MacDonaldR

At this time, little is known about Pvt. Robert MacDonald. It is known he born in Missouri in 1917. He was inducted into the U.S. Army on March 29, 1941 in Los Angeles, California. He was assigned to the 194th Tank Battalion and trained at Fort Lewis, Washington, until his battalion was sent to the Philippine Islands.

On December 8, 1941, the Robert lived through the Japanese attack on Clark Airfield. He spent the next four months fighting to slow the Japanese conquest of the Philippines. He became a Prisoner of War on April 9, 1942 and took part in the death march. At San Fernando, he and the other POWs were boarded into small wooden box cars used to haul sugarcane. The cars could hold forty men or eight horses. 100 men were packed into each car. The dead remained standing until the living left the cars at Capas to walk the last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell.

On October 10, 1944, William, with other POWs, was brought to the Port Area of Manila. His contingent of POWs was suppose to be boarded onto the Hokusen Maru, but since many of the POWs had not arrived, the contingent of POWs were switched with another group of POWs who were ready to sail.

On October 11th, the POWs were boarded onto the Arisan Maru. Robert and 1805 other POWs were packed into the ship's number one hold. Along the sides of the hold were shelves that served as bunks. These bunks were so close together that a man could not lift himself up when lying in one. Those standing had no room to lie down. The latrines for the prisoners were eight five gallon cans. Since the POWs were packed into the hold so tightly, many of the POWs could not get near the cans. The floor of the hold was covered with human waste.

The ship set sail the same day but took a southerly route away from Formosa. Within the first 48 hours, five POWs had died. The ship anchored in a cove off Palawan Island where it remained for ten days. The Japanese covered the hatch with a tarp. During the night, the POWs were in total darkness. This resulted in the ship missing an air attack by American planes, but the ship was attacked by American planes.

During the time off Palawan, the ship was attacked by American planes. Each day, each POW was given three ounces of water and two half mess kits of raw rice. Conditions in the hold were so bad, that the POWs began to develop heat blisters. Although the Japanese had removed the lights in the hold, they had not cutoff the power. Some of the prisoners were able to wire the ship's blowers into the power lines. This allowed fresh air into the hold. The blowers were disconnected two days later when the Japanese discovered what had been done.

The Japanese realized that if they did not do something many of the POWs would die. To prevent this, they opened the ship's number two hold and transferred 600 POWs into it. At this point, one POW was shot while attempting to escape.

The Arisan Maru returned to 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 American submarines. The POWs in the hold were so desperate that they prayed that the ship be hit by torpedoes.

According to the survivors of the Arisan Maru, on October 24, 1944, about 5:00 pm, some POWs were on deck preparing the meal for those in the ship's two holds. The ship was near Shoonan, off the coast of China. Suddenly, sirens and other alarms were heard. The men inside holds knew this meant that American submarines had been spotted and began to chant for the submarines to sink the ship.

The Japanese on deck began ran to the bow of the ship. As the POWs watched, a torpedo passed just in front of the ship. Moments later, the Japanese ran to the stern of the ship. A second torpedo passed behind the ship's stern. There was a sudden jar and the ship stopped dead in the water. It had been hit by two torpedoes amidships 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 picked up a machinegun and began firing on the POWs who were on deck. To escape, the POWs dove back into the holds. After they were in, the Japanese put the hatch covers on the holds but did not tie them down.

As the Japanese abandoned ship, they cut the rope ladders into the ship's two holds, but they still did not tie down the hatch covers. Some of the POWs in the second hold were able to climb out and reattached the rope ladders. They also dropped ropes down to the POWs in both holds.

The POWs were able to get onto the deck of the ship. The first thing many of them did was to raid the ship's food lockers. At this time, few POWs attempted to escape the ship. A group of 35 POWs swam to a nearby Japanese ship, but when the Japanese realized they were POWs, they were pushed away with poles and hit with clubs. The 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, some POWs took to the water. These POWs attempted to escape the ship by clinging to rafts, hatch covers, flotsam and jetsam. Most of the POWs were still on deck even after it became apparent that the ship was sinking. At some point, the ship broke in two. The exact time of the ship's sinking is not known since it took place after dark.

Five of the POWs found a abandoned lifeboat, but since they had no paddles, they could not maneuver it to help other POWs. According to the survivors, the Arisan Maru sank sometime after dark. As the night went on, the cries for help grew fewer and fewer until there was silence.

Pvt. Robert MacDonald lost his life when the Arisan Maru was torpedoed in the South China Sea. Of the 1803 POWs on the ship, only nine survived the sinking. Eight of these men would survive the war. Since he was lost at sea, Pvt. Robert MacDonald's name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Military Cemetery outside of Manila.