thedrifter
04-07-08, 09:02 AM
Published: Monday, April 7, 2008
POW Camp Survivor: 'We Never Gave Up'
Randall Edwards of Lakeland travels with replica of prison camp.
By Jeremy Maready
The Ledger
LAKELAND | Randall Edwards weighed 165 pounds when he was taken prisoner by Japanese soldiers in 1942. When he emerged three and a half years later after an American liberation of the Mukden prisoner camp in northeast China, the 28-year-old Navy radioman first class was little more than a 96-pound pile of skin and bones.
He never gave up and survived. Now 90, Edwards lives in Lakeland and has become a traveling teacher of sorts, telling his story to local veterans' organizations, complete with a 4-foot by 8-foot replica of the camp where he stayed from 1942 to 1945.
On Sunday, Edwards and friends gathered at American Legion Post 4 in Lakeland to share his story and talk with other veterans.
He knows there are few survivors of POW camps and even fewer Mukden survivors. At a reunion last year in New York, only eight showed up. And this year's turnout is expected to be less. Only four reservations have been made.
Edwards' ship, the U.S.S. Canopus, was bombed in December 1941.
The communications and radio specialist moved to help the Army in Bataan, but escaped the Japanese siege and swam to the island of Corregidor in the Philippines to help the Marines with beach defense.
But that safety net only lasted a little longer before Corregidor fell to the Japanese and Edwards found himself a prisoner of war.
"There was no place to go after that," he said. "They shelled us continuously. They bombed us continuously for a month. We couldn't stop them."
After an interrogation that left him with a broken finger, Edwards was shipped to Korea and then to the prison camp.
While at the camp, Edwards was one of 1,200 men who were housed in three barracks, a few hundred miles south of Siberian Russia.
During the first winter, 261 men died of poor conditions, disease and malnutrition.
"Our percentage wasn't too good," he said, as he pointed to the building where he was housed.
"It was tough. We said, 'If you went a full day without getting a smack with a rifle butt, you had a good day.' "
Prisoners received two meals a day, a bowl of soy bean soup in the morning and one in the evening. Those consisted mostly of broth and maybe a bean or two if you were lucky, he said.
Edwards was put to work making machinery parts for the Japanese, which he intentionally made the wrong size.
"We did everything we could to screw them up," he said laughing.
The sabotage of the parts making didn't come without consequence, typically consisting of a swift beating.
"But we never gave up," he said. "The people who gave up, died."
HARD MEMORIES
Edwards walked around the elaborate model Sunday, pointing to each of the different areas where he was and his barracks. Last summer, Edwards returned to the camp for the first time. And along with his return came a mass of emotions.
"Rest assured, nobody could go back and (not) be disturbed," Edwards said. "After a couple of days, it (the feelings) wore off. It was just like any other place."
The Chinese government has funded a$7 million project to create a museum of what is left of the Mukden prisoner camp. One of the buildings that has been restored was Edwards' barracks.
Sunday's model at the American Legion post was created by Ao Wang, president of the Mukden POW Remembrance Society, an organization that has been created to remember those incarcerated in the camp.
"Whoever wants to see it, we are going to show them," Wang said. "That story has to be told."
[ Jeremy Maready can be reached at 863-802-7592 or jeremy.maready@theledger.com. ]
Last modified: April 07. 2008 6:11AM
Ellie
POW Camp Survivor: 'We Never Gave Up'
Randall Edwards of Lakeland travels with replica of prison camp.
By Jeremy Maready
The Ledger
LAKELAND | Randall Edwards weighed 165 pounds when he was taken prisoner by Japanese soldiers in 1942. When he emerged three and a half years later after an American liberation of the Mukden prisoner camp in northeast China, the 28-year-old Navy radioman first class was little more than a 96-pound pile of skin and bones.
He never gave up and survived. Now 90, Edwards lives in Lakeland and has become a traveling teacher of sorts, telling his story to local veterans' organizations, complete with a 4-foot by 8-foot replica of the camp where he stayed from 1942 to 1945.
On Sunday, Edwards and friends gathered at American Legion Post 4 in Lakeland to share his story and talk with other veterans.
He knows there are few survivors of POW camps and even fewer Mukden survivors. At a reunion last year in New York, only eight showed up. And this year's turnout is expected to be less. Only four reservations have been made.
Edwards' ship, the U.S.S. Canopus, was bombed in December 1941.
The communications and radio specialist moved to help the Army in Bataan, but escaped the Japanese siege and swam to the island of Corregidor in the Philippines to help the Marines with beach defense.
But that safety net only lasted a little longer before Corregidor fell to the Japanese and Edwards found himself a prisoner of war.
"There was no place to go after that," he said. "They shelled us continuously. They bombed us continuously for a month. We couldn't stop them."
After an interrogation that left him with a broken finger, Edwards was shipped to Korea and then to the prison camp.
While at the camp, Edwards was one of 1,200 men who were housed in three barracks, a few hundred miles south of Siberian Russia.
During the first winter, 261 men died of poor conditions, disease and malnutrition.
"Our percentage wasn't too good," he said, as he pointed to the building where he was housed.
"It was tough. We said, 'If you went a full day without getting a smack with a rifle butt, you had a good day.' "
Prisoners received two meals a day, a bowl of soy bean soup in the morning and one in the evening. Those consisted mostly of broth and maybe a bean or two if you were lucky, he said.
Edwards was put to work making machinery parts for the Japanese, which he intentionally made the wrong size.
"We did everything we could to screw them up," he said laughing.
The sabotage of the parts making didn't come without consequence, typically consisting of a swift beating.
"But we never gave up," he said. "The people who gave up, died."
HARD MEMORIES
Edwards walked around the elaborate model Sunday, pointing to each of the different areas where he was and his barracks. Last summer, Edwards returned to the camp for the first time. And along with his return came a mass of emotions.
"Rest assured, nobody could go back and (not) be disturbed," Edwards said. "After a couple of days, it (the feelings) wore off. It was just like any other place."
The Chinese government has funded a$7 million project to create a museum of what is left of the Mukden prisoner camp. One of the buildings that has been restored was Edwards' barracks.
Sunday's model at the American Legion post was created by Ao Wang, president of the Mukden POW Remembrance Society, an organization that has been created to remember those incarcerated in the camp.
"Whoever wants to see it, we are going to show them," Wang said. "That story has to be told."
[ Jeremy Maready can be reached at 863-802-7592 or jeremy.maready@theledger.com. ]
Last modified: April 07. 2008 6:11AM
Ellie