Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Peter Hendy Tschudi - WWII POW

Peter Henry Tschudi, Millicent's older brother, was a prisoner of war in World War II.

Private Peter Henry Tschudi

There is a very detailed story about his time in the Army posted on the Bataan Project website. I encourage you to read his story. He went through absolute hell during his time as a prisoner and he was a true hero. We should all be proud of him!

I will try to summarize his story below.

  • October 16, 1940 - He registered for the draft as required by the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.
  • March 5, 1941 - He was inducted (drafted) into the army and sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky. He was assigned to the 192nd Tank Battalion, Company D.
  • October 27, 1941 - He departed the United States from California to the western Pacific
  • November 2, 1941 - He arrived at Honolulu, Hawaii and had a 2 day layover
  • November 20, 1941 - He arrived at Manila Bay, Philippines and sent to Fort Stotsenburg, Clark Field
  • December 7, 1941 - Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
  • December 8, 1941 - Japan attacked Clark Field. When the Japanese were finished, there was not much left of the airfield. 
  • January 7 - April 8, 1942 - He fought in the Battle of Bataan
  • April 9, 1942 - General Edward P. King Jr. surrendered Bataan to the Japanese.
  • April 9 - May 12, 1942 - Peter was hospitalized when Bataan was surrendered. It appears he had malaria and dysentery.
  • May 1942 - A message was sent to his family (Millie) which stated in part, "According to War Department records, you have been designated as the emergency addressee if Private Peter H. Tschudi, 35,100,583, who, according to the latest information available, was serving in the  Philippine Islands at the time of the final surrender."
  • July 1942 - A second letter was sent to his family saying, "The last report of casualties received by the War Department from the Philippines arrived early in the morning of May 6. Through this date, Private Peter H. Tschudi had not been reported as a casualty. The War Department will consider the persons serving in the Philippine Islands as 'missing in action' from the date of the surrender of Corregidor, May 7, until definite information to the contrary is received."
  • May 1942 - October 1944 - He was imprisoned in various places on the main Philippines island of Luzon. The conditions were horrendous and he was forced to perform hard labor, such as manually moving earth to build airstrips.
  • June 3, 1943 - The War Department released a list of names of men known to be held as Japanese Prisoners of War and Peter’s name was on the list. His family had learned he was a POW weeks earlier.
  • October 1, 1944 - The POWs were taken to Pier 7 in Manila, where the detachment of POWs boarded the Hokusen Maru, a hell ship.
    • In May 1942, the Japanese began transferring its captured POWs by sea. Prisoners were often crammed into cargo holds with little air, ventilation, food, or water, for journeys that would last weeks. Many died due to asphyxia, starvation or dysentery. Some POWs became delirious and unresponsive in their environment of heat, humidity and lack of oxygen, food, and water. These transports carried a mixture of POWs and regular Japanese troops and cargo, and thus were not eligible to be marked as non-combatants. As a result, such vessels could be attacked by Allied submarines and aircraft, meaning they were at risk of being sunk before they even reached their destination. More than 20,000 Allied POWs died at sea when the transport ships carrying them were attacked by Allied submarines and aircraft.
  • November 5, 1944 - The ship finally arrived at Takao, Taiwan. It was estimated that 200 POWs had died during the trip.
  • January 14, 1945 - The Japanese had decided it was time for the POWs to finish their trip to Japan, so they boarded another hell ship, the Melbourne Maru.
  • January 23, 1945 - The ship arrived in Moji, Japan. The POWs were sent to Ashio Camp where the POWs worked in the Ashio Copper mine.
  • May 1945 - He was transferred to Hakodate hospital camp.
  • May 14, 1945 - He was transferred to Sendai POW Camp #7B. There were 288 POWs (245 American and 43 Australian) imprisoned there at the end of the war and 6 POWs had died while imprisonment.
  • September 15, 1945 - The POWs were liberated and were taken by train to Yokohama. It took the train 14 hours to make the 90 mile trip to the city. When they arrived at the station, Gen. Robert Eichelberger, commander of the Eighth Army, was waiting to meet them and threw his arms around them. As they rushed from the train, the former POWs hugged the American soldiers there.
  • September 19, 1945 - He left Japan on the U.S.S. Rescue for San Francisco via Guam.
  • October 10, 1945 - He arrived in San Francisco and then was transported to the Letterman General Hospital for further medical treatment.

He was very lucky to have survived this ordeal. He went through hell for 1,256 days! He saw many. many prisoners starved and beaten to death.

I am very proud of him and I am so glad that I read his story. I will think of him every Memorial and Veterans' Day.

Respectfully,

Dwayne

P.S. Thank you to Uncle Pete and Aunt Julie for sharing this story with me. After reading it, I knew that I had to find the original source and to share it with everyone else.

And huge thank you to the Bataan Project who researched and wrote the story. There is a lot of interesting information of their website. I have read a lot of history books, but I never really read much about WWII. My interest is now piqued. Based on a recommendation on their website, I am now reading Thunder on Bataan: The First American Tank Battles of World War II by Donald Caldwell. I was able to borrow an electronic version from the library. So far it is a pretty good read. You may want to check it out.


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