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In December 1941, the first days of World War 2 in The Philippines, Japanese airstrikes pounded Manila and its surrounding military installations.
Major Lloyd Goad of the US Army Medical Corps found himself thrust into the horrors of war. Major Goad worked tirelessly at the US military’s Sternberg General Hospital in Manila, tending to wounded servicemen pouring in from the relentless attacks.
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Withdrawal to Bataan
As the Japanese invasion forces closed in on Manila, the US military ordered a retreat, including medical personnel like Major Goad, who joined a caravan heading towards the Bataan Peninsula.
Meanwhile, Colonel Napoleon Boudreau defended Fort Wint on Grande Island, a vital strategic position in Subic Bay, until orders compelled withdrawal, leaving the fort vulnerable to Japanese control—a decision that would prove costly. (See Episode #35 for details on Ft. Wint’s abandonment.)
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Assigned to Fort Frank
Following the fall of Fort Wint, Colonel Boudreau assumed command of Fort Frank on Carabao Island, part of the Harbor Defenses guarding the entrance to Manila Bay. As Japanese forces laid siege to the island, Major Goad tended to the sick and wounded amidst the harsh conditions of the four-month siege.
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Despite relentless Japanese artillery bombardment, Fort Frank held its ground until the fateful day of March 21, 1942, when a shell struck a tunnel near the infirmary, resulting in the deadliest day for the fort with 28 men killed and 46 wounded. Amidst the chaos, Colonel Boudreau fortified the beach defenses, anticipating a ground invasion that never materialized.
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Fall of Fort Frank
Following the fall of Bataan Peninsula, Japanese focus shifted to the island fortresses defending Manila Bay. As Allied defenses crumbled, Colonel Boudreau ensured the destruction of Fort Frank’s weapons before surrendering to Japanese forces. Major Goad, along with his fellow POWs, endured the harsh conditions of captivity, first on Corregidor and then at Cabanatuan POW Camp #3.
Into Cabanatuan
At Cabanatuan Camp #3, Colonel Boudreau assumed leadership among the American POWs, organizing camp infrastructure and overseeing efforts to improve living conditions. Despite their efforts, disease and malnutrition ravaged the camp, exacerbated by the arrival of Bataan Death March survivors.
Major Goad and his medical team battled tirelessly against disease and despair, bearing witness to the grim toll of war. Over 1,000 American POWs perished in the first two months of the camp’s operation, underscoring the harsh reality faced by those held captive.
And then, both men were transported by their captors to Japan and Taiwan.
For more details about events and people mentioned in this podcast episode, see:
- #40. Nurse Rosemary Hogan who worked at Sternberg Hospital with Maj. Goad
- #34. Lt Chet Britt served under Col. Boudreau’s command at Ft. Wint
- #44. Invasion of Corregidor
- #48. Capt. Morrill’s unlikely escape to Australia
- #50. The POW experience at the 92nd Garage on Corregidor
- #24. Gen. Kings surrender of Battan and POW camp experiences
Additional Photos
![](https://i0.wp.com/leftbehindpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Abigail-inscription.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1)
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![](https://i0.wp.com/leftbehindpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Omori-Liberation.jpg?resize=816%2C996&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/leftbehindpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mutsuhiro-Watanabe.jpg?resize=416%2C630&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/leftbehindpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lloyd-Goad-portrait.jpg?resize=314%2C358&ssl=1)
Episode 53 – Goad and Boudreau – Episode Transcript
Cold Open
[Narrator] American and Filipino servicemen lined up in a tunnel near the infirmary of a small island fort at the mouth of Manila Bay. The 60 or so men were receiving Yellow Fever shots being administered by the fort’s medical staff, including Maj. Lloyd Goad, a 28-year-old Army doctor with brown hair and a pleasant but shy smile.
They heard Japanese artillery shells falling all over the island, their sounds echoing through the tunnels and concussions shaking dust off the ceilings. They felt safe in that tunnel, separated from the bombardment by 18 inches of reinforced concrete.
But then a 240 mm shell cut through that concrete barrier, landing in the middle of the queue. The explosion threw men into the air as they scattered in all directions. Some men died instantly, others suffering massive physical trauma as shrapnel and more hit the falling men.
That moment was Maj Goad’s first test of wartime medicine, as he struggled to help and, hopefully, save more than 60 injured and dying men.
This is Left Behind.
Podcast Welcome
Welcome to “Left Behind,” where I share stories of individuals left behind when the US surrendered The Philippines in the early days of WW2. I’m your host and researcher, Anastasia Harman. My great-grandfather Alma Salm was one of the POWs, and his memoir inspired me to tell the stories of his fellow captives.
