Great Raid: Rescue too late for local man
Daring World War II mission at infamous POW camp subject of new feature film
By BILL SHEA Messenger staff writer
It was quick and it was daring, but the Great Raid now being re-enacted on movie screens across the nation was too late for John Johnson, of rural Humboldt County.
Johnson died of starvation and malaria in the infamous Cabanatuan prison camp about three years before U.S. Army Rangers and their Filipino allies liberated it in January 1945.
Seven years after World War II ended, his body was returned to the United States and was buried in Union Cemetery in Humboldt with full military honors. His sister, 82-year-old Millie DeSmidt, of Fort Dodge, regularly visits the grave and places small American flags by it.
"Johnny lived a good life, but he got cut short," she said.
DeSmidt has read much about the starvation and torture that American prisoners of war endured at the hands of their Japanese captors.
"It was inhuman," she said. "It's hard to reconcile that someone in your family went through that."
Much of what her family knows about what happened to her brother comes from Abie Abraham, a soldier from Pennsylvania who befriended Johnson in the Philippines. Abraham survived the Bataan Death March and life in the Cabanatuan camp. He wrote two books about World War II. Abraham mentions Johnson a few times in his book, "Oh God, Where Are You?"
Johnson was the son of John and Hilma Johnson. He grew up on a 240-acre farm between Humboldt and Gilmore City where the family raised corn, oats and dairy cattle.
Two years separated DeSmidt and her brother. Since they were the youngest two of the four Johnson children, they spent a lot of time together, DeSmidt recalled.
Johnson graduated from Gilmore City High School in 1940. After working on the farm for a few months, he entered the Army Air Forces. He completed basic training at Scott Field in Illinois. Then he served at McCord Field in Washington and Fresno Air Base and Hamilton Field, both in California. He was sent to the Philippines in October 1941 and joined the 21st Pursuit Squadron. DeSmidt said he was a radio man on a plane, which she believes was a bomber.
When the Pearl Harbor attack plunged the United States into World War II, Johnson's once adventurous sounding military duty became deadly serious business, DeSmidt recalled. She said Dec. 7, 1941, was a very emotional day at her house.
"I don't know how to describe it - fear, hope, prayers," she said. "Something like that hits you like a rock. There's really no words to describe it."
The Johnson family anxiously followed news of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The family heard nothing from their airman until a surprise telegram arrived just before Christmas.
"It simply said, 'I'm OK. Merry Christmas. Love, John,"' DeSmidt said.
"We were just overjoyed," she added.
After the war, she learned how Johnson sent that telegram from the family of Clare Nielsen, a soldier from Rutland. According to DeSmidt, Nielsen said a sergeant approached several American troops and told them to write a quick message to their families. The sergeant promised to put those messages into telegrams and send them.
"This sergeant very bravely got into Manila and sent those telegrams from the boys," DeSmidt said.
That telegram was the last message the family received from Johnson.
In February 1942, the family received a telegram from the U.S. government reporting that Johnson was a prisoner of war. Later, the family received an address to be used to send letters and packages to him via the International Committee of the Red Cross. DeSmidt said she and her mother wrote letters and sent packages every week. Later, all the letters and packages came back stamped "Return to sender, service to the Philippines suspended."
Letters received from Abraham after the war detailed Johnson's fate. DeSmidt saved all those letters.
Abraham, a member of the Army's 31st Infantry Regiment, exchanged addresses with Johnson while they were in the Philippines.
In letters to Johnson's parents, he reported that the airman died at age 22 on Sept. 11, 1942, in the prison camp. He wrote that while Johnson was ill, he helped him drink water and poured more water on his forehead to cool his fever.
Abraham revealed that Johnson had been on the Bataan Death March, a five-day ordeal of walking to the Japanese prison camps.
"Some told me that on the Death March that John helped some of the older officers who were too weak," Abraham wrote. "If they fell down they would have been shot."
The casket bearing Johnson's remains was delivered by train to the depot on the border of Humboldt and Dakota City seven years after the war ended. His funeral was held at First Lutheran Church in Humboldt.
Today, the Hartnett-Johnson American Legion Post in Gilmore City is named in part for the airman.
© Messenger News 2003 - Fort Dodge, IA