On Memorial Day we mostly bear in mind those killed in action, or who died of wounds, in the U. S. Armed Forces. But the Day recognizes all service members who died in performance of their duties, which would include non-battle causes, and causes which are INDIRECT results of battle – in particular, as prisoners of war.

Corporal Reuben Shettler of Pulteney, who died in 1942 at a prison camp in the Philippines, was one of the first World War II dead from our area.

Numbers are fuzzy, and sources differ, but I checked those World War II battles where we suffered the most men AND women (such as Lt. Eunice Young of Arkport… like Shettler, in the Philippines) taken into captivity. You’re more likely to be captured when retreating or losing, or flying over enemy territory. You’re least likely while advancing, or stalemated, or at sea away from land.

Our first substantial block of prisoners, about 400, were taken when the Japanese invaded Guam with a much larger force – plus the people of Guam were now under Japan’s harsh rule. Then some 430 were captured at Wake Island after a long fierce battle, plus 1100 civilian contractors.

Around 370 survivors (out of a thousand men) were captured when U.S.S. Houston was sunk at the Battle of Sunda Strait, along with the Australian cruiser H.M.A.S. Perth.

Like Wake and Guam, the Philippines had been a U. S. possession since the Spanish-American War. By the time of surrender in 1942, a hundred thousand U. S. and Philippine soldiers were prisoners. Brutality, neglect, and bad staff work killed thousands. Survivors suffered years of torture, slavery, and privation. But that was the last large group of ground forces to be taken in the Pacific war.

Over on the other side of the globe, “green” American troops were bowled over at the Kasserine Pass (1942) in North Africa, and 3000 surrendered. At the Battle of the Bulge (1944-45), the captured and missing came to 26,600.

Then there was the air war. I knew a fighter pilot in the 9th Air Force who was told that if he went down and had to surrender, try to turn himself in to the German Air Force, for there was still some fellow feeling among fliers. If that was not possible, surrender to army or navy, which had a history and culture that included taking prisoners and the rules of war. If need be, surrender to S.S. or to civilian police, which at least were under some form of discipline. At all costs try to avoid being taken by civilians, who might well take reprisals against the destruction being rained on them from the sky. About 35,600 Americans were taken in the European air war.

The Pacific air offensive got going later – we had to fight our way closer to Japan – and at a time when Japan had lost much of its capacity to fight against the big bombers. About 5400 were captured. Jere Baker of Bath was starved and tortured, as were a great many others.

Germany more or less followed traditional rules of war with prisoners from western nations such as Britain, Canada, and the U.S., in part because we held many of THEIR men captive, and they didn’t want reprisals. As the end approached, though, suffering increased in the prison camps. Food and medicine weren’t getting delivered, and some guards began to take revenge. Others, though, tried to get chummy in hopes of better treatment when THEY became prisoners.

In Japan, on the other hand, if a soldier surrendered his own parents might commit suicide, so appalling was the disgrace. ANYONE who surrendered was disgusting and contemptible, so they had no concern for their own men in our hands. There weren’t very many in the first place, and to most Japanese they deserved any suffering that came to them. Japan had no incentive to treat our people well.

So even in this one war, tens of thousands of American military personnel died as prisoners – directly murdered, or killed through mistreatment, neglect, poor conditions, even through despair or suicide. Tens of thousands who survived suffered shortened lives, or blighted lives. They should be remembered too.