For those of you who listen every week, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been a bit sporadic in publishing new episodes lately. I apologize for that. I was sick for the last 2 weeks of March and was on vacation the first 2 weeks of April. And I fell a bit behind.
Today’s episode tells the story of two men who served on and then were captured on a small island in Manila Bay. It offers a unique glimpse into the war on small island outposts in The Philippines – away from the hot spots of Corregidor and Bataan.
Let’s jump in.
POW’S LIFE STORY
Before the War
[Narrator] Louis Napoleon Boudreau, a French Canadian by birth, entered the world May 17, 1888, in the coastal village of Petit Rocher, New Brunswick, Canada. His parents, Philemon and Salome Boudreau, were farmers. Napoleon, as the young man went by, was their 6th child.
20-year-old Napoleon Boudreau — standing at 5’9″ with blue eyes, light brown hair, and a ruddy complexion — came to the US in 1908, where he entered the US Army. At some point, he attended the University of Sacred Heart, where he majored in math and humanities.
Although details of his early Army service are spotty, we do know that when he was assigned to the Philippines in 1909-1911, he assisted in building Ft. Wint — an island fort in The Philippines. He was likely stationed in or near Astoria, Oregon, around 1914 — because he married 18-year-old Abigail Jane Heckard there on August 9, 1914.
Normand Boudreau — Napoleon and Abigail’s son — was born on June 3, 1917. He died the same day. Then Abigail died about 5 weeks later, perhaps from childbirth complications.
Napoleon never saw his son. And he was not with Abigail when she died. He may have already been in Europe, fighting WW1. Napoleon had the following inscribed on her gravestone:
[Napoleon] “In memory of my beloved wife into whose dying eyes, upon whose death-laid form I never gazed, and my child who I never saw, in the grave with its mother. My soul to God, my heart to you.”
[Narrator] I haven’t found specific details of his WWI service, but he earned the rank of captain by November 1918. He returned to Astoria after the war — where 33-year-old Napoleon married Myrtle Heckard, his first wife Abigail’s younger sister, in January 1920.
By 1930, Napoleon and Myrtle lived in New York City. He may have worked as a professor of military tactics at Fordham University during this time period. They then spent a couple years on Corregidor Island, where he commanded a Coast Artillery unit.
The couple then moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1935, and Napoleon organized the state’s national guard.
In May 1940, Major Boudreau received a new, but very familiar, assignment — commander of Ft. Wint near Manila in The Philippines. He now commanded the fort he helped establish some 30 years previous. His wife, Myrtle, initially followed him to Grande Island, but was evacuated in summer 1941 with the other officers’ wives and children.
Six months before Major Boudreau married his first wife, a boy named Lloyd Henry Goad was born December 18, 1913, in Ellston, Iowa. Lloyd was the oldest of Rosa and James Goad’s 2 sons. Father James was a physician, and the Goad family seems to have been well off. In 1930 the family not only had a live-in housekeeper, but their Gary, Indiana, home was worth $20,000. That was 2-3 times the value of neighboring homes.
Lloyd graduated from Mann High School in the early 1930s, then attended the Indiana University School of Medicine. By 1940 he was a resident at Oklahoma City General Hospital in Oklahoma.
But Army service came calling, and in February 1941, he joined the US Army and soon found himself at the US military’s Sternberg General Hospital in Manila.
During the War
[Narrator] Japanese airstrikes hit the navy yard and army airfields near Manila starting on December 10, 1941. Wounded sailors and soldiers poured into Sternberg General Hospital, where Major Lloyd Goad, of the US Army Medical Corps, would have been focused on shrapnel wounds and burns from the airfield explosions, bullet wounds from aircraft strafing, and more.
It was probably the first time he’d encountered the wounds and devastation of war. But Major Goad’s fight was to save his patients, the servicemen sacrificing themselves in these first days of WW2. Helping him were US Army and Navy nurses, including Rosemary Hogan, whose story I covered in Episode 40.
As December progressed, the city around him was under attack as Japanese invasion forces moved ever closer to Manila.
Air strikes. Bombings. Strafing.
They all became common place in Manila as Christmas 1941 neared. The Japanese infantry was swiftly approaching that capital city.
Then the US ordered all military personnel — medical staff included — to retreat from Manila.
Major Goad likely found himself among a medical caravan of doctors, nurses, patients and other staff making their way from Manila to the Bataan Peninsula in the days after Christmas 1941.
