Post by pdh54 on Sept 17, 2014 12:41:13 GMT 8
I was looking at the website of a book we just bought. It is “Father Found” by Captain Duane Heisinger. I thought I would share some of the information found on the site.
For some reason this man and his story are very much affecting my thoughts tonight. What better way to deal with it than to share with you all, whom I am sure have experienced these same emotions at times. I find the poem that Captain Heisinger wrote, which is printed at the bottom of the Author's Note to be very poignant.
Thanks Karl...I deleted the bad link Oct 12, 2017. Patty
2017-10-11 Note from Karl: The above link is dead and you only get a Domain Name Sale Offer!
I replaced it with a link from the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs. It is a short story about a son's search for his father, perished on the Oryoku Maru tragedy:
www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Heisinger.htm
About the Author
Duane Heisinger, the oldest of three sons of Grace and Lawrence Heisinger, was born in 1930 and raised in Fresno, California. After two years at Fresno State College and a year in the U.S. Air Force, Duane entered the U.S. Naval Academy graduating an Ensign in 1956. He served 30 years in the Navy retiring a Navy Captain. His assignments were primarily at sea including two ship commands, three combat tours in Vietnam, and over eleven years in overseas intelligence assignments including three years as the Defense Attache, London. In recent years he has been engaged in research covering the life and death of his father as a POW of the Japanese in the Philippines, WWII.
Duane passed away in May of 2006 after a year long bout with lung cancer. As a last tribute to his father and all the other WWII POWs of the Japanese, he was able to lead a tour to the Philippines and dedicate the Hellships Memorial in Subic Bay in January, 2006. He is survived by his wife, Judith, three married daughters, ten grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Author's Note
Father did not return home from the Philippines. He said only a few words before death came a few days after the second prison ship bombing. He smiled in responding to the last person who spoke with him before he slipped into a coma and died. Death had been his companion in the prisoner of war camps for over two and a half years and certainly within the holds on the two ships final journey. Numbers of his close friends had already died, but he held on and was not taken until that cold day in the upper hold of the Enoura Maru in the port of Takao, Formosa.
These writings tell of Father's journey from California in the spring of 1941 to Manila and the changes the war brought to him and to his family. His thoughts, desires and hopes and those of the men around him are shared. I hoped somehow to discover and understand more about my father by following his journey within those war years. I learned much, but there are still past areas which remain a mystery to me for everything could not be unraveled within my desire to learn more.
I tell the story as I know it and as I understand it. Perhaps my most compelling purpose in writing is my desire to tell the story which my father could not tell. In that way I can provide understanding to my family and to those who follow.
My own memory reaches back over sixty years. I was ten years old when I last saw my father. Those memories are reinforced by comments and stories from family and friends over the years. I emphasized the period from just before World War II when Father left Fresno, California through his seven months before the war commenced and on to the surrender on Corregidor and life as a prisoner of war. His story ends near war's end.
This writing can be no more than an attempt to place some references around events within my father's last years. Much first hand information is available. Some men who returned experienced the same or similar conditions, were in the same camps, endured the same crowded ship conditions and observed friends dying in a similar manner.
I have reconstructed his story primarily from first hand reports, diaries, journals, scraps of paper, often buried and later uncovered or carefully, and dangerously carried to the end of the war. This information from others' writing bears directly upon the same events my father saw and experienced. There are other survivors who have written accounts, a few published, others not. Some men left writings now found in various archives or are still personally held within their families. I communicated or interviewed twenty or so survivors of those days. I found several who were close to my father during camp times. Their comments are a special part of this story. There were also letters written to our family after the war ended. These letters give glimpses of Father's life, friendships made, stories shared.
Father was comforted during the war by friends and memories of home and family. I tried to identify these comrades and friends. It was important that these men have friends nearby, but I found understanding this was also important to me. When one was depressed, a nearby friend could be an encourager. When one was ill, another could see that even the minimum food be made available. When one needed assistance, a buddy or comrade was important to survival.
So I focused upon friends. Did Father have friends or buddies nearby? He did. Those he roomed with in military housing before the war in Manila and others he worked with in the JAG office at Fort Santiago, also in Manila, were there. He met others in the camps and on the prison ships. Some made it back; others did not. I know some of the conversations these men had, though little of their hopes or dreams or fears. But there are some clear looks as thoughts were shared, echoing forward even after all these years, in that I have received both understanding and some comfort.
