The December Ship

On December 14, 1944, the Oryoku Maru, or “December Ship,” was attacked by planes of the U.S. Navy, who had no way of knowing 1,619 Allied POWs were on board. One of those prisoners was then–Lieutenant Arden R. Boellner. Through letters, documents, and interviews with survivors, this is an account of Lt. Colonel Boellner’s World War II tour of duty, his capture at Mindanao, life in Japanese POW camps in the Philippines, and the horrors of the “December Ship” that led to his death. Numerous photographs, some published for the first time, show life inside the camps.

Betty B. Jones lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Betty B. Jones

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 136
Bibliographic Info: 50 photos, documents, notes, index
Copyright Date: 2011 [1992]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6777-8
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8927-5
Imprint: McFarland

Preface
List of Illustrations      ix
Acknowledgments      xi
Introduction      xiii

Letters Home: October-December 1941      1
Roswell, New Mexico: December 7, 1941      31
Letters: December 1941-April 1942      36
Invasion of the Cagayan Sector: May 2-11, 1942      56
Aftermath of Surrender: May 1942-June 1944      65
Transfer North to Manila: June 1944      88
Bilibid Prison and Aboard the Oryoku Maru: October-December 1944      94
Appendix: Letters      107

Bibliography      115
Index      117

“numerous photos…an astonishing book that will serve as a memorial to the author’s father and the thousands of American troops that suffered capture, imprisonment and all-to-often, death in the Philippines and the Pacific theatre”—Midwest Book Review; “a daughter’s tribute to her father…a graphic and gripping reconstruction of his imprisonment based on letters, interviews, books and journals…contains revealing photos from Japanese POW camps”—Military Review; “far better written and far better observed than most personal narratives. Illustrations are not only plentiful, but pertinent”—The Cellar Book Shop.