While Major Goad was fighting to save lives in Manila, Col. Napoleon Boudreau was fighting to defend Ft. Wint.
Ft. Wint sat on Grande Island in The Philippine’s Subic Bay. It protected Subic Bay’s entrance with heavy coastal artillery that could reach the Bataan Peninsula, making the island fort an important and strategic defense position.
During the years leading up to WW2, Ft Wint was a coastal artillery training ground.
American military in The Philippines knew that war with Japan was approaching, even before the first bombs dropped. By November 1941 — many weeks before the Pearl Harbor attack — Col. Boudreau oversaw daily coastal artillery and anti-aircraft practice sessions at Fort Wint.
Because the coastal artillery at Fort Wint could reach land targets on Bataan Peninsula, that artillery would have been useful to slow Japanese ground-troop progress down the peninsula.
But…that didn’t happen. As I explained in more detail in episode 34 about Chet Britt, who was also stationed at Ft. Wint, Col. Boudreau received orders to withdraw from the island fort during the same time that the rest of the Allied forces were withdrawing to Bataan.
And that was a strategic error.
Abandoning Ft. Wint handed the Japanese an important defense point. And it gave up heavy artillery that could have assisted the Bataan defense effort. It was an unfortunate blunder.
And after the war, no one seemed to know who ordered Ft. Wint’s evacuation. Some historians suspect that someone at headquarters mistakenly assumed the Ft. Wint personnel should retreat too, since the fort was north of the Bataan retreat line.
But, regardless of who ordered it, evacuate to Bataan the Ft. Wint men did. However, Col. Boudreau wouldn’t find himself on the peninsula for long.
No, very soon he’d be in command of another island sentry.
Sitting atop the sheer 100-foot cliffs of Carabao Island, Fort Frank was one of 4 island fortresses – including Corregidor’s Ft. Mills -- guarding the entrance to Manila Bay at the outbreak of WW2. Collectively they were known as the Harbor Defenses. Besides Ft. Frank and Corregidor, the other 2 Harbor Defense forts were:
- Fort Hughes – was relatively close to Corregidor’s tail end. Its artillery guns could reach Corregidor, and the men stationed there helped defend the island from invasion on May 6, 1942. It’s also the island that Captain John Morrill and his crew set out from when they escaped Manila Bay in the 36-foot open air boat, which I covered in episode 48.
- Fort Drum – which was nicknamed the “Concrete Battleship.” In the 1910s, the small, rocky island was leveled by the US Army Corps of Engineers and a reinforced concrete battleship-shaped fort was built on top of it. I’ll put a picture of it on this episode’s webpage, the link is in the show description. It’s strange looking.
Fort Frank was situated nearly ten miles south of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay on the solid rock Carabao Island, 500 yards off the Luzon Island coast (Luzon is the Philippine’s largest island and home to Maila and Bataan). Most of the island sits 100 feet above sea level, shooting up from the water in steep cliffs.
By early January 1942, Colonel Boudreau commanded Fort Frank. Major Lloyd Goad was part of the medical team on the island.
From January through April 1942, Japanese forces laid siege to Fort Frank and the other Harbor Defense forts.
Fort Frank was mainly equipped with armor piercing artillery to attack incoming ships. Although it had some anti-aircraft weapons, the island fort remained quite vulnerable to air attack. Ft. Frank, however, was never a main target. Once Bataan fell, the majority of air attacks were aimed at Corregidor.
Luckily for the approximately 400 American and Filipino military personnel, much of the Fort Frank was underground and connected by tunnels hewn into the island’s rock, so the 4-month siege from January through May 1942 saw little loss of life.
However, diseases — malaria, dysentery, yellow fever — were likely the biggest health problems at Fort Frank during Goad’s time in the infirmary there. In fact, diseases led to the fort’s most casualties during the 4-month siege.
By early February 1942, Japanese forces had moved heavy artillery into Luzon Island’s Cavite Province, which coastline was close to the Habor Defense islands. The Japanese began shelling Ft. Frank and the other harbor forts on a daily basis, ongoing well into the middle of the month. Japanese artillery opened fire in the mornings and the Harbor Forts’ artillery answered with their own guns.
But the Japanese soon discovered a new way to target Ft. Frank. WW2 military historian Louis Morton wrote:
[Morton] “Learning from the natives that the fort received its supply of fresh water from a dam near Calumpan on the Cavite shore, [the Japanese] dispatched a demolition squad to locate and destroy the pipeline. On 16 February, the Japanese found the line and pulled up the section just below the dam.
