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Welcome
Our mission is to preserve and perpetuate the story of the men and women who defended the Philippines and other Allied outposts against overwhelming odds during the first months of World War II in the Pacific and later became prisoners-of-war.
The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society (ADBC-MS) is the only sanctioned successor to the original American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor organization formed by surviving POWs of Japan in 1946. We have been entrusted with preserving the legacy of the POWs of the Pacific.
The American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society is dedicated to promoting education about the POW experience in the Pacific during WWII and supporting programs of reconciliation. In addition to our annual conventions, we offer scholarships to descendants of POWs, provide grants for projects that educate and involve people of all ages in activities that bring meaning to this history, sponsor Bataan Memorial Marches, and support the building of monuments to honor the POWs in Japan. We are also involved in a number of other educational activities around the United States and internationally, working with historians and scholars to write curriculums for educational institutions.
The ADBC-MS is the point of contact for all official U.S. Governmental activities concerning American POWs of Japan. These include the Japan/POW Friendship Program that sends former POWs to Japan for healing and reconciliation; Veterans’ Day Breakfasts with the President; and submission of recently deceased information to the Freedom Foundation. At the request of the Senate and House Veterans’ Committees, the ADBC-MS provides written Statements for the Record at their annual service organizations hearings.
2025 Convention Information
Our 15th annual convention will be held at
Hilton Garden Inn
2020 Richmond Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202
August 29-September 3
The nightly rate is $139 plus taxes: Guest room booking.
This property is a five-minute walk from the Crystal City Metro Station and just a mile from Reagan Airport DCA – the free shuttle will take you to both. Restaurants and shopping are a quick walk, and the White House, Smithsonian and DC monuments are within a 10-minute drive.
WIFI is free.
We have a reduced parking rate for ADBC-MS will be $32 per day.
To register click Registration.
Gold Medal Act
Background
The Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act is a bicameral bill that bestows a collective Congressional Gold Medal to service members who participated in the early resistance and defensive battles against the armed forces of Imperial Japan in the Pacific Theater and were taken as prisoner of war between December 8, 1941, to June 9, 1942. The troops endured one of the most harrowing prisoner-of-war experiences in history, including the infamous Bataan Death March.
We need co-sponsors!! Here is a list of our congress members who have a military background that may be receptive.
See the new Bill here.
More background information here.
Unknown No Longer:
The Enoura Maru Project
2LT Charles Arnao
CWO Charles Benthien
CPL. Floyd A. Dunning
Pvt. Ben Leslie
Captain Paul Pearson
Captain Ralph Rowland
Recently, the Defense POW/MIA Accountability Agency (DPAA) published press releases regarding the identification of missing soldiers from the hellship voyages of the Oryoku, Enoura, and Brazil Maru.
In November of 2020, DPAA announced a multi-year project to identify 411 unknown soldiers from cemeteries in Manila and Hawaii associated with the Oryoku, Enoura, and Brazil Maru hellship voyage and overland movements that took place in December of 1944 through January of 1945.
The project, with the assistance of DPAA and ADBS-MS, resulted in a feature on CBS This Morning. Due to these efforts, forensic genealogists located descendants of these men and sent them to the appropriate service branch casualty office. Once in contact with descendants, the casualty offices sent DNA collection kits resulting in enough Family Research Samples to order disinterment of Unknowns in Manila and Hawaii associated with the events of the Oryoku, Enoura, and Brazil Maru.
On December 13, 1944, the Japanese ordered 1621 Allied POWS and civilians into the holds of the former passenger liner Oryoku Maru. Poor load planning and other last minute cargo factors led to horrible overcrowding conditions. Because of overcrowding and tropical climate conditions, the holds of the Oryoku Maru were described by survivors as “the Black Hole of Calcutta, Hell on Earth, or The Hell Hole”. For two days and nights, the prisoners in the holds suffered in these hellish conditions. To add to the misery, the Japanese failed to mark the Oryoku Maru as carrying prisoners of war. Attack aircraft from the USS Hornet (CV-12) and USS Cabot (CVL -28) repeatedly attacked the Oryoku Maru off the Bataan Coast resulting in the Captain of the Oryoku Maru beaching the ship at the mouth of Subic Bay to prevent sinking.
During the night of December 14, 1944, the Japanese moved the Oryoku Maru to the inner harbor of Subic Bay off of the occupied Subic Bay Navy Base and disembarked all Japanese civilians ashore. After the Japanese left the ship, Lt. Toshino ordered the prisoners ashore. During this movement, USS Hornet’s aircraft returned to finish off the Oryoku Maru. The attacks on the unmarked Oryoku Maru resulted in the deaths of approximately 270 prisoners mainly from a direct bomb hit on the rear hold.
After reaching shore, the Japanese captors moved the men to a fenced tennis court on the occupied base where they remained until December 20, 1944. While on the tennis court, as few as eight and as many as fourteen men died and were buried outside the court towards the end of the Subic Bay seawall. In 1947 during upgrades to the Subic Bay Navy Base, construction crews uncovered five sets of remains south of tennis court towards the seawall. Unable to identify the remains, the Army buried these men as Unknows (X-1479 -82 and X-1486 and X-1487)
The Japanese moved the remaining prisoners from the tennis court at Subic to the rail head at San Fernando, Pampanga in two phases. The first phase left the afternoon of December 20, 1944. Upon arrival the Japanese housed these men in the Pampanga Provincial Jail. The second group left the tennis court on the morning of December 21, 1944. The Japanese housed these men in the Pampanga Theater.
While in San Fernando, Pampanga six men died in the jail and theater. The Japanese buried them in the Campo Santo de San Fernando Cemetery. While in San Fernando, Pampanga orders came down from POW Gen. Shiyoku Kou in Manila, through his staff member Lt. Keizo Urabe to order the execution of prisoners unable to make the remainder of the journey. Lt. Toshino ordered interpreter Shusuke Wada to consult with American POW commanders to pick fifteen sick and wounded prisoners on the pretext that they were going to receive medical treatment at the Bilibid Prison Hospital in Manila. The American commanders picked the fifteen men. The Japanese loaded them on a truck and took them to the same Campo Santo de San Fernando Cemetery and executed them one by one.
After the war, graves registration units exhumed the grave at Campo Santo de San Fernando and sent nineteen sets of remains for identification. These units were only able to identify a few of the men. The Army buried the remaining as Unknown at Manila American Cemetery in 1949. DPAA exhumed these Unknown graves in March of 2023 for possible identification.
USMC Enoura Maru Unidentified List - We will continue to update the list of names as they are identified.