Much time has now passed. It is well over 57 years since death came in that filthy upper hold of the Japanese freighter. I have tried to fill in the past. This writing is an effort of a son who from his early years wanted to know more. I wanted to know my father more.
Updated as of 2017-10-18
URLs for Hell Ships, Oryoku Maru & Hell Ships Memorial
The Hellships Memorial is Subic Bay
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1203/hellships-memorial-subic-bay
Naval Officer honored at Hell Ships Memorial, Lt. N. Minter Dial, CO of USS Napa AT-32, perished on the Oryoku Maru.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/177/naval-officer-honored-hellships-memorial
Father Found by Capt. Duane Heisinger, a thread about a book from Capt. Heisinger about his father who perished on the Oryoku Maru.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1698/father-capt-duane-heisinger
Oryoku Maru and its gun at Subic Bay, a thread in our forum with links to albums about the gun:
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/390/oryoku-maru-gun-subic-bay
Photos of the Oryoku Maru in sequence from Manila to Subic Bay from David Demetherell
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1601/oryoku-maru
The Hell Ship Montevideo Maru Plaque Unveiling Ceremony took place on 1st July 2009 at the Hellships Memorial in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, the former US Naval Base.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/490/ship-montevideo-maru-plaque-unveiled
Tennis Court of the Oryoku Maru POWs in the Olongapo Naval Station 1944. The Fort Wint forum thread in our Corregidor Rorum has several pages that discuss the location of the tennis court. The member Chadhill really has done some great contributions with telling pictures! This thread has now 8 pages and substantial coverage of the tennis court start at this page 5:
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/987/fort-wint-subic-bay?page=5
The massacre of hundreds of British prisoners of war by Japanese sailors during the Second World War was covered up by the Government, it has been claimed.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/732/japanese-massacre-ship-survivors-cover
Filipino American Memorial Endowment (FAME) Projects, including the Hellships/ Hell Ships Memorial in Subic:
filipino-americanmemorials.org/projects/
The Oryoku Maru story compiled by 4 survivors in 1983
www.oryokumaruonline.org/oryoku_maru_story.html
West Point Japanese-pow Home Page
www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/
A web page from the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs webpage. It is a book about a son's search for his father, perished on the Oryoku Maru tragedy:
www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Heisinger.htm
Celebrating the life of Duane Heisinger, a joint US Congress Resolution 2006, #5082
lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?062+ful+HJ5082ER+pdf
List of Hell Ship Voyages in Chronological Sequence of Departure Date
www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/ShipsNum.htm
The album about the Hell Ships Memorial Dedication on the 22nd Jan 2006 with 50 images.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/2006-01-22%20Hell%20Ships%20Memorial%20Dedicated?sort=9&page=1
Album of plaque for, Lt. N. Minter Dial, CO of USS Napa AT-32, perished on the Oryoku Maru in Karl’s Photobucket account.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/USS%20Napa%20AT-32%20Lt-Dial%202008-04-06?sort=9&page=1
This is an album with pictures of Oryoku gun in Subic Bay, specifically in front of the American Legion Post #4 on Magsaysay Drive in Olongapo City.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/SBFZ%202009/Oryoku%20Maru%20Gun%202009%20and%20older?sort=6&page=1
This is a URL to a group of albums about the Hell Ships Memorial:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial?sort=9&page=1
An album about two new plaques and the other ones at the Hellships memorial:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/2%20new%20Hellship%20Plaques%202012-06-24?sort=9&page=1
An album of the Hell Ship Montevideo Maru Plaque Unveiling Ceremony took place on 1st July 2009 at the Hellships Memorial in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, the former US Naval Base.
I was able to attend and shot these 35 images:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/Over%201000%20Aussie%20Dead%202009-07-01?sort=9&page=1
For some reason this man and his story are very much affecting my thoughts tonight. What better way to deal with it than to share with you all, whom I am sure have experienced these same emotions at times. I find the poem that Captain Heisinger wrote, which is printed at the bottom of the Author's Note to be very poignant.
Thanks Karl...I deleted the bad link Oct 12, 2017. Patty
2017-10-11 Note from Karl: The above link is dead and you only get a Domain Name Sale Offer!
I replaced it with a link from the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs. It is a short story about a son's search for his father, perished on the Oryoku Maru tragedy:
www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Heisinger.htm
About the Author
Duane Heisinger, the oldest of three sons of Grace and Lawrence Heisinger, was born in 1930 and raised in Fresno, California. After two years at Fresno State College and a year in the U.S. Air Force, Duane entered the U.S. Naval Academy graduating an Ensign in 1956. He served 30 years in the Navy retiring a Navy Captain. His assignments were primarily at sea including two ship commands, three combat tours in Vietnam, and over eleven years in overseas intelligence assignments including three years as the Defense Attache, London. In recent years he has been engaged in research covering the life and death of his father as a POW of the Japanese in the Philippines, WWII.
Duane passed away in May of 2006 after a year long bout with lung cancer. As a last tribute to his father and all the other WWII POWs of the Japanese, he was able to lead a tour to the Philippines and dedicate the Hellships Memorial in Subic Bay in January, 2006. He is survived by his wife, Judith, three married daughters, ten grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Author's Note
Father did not return home from the Philippines. He said only a few words before death came a few days after the second prison ship bombing. He smiled in responding to the last person who spoke with him before he slipped into a coma and died. Death had been his companion in the prisoner of war camps for over two and a half years and certainly within the holds on the two ships final journey. Numbers of his close friends had already died, but he held on and was not taken until that cold day in the upper hold of the Enoura Maru in the port of Takao, Formosa.
These writings tell of Father's journey from California in the spring of 1941 to Manila and the changes the war brought to him and to his family. His thoughts, desires and hopes and those of the men around him are shared. I hoped somehow to discover and understand more about my father by following his journey within those war years. I learned much, but there are still past areas which remain a mystery to me for everything could not be unraveled within my desire to learn more.
I tell the story as I know it and as I understand it. Perhaps my most compelling purpose in writing is my desire to tell the story which my father could not tell. In that way I can provide understanding to my family and to those who follow.
My own memory reaches back over sixty years. I was ten years old when I last saw my father. Those memories are reinforced by comments and stories from family and friends over the years. I emphasized the period from just before World War II when Father left Fresno, California through his seven months before the war commenced and on to the surrender on Corregidor and life as a prisoner of war. His story ends near war's end.
This writing can be no more than an attempt to place some references around events within my father's last years. Much first hand information is available. Some men who returned experienced the same or similar conditions, were in the same camps, endured the same crowded ship conditions and observed friends dying in a similar manner.
I have reconstructed his story primarily from first hand reports, diaries, journals, scraps of paper, often buried and later uncovered or carefully, and dangerously carried to the end of the war. This information from others' writing bears directly upon the same events my father saw and experienced. There are other survivors who have written accounts, a few published, others not. Some men left writings now found in various archives or are still personally held within their families. I communicated or interviewed twenty or so survivors of those days. I found several who were close to my father during camp times. Their comments are a special part of this story. There were also letters written to our family after the war ended. These letters give glimpses of Father's life, friendships made, stories shared.
Father was comforted during the war by friends and memories of home and family. I tried to identify these comrades and friends. It was important that these men have friends nearby, but I found understanding this was also important to me. When one was depressed, a nearby friend could be an encourager. When one was ill, another could see that even the minimum food be made available. When one needed assistance, a buddy or comrade was important to survival.
So I focused upon friends. Did Father have friends or buddies nearby? He did. Those he roomed with in military housing before the war in Manila and others he worked with in the JAG office at Fort Santiago, also in Manila, were there. He met others in the camps and on the prison ships. Some made it back; others did not. I know some of the conversations these men had, though little of their hopes or dreams or fears. But there are some clear looks as thoughts were shared, echoing forward even after all these years, in that I have received both understanding and some comfort.
Much time has now passed. It is well over 57 years since death came in that filthy upper hold of the Japanese freighter. I have tried to fill in the past. This writing is an effort of a son who from his early years wanted to know more. I wanted to know my father more.
Journey of Memories
How many days must pass before memories fade?
I tried to walk steps on journey way; climb some hills,
seek some echoes of the past, never fully known to me.
From this I hoped to edge away from dreams,
and gain some truths from years ago.
It was my father I sought whose life's journey I followed
for the memories were not all my own, but seeking still,
I walked as best I could that journey of years ago.
A kind of pain, a kind of joy I felt on journey way
as recognition of pictures put away, letters read and
filed for later recollection.
But years change memories brought forward.
Should time alone heal, or is purpose well met by journey taken?
We both know, for come with me on journey shared so therein
all might make, for some, new memories,
for some reawakening of those fading,
and for all, a look at past and perhaps by that look,
a look at memories a-making.
