TURNER-MARION

SPENT  WWII  AS  JAPANESE  POW

Review of available historical records reveal Marion McDaniel Turner was an Electrician Mate Second Class assigned to the submarine USS Perch when World War II commenced.  The submarine was operating from Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines and commenced making patrols to determine the activities of Japanese vessels in the area.  In late December 1941, Perch successfully torpedoed a Japanese merchant ship.  In late February 1942, Perch was again attacking Japanese ships and on March 1 initiated an attack on an enemy convoy landing troops on Java.  Two Japanese destroyers located Perch and dropped depth charges causing her to ground on the bottom.  Following repairs, Perch was able to surface and again driven down by destroyers.  With only one engine operating, the crew was later able to surface again on March 3 and found she was near two Japanese cruisers and three destroyers.  As Japanese shells straddled his badly damaged ship, the captain ordered “Abandon ship, scuttle the boat.”  Perch thus became the first U.S. submarine to be lost during World War II. 

All 59 Perch crewmembers were able to escape the sinking submarine, were captured by the Japanese destroyer IJNS Ushio, and became POWs.  EM2 Turner was held for 1,294 days at the POW Camp in Makassar, Dutch East Indies, until released to U.S. control in August 1945 at the end of World War II.  It is reported that while confined Turner endured beatings, starvation, and disease and weighed only 140 pounds, well under his usual 180 weight.

Records reveal Turner was born April 22, 1918, in Moultrie, Georgia, and joined the Navy on October 12, 1939.  Records do not reveal his naval activities following his release but state he retired from the Navy as a Chief Electricians Mate on December 1, 1959.  The following 20 years he was employed as an electrical inspector by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation working aboard nuclear submarines.  Additionally, he served as President and State Commander of VFW Post 392, and was an active member of American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. 

Turner died February 28, 2011, and is buried at Rosewood Memorial Park in Virginia Beach, Virginia.   He was survived by his wife, three children, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

                    

In early 2011, Turner was belatedly awarded the Purple Heart Medal as he still had scars across his back from beatings and his health was permanently damaged by malnutrition.  The Navy Captain presenting the medal remarked, “If you think about what he had to endure, anyone in the prisoner of war camps, a Purple Heart does not really signify what they had to go through.  But it’s one way this country honors the people who lived through those perils.”              

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)