Cecil Jesse Peart |
![Image of Cecil Jesse Peart](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090114131257im_/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/afc2001001/service/01205/ph0001001i.jpg)
Detail of page from Cecil J. Peart's Journal kept during his time as a POW | World War II, 1939-1946
Navy
4th Marine Regiment
China; Bataan and Manila (Philippines); Japan; Korea; Manchukuo; Corregidor
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Yes
Oakdale, CA
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Under immensely daunting conditions, Pharmacist's Mate Cecil Peart kept notes for a journal beginning in December 1944 while he was being transferred from a prison in Manila to Japan. It took three ships to make the trip; the first two were strafed by American planes and sunk. Peart cared for his best friend, wounded in one of the attacks, until he died, and like many other survivors, he scavenged clothing off the newly deceased before they were buried at sea. His final destination was Mukden, Manchuria, and work in a factory. Of the over 1600 men who boarded that first boat, the S.S. Oryoku Maru, out of the Philippines, fewer than 400 lived to tell of their ordeal.
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