Episode 41 – The Real Story behind Corregidor’s Final Photo – Episode Transcript

[Narrator] Major Paul Wing, a 50-year-old Army Signal Corps officer with blue eyes and a balding head of brown hair, stood at one end of a lateral tunnel in Corregidor Island’s Malinta Tunnel.
The air was hazy with dust particles shaken off the walls and ceiling by the relentless air and artillery bombing from Japanese forces just two miles away on Bataan peninsula.
The 16 men sitting in front of Major Wing were part of the US Army’s Philippine Headquarters’ Finance Department. The servicemen were working at their desks, which were covered with papers, books, typewriters, and calculating machines.
[Wing] “Look this way,”
[Narrator] Major Wing said loud enough for his voice to carry to the tunnel’s end. He lifted his government-issued camera toward his face. Most of the men looked toward the camera, a couple kept their eyes on their work, and two others hid behind comrades or turned away completely.
Disregarding the camera-shy men, Wing snapped the photograph.
That photo would become one of the last items smuggled out of The Philippines before the entire nation fell to Japanese forces.
This is Left Behind.

Podcast Welcome/Credits
Welcome to “Left Behind,” a podcast about the people 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 a prisoner of war in The Philippines, and his memoir inspired me to tell the stories of his fellow captives.
If you, like me, believe it’s important for people to hear this relatively unknown part of WW2 history, please consider sharing this episode with a friend. Word of mouth is the number 1 way people find new podcasts, so by sharing, you’re helping to keep these important stories alive.
This episode centers on one of the last photographs smuggled out of The Philippine Islands before the US surrendered the entire nation to Japan.
I’ll describe the photo a bit later in the episode, but I’ve posted it on Facebook, Instagram and the podcast website if you’d like (and are able) to take a look at it as we chat today about 5 men who are featured prominently in the photograph.
Also, this episode includes a few podcast firsts – including a trip to the 8th annual Academy Awards.
Let’s jump in.

POW’s Life Story
Before the War
[Narrator] Born on August 14, 1891, in Tacoma, Washington, Paul Wing was the only child of P. Benson and Ida May Wing. Paul grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where his father was an Oculist Assistant and then surgeon.
Paul graduated from high school around 1909 and a year later, the 19-year-old, 5’11” student with brown hair and blue eyes, enlisted in the Hospital Corps. A branch of the Army's Medical Corps, and lasting from 1888-1915, the Hospital Corps trained men in various field medical tasks, ranging from cooking to first aid and nursing to horse care.
In the early 1910s, Paul moved across the country to attend Staunton Military Academy in Virginia. While there, Paul married Martha Thraves on Christmas Eve 1912. The young, growing family ping-ponged between Washington and Virginia during the mid-1910s. Their first daughter was born in 1914 in Tacoma, their second the next year in Virginia, and their third the year after that in Tacoma.
Paul was part of the Washington state National Guard, and, on June 16, 1917, he entered the US Army full time as a 1st Lt in the US Army Field Artillery. He spent the next year at various training camps in the US. Then, in summer 1918, in the heat of WW1, Lt. Wing went to France to join the 19th Field Artillery of the American Expeditionary Forces.
As part of that unit, Lt. Wing likely participated in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, the first large offensive launched by the American forces in WW1, which was fought September 12-15, 1918. He would have then went on to participate with his field artillery unit in the final allied offensive of the war.
Promoted to Captain, Paul Wing remained in the US Army after the war, serving in the Panama Canal Zone in 1920 and stationed at Ft. Bliss near El Paso, Texas, in 1922.
And here’s where Wing’s military story takes an interesting turn: First, he was retired from active duty in 1922 due to a disability sustained in the line of duty – and which I have absolutely no details on. And then…the family moved to Hollywood and started working in show business.
In 1924, Paul’s 9- and 10-year-old daughters Madison and Martha (who went professionally by Pat Wing and Toby Wing) began appearing in various films. Toby Wing appeared in 72 films before retiring from acting in 1938. Pat remained in the business until 1941 and appeared in 34 films. They both had that 1930s bombshell look. I’ve put a couple pictures of them on Facebook and Instagram.
Paul began working in Paramount Studios’ middle management in the late 1920s and became an Assistant Director (of movies) in the 1930s. He and his family lived in Pasadena, California, where Paul was an aide to the grand marshal of the 1931 New Years Rose Parade.

