“SEEKING PRIVATE BROWNING. . .”

A few weeks ago we received the following email from Mr. Russell Brooke of Atlanta Georgia, USA . . .

         “I am looking for information on Harry R. Browning, a Private in the US Army Medical Corps during WW2. He was captured on Bataan in 1942 and was a POW at Bataan, Cabanatuan, and Bilibid, in the Philippines. Then he was transferred to Formosa and a POW camp there. In the spring of 1945 he was transferred to Camp Hoten in Mukden, Manchuria. In August 1945, he was liberated from Camp Hoten and returned to the US. His service number was 6287686 and his Mukden camp number was 1837. His address as listed on the Camp Hoten roster was Pupeio, Arkansas. I would like very much to get in touch with him or his family if possible.
        The reason? About 30 years ago I found an old canteen in the Norh Carolina/Tennessee mountains that H. R. Browning had used during WW2, and etched on the side of the canteen were the names of the various Japanese POW camps where he had been interned. I would like to find him and return it, and this quest has been going on for 30 years.
        Until your web site and memorial, I did not know how to look for H.R. Browning on Formosa. I think what you are doing is great and would like to encourage you and offer help from this end. All the best, “

Russell Brooke, Atlanta, GA

        Mr. Brooke and I have continued our correspondence, and from the research that we have done thus far, and with help from some other American ex-POWs, we have been able to piece together more of the story of Pte. Browning.
        Harry R. Browning, a young Arkansas lad of between 18 and 22 years, was captured at the fall of Bataan in 1942. Along with thousands of other Americans he could have been involved in the infamous Bataan Death March and was later interned as a POW at Camp O’Donnell, Cabanatuan and Bilibid in the Philippines.
         Many of the Americans stayed at Bilibid Camp for a good part of their captivity, but from records studied, it appears that Browning did not stay there long. His name was not found on the list of long-term POWs there, so we are guessing he was just there for a short time. We know he was only in Mukden for three/four months, at most, so our guess would be, he spent most of his time in Taiwan.
We know that there were quite a number who went from the Philippines to Taiwan for various periods of time. Some were there only a short while, awaiting re-shipment to Japan, while others - it seems Pte. Browning was among them, stayed for longer periods.
         Being a private he would not have been at one of the senior officers' camps, so it is likely that he could have only been at one or two others.

       Most of the American POWs went to the camp in the very south of Taiwan, called HEITO - which was also listed as Taiwan POW Camp #3. Later, some of these, particularly the junior officers, were moved north to another camp called Shirakawa, or Taiwan POW Camp #4.
          This was a camp where officers from Britain, USA, and Holland were interned, but there were also some “other ranks” there as well. Some of these officers and men were later transferred to Japan and Mukden, while others finished out the war in Taiwan
            Being in the medical corps, it is likely that Pte. Browning could have worked in the camp "hospital" at one of either of these two camps. That could explain his length of stay in Taiwan.
            There were no real "hospitals" - only POW huts that were used as medical treatment centers. However, that too was a joke as the Japanese provided no medicines or medical equipment for the care of the POWs.
            Occasionally the doctors or orderlies had a few things they had managed to carry and which were not confiscated in the many searches. These provided some crude tools for caring for the POWs, but as a rule in every camp there was almost nothing to work with!
If, as often happened, the Japanese did not recognize Pte. Browning's medical talents, he may have just been put on a work party. At Heito - the most likely place a private would have been interned, that would be picking rocks to clear old river valley land for the planting of sugar cane. The POWs did this job for the better part of three years until the camp was bombed by American planes in February of 1945. Then the camp was evacuated and the POWs were moved to the north to Taihoku (Taipei), or sent on to Japan.
             Either of these scenarios could explain why Pte. Browning remained in Taiwan until the spring of 1945. I would rather suspect that he was with the group that moved from Heito to Shirakawa, as his name can be found on a listing of other POWs who were probably in both those camps before being moved to Japan in the spring of ‘45.
               Since this newsletter also appears on our website, it is hoped that we might find “someone out there” who might have known Pte. Harry Browning during their time together as POWs, or someone who might have known him after the war back in the States. If anyone has any more information with regards to Pte. Browning, please contact us as soon as possible. We want this story to have a positive ending, and we hope you will help us as we are. . .

SEEKING PRIVATE BROWNING !!