Pvt. Obie Cloyce Richardson

Parents: James Richardson & Elma Johnson Richardson

Siblings: Nine

Nickname: Cloyce

Inducted: U. S. Army - 20 March 41

Training: 

    Fort Knox, Kentucky

    Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units:

    753rd Tank Battalion

    192nd Tank Battalion

Overseas Duty: 

    Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start march at southern tip of Bataan
            - POWs ran past Japanesee artillery firing at Corregidor
                - Americans on Corregidor returned fire
            - San Fernando - POWs put into small wooden boxcars
                - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men
                - 100 POWs packed into each car
                - POWs who died remained standing
            - Capas - dead fell to floor as living left boxcars
            - POWs walked last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell 

POW Camps: 

    - Philippine Islands: 

        -  Camp O'Donnell

            - unfinished Filipino training base
            - Japanese put camp into use as POW Camp
            - only one water spiget for entire camp
            - as many as 50 POWs died each day
            - Japanese opened new POW camp to lower death rate 

        -  Cabanatuan

        -  Lipa, Batangas

        -  Bilibid Prison

    - Formosa: 

        - Toroku Camp

    Japan: 

        - Osaka #2 - Kobe House

            Work: canal building

Hell Ship: 

        - Hokusen Maru  

            - POWs boarded - 21 September 1944

                - Sailed: Manila - 3 October 1944

                    - three ships in convoy sunk by an American submarine

                    - torpedo hit ship but failed to explode - ran along hull

                - Arrived: Hong Kong - 11 October 1944

                   - POWs remained in holds for next ten days

                       - attacked by American planes - 13 October 1944

                - Sailed: Hong Kong - 21 October 1944

                - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 24 October 1944

                    - POWs remained in holds until - 8 November 1944

                        - disembarked 

        - Melborune Maru - 

            - Sailed: Takao -14 January 1945

            - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 23 January 1945

Liberated: September 1945

Promoted: Corporal

Discharged: 26 May 1946

Married: Father of three children

Work: Pharmacy manager

Died: 16 May 2006 - Houston, Texas

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