“Fort Frank, fortunately, had its own distillation plant and Colonel Boudreau . . . directed that it be placed in operation at once. But its use required valuable fuel and Boudreau was understandably reluctant to expend the gasoline he needed for his guns to distill sea water. On the 19th, therefore, he made an effort to repair the pipeline and sent a group of fifteen volunteers to the mainland for that purpose.
“Before the men could restore the line they were attacked by a Japanese patrol of about thirty men. In the fight that followed, the Americans and Filipinos, with the support of 75-mm. guns from Fort Frank, destroyed the entire patrol, suffering only one casualty.17 The fifteen men then returned to Fort Frank safely but without having accomplished their mission. That night the Japanese retaliated by burning the barrio of Calumpan.
“It was not until 9 March that Colonel Boudreau was able to repair the broken water pipe.”
[Narrator] Not long after the pipe was fixed, the Japanese stepped up their artillery campaign against the Harbor Defense islands – with Ft. Frank and Ft. Drum (the Concrete Battleship) receiving the brunt. At 7:30 on the morning of March 15, 240 mm howitzers opened fire on Ft. Frank. The bombardment continued until the afternoon, and 500 shells fell on Ft. Frank that day, all but destroying 3 artillery batteries. American efforts to neutralize the shelling were unsuccessful.
The intense shelling lasted for 6 more days, with the heaviest bombardment coming on the 16th and 21st. On March 16, a 240mm shell penetrated through 18-inches of concrete near one of Ft. Frank’s batteries, went under a 6-foot concrete wall, and exploded in the powder room. The explosion destroyed the room, upturning 60 cans of mortar powder, however, somehow none of them exploded.
5 days later, on Saturday morning, March 21, 1942, Ft. Frank’s servicemen queued in a tunnel near the infirmary to get Yellow Fever shots. A 240-mm Japanese shell penetrated the tunnels’ 18-inch-thick concrete roof, landing right where the soldiers waited. 28 men died and another 46 wounded, the greatest number of casualties that Ft. Frank suffered during the war. As a medical officer, Maj. Goad would have been intensely involved with assisting the wounded men.
Fearing a Japanese ground invasion of the island, Col. Boudreau doubled the island’s beach defenses. That attack never came, however Japanese General Homa had planned to capture the fort, but canceled to assemble more units for Bataan for the final assault on the peninsula, which began in early April.
After Bataan peninsula fell on April 9, 1942, Japan turned their air bombardment focus to Ft. Frank and the other 3 island fortresses defending Manila Bay — the only remaining Allied strongholds near Manila. But Allied defenses lasted only a several weeks. On May 6, 1942, Japanese troops invaded Corregidor — the largest of the defense islands — and America surrendered all of The Philippines to Japan. (I describe details of this invasion in episode 44.)
Before surrender, Col. Boudreau oversaw destruction of Ft. Frank’s artillery and other weapons, so the Japanese could not use them. A newspaper later reported:
[Newspaper] “The surrender news came by coded radiogram from Gen. Wainwright, [Col Boudreau] said, and firing ceased. Several hours later the Japanese arrived [at Ft. Frank] in 13 invasion boats and assumed control. Col. Boudreau was required to turn over his personnel roster to a young lieutenant who thought it was a great joke to have captured “Napoleon.” The colonel had to guide his captors on a tour of the fort.”
The Ft. Frank POWs – including Major Goad and Col. Boudreau – were eventually transferred to Corregidor to join the other men captured on Corregidor and the other harbor defense islands.
After capture, Lloyd Goad probably worked with other American doctors, nurses, and medics either in the 1,000-bed, tunnel hospital underneath Corregidor Island’s Malinta Hill – or treating sick patients at the 92nd Garage area where the POWs were held.
The Corregidor invasion had resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, and the Malinta hospital treated ally and enemy servicemen alike. In the first few weeks of captivity, Goad and the other hospital staff saw increasing numbers of men suffering from diseases, dehydration, and malnutrition due to the unsanitary conditions of the POWs’ camp on Corregidor. (I described conditions at this camp in episode 50).
Finally, after nearly a month of captivity on the island, the American POWs left Corregidor. Major Goad again entered Manila, only this time as a POW on parade in a Japanese show of military might to the Filipino people.
After a night’s rest in Manila, he boarded a cramped, stifling train for a 70-mile journey to Cabanatuan City. The next day brought a 16-mile march to the Cabanatuan POW camp.
