where he fought alongside U.S. Marines for another month. This time, he was taken into Japanese custody and paraded down the streets of Manila.
Eighteen months of brutal labor building an air strip on the Philippine island of Palawan followed.
"If you didn't move it, you were beaten immediately. Nothing was held back. They'd swing for your head with a pickaxe handle," he said.
Each prisoner would get about 600 calories worth of food a day — just enough to keep them alive, he said.
Crowley's ship took 17 days to reach Japan from the Philippines after taking a circuitous route to avoid attacking U.S. planes.
The conditions on the ships transporting prisoners to Japan were so horrific the Americans called them "hellships."
Crowley recalls being held below deck in such cramped conditions he could only squat — not lie down or stand. The prisoners had to defecate and urinate where they were, leaving their waste to cascade down to platforms below where more prisoners were held.
"You were showered constantly," he said.
Their captors lowered rice to them once a day in a bucket that had earlier held excrement. The prisoners had to reach into the bucket for their share. Sometimes the men fought.
"Some men lost it completely and sank their teeth into the nearest person for liquid. They wanted a drink. There was no water ration," Crowley said.
Each day they'd collect those who had died and throw them over the side of the ship. That was actually a good job to have, Crowley said, because it meant you could get fresh air.
"It's hard to really describe in graphic enough detail for mixed readers of a family newspaper," Crowley said.
Once in Japan, Crowley spent the rest of the war working in two different copper mines.
After the war, he found a stigma followed those who had been prisoners of the Japanese military. Major companies wouldn't hire them. His older brother told him not to tell anyone he was a POW.
"They felt you couldn't be mentally balanced if you had been through this nightmare," he said. Crowley made a living in sales by commission.
He counts himself lucky to have survived. Many others didn't make it — especially in the first six months after they were surrendered in the Philippines.
"I had a tenacious desire to live, I guess," Crowley said. "I was going to beat it. I was going to get home."
PHOENIX (AP) — Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth hit back-to-back homers, Dylan Cease pitched 6 2/3 strong innings and the San Diego Padres won their third game in a row, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-1 on Friday night.
Manny Machado hit a two-run homer. Cronenworth finished with three extra-base hits, adding two doubles.
The Padres had a big offensive game on the same night they learned they might be adding another good hitter. San Diego is close to acquiring two-time batting champion Luis Arráez in a deal with the Marlins.
“I think it's great — you're always looking for more offense and a left-handed bat to balance out the lineup,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “But listen, nothing's official. We'll leave it at that.”
The Diamondbacks have lost 10 straight series openers after beating the Colorado Rockies on opening day.
D-backs pitcher Slade Cecconi (1-2) retired the first nine batters he faced, but ran into trouble in the fourth. Jurickson Profar walked to start the inning and Tatis launched a shot to left-center — his seventh homer of the season.
Cronenworth followed with another homer to make it 3-0 and rookie Jackson Merrill broke an 0-for-20 stretch at the plate with a one-out RBI double for a 4-0 lead.
Cronenworth had a down 2023 season, but has looked much more like the hitter who was an All-Star in 2021 and 2022 through the first month of this season. He's batting .279 with six homers and 25 RBIs.
It was Cronenworth’s second straight game with a homer. He hit a grand slam in the team’s 6-2 victory over the Reds on Wednesday.
“It's the right approach with the right swing,” Shildt said. “He's married both. He's driving the ball to all different parts of the field and not trying to do to much.”
Cecconi didn't make it out of the fifth, giving up six runs over 4 1/3 innings.
The Padres' three-homer outburst provided plenty of support for Cease (4-2), the hard-throwing right-hander who gave up just one run on three hits while striking out eight. He didn't allow a walk.
“I think my fastball command was a lot better, which is really a lot of the battle,” Cease said. “When I'm getting my fastball where it needs to go, it opens up a lot of stuff.”
Machado made it 7-0 in the fifth with a two-run homer to left center off reliever Matt Bowman. The scorched line drive came off Machado's bat at 111.7 mph.
The sliding D-backs — defending National League champions — have lost 10 of their past 15 games and fell to 14-19 for the season.
“We got beat tonight,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "We got out-managed, we got out-pitched, we got out-hit, we got out-coached. We've got to find a way to get the job done and play our type of baseball. That's the bottom line.
“We're grinding away. We're trying.”
Arizona finished with just three hits. Eugenio Suárez had an RBI single in the fifth.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Diamondbacks: Lovullo told reporters that closer Paul Sewald (oblique) and OF Alex Thomas (hamstring) could return to the active roster as soon as Tuesday against the Reds.
UP NEXT
The D-backs will throw RHP Brandon Pfaadt (1-1, 4.63 ERA) while the Padres will counter with RHP Michael King (2-3, 5.00 ERA) on Saturday night.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte, left, celebrates his double as San Diego Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, front right, of South Korea, and umpire Phil Cuzzi (10) look for the baseball during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt watches the action on the field during the second inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Diego Padres' Manny Machado (13) rounds the bases after hitting a two run home run as Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker, left, pauses at first base during the fifth inning of a baseball game Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Matt Bowman, center, rubs up a new baseball after giving up a two-run home run to San Diego Padres' Manny Machado, left, during the fifth inning of a baseball game Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Diego Padres' Manny Machado points to the sky as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fifth inning of a baseball game Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte, right, slides safely into second base with a double as San Diego Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, of South Korea, applies a late tag during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Diego Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr., right, celebrates his two-run home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks with Padres' Manny Machado (13) during the fourth inning of a baseball game Friday, May 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
