Aquila

Pvt. Andrew J. Aquila was born on May 31, 1918, in what was called "Little Italy" in Cleveland, Ohio. He was one of the few members of Company B, 192nd Tank Battalion, who was not from Illinois.

Andy was drafted into the army on March 31, 1941 and sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to train. Training consisted mostly of drilling. Very little time was devoted to operating machine guns, tanks and using chemicals. At Fort Knox, he also went to clerical school and studied company administration.

In mid-October, 1941, Andy was an orderly for the 753rd Tank Battalion. There were five clerks in the battalion, and they were told that one of them would be transferred to the 192nd Tank Battalion which was scheduled to go to the Philippine Islands. Since no one volunteered, their names were placed in a hat. Andy's name was drawn three separate times. When he told his family he had to go overseas he said that it was destiny.

When Andy joined the 192nd Tank Battalion, the unit had just finished maneuvers at Camp Polk, Louisiana. He did not know anyone at first, but ended up sharing a tent with Sgt. Thomas Savage. Upon arrival, Andy was assigned to Company B as the company clerk. This assignment kept him from engagements with the Japanese, but since he was in a battle zone, he experienced bombings and strafings by Japanese planes.

When Bataan surrendered on April 9, 1942, Andy took part in the death march. As a Prisoner of War, he was interred first at Camp O'Donnell. While a prisoner at Camp O'Donnell, Andy worked for three days on the burial detail. In one case, a POW, believed to be dead, moved his arm as the detail was preparing to bury him. He was returned to Zero Ward at the camp. He made it back from Zero Ward, and Andy later saw him carrying a bucket of water. It is not known whether or not this man survived the war.

The second camp Andy was held prisoner at was Cabanatuan. There he worked on the farm detail. Andy later went out to Nichols Field on a detail to repair the runways.

On July 15, 1944, Andy was ordered to Japan. Two days later, the Nissyo Maru sailed. Ten days after it sailed it arrived at Takao, Formosa. The next day, July 28th, the ship sailed for Moji, Japan. Andy spent twenty days in the cargo hold of the ship before it arrived in Moji on August 3, 1944.

One day, on the journey to Japan, the ship was attacked by an American submarine around two in the morning. The POWs were awakened when the ship began to drop depth charges. They also heard the sound of torpedoes going under the ship. The POWs began screaming to be let out of the hold of the ship. They were calmed by Father John Curran, O. P., who told them that they could not do anything but pray. He then began saying the "Our Father" and the screaming subsided.

In Japan Andy was sent to Fukuoka #3-B, there he worked at the Yawata Steel Mills doing manual labor. The work was to shovel iron ore and rebuild the ovens. The POWs were sent into the ovens to clean out the debris. Since the ovens were hot, because the Japanese would not let them cool off, the POWs worked faster on this detail.

Andy received his worst beating on this detail. A sack of roasted soy beans broke close to where the POWs were working. Those POWs who saw this started to pick up the beans. Andy was too busy picking up beans to notice that the guards were coming and that the other prisoners had stopped. He was kicked so hard he lost all the beans he had collected. The guard continued to kick Andy until the guard was satisfied that the punishment was sufficient. When Andy got back to camp, the American doctor could not help him with the pain because all he had was a stethoscope.

After the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the POWs were sent back early to the camp from the mill. They did not return to work for two or three days. When they did go back, they again returned early.

The Yawata Steel Mills were the primary target for the second atomic bomb, but since the sky was extremely overcast, the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. This time, they saw Japanese workers facing in the direction of radio speakers with their heads bowed. The Americans thought that the emperor had passed away. The truth was that the second atomic bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki, and the emperor was announcing Japan's surrender. An American ensign, who could read and speak Japanese, saw a newspaper with the announcement of the surrender. He was the first person to inform his fellow POWs that the war was over. They were then told the same news by a Japanese officer.

The POWs were allowed to travel anywhere they wanted in Japan after September 2, 1945. When Andy heard that American troops were in the southern part of the island, he went to find the Americans. Looking back on this, Andy could not believe how "nuts" he was to do this.

Andy returned to the United States in October 1945, on the USS Joseph T. Dickman, APA 13. When he returned, he stayed at Letterman Hospital for two days, then was transferred to Birmingham Hospital in Van Nuys, California. The reason for this was that while he had been a POW, his family had moved to California. Andy was discharged from military service on March 7, 1946. Today, he resides in Oregon.

While a POW, Andy witnessed different acts of cruelty. One involved a POW who had made a bet regarding when the next American bombing raid would take place. He made a wager that the raid would take place within a certain period of time. When it did, he won a half-ration of rice. The man was caught by a guard with this extra half-ration and told the truth of how he had received it. He was beaten and clubbed in the head which made him bleed. He returned to the barracks, but he could not stop the bleeding. The next day he was sent to work. When he came back from working, he was sicker then he had been before he went. He died shortly after this.

Another incident involved an American soldier who traded with the Japanese. The war was almost over and Japan was about to surrender. The soldier traded for roasted beans. As it turned out, the beans had been tainted with arsenic. The soldier died the next day. After going through all he had suffered, the soldier died when freedom was almost his.

Andy believed that there were Japanese guards who had compassion for the POWs. It was his belief that these guards were afraid of beatings from their superiors so they did not show it very often.

Andy Aquila returned to United States and resided on the west coast where his parents had moved. Andy married and became a father. He passed away on November 11, 2011, with his family by his side.

The picture below was taken of Andy while he was a POW in Japan.