Massimino

Cpl. John L. Massimino was born July 8, 1915, in Akron, Ohio. He was the son of Frank & Mary Massimino. He had one sister and four brothers. His family moved to Illinois where he lived at 640 Harrison Street in Oak Park, Illinois. It is known that during the 1920s, his mother died leaving his father to raise his five sons and daughter. He joined the Illinois National Guard's 33rd Tank Company in Maywood, Illinois. Because of his physical size, John was known as "The Mouse" to the other members of the company.

On November 25, 1940, the Maywood Tank Company was called into federal service and sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for training. Upon arrival at Fort Knox, the company was given the designation of Company B of the 192nd Tank Battalion. John, like all the members of the company, was trained to operate tanks, halftracks and motorcycles. He then went to Louisiana to take part in the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941.

In October of 1941, John's company left San Francisco for the Philippine Islands. The 192nd Tank Battalion arrived in the Philippines two weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After the Japanese attack on the Philippine Islands, John fought for four months against the Japanese until the Filipino and American Forces were surrendered on April 9, 1942.

During one tank engagement with the Japanese, Lt. Ed Winger's tank was disabled by the Japanese. After escaping from the tank and attempting to make his way to the Filipino and American lines, Lt. Winger was shot by a Filipino soldier who mistook him as an infiltrator. To save Lt. Winger's life, John carried him for three days in an attempt to reach a military hospital. Lt. Winger died before reaching the hospital. For this action, John received the Silver Star.

The night before the American forces were to surrender, John, Sgt. Jim Bashleben and a few other members of B Company stopped a supply truck. The men gorged themselves on condensed milk. It was John's belief that doing this helped him and the others survive the march.

John took part in the death march and witnessed several instances of brutality. The Japanese would line the prisoners up and make them wait for hours to get a half cup of water. He once saw a Japanese officer walk along the line and knock the cups out of the hands of the prisoners before they had a chance to drink the water. John recalled that men who died on the march were buried where they fell. In one case, John saw a Japanese detail burying a man who was not dead. When the man tried to crawl out of his grave, a Japanese officer hit him with a shovel and then they buried him.

On the march, a Japanese guard saw that John had a small signet ring on the little finger of his left hand. The ring belonged to Betty Jean Smith of Oak Park. It was a link with the past life he no longer had. He was not about to give the ring up. He ducked in front of a slow moving group of marchers which caused the guard to lose him.

John also received a beating as a prisoner while on the march. One night the prisoners were herded into a small corral. He was tired and lay down to sleep. A Japanese officer, who was walking in the corral, stumbled over him. In anger, the officer kicked John six times in the head. The officer finished the beating off by throwing a brick at him.

John was first imprisoned at Camp O'Donnell. This was a death camp. The POWs there could not dig graves for the dead fast enough. At night, the dogs would dig up the bodies and chew on them. At Camp O'Donnell, he also witnessed brutality over and over again. In one case, a Japanese guard called a young American soldier to come across the perimeter wire to him. When the soldier did, the guard grabbed him and said he was trying to escape. The soldier was shot.

John remained at Camp O'Donnell until June 27, 1942, and then he was sent to Cabanatuan. He next was held at Clark Field where he built runways. He developed the philosophy that to survive he should do what the Japanese wanted him to do. One day, he overslept and did not report for "tinko" or "roll call" on time. He was beaten for oversleeping by the Japanese guards who used their rifle butts to beat him. They aimed their blows at the lower part of his body and his legs which resulted in his legs being swollen and discolored for weeks.

On October 1, 1944, John and other POWs were boarded onto the Hokusen Maru. The ship sailed on October 3, 1944, for Japan. His voyage on the hell ship lasted until November 11th. The first part of the journey resulted in the deaths of 40 POWs before it arrived at Hong Kong on October 11, 1944. It was on this ship that Pvt. Arthur Van Pelt of B Company was beaten to death by another American POW because the man wanted his water.

Upon reaching Formosa, the POWs were held at Heito POW Camp because the Japanese were too hard pressed to send them on to Japan. While there, John and the other POWs picked rocks from the bed of a dried river that the Japanese were using to grow sugar cane.

John and the other POWs were boarded onto the Melbourne Maru on January 14, 1945. John finally arrived in Japan on January 23, 1945, where he was sent to a camp where he worked in a graphite factory. The graphite would produce ulcers on the POWs which would grow in size the longer that they worked in the factory.

John was then sent to Nagoya #9, outside of Toyama, in north central Honshu, Japan. There, John worked in the kitchen. Most of the prisoners in the camp did dock work and loaded and unloaded ships. While a prisoner, John witnessed the bombing of the City of Toyama by 150 B-29s. When they were through, he watched the city burn. He thought it was a beautiful site.

John remained a POW until the surrender of Japan. He was thirty years old when he was liberated. After medical treatment, he was discharged on April 28, 1946.

John returned to Oak Park, Illinois, but he did not marry the girl whose ring he had risked his life for to keep. John married and was the father of two children. He resided in Bensenville, Illinois and worked for Illinois Bell Telephone until his retirement. He then moved to Seminole, Florida.

John L. Massimino passed away on October 23, 2001, in Florida.