The march was brutal, as sick, starving, exhausted POWs trudged along a dirt road, up hills and down, under the relentless Philippine sun.
Many dropped along the way, including my own great-grandfather, Alma Salm, who later wrote:
[Salm] “I suffered a complete blackout from heat [exhaustion]. I recovered consciousness with Captain [Lloyd H.] Goad, Army Medical Officer, kneeling by my side.”
[Narrator] Salm identified that medical officer as Dr. Goad. The other POWs continued toward camp, but Goad stayed behind to help Salm. That in and of itself was a risky move, as the guards often showed little compassion for fallen POWs and those who tried to help them. And I will forever be grateful to Goad for his compassion toward my great-grandfather. Salm continued:
[Salm] “He had a small pocket medical kit and revived me with some preparation he administered.”
[Narrator] A half hour later, a truck picked up the fallen POWs, including Salm and Goad, and took them to Cabanatuan POW Camp #3. There they rested in the shade of a small tree and waited for the marching POWs to arrive.
At first, Cabanatuan had 3 POW camps, all of them overseen by the same Japanese commander.
Upon arrival at Cabanatuan Camp #3, “Colonel Napoleon,” as the Japanese called him, became the camp’s American commander. He oversaw the organization and administration of the 2,000 POWs in that camp.
When Col. Boudreau and his fellow POWs arrived, the camp was barren, with only empty barracks to house the POWs.
Col. Boudreau assign other American officers to help administer various camp needs. They created cooking protocol, sanitation infrastructure, medical facilities, and other ways to meet needs of POWs.
Basically, the Japanese made sure the POWs remained in the camp and performed various off-site work details — and issued punishments for “infractions.” The American camp commander made sure the POWs had somewhat livable circumstances.
But despite Col. Boudreau’s work to improve camp conditions, summer 1942 was difficult.
Maj. Lloyd Goad and other camp medical personnel established a camp hospital, but they faced a daunting task at Cabanatuan — stemming the tide of disease and malnutrition that plagued the camp’s occupants. With insufficient drinking water, disease-carrying insects, and horrifically insanitary latrines, conditions were ripe for serious health problems.
Then the Bataan Death March survivors arrived, and Goad and the other Corregidor POWs realized just how lucky they themselves had been. One of the camp medical directors described:
[Director] “Along the road came a ragged formation of dirty, unkempt, unshaven, half-naked forms, pale, bloated, lifeless. Limbs grotesquely swollen to double their normal size. Barefeet [sic] on the stony road. . . . Some stark naked. Bloodshot eyes and cracked lips. Smeared with excreta from their bowels.”
[Narrator] 1,287 American POWs died at the 3 Cabanatuan POW camps during June and July 1942, the camps’ first 2 months of operation. The camp hospitals’ first death-free day wouldn’t come until December.
And Major Goad was in the middle of it all.
My great-grandfather described Col. Napoleon Boudreau as an “amiable commander” and a “fine understanding officer,” but the colonel’s command of Camp #3 lasted only 3 months. In August 1942, Camp #3 closed, and the POWs, including Major Goad and my great-grandfather, were transferred to Cabanatuan Camp #1, about 10 miles away.
But the Japanese had different plans for Colonel Napoleon. They sent him to Karenko POW camp in Formosa (present-day Taiwan).
This camp was an officers’ camp. Japan had a theory: separate allied high-ranking officer POWs from lower-ranking men, so the lower-ranking POWs would be easier for the Japanese to control. With Col. Boudreau at this camp were Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, who took over command of Allied forces in the Philippines when MacArthur was evacuated to Australia, and Gen. Edward King, who surrendered Bataan. (I told his story in episode 24.) Karenko POW Camp also imprisoned governors and other officials from countries that Japan had conquered.
As senior officers, the POWs were by and large older men. Col. Boudreau was 54 when he arrived. Lt. Wainwright was 59.
The Japanese humiliated, beat, and worked these older men hard at the camp’s farm (growing food that would be confiscated by the Japanese guards) and herding goats. Food and medical supplies were withheld. An imprisoned officer stated:
[Officer] “The food was very bad and the treatment worse.”
Conditions were so bad that when the Red Cross requested to visit the Officer’s Camp, some 100 POWs were temporarily relocated to a different camp for the Red Cross visit. Of course, those men returned to Karenko after the visit. Col. Boudreau reported that
[Newspaper] “only a few Red Cross packages were delivered to the prisoners, and almost all packages from home had been looted. He heard from Mrs. Boudreau but twice in three years. She received only a few stereotyped cards.”
