TY  - BOOK
AU  - Jones, Betty B.
TI  - The December ship : : a story of Lt. Colonel Arden R. Boellner’s capture in the Philippines, imprisonment, and death on a World War II Japanese hellship / 
SN  - 899506917 (hardbound)
PY  - 1992///
CY  - Jefferson, NC : 
PB  - McFarland & Co.
KW  - Boellner, Arden R.
KW  - Prisoners of war
KW  - Philippines
KW  - Biography
KW  - United States
KW  - World War, 1939-1945
KW  - Campaigns
KW  - Prisoners and prisons, Japanese
N2  - Researched account by a daughter reconstructing her father’s story. Boellner was a reserve officer called to active duty and sent to the Philippines in October 1941.

Assigned as advisor to the 93rd Infantry Regiment, Philippine Army, on Mindanao, his story is told through his letters home, official reports and recollections of his friends. Taken prisoner in May 1942, he was placed in Camp Casisang, Malaybalay, the prisoner of war camp for Mindanao POWs. He was later transferred to Davao, then Cabanatuan and then to Bilibid Prison in Manila.

In December, 1944, he, along with thousands of other American POWs, was loaded on board the Oryoku Maru, which would become infamous for the ordeals experienced by the POWs. Bombed by American planes, the ship was sunk in Subic Bay; the Japanese did not let the prisoners out. Out of 1,619 POWS, less than 300 survived till liberation. Boellner did not make it.

Contains letters and interesting photos of planes and the camps in Mindanao. - Prof. Ricardo T. Jose
ER  -