USS HOUSTON CA 30
“The galloping Ghost of the Java
Coast”
Harry T. Kelley
A Prisoner of War Diary
by Harry
Kelley
1940
I
joined the Navy on July 29, 1940,
and was sent to boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois.
I spent nine weeks there in training. After having a ten-day furlough in
October of 1940 I was sent to San Diego, California, for a short time, and then
on to Long Beach for a few days. I was then shipped out to Honolulu, Hawaii. I
boarded the ship on December 6th, 1940. This ship was the U.S. S. Yorktown.
1941
During 1941 I was still aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown,
that is until the latter part of April. At that time I signed up for a
draft to go aboard the Asiatic Fleet. I was then transported to the U.S. S.
Henderson. It took 23 days from Pearl Harbor to get to Manila, in the
Philippines. I was on the U.S.S. Otos for two weeks
after going to Manila, and from there they put me on the U.S.S. Houston. This
ship was known as Roosevelt's flagship for a long time. I was there for the
remainder of time. When the war started I was in Elo Elo, the island of Sebue, South
of Manila.
1942
After the war started we did a lot of convoy duty, hauling
what material we had south to Java and Australia.
Several places were under heavy air attack. On February 4th we took one bomb
killing 49 men. After three days we went to Southern Java where we buried all
these men. Around 1
the end of February, on the 26th,
we teamed up with 3 Dutch Cruisers, 1 English, and 1 Australian, making 5 in
all. We were up against an entire Japanese fleet. The first day we lost the
English cruiser. The second night we lost the two Dutch cruisers; that left the
Australian and the U.S.S. Houston. The two of us refueled in Java and on the
28th we headed for Australia through the Sundra Straits.
Around 12:15 A.M.
on March 1st we came upon a large landing fleet and a great number of war
ships. After a short time both ships were fatally damaged and we lost both, but
in the process it was reported afterward that they had lost seven ships, while
we lost only two. That night the U.S.S. Houston lostl'00
young men and the captain. After 11 hours in the water I was picked up
by one of their landing craft and taken to the beach where several other men
were being held under9L,csr-'1 There were 21 men in this group, and we were
held in two different groups and places on Java until April 15, 1942. At that
time we were transported by truck to Batavia, Java — which was known as the
bicycle camp. In October we were transferred to Singapore, along with several
other Americans they had captured on Java, both Army and Navy. We were taken by
boat to Maulmain, Burma. When we left Singapore we
were on two old Jap freighters loaded with Prisoners of War and whatever
railroad material they could steal from other countries. About a day and half
out we came under air attack by 3 American B17
bombers. At first they passed over us. Then they came back dropping their
bombs. There was a direct hit on the number 2 ship, sinking it right away. Then
they circled around and came at us again from the right side. They were just
seconds late dropping their bombs, but did hit a lifeboat hanging over the
side. They missed the ship entirely, but there was some shrapnel flying. I was
hit in my right leg, but not seriously hurt. We stayed around to pick up what
men we could, but not very many. Then we proceeded on to Maulmain,
Burma, with only the one ship.
1943
February
Here we worked on what is known as Death Railroad — 215
miles of the worst jungle in the world.
We had little food and no medicine. We worked 16 to 20 hours a day. We had
every kind of disease a jungle could hand out. The brutality was severe even
over a slight infraction. You were
worked over with a bamboo pole or
rifle butt. During the time of my being a prisoner we lost 133 men, most were
buried in the jungle. There were people from every country that were captured
in the Pacific along with thousands of native people who died like flies. The
people would drag them out in the jungle and leave them. We were in Burma
around 18 months.
1944
We came out of Burma around April or May into Thailand, over
the infamous Bridge over the River Kue on our way to
Saigon, French Indo-China. While in Saigon we went North to a French resort town called aalot;
it was in the mountains and to get there you had to go by cable car to the top.
While there we dug tunnels in the side of the mountains. I was a cook at that
time and had a hard time getting a fire to burn because of the elevation. From
there we worked several river crossings where the bridges were blown out. We
traveled mostly at night and stayed in tunnels during the day because of
American airplanes watching any movement
on the railroad, which was right along the coast.
We returned to Saigon in June of `45
and like always there were working parties going out every day. On July 6th we
received our first Red Cross package. What a change from eating rice and fish
all the time. Around the middle of August we were moved to a different camp and
no more working parties. The Japanese hauled in so much food, like meat and
vegetables, that we could hardly handle it. We knew the war was over, but we
didn't let on like we knew it. Just overnight all our regular guards (Koreans)
were gone. All regular Japanese army people were there. Finally on September
5th the Air Force flew into Saigon and drove into camp in some jeeps. That was
Sunday. They said everyone who wanted to go home had better be there the next
morning. (We were going into town whenever we wanted to out of the new camp).
We were there all right. It was September 6th, and my birthday was September Ith – what a birthday gift! On that day we flew to
Calcutta, India, and on October 1, 1945, I arrived in New York after being away
from home for five long hard years. After all the men we lost aboard ship and
the men we buried in P.O.W. Camps, I am very grateful I am still here after 66
years and I still say "Why me,
Lord?"