The first of those letters arrived to Mrs Myrtle Boudreau in August 1943, more than 2 years after her husband was taken prisoner. In that letter, he said:
[Napoleon] “I am interred in Taiwan. My health is excellent. I am working in the garden for exercise. My love to you. Napoleon Boudreau, Feb. 20, 1943.”
[Narrator] If you noticed the two dates – it took 6 months for those few short lines to arrive home.
At some point he was moved to another Officer camp in present-day Taiwan, where he spent a year doing hard labor. In spring 1945, he was again moved – this time to Hoten POW Camp, the largest Japanese camp in Manchuria (in present-day China). The camp was in an industrial area near Mukden city. Arriving at the same time was Chet Britt, who had served under Col. Boudreau’s command at Ft. Wint on Grande Island.
Work at this camp was lighter than at his previous camps and food – beans served three times a day – much better and more plentiful than at the other camps he’d been at.
In early August 1945, the Russian Red Army invaded Manchuria and arrived at Hoten camp on August 19 or 20, 1945. A Russian captain entered the camp, saying:
[Russian] “From this moment on, you are free men.”
[Narrator] The captain then went on to the POWs how the Russians had left the western front to liberate their American friends. Boudreau later told a newspaper that
[Newspaper] “Joy and hilarity reigned over the camp following his announcement, and the Japanese surrendered their arms and ammunition, food and medical supplies to the conquerors. Fifty Japanese guards were marched in front of their former captives, a very docile, apologetic group of men.”
[Narrator] US POW recovery teams also arrived, and the Russians and US worked together to evacuate the camp’s 1,300+ POWs.
Some VIPs and very sick POWs evacuated by air. Most however, I believe including Col. Boudreau, left Hoten by train on September 11 and 12. They then boarded Navy ships for Okinawa. En route they were deloused, got new clothes, and received medical and dental treatment. From Okinawa, the POWs sailed for America.
After 40 months as a POW, Col. Boudreau weighed just 110 pounds, having lost 50 pounds during his imprisonment.
[Napoleon] “Nothing has been exaggerated,”
[Narrator] he told a reporter, regarding the treatment of American POWs in Japan’s POW camps.
At some point, Major Lloyd Goad was transferred to the Japan mainland.
He spent time at the Naoetsu POW Camp, made famous by the book and movie Unbroken detailing Olympic sprinter Louis Zamperini‘s POW experiences. Every day, the malnourished, exhausted Naoetsu POWs marched 1 mile (each way) to slog through work at a local steel mill. But perhaps Maj. Goad was spared the hard labor, instead working in a medical capacity.
(BTW – Zamperini was captured after his bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean in May 1943.)
Major Lloyd Goad was later transferred across the island to Omori POW camp near Tokyo. This camp sat on a small, man-made island built by POWs. Interestingly, Louis Zamperini also was a prisoner at this camp, although I don’t know if their stays overlapped.
Another individual at both the Naoetsu and Omori POW camps was Mutsuhiro Watanabe, a Japanese guard nicknamed “The Bird.”
The Bird was known for brutality.
[Watanabe] “I treated the prisoners strictly as enemies of Japan,”
[Narrator] Watanabe later recalled of his war-time actions. Post-war he was number 23 on General MacArthur’s list of top 40 war criminals, although the guard was never captured or punished. 44 years after his release, Goad wrote:
[Goad] “My thoughts were of Watanabe and what would happen if I ever met him again. Not pleasant thoughts for years to come.”
[Narrator] American forces liberated Major Goad and his fellow Omori prisoners in September 1945.
He’d survived 5 months in war-zone hospitals and 40 months as a POW.
A few years ago, I met a WW2 medic veteran who told me about working on “the boys” liberated from Japanese camps. He recalled, still revolted, the awful physical condition these men were in. Dr Lloyd Goad treated these kinds of cases, and worse, for some 4 years. It must have been indescribably horrific.
After the War & Legacy
[Narrator] Lloyd Goad returned home and married Lois Otto in January 1948. The couple soon moved to Golden, Colorado, where Dr. Goad began practicing medicine. He and Lois raised 3 sons and 1 daughter in Golden. And eventually Lloyd partnered with his son (a 3rd-generation Goad-family doctor), before retiring in 1980 after 52 years in private practice.
After the war, Dr. Goad remained involved in two ex-POW organizations. In 1949, he returned to Japan to testify in the War Crimes Tribunals. In 1989, Dr. Goad wrote a memoir of his POW experiences called “A Guest of the Emperor: Before, During, After.”
