Death Railway affected Cape family

After my last column about the Death Railway, I received a phone call from a Cape Girardeau resident whose brother was an American POW who worked as slave labor on the Death Railway. Her call led me to do more research about the infamous Japanese POW camps in Burma and Thailand, and to learn more about the Americans held prisoner in them.

I discovered that two American units in particular wrote significant chapters in the history of the Death Railway. Many of the U.S. prisoners were survivors of the sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) on March 1, 1942.

Of the crew of 1,061 men, 368 survived and were picked up as prisoners of war by the Japanese navy, The U.S. Houston went down fighting in the Battle of Sundra Strait along with the Australian ship HMAS Perth. The two ships are honored in the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia.

The other American unit, 2nd Battalion, the 36th Division, Texas National Guard is known as the Lost Battalion of the Texas National Guard. The unit was activated to federal service in November 1940 and was sent to the Philippines Nov. 21, 1941, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 caused the ships to be diverted to Australia.

The unit was then sent to Java in January 1942 to support Dutch forces who were expecting a Japanese invasion. The Japanese did invade in February, and the Dutch surrendered eight days later. The Americans captured were sent to different locations, with most being sent as laborers building the Death Railway as their status was unknown.

A phone call from the sister of an American POW prompted me to go back and look at the American POWs who were used as slave labor on the railway. That call turned a historical fact into a story about one family and the impact of war on them. War stories and historical anecdotes are actually stories about real people under severe stress.

"Ship of Ghosts" by James D. Hornfischer tells the story of the USS Houston and her crew. Further information about the Death Railway can be found in "Building the Death Railway: The Ordeal of American POWs in Burma" by Robert S. LaForte and Ronald E. Marcello.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He lives in Chaffee, Missouri.