Little is known about Pvt. Emerson M. McCarter.  What is known is that he was born on June 19, 1919, in Jefferson, Oklahoma to Andrew L. McCarter & Matilda Maytubby-McCarter.  He was one of the couple's nine sons and six daughters.   He grew up in Jefferson, Oklahoma.  

    Emerson was inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas on February 15, 1941.  After basic training, he was sent to Camp Polk, Louisiana and assigned to the 753rd Tank Battalion.  The battalion had been sent there but did not take part in the maneuvers that were being held at that time.

    At Camp Polk, Emerson became a replacement who was assigned to A Company, 192nd Tank Battalion.  He replaced a National Guardsman who released from federal service. It is believed he was a member of a tank crew.

    The 192nd was sent west by train to San Francisco.  On Angel Island, Emerson received inoculations and sailed for the Philippine Islands.  His battalion arrived in the Philippines on Thanksgiving Day, 1941.

    Emerson lived through the Japanese attack on Clark Airfield on December 8, 1941.  For the next four months, Emerson fought to slow the Japanese conquest of the Philippine Islands.  On April 9, 1942, he became a Prisoner of War.

    Emerson was held as a POW at Camp O'Donnell, Cabanatuan and Bilibid Prison.  In October 1942, he was boarded onto the Tottori Maru.  The ship sailed for Japan on October 8th. During the trip, the ship stopped at Takao, Formosa and Pusan, Korea before sailing to Japan.  On the ship, he was reunited with Leo Dorsey of HQ Company who had originally been a member of A Company.  On November 11th, the ship docked at Moji, and the POWs were disembarked.

    During the voyage, the ships in the convoy were attacked by an American submarine.  This resulted in the convoy being held up for two days in the South China Sea.  During this time, the prisoners were locked in the holds of the ship.

    In Japan, Emerson was held at an unknown camp which was bombed out by American planes.  He was transferred to Osaka 5-B at Tsuruga, Honshu.  At this camp, Emerson and Leo Dorsey became bunk mates at the camp. This meant that they watched out for each other and each other's possessions.  

    The POWs in the camp worked as stevedores loading and unloading food from ships arriving from Manchuria and Korea.  While unloading food from the ships, the prisoners stole food for themselves to supplement their meager rations.  An average meal for the POWs was soybean and rice.  While working, the POWs carried 100 pound burlap sacks of soybeans.  To get extra food, the POWs would tear holes into the bags and drop beans into their pockets.  The pockets had holes to allow the beans to fall down their legs and settle in pouches around their ankles.  This prevented the Japanese from finding them when they searched them when they returned to camp.  If they were caught, they were severely beaten by the Japanese.

    When the Japanese attempted to get the prisoners to unload munitions from ships, Emerson and the other prisoners went on strike.  Even though they were beaten, the prisoners would not unload the war materials from the ships.  The Japanese finally gave in and took the Americans off the detail.

    Emerson and the other POWs were also used to build dry docks for the Japanese Navy.  The prisoners slowed down work by refusing to load more than four cars of dirt a day.  Even though they were beaten, the Japanese were never able to get them to load more than four cars.

    Showing how little respect the Japanese had for the POWs, as part of their diets, the Japanese served the prisoners barley or burnt wheat in place of rice to the prisoners.   The wheat had been in a warehouse fire and determined to be too badly burnt to be given to the Japanese civilians, but it was considered good enough for the prisoners.

    As time went on, Emerson became a witness to the bombing of Tsuruga by American planes.  The first air raid Emerson lived through took place in December of 1944.  During that month there were twenty air raids.  In January, 1945, there were even more air raids causing greater destruction. 

    In August of 1945, Emerson and the other prisoners noticed a change in the attitudes of the guards.  Soon American bombers appeared and dropped food to the prisoners.  Not too long later, he and the other men learned that the war was over. On September 10, 1945, Emerson was officially liberated.  

    Emerson and Leo Dorsey would remain friends the rest of their lives. Emerson transferred into the U. S. Army Air Corps on February 15, 1946, and remained in the U. S. Air Force when it was created.  He rose in rank to Staff Sergeant.  He married Junia Faye Hampton.  They were the parents of two sons.  Emerson returned to Oklahoma where he passed away on August 4, 1964.