Lloyd Henry Goad died on March 19, 2002. He was 88 years old.
He rests in the Golden Cemetery in Colorado.
Myrtle Boudreau lived near San Francisco, California, when her husband, Col. Napoleon Boudreau returned from war.
I wish I could tell you they lived happily ever after, but . . . their reunion didn’t last long.
In January 1947, only 15 months after returning home, 59-year-old Napoleon married 37-year-old Kathryn Wright Shamlain in San Francisco. I believe that he and Myrtle divorced, because just a few months after Napoleon married Kathryn, Myrtle seems to have remarried.
Col. Boudreau retired from the US Army in 1948 after 40 years of service.
Kathryn and Napoleon adopted an infant daughter in the late 1950s and lived in Santa Rosa, California, throughout the 1960s.
83-year-old Napoleon Boudreau died on October 31, 1971, in Santa Rosa. Today he rests in the Santa Rosa Memorial Park.
Back in May 1942, Maj Goad and Col Boudreau were marched through the streets of Manila in a show of Japanese supremacy of America. With them was a young Navy ensign sick and delirious from malaria and being cared for – as much as possible – by my great-grandfather.
So be sure to hit the follow button because there will be more on that in the next POW story.
This is Left Behind.
OUTRO
Thanks for listening! You can find pictures, maps, and sources about Lloyd Goad and Napoleon Boudreau’s stories on the Left Behind website. The links are in the show description.
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Left Behind is researched, written, and produced by me, Anastasia Harman.
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- Dramatizations are based on historical research, although some creative liberty is taken with dialogue and scene details.
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SOURCES
Napoleon Boudreau
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Louis Napoleon Boudreau. Ancestry.com. Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1757-1946 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
Napoleon Boudreau entry. Fort Wint, Grande Island, Philippines, Military and Naval Forces; Roll: T624_1784; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0144; FHL microfilm: 1375797. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
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Napoleon Boudreau, Ancestry.com. U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233, 81 rolls); Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Napoleon Boudreau, 1936, Indianapolis, Indiana, City Directory, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
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Napoleon Boudreau, Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Napoleon Boudreau, Ancestry.com. U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library.
Napoleon Boudreau, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014. Original data: Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration.
Napoleon Boudreau, Ancestry.com. World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com operations, Inc., 2010.
Napoleon Boudreau, Ancestry.com. World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005. Original data: National Archives and Records Administration. World War II Prisoners of War Data File [Archival Database]; Records of World War II Prisoners of War, 1942-1947; Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 389; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.
Napoleon Boudreau family, Bronx, Bronx, New York; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0601; FHL microfilm: 2341221. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.
Napoleon Boudreau memorial, Find A Grave, found online at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125509722, accessed 14 July 2020.
Napoleon Boudreau obituary, The Press Democrat; Publication Date: 3/ Nov/ 1971; Publication Place: Santa Rosa, California, United States of America, found online at Newspapers.com, accessed 7 July 2020.
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Napoleon Boudreau and Myrtle Neckard entry, Ancestry.com. Oregon, County Marriage Records, 1851-1975 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Marriage Records. Oregon Marriages. Various County Courthouses, Oregon.
Normand Napoleon Bourdreau memorial, Find A Grave, found online https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39020252/normand-napoleon-boudreau, accessed 7 July 2020.
“May Be in War Zone,” Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, Indiana, 9 December 1941, page 10, found online at Newspapers.com, accessed 7 July 2020.
Philemon Boudreau family. Beresford (Parish/Paroisse), Gloucester, New Brunswick; Page: 4; Family No: 25. Ancestry.com. 1901 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2004. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1901/Pages/about-census.aspxl. Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels: T-6428 to T-6556. Images are reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada.
Philomen Boudreau family, Beresford, Gloucester, New Brunswick, Canada; Roll: T-6299; Family No: 144. Ancestry.com. 1891 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1891. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2009. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1891/Pages/about-census.aspx. Series RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels: T-6290 to T-6427.
“The Siege of Corregidor,” Louis Morton, The War in the Pacific: The Fall of the Philippines, Washington, DC: Center of Military History, US Army, 1953, page 484-5, found online at https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_27.htm, accessed 8 July 2020.
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Lloyd Goad
Alma Salm, Luzon Holiday, memoir, manuscript, possession of Anastasia Harman, online at “Exposed: A Lesser-known WW2 Death March, AnastasiaHarman.com, https://www.anastasiaharman.com/2020/02/28/lesser-known-death-march/.