On the evening of Sunday, May 6, 1935, Paul boarded a plane with other Paramount executives and crew for an overnight flight to Washington, DC, where they would be filming a movie in nearby Annapolis, Maryland. It was a twin propeller plane with 13 people on board, including the pilot and copilot. (Pictures of the plane remind me of the plane that Indiana Jones crashes into the Himalayas.)
Just before 3 am, Paul Wing’s plane was nearing St. Louis, Missouri – where it was scheduled to land for refueling – when it became “fog blinded.” Remember that planes in the mid-1930s didn’t have the navigation tools we have today. A write up explained:
[Wikipedia] “The airliner crashed when its wingtip hit the ground as it flew under a low cloud ceiling at very low level, over dark, fog-shrouded country, while its pilots were trying desperately to reach a nearby emergency landing field before their fuel ran out.”
[Narrator] Can you imagine how low to the ground the plane must have been flying for a wing tip to hit the ground? News reports said that it crashed in a muddy pasture 15 miles from that landing field. The crash became known as TWA Flight 6.
The LA Times and other newspapers recorded eye-witness accounts:
[Survivor] “It seemed that we merely went on and on through that heavy curtain of fog that enshrouded the earth. Then suddenly, without warning, came the crash. The plane did not go into a spin or a dive. It was just that sudden awesome crash. I believe we must have hit the ground as though in landing and then turned over.”
[Narrator] Just before impact, the pilot supposedly turned around and told passengers: “Buckle your seat belts.” But, being close to 3 am, many of the passengers were asleep and did not hear the pilot’s warning.
Both the pilot and co-pilot died in the crash. A farmer who witnessed the crash – and I believe the plane crashed in his pasture -- related that the pilot’s last words were:
[Pilot] “I was forced down because of lack of gasoline.”
[Narrator] A fellow Paramount traveler said:
[Employee] “I was completely knocked out and when I came to, I was lying out there near the wreckage with the dead and dying around me.”
[Narrator] It seems that several if not many or all passengers were thrown from the plane. I don’t know specifically if Paul was thrown out of the plane.
5 people (including the 2 pilots) died in the crash, among them was a US Senator from New Mexico. Paul Wing suffered a broken neck and crushed chest. Doctors feared he might die, and his wife, Martha, flew to Missouri the next day to be by his side.
Thankfully, though, he recovered but had to wear a neck brace for two years.

That means he might have been wearing a neck brace on March 5, 1936, when he accepted an Academy Award for Best Director during the 8th annual Academy Awards ceremony. The win came for his work on the 1935 movie "Lives of a Bengal Lancer."
Starring famed 1930s actor Gary Cooper, “Lives of a Bengal Lancer” was about British soldiers on the northwest frontier of India defending a stronghold against rebellion. It was a popular and well received movie that, despite being set in India, was filmed entirely in California.
Here’s an audio clip from the movie:
[Insert audio clip from the movie trailer in imdb]
And that officially makes Paul Wing the first Academy Award winner spotlighted on “Left Behind.” That also makes him the first person on the podcast to have an IMDb page.
Actually, that’s not quite true … because I actually have an IMDb page for my work on the NBC series “Who Do You Think You Are?” and for a small, independent documentary called “The Baseball Bond.” I am credited as “Genealogist” and as “Genealogist Coordinator.” Ok, enough bragging about this tiny claim to fame, because it’s definitely not comparable with being an Assistant Director or winning an Academy Award.
Also, Paul Wing has another first for the podcast.
In April 1940, he was living with his wife and youngest child, as son born in 1928, in Los Angeles and reported his occupation as “Retired Army Officer.” 7 months later, however, he was recalled into Active Duty, this time as part of the Army’s Signal Corps. That’s the division responsible for communications, radio operating, and so forth.
Thus, he is the first person highlighted on Left Behind to be called back into active duty after retirement.

