BECAME JAPANESE POW ON 1ST DAY OF WWII
Clara Gordon Main was born in 1886. In 1941 she was a Stewardess crewmember aboard the SS PRESIDENT HARRISON of the American President Line and was the only female among the 156 crewmembers. As the conditions deteriorated in China as the Japanese invasion overran portions of the country, the ship was under day-to-day orders of the U.S. Navy and ordered to Shanghai to transport a contingent of U.S. Marines to the Philippines. After leaving Shanghai on November 28, 1941, with approximately 1,000 men of the 4th Marines, the ship received orders to return back to Chinwangtao in North China to evacuate the U.S. Marine Embassy Guard Detachment from Peking. On the morning of December 8, 1941, (December 7th in U.S.) with these Marines aboard, the ship learned that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and as it made a run out of the Yangtze it met a Japanese destroyer at the mouth of the river. A Japanese plane also appeared which dropped a note demanding surrender. However, the captain knowing there was no chance of escape instead ordered full speed and intentionally ran the ship aground on the nearby shore to prevent it being turned over intact to the Japanese.
As the ship ground to a halt with a long hole in its bottom, it began to capsize and the order was given to abandon ship. Stewardess Main reportedly had the foresight to collect medical supplies and first aid materials as she prepared to leave the ship on the last lifeboat to leave. One of the lifeboats was driven by the current and wind into the ship’s still turning screw and was broken in half. Three men aboard the lifeboat were killed and several, including the chief steward, were severely injured. The ship righted itself with the rising tide and carried if off the rocks. Japanese marines stormed aboard the vessel after she had settled to rest on a nearby mud bank and the PRESIDENT HARRISON crewmembers, including Stewardess Main, became prisoners. The crew thus became among the first Americans to become POWs during World War II and it is speculated that Stewardess Main was the first American female to become a POW.
Ordered to stay aboard the ship, Stewardess Main nursed the chief steward back to health and survivors reported that without her constant care he would not have survived. Historical records report that the crew was interned at various Japanese POW camps in China and Japan. The Japanese successfully repaired the ship which was renamed the KAKKO MARU and it was operated by them until September 1944 when it was sunk by the submarine USS PAMPANITO as it journeyed to Japan. Records did not record where Stewardess Main was held as a POW but she survived the war and reportedly died in 1975.
MERCHANT MARINE MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDAL CITATION
At the outbreak of the war with Japan, SS PRESIDENT HARRISON, in which Mrs. Main was serving as Stewardess, was beached on the coast of China by the Master, in an effort to prevent capture by the enemy. The vessel was, however, first bombed and then captured by the Japanese who ordered all hands to abandon ship. In so doing the Chief Steward suffered several broken ribs. Mrs. Main, the only woman member of the large crew, conducted herself in such a cool and collected manner that she had a decidedly steadying influence on the seamen. She also had the foresight to take with her, as she left the ship in the last boat, certain medicinal restoratives and first aid material, which proved invaluable. During the ensuing six weeks she nursed the Chief Steward so effectively that she undoubtedly saved his life. Her calm and courageous attitude, and her skillful nursing, assisted greatly in maintaining the crew’s morale, and will be a lasting inspiration to all seamen of the United States Merchant Marine.,
Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)