“Attack on Clark Field,” Wikipedia, found online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Clark_Field, accessed 12 June 2020.
“Fort Frank,” Wikipedia, found online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Frank, accessed 12 June 2020.
J H Goad family, 1920 US Federal Census. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Accessed June 12 2020.
James H Goad family, 1930 US Federal Census, Gary, Lake, Indiana; Page: 27B; Enumeration District: 0044; FHL microfilm: 2340334. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls. Accessed 12 June 2020.
John Schriver, review of Lloyd H Goad, “A guest of the emperor: Before, during, after,” Amazon.com, found online at https://www.amazon.com/guest-emperor-Before-during-after/dp/B0007C3HEC, accessed 12 June 2020.
Lloyd Goad’s memorial page, Find A Grave, online at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57024490, accessed 12 June 2020.
Lloyd Goad, 1931 Mann High School Yearbook, Gary, Indiana, page 39, Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 22 June 2020.
Lloyd Goad entry, Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Lloyd A Goad entry, Iowa, Births and Christenings Index, 1800-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Accessed 12 June 2020.
Lloyd H Goad entry. Ancestry.com. World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: National Archives and Records Administration. World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, 1941-1945. ARC ID: 2123836. National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, U.S.A. World War II Prisoners of the Japanese Data Files, 4/2005 – 10/2007. ARC ID: 731002. National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, U.S.A. Records of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Collection ADBC. ARC: 718969. National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, U.S.A.
Lloyd H Goad. Ancestry.com. World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005. Original data: National Archives and Records Administration. World War II Prisoners of War Data File [Archival Database]; Records of World War II Prisoners of War, 1942-1947; Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 389; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.
Lloyd Henry Goad, Ancestry.com. U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Indiana, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 282. Accessed 12 June 2020.
Lloyd Henry Goad MD entry, Ancestry.com. Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880-1951 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. State Historical Society of Iowa; Des Moines, Iowa; Series Title: Iowa Marriage Records,1941-1943; Record Type: Marriage. Iowa Department of Public Health. Iowa Marriage Records, 1880–1951. Textual Records. State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa. Accessed 12 June 2020.
Lloyd Henry Goad obituary, Denver Post, The (Colorado), 29 March 2002, found online at GenealogyBank.com https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/0F97FB7F4AF45685-0F97FB7F4AF45685), accessed 12 June 2020.
Lloyd Henry Goad obit, Rocky Mountain News (Colorado), 26 March 2002, found online at GenealogyBank.com https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/0FE15592B45FDEE4-0FE15592B45FDEE4, accessed 12 June 2020.
Lloyd Henry Goad. Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007. Accessed 12 June 2020.
Maj Joe C. East, March 21st Fort Frank Shelling, a 2-page typescript in OCMH, cited in “The Siege of Corregidor,” Louis Morton, The War in the Pacific: The Fall of the Philippines, Washington, DC: Center of Military History, US Army, 1953, page 487, found online at https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_27.htm, accessed 22 June 2020.
Mary Ellen Condon-Rall and Albert E. Cowdery, “A Medical Calamity,” in The Medical Department: Medical Service in the War against Japan, Center of Military History, US Army, Washington, DC, 1998, p. 23-24, found online at https://history.army.mil/html/books/010/10-24/CMH_Pub_10-24-1.pdf, accessed 12 June 2020.
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“Naoetsu POW Camp Tokyo Branch Camp,” http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/tokyo/tokyo_4_naoetsu/tok-04B-Naoetsu.html, accessed 12 June 2020.
Obituary, Lloyd Henry Goad, online at GenealogyBank, originally appeared in The Denver Post (Colorado) 29 March 2002, accessed 16 February 2024.
“Omori, Tokyo Camp,” found online at http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/tokyo/omori/omori.html, accessed 12 June 2020.
Ricardo T. Jose, summary of Lloyd H Goad, “A guest of the emperor: Before, during, after,” Filipinas Heritage Library, found online at https://www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/biblio/61354/, accessed 12 June 2020.
Rose E Goad family, 1940 US Federal Census, Gary, Lake, Indiana; Roll: m-t0627-01120; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 95-32B. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls. Accessed 12 June 2020.
“Sternberg General Hospital,” Wikipedia, found online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sternberg_General_Hospital, accessed 12 June 2020.
“Take Part in War Trials,” 01 Aug 1948, page 21, The Times, Munster, Indiana, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 26 February 2024; “Dr. Goad to Testify in Jap War Trial,” 23 Jun 1948, page 22, The Times, Munster, Indiana, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 26 February 2024.
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