1st/Sgt. John Robert Andrews was born in 1917 in Ottawa County to John & Mary Andrews.  With his four sisters and three brothers, he grew up at 330 Maple Street in Port Clinton, Ohio.  John worked as a bartender when he joined Company H of the Ohio National Guard.  He was called to federal service on November 25, 1940.  It was at this time that his company was designated C Company, 192nd Tank Battalion.

   After training for nearly a year, John took part in maneuvers in Louisiana.  After the maneuvers, at Camp Polk, the battalion learned that they were not being released from federal service.  Instead, they were being sent overseas.

    From Camp Polk, John and the other members of C Company, rode a train to San Francisco.  They then took a ferry to Angel Island.  On the island they received physicals and shots for duty in the Philippine Islands.

    John sailed for the Philippines, arriving there on Thanksgiving Day, 1941.  He and his company spent the next two weeks loading ammunition belts and cleaning their guns for maneuvers.

    The morning of December 8, 1941, the tankers were informed of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  The tanks were ordered to the perimeter of the Clark Airfield to guard against Japanese paratroopers.

    Around 12:45 in the afternoon, John and the other soldiers noticed planes approaching the airfield.  When bombs began exploding around them, the tankers knew the planes were Japanese.

    John with the other tankers were sent north to Lingayen Gulf.  They were frequently used as a rear guard to allow the other military units to withdraw from engagements with the Japanese.

    On April 9, 1942, John became a Prisoner of War.  From Mariveles, he started the death march to San Fernando.  There, he boarded a train and rode in a boxcar to Capas.  He then walked the last few miles to Camp O'Donnell.

    In an attempt to get out of Camp O'Donnell, John volunteered for a work detail to return to Bataan and rebuild the bridges that the retreating Filipino and American forces had destroyed during the retreat.  The detail was under the command of Col. Ted Wickord the commanding officer of the 192nd.  He attempted to fill the detail with as many of his own men as he could.  John was selected to drive a tuck that would supply the POWs rebuilding the bridges with materials.

    John first worked at Calaun.  There the POWs were amazed by the concern shown for them by the Filipino people. The townspeople arranged for their doctor and nurses to care for the POWs and give them medication.  They also arranged for the POWs to attend a meal in their honor.

    John was next sent to Batangas to rebuild another bridge.  Again, the Filipino people did all they could to see that the Americans got the food and care they needed.  Somehow the Filipinos convinced the Japanese to allow them to attend a meal to celebrate the completion of the new bridge.

    The next bridge John and the other POWs were sent to build was in Candelaria.  Once again, the people of the town did what ever they could to help the Americans.  An order of Roman Catholic sisters, who had been recently freed from custody, invited Lt. Col. Wickord and twelve POWs for a dinner.  It is not known if John was one of the twelve men selected by Lt. Col. Wickord to attend the dinner.

    John remained on this detail until it ended and then was sent to Cabanatuan.  On October 1, 1942, John was selected to go on a work detail to Davao, Mindano.  The POWs on this detail worked on an experimental farm.  On June 6, 1944, the camp was closed and John and the other POWs were boarded onto the Yashu Maru and sent to Cedu.  There, the POWs were transferred to the Singoto Maru and taken to Manila.  They were then marched to Bilibid Prison.

    In early October 10, 1944, the Japanese, knowing that it was just a matter of time before the American forces would invade the Philippines, began sending large numbers of POWs to Japan or other occupied countries.  On October 11, 1944, John was taken to Pier 7 in the Port Area of Manila. 

    The POW group that John was in was suppose to be boarded onto the Hokusan Maru.  At the same time, another POW group was being sent to Japan of the Arisan Maru.  Since this POW group was not ready to board their ship, and John's group was ready to board, the Japanese swapped the groups and boarded John's POW group on the Arisan Maru.  The POWs were packed into the ship's hold. 

   On October 11th, the ship sailed but took a southerly route away from Formosa.  The ship anchored in a cove off Palawan Island where it remained for ten days.  During this time, the POWs realized that the Japanese had removed the light bulbs from the lighting system, but they had turned off the power.  Some POWs hotwired the ventilation fans into the lighting system which brought fresh air into the ship's hold.  The Japanese discover what had been done and cut the power.

  The Japanese realized that unless they did something, the POWs would die in large numbers.  To prevent this, the Japanese opened up a second hold and transferred POWs into it.  It was during this transfer that one POW was shot attempting to escape.  

    The stay in the cove resulted in the ship missing an air raid by American planes on ships in the Manila Bay. It is known that the ship was attacked once by American planes while in the cove.  The Arisan Maru returned to the Manila on October 20th.  There, it joined a convoy.  

    On October 21st, the convoy left Manila and entered the South China Sea.  The Japanese refused to mark POW ships with red crosses to indicate they were carrying POWs.  This made the ships targets for submarines.  

    According to the survivors of the Arisan Maru, on October 24, 1944, at 5:00 pm, POWs were on deck preparing the meal for those POWs in the ship's two holds.  The ship was near Shoonan off the coast of China.  Suddenly, there was a sudden jar which was caused by the ship being hit by two torpedoes.  The ship stopped dead in the water.  Two torpedoes had hit the ship in its third hold where there were no POWs.  It is believed that the submarine that fired the torpedoes was the U. S. S Snook.

    One of the Japanese guards took a machinegun and began firing at the POWs who were on deck.  To escape the fire, the POWs dove back into the holds.  After they were in the holds, the Japanese put the hatch covers on the holds.

    As the Japanese abandoned ship, they cut the rope ladders into the ship's two occupied holds.  Some of the POWs in the second hold were able to climb out and reattached the ladders into the holds.  They also dropped ropes down to the POWs in both holds.

    All of the POWs were able to get onto the deck of the ship.  At first, few POWs attempted to escape the ship.  A group of 35 men swam to a nearby Japanese ship, but when the Japanese realized they were POWs, they were pushed away with poles and clubs.  Japanese destroyers in the convoy deliberately pulled away from the POWs as they attempted to reach them.

    As the ship got lower in the water, more POWs took to the water.  Those POWs too weak to swim raided the ship's food lockers.  They wanted to die with full stomachs.  Many POWs attempted to escape the ship by clinging to rafts, hatch covers, flotsam and jetsam.  Nine POWs found a abandoned lifeboat floating in the ocean.  These men stated that most of the POWs were still on deck even after it became apparent that the ship was sinking.   

    The exact time of the ship's sinking is not known since it took place after dark.  According to the surviving POWs, as evening became night, the cries for help became fewer and fewer until there was silence.  1st Sgt. John R. Andrews did not survive the sinking of the Arisan Maru.

    Since 1st Sgt. John R. Andrews died at sea, his name appears on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Military Cemetery at Manila.    

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