During the War
[Narrator] Major Paul Wing found himself in The Philippines in 1941 and became part of General MacArthur’s staff. He would have withdrawn with the general to Corregidor Island in early 1942, where the US Army’s Philippine Headquarters were located inside the Malinta Tunnel. (I discuss the details of Malinta Tunnel in the last episode, #40.)
Wing and the Signal Corps shared lateral tunnel #12 with the Army’s Finance Department. On April 24, 1942, while Corregidor was under constant bombardment from Japanese forces on Bataan peninsula, Major Wing took a photograph of the Finance Department’s portion of the tunnel.
The tunnel has a curved ceiling, where the walls seamlessly turn into the roof. Helmets, gear bags, and even a few pieces of clothing or towels hang on the walls. In the rear portion of the photograph, and out of focus, is a partition that hides the Signal Corps area – their code machines and telegraph operators out of view.
There are 16 men in the photograph, most of whom are looking at the camera (and a couple who are obscured and unidentifiable). Most of the men are sitting at their desks and, since they’re in a tunnel, the men are all at different depths – that is, there are men close the camera and in focus and there are men farther back, whose facial features are blurry.
Within 2 weeks of this photograph being taken, all 16 of these men, and photographer Paul Wing, would be prisoners of war. And I get the impression that the men knew the end was near. You can see it in their faces, especially in the set of their mouths and in their eyes. One young man in particular, a Staff Sergeant named Aaron Pressman, with his elbows resting on a few books on his desk and a pencil grasped in one hand, is especially captivating – as his eyes seem to penetrate the viewer and express his exhaustion and, perhaps, desperation.
(I’ve posted the photo on Facebook and Instagram, so you can see for yourself.)
This is one of the last-known photographs smuggled off Corregidor Island before the Japanese invaded on May 6, 1942. Of its provenance, the official National Archives caption states:
[Caption] “The original was lost en route to the United States. The last submarine to contact Corregidor on May 3, 1942, picked up this copy, which has been furnished to the Signal Corps by Col. J. R. Vance of the Finance Office.”
[Narrator] BTW – Col. R. J. Vance is in the photo’s background. I point him out in the caption.
That last submarine was very likely the USS Spearfish, which snuck through the Japanese naval blockade to evacuate 27 people (and some documents) from Corregidor on the night of May 3, 1942. 2 nights later, Japanese invasion forces landed on the island.
Five of the pictured men died while in captivity, thus this photo is likely that last image taken of them. Throughout the rest of this episode, I’ll share details about the lives of the four men who are closest to the camera: Walter Wernher, Aaron Pressman, Arthur Kuykendall, and Meridith Hough – as well as Paul Wing who’ve we already been discussing.
(Since, for times’ sake, I can only talk about 4 of these men, I’ve posted short life sketches of all the identified servicemen on this episode’s webpage. The link is in the show description.)

Major Paul Wing and the Finance Department men became POWs on May 6, 1942. They remained on Corregidor Island until late May, when all the Corregidor POWs were taken to the Cabanatuan Camps in central Luzon Island, which is The Philippines largest island.
The Cabanatuan POW Camp was actually 3 camps, stretched several miles apart along a road leading away from the city of Cabanatuan. The Corregidor POWs filled Camp #3 (the farthest camp from the city), and the remaining 1,500 or so Corregidor POWs were placed in Camp #2.
The water supply at that camp was inadequate, so a few days later, on June 3, 1942, Camp #2 closed and the POWs there transferred to Camp #1. From various sources, I believe 30-year-old SSgt. Walter Wernher was one of the Camp 2 men transferred to Camp 1.

Walter Wernher
[Narrator] Walter A. Wernher, born on June 30, 1911, in Manhattan, New York, faced life's challenges from an early age. When he was 3.5, his mother passed away from heart disease, leaving his father, Ernest Wernher, to raise Walter and his older sister.
By 1920, the widowed Ernest had moved his children about 115 miles/185 km south to Swathmore, Pennsylvania, which is on the outskirts of Philadelphia. Ernest supported his children as a salesman for a machine company.
The family remained in the Swathmore area throughout Walter’s growing up years. He graduated from high school there in 1931 and soon joined the Philadelphia-based Hedgerow Theater Company, performing in their yearly plays from at least 1933-1936.
A 28-year-old, 5’7”, 147 lbs Walter enlisted in the US Army in August 1939 and was assigned to the Finance Department.
When SSgt. Wernher arrived at Cabanatuan, the camps were experiencing rampant diseases and incredibly high death rates, which continued throughout the summer of 1942. Among those numbers was Sergeant Walter Wernher. Malaria and Dysentery claimed his life at 2 pm on July 23, 1942, mere weeks after his 31st birthday.
Most burials at Cabanatuan at this time were in mass graves and no existing records marked locations of individual remains within the mass graves. Thus, after the war, his remains could not be identified, and he couldn’t be returned home for burial near his family.
Walter's name is on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery.
He posthumously received the Purple Heart, and in February 1946, his father Ernest gifted a portion of a stained-glass window to Trinity Church in Swarthmore, Penn., in memory of Walter.

Aaron Pressman
[Narrator] The disease and death rates at Cabanatuan declined in fall 1942, but the camps soon saw drastic decreases in POW numbers – when the Japanese military decided to transport POWs to work camps in Japan, China, and other parts of the Eastern Pacific.
These transportations began in fall 1942, and among the POWs leaving Cabanatuan in those early days was SSgt. Aaron Pