Page:Military Occupation and Military Relations of the Allied Forces, Dossier 1, November 1945.pdf/16

 UNITED STATES PACIFIC FLEET THIRD FLEET

PRESS RELEASE (For Immediate Release: 12 September 1945)

Combined Army-Navy rescue, including fast Third Fleet ships under the command of Commodore Roger Simpson, USN, will have liberated more than 14,000 Allied prisoners-of-war from camps on eastern Honshu when the current mission in the Sendai-Kamaishi area ends.

Organized and placed into operation on August 29 -- two days after the Third Fleet under Admiral William F. Halsey steamed into Sagami Wan to start the naval occupation of Japan -- the special rescue task group under Commodore Simpson has conducted missions in the Tokyo Bay area, the Hamamatsu-Nagoya area, and are at present concluding operations at Sendai.

Late on the afternoon of August 29, small boats from Commodore Simpson's group went ashore at Omori Camp No. 8, headquarters for all POW camps in the Tokyo area. The mission had been sent out quickly, ahead of schedule, and prior to the formal surrender when reconnaissance by Task Force 38 carrier aircraft had indicated that Allied prisoners were in a critical condition from lack of food and proper medical attention.

In a two-day operation, 1531 Allied POW's, a large percentage of them Americans, were freed from seven camps and brought to the USS BENEVOLENCE, a Navy hospital ship, for screening and medical treatment.

Immediately thereafter a joint rescue plan was inaugurated between the Eight Army and the Third Fleet, with Commodore Simpson's fast-moving Task Group 30.6 as the sea-going and amphibious component.

Headquarters were established at Yokohama, and the 42nd Army General Hospital moved into a dockside warehouse to furnish receiving facilities along the Navy hospital ship BENEVOLENCE, the Army hospital ship MARIGOLD, the British-operated Dutch-owned hospital ship TJITJALENKA, and the Navy LSV's OZARK and MONITOR. The latter are being used as receiving ships for ambulatory POW repatriates.

On September 3 Commodore Simpson's group, including his Flagship, the light cruiser SAN JUAN, moved to southern Honshu to evacuate 2751 Allied POW's from Hamamatsu and Nagoya. In a minor amphibious landing through heavy surf, they were brought to the Navy hospital ship RESCUE and later transported to Yokohama.

Next day a joint Army-Navy contact unit flew in Avengers from a Third Fleet carrier to Niigata on the west coast of Honshu, where arrangements were completed to evacuate 2841 POW's from six camps in seven special trains.

The Sendai operation began on September 10, when Commodore Simpson's group sailed north to liberate an estimated 3000 Allied prisoners. A minor landing is being made a Kamaishi, which, with Hamamatsu, was the scene of one of the Third Fleet's destructive battleship bombardments in July.

In addition, more than 4000 POW's have been brought to Yokohama by rail from intermediate camps throughout the area in which the Third Fleet operates. Of this overall total of more than 14,000 prisoners freed, the Army and Allied POW's are taken to Manila by air or fast transport for hospitalization or return home; Navy, Marine and Canadian repatriates go to Guam enroute home.

Among the American POW's recovered in eastern Honshu have been survivors of such famed ships as the USS HOUSTON, the submarine TANG and GRENADIER, the old Fourth Marine Regiment that fought on Bataan and Corregidor, Army survivors of the early Philippine campaign, the Wake Island garrison and civilian contractors' units, pilots from Third and Fifth Fleet carriers, Doolittle Tokyo raiders, and Army heavy bombardment planes.

It is estimated that approximately 18,000 Allied POW's will be freed in the Western Honshu-Kyushu-Shikoku area in which Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's Fifth Fleet operates; and about 1500 from the Hokkaido area in which Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's North Pacific Force operates.

In all of Japan's home islands, where a total of more than 33,000 Allied POW's either have been or are being recovered, there are estimated some 8000 American prisoners, many of whom already are free.