Boyce

Pvt. George H. Boyce was born in February 5, 1918, in Dewey County, Oklahoma. He was the youngest of seven children born to Roy and Nellie Boyce. What is known about his early childhood was that his mother died in 1919. By 1920, George, his four brothers, and two sisters were living in an orphanage. In all likelihood, this was done so that his father could work. He would later live in a foster home in Hugo,Oklahoma.

On March 24, 1941, George was inducted into the U. S. Army at Oklahoma City. He was then sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training. At the camp, he was assigned to the 753rd Tank Battalion.

George spent the next six months training. He then went to Camp Polk, Louisiana with his battalion. It was while there, that the army asked for volunteers to join the 192nd Tank Battalion which was being sent overseas. George volunteered to join the battalion and was assigned to D Company.

Traveling west by train, George and the other soldiers were ferried to Angel Island. On the island they received inoculations and officially learned that they were being sent to the Philippine Islands. The battalion traveled west to the Philippine Islands. There, they were taken to Fort Stotsenburg and housed in tents along the main road. It was during this time that D Company was attached to the 194th Tank Battalion.

On December 8, 1941, the soldiers received word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At 12:45 in the afternoon, George lived through the Japanese attack on Clark Field. A few days later his tank company was sent to guard a dam from sabotage.

For the next four months, George fought to slow the Japanese conquest of the Philippines. He became a Prisoner of War when the Filipino and American forces in the Philippines were surrendered to the Japanese. He was held as a POW at Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan. He also went out on a work detail to Nichols Airfield. The POWs were housed at Pasay School and marched to the airfield each day. At the airfield, they built runways with picks and shovels. This was considered one of the worst details to work on as a POW.

George remained in the Philippines until late in 1944. It is not known what work details he was a part of as a POW. What is known is that when it became apparent that the Americans were going to invade the Philippines, large numbers of POWs were put on ships for Japan or other occupied countries.

On October 11, 1944, George was boarded onto the Arisan Maru. With him were Vernon Bussell, Robert Cloyd, John Cummins, John Babb, James Sallee, Ancel Crick, James Carter and William Jardot. At one time or another, all these men had been members of D Company.

The Arisan Maru set sail for but instead of heading for Japan, the ship took a southerly route away from Formosa. This resulted in the ship missing an air attack by American planes. The ship dropped anchor in a cove off Palawan Island. Conditions in the hold were so bad that the POWs began to develop heat blisters. Some POWs figured out a way to hook the hold's ventilation system into its lighting system. For two days the POWs had fresh air. When the Japanese figured out what they had done, they turned off the power.

For almost ten days, George and the other prisoners were held in the ship's holds while the Japanese formed a convoy. On October 21st, the Arisan Maru returned to Manila and joined a convoy which entered the South China Sea. The ships were not marked with "red crosses" since the Japanese refused to mark POW ships with "red crosses" to indicate they were carrying POWs.

According to the survivors of the Arisan Maru, on October 24, 1944, near dinner time, POWs were on deck preparing their evening meal. The ship was near Shoonan, off the coast of China. Suddenly, the POWs noticed that the guards appeared to be in a state of panic. The Americans watched as the Japanese guards ran to the bow of the ship. As the guards watched, a torpedo passed in front of the ship barely missing it. The guards then ran to the ship's stern and watched as another torpedo passed behind the ship. There then was a sudden jar which was caused by the ship being hit by two torpedoes in its mid-section. The ship stopped dead in the water. It is believed that the submarine that fired the torpedoes was the U. S. S Snook.

The Japanese forced the POWs back into the holds by firing on them with their guns. The guards covered the hatches with the hatch-covers, but were given the order to abandon ship before they could secure them. As the Japanese abandoned ship, they cut the rope ladders into the holds. The POWs in the second hold were able to climb out and lowered a ladder and ropes to the POWs in the first hold.

Most of the POWs survived the attack but died because the Japanese refused to rescue them. A group of POWs swam to one Japanese destroyer, but they were pushed away with poles. After picking up the surviving Japanese, the Japanese destroyers deliberately pulled away from the POWs as they attempted to reach them.

The Arisan Maru sunk slowly into the water. Many of the POWs, knowing that they most likely would die, raided the ship's food lockers. They wanted to die with full stomachs. Other POWs attempted to escape the ship by clinging to rafts, hatch covers, flotsam and jetsam. As darkness fell, the ship split in two.

According to the survivors of the sinking, the ship sunk sometime after dark. As the night went on, the cries for help became fewer and fewer. Finally, there was silence.

Pvt. George H. Boyce lost his life when the Arisan Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the South China Sea. Of the 1800 POWs on the ship, only nine survived the sinking. Eight of these men survived the war.

Since he was lost at sea, Pvt. George H. Boyce's name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Military Cemetery outside of Manila.