WALKER-DORSEY

LONG  AND  VARIED  NAVY  CAREER

Dorsey Robert Walker enlisted in the Navy in 1927, became a Radioman, and by the time he retired in 1958 with the rank of Lieutenant after a 31-year career, he had seen the world in many capacities.  He served in a variety of ships and had shore duty in a number of locations including Guam, Oakland and Memphis.  On December 10, 1941, the second day of World War II, he was a Radioman First Class assigned to Radio Agana Guam and became a Japanese POW when the meager U.S. forces on Guam were forced to surrender to a far superior Japanese force.  While in Japanese prison camps until released in August 1945 he sporadically wrote in a diary.  The following are excerpts from his POW diary.

23 Oct 1943:  Worked today welding and burning.  Soy beans & soup breakfast.  Dinner- soup & rice; Supper- cabbage, Rice & tea with sugar.  First time there has been sweet tea served since I have been a prisoner.  9:00 Bed on the floor.  (What will tomorrow bring?)

1 Nov 1943:  Received pay - 225 yen for 15 days work, 15¢ per day.  Received soap -1/2 bar, ½ pencil, toilet paper.

8 Nov 1943:  23 Months of war.  Fish bone soup for dinner & barley.  Wonder what happened to the fish.

22 Nov 1943:  All hands made to stand in the yard from 5 in the evening until one in the morning trying to make someone confess to stealing a ½ bag of rice.  Guilty persons finally confessed and I finally got to bed at 1/4 of 2.  No one in the camp had anything to eat that night.

25 Nov 1943:  Thanksgiving Day, and I am very thankful that I am an American.

8 Dec 1943:  Two years war today and it seems like five years to me.

12 Jan 1944:  Received package from someone in USA.  I think it was from Mother.  No data on the box.  I received: 5 pair socks; 1 pr shoes (low); 6 cakes face soap; 4 shaving soap; 1 towel; 4 handkerchiefs; 4 underpants; 4 undershirts; 1 toothpowder; I razor- 10 blades; 1 pack cards; one box vitamin pills.

23 Mar 1944:  Weather good, VERY cold.

15 April 1944:  Soy beans and rice for a week.  Beans only half cooked.

18 April 1944:  Work as usual.  Bought fountain pen today (10 yen).

28 April 1944:  88 Red Cross parcels came today, about one for each 3 men.  There was also 4 boxes of smoking tobacco but I don't smoke.  Sure good to get something good to eat again.

1 March 1944:  Work, helped to make some dental tools for Dr. Day. Hope he never uses them on me for they are very rugged.  The boiler for the camp bursted.  I am told that I must weld it tomorrow.

9 March 1944:  Bought a can of coffee tonight 4.50 yen and it sure was worth it.

16 April 1944:  Weight today 67 Kgs.  Not bad, going up
12 June 1944:  In the last 3 weeks we have received 6 injections for various diseases and they all make me sick for 2 days.

2 Jul 1944:  No work.  Nowadays rice and soup 3 times a day, occasionally there is some fish in the soup but very little.  I haven't had any mail from home in almost 8 mos.

30 Jul 1944: Two men drank some fluid today that they thought was alcohol.  They passed away during the night.  Discovered they were drinking high test aviation gas.

4 Sep 1944:  Lost one blanket today.  That leaves 4 for this winter.  Taken by the Japs.

7 Nov 1944:  Air Raid Alarm at 1310.  Saw two U.S. planes. Sure looked good.
15 Nov 1944:  Now in Tokyo Kawasaki Camp 23D.  Weight 65.9 Kg.

25 Dec 1944:  Xmas.  My 3rd in Japan.  Received part of a Red Cross Package- and believe me it was appreciated.  No Work Today.

4 Apr 1945:  Morning at 0145 we all had a very close call.  Air raid lasted about 4 hours.  Bombs dropped on all sides of us but we were very lucky.  No one was injured in our camp, although most all windows and doors were blown out.  Shrapnel came through the building in several places.  Closest bomb fell 150 yards away from us and that was close enough.

13 Apr 1945:  Two Air Alarms today.  Saw 1 plane.  Little going on in the factory. Seems as though everybody is just waiting for the war to end.  Local people celebrating  big victory over the President's death.  They think that he was the only one that they are fighting.  That is the first cause they have had to celebrate in about two years.

15 Apr 1945: At 2125 the Air Alarm sounded. At 2200 planes were overhead. They started dropping bombs immediately. They dropped all around our camp.  Houses were burning in all directions, we all were out in the yard fighting to keep the barracks from burning.  Planes were flying very low, incendiary fell all around us but none hit our buildings.  We had to climb up on the top of the buildings and beat the fire out with wet swabs.  From where I was on top of the building, as far as you could see in any direction, every building was aflame.  Kept a watch on top of the house all night.  A large ware house filled with gasoline in drums- about 40 yards away - was on fire and the drums were exploding and going high in the air and throwing fire every where.

16 Apr 1945:  Did not go to work today.  No electric power, no water, and no trains or street cars running.  The people in this whole area, about one million, are homeless.  They are just milling about in the streets with a little bundle of things which they were able to save.  Practically every house is gone.

17 Apr 1945:  Went to work today and surprised to see the state of destruction.  Steel buildings are warped and burnt to the ground.  Lots of buildings still burning today.  Most complete job of destruction that one can imagine.
19 Apr 1945:  Fires still burning.  Another raid today- 29s and 51s.  Today we had very close call; we were marching back to camp for dinner when 2 P-51s dove on us. We all fell to our stomachs.  If they had have opened up their guns they would have wiped us all out.  The most beautiful planes I have ever seen.

29 Apr 1945:  Street cars are still out of order.  Also there is no electricity. We now have a little water pressure.  Over 2.6 million homeless.  Industry is at a standstill.

22 May 1945: 250 29s at night.  Incendiaries fell all around us.  One fell in the yard about 4 feet from the building.  The fire these bombs put out is unbelievable.  The raid lasted more than 4 hours.  I saw my first plane go down- a 29.

23 May 1944:  Street cars, water and Elect. are all out of order again.

25 May 1945:  At 1030 tonight another raid started which was the largest one yet.  Raid lasted until 0130.  Saw 3 or 4 planes come down.  I pity these poor men.  Men not killed coming down were killed by Japanese mobs I'm sure.  Tokyo was as light as day all night and it will burn for a while.

29 May 1945:  The longest raid so far, 600 in all, most of them hit Yokohama.  A few hit Tokyo.  One bomb hit the work bench where I was working that very day.  I saw more than 200 29s in formation, a sight to behold.  The raid started at about 0800 and was over at 1630.  Planes were overhead all the time.  Bombs were bursting all around us, but we were lucky.  Nobody in the camp was injured.

11 Jun 1945: Today at noon 60 51s close by, dive bombing.  We are not allowed to use the bomb shelters that we built here in the yard.

16 Jun 1945: Vegetables are being planted in the burned out lots around camp.  Looks like a farm, not city. 

25 Jul 1945:  Very sad night.  Several best friends were killed in a POW camp about one mile from us.  About 20 bombs fell in camp and killed six close friends.

1 Aug 1945:  Bombs started falling at 2100 and continued until 0300.  Too close for comfort, 600 B-29s.

13 Aug 1945:  Raid all day.  Dive bombers machine gunning streets, two men from this camp injured by bomb.  I spent most of the day flat on my stomach.

15 Aug 1945:  Raid early this morning, 0700, machine gunning and bombs close by.  All clear sounded unexpectedly as our planes were still overhead.  We were all surprised.  At 1200 the Emperor made a speech.  At about 1330 the shop boss, where I have been working for the last 3 years, told us to "Shegoto SMI" (stop work), that the war was over.  We were dumbfounded.  We came back to camp about 1600.  Everybody was shouting and laughing and the Nips looked like they were ready to kill themselves. 

16 Aug 1945:  I did not sleep a wink last night.  This morning the Nip Commander called our Commander to his office and told him that the war was officially over yesterday.  He said that transports were on their way to take us back to America.  We who are left are the luckiest men on earth.

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