DLH (Manila, The Philippines, 1996)
Copyright © 2003-2014 Duane Heisinger
How many days must pass before memories fade?
I tried to walk steps on journey way; climb some hills,
seek some echoes of the past, never fully known to me.
From this I hoped to edge away from dreams,
and gain some truths from years ago.
It was my father I sought whose life's journey I followed
for the memories were not all my own, but seeking still,
I walked as best I could that journey of years ago.
A kind of pain, a kind of joy I felt on journey way
as recognition of pictures put away, letters read and
filed for later recollection.
But years change memories brought forward.
Should time alone heal, or is purpose well met by journey taken?
We both know, for come with me on journey shared so therein
all might make, for some, new memories,
for some reawakening of those fading,
and for all, a look at past and perhaps by that look,
a look at memories a-making.
DLH (Manila, The Philippines, 1996)
Copyright © 2003-2014 Duane Heisinger
Updated as of 2017-10-18
URLs for Hell Ships, Oryoku Maru & Hell Ships Memorial
The Hellships Memorial is Subic Bay
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1203/hellships-memorial-subic-bay
Naval Officer honored at Hell Ships Memorial, Lt. N. Minter Dial, CO of USS Napa AT-32, perished on the Oryoku Maru.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/177/naval-officer-honored-hellships-memorial
Father Found by Capt. Duane Heisinger, a thread about a book from Capt. Heisinger about his father who perished on the Oryoku Maru.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1698/father-capt-duane-heisinger
Oryoku Maru and its gun at Subic Bay, a thread in our forum with links to albums about the gun:
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/390/oryoku-maru-gun-subic-bay
Photos of the Oryoku Maru in sequence from Manila to Subic Bay from David Demetherell
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1601/oryoku-maru
The Hell Ship Montevideo Maru Plaque Unveiling Ceremony took place on 1st July 2009 at the Hellships Memorial in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, the former US Naval Base.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/490/ship-montevideo-maru-plaque-unveiled
Tennis Court of the Oryoku Maru POWs in the Olongapo Naval Station 1944. The Fort Wint forum thread in our Corregidor Rorum has several pages that discuss the location of the tennis court. The member Chadhill really has done some great contributions with telling pictures! This thread has now 8 pages and substantial coverage of the tennis court start at this page 5:
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/987/fort-wint-subic-bay?page=5
The massacre of hundreds of British prisoners of war by Japanese sailors during the Second World War was covered up by the Government, it has been claimed.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/732/japanese-massacre-ship-survivors-cover
Filipino American Memorial Endowment (FAME) Projects, including the Hellships/ Hell Ships Memorial in Subic:
filipino-americanmemorials.org/projects/
The Oryoku Maru story compiled by 4 survivors in 1983
www.oryokumaruonline.org/oryoku_maru_story.html
West Point Japanese-pow Home Page
www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/
A web page from the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs webpage. It is a book about a son's search for his father, perished on the Oryoku Maru tragedy:
www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Heisinger.htm
Celebrating the life of Duane Heisinger, a joint US Congress Resolution 2006, #5082
lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?062+ful+HJ5082ER+pdf
List of Hell Ship Voyages in Chronological Sequence of Departure Date
www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/ShipsNum.htm
The album about the Hell Ships Memorial Dedication on the 22nd Jan 2006 with 50 images.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/2006-01-22%20Hell%20Ships%20Memorial%20Dedicated?sort=9&page=1
Album of plaque for, Lt. N. Minter Dial, CO of USS Napa AT-32, perished on the Oryoku Maru in Karl’s Photobucket account.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/USS%20Napa%20AT-32%20Lt-Dial%202008-04-06?sort=9&page=1
This is an album with pictures of Oryoku gun in Subic Bay, specifically in front of the American Legion Post #4 on Magsaysay Drive in Olongapo City.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/SBFZ%202009/Oryoku%20Maru%20Gun%202009%20and%20older?sort=6&page=1
This is a URL to a group of albums about the Hell Ships Memorial:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial?sort=9&page=1
An album about two new plaques and the other ones at the Hellships memorial:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/2%20new%20Hellship%20Plaques%202012-06-24?sort=9&page=1
An album of the Hell Ship Montevideo Maru Plaque Unveiling Ceremony took place on 1st July 2009 at the Hellships Memorial in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, the former US Naval Base.
I was able to attend and shot these 35 images:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/Over%201000%20Aussie%20Dead%202009-07-01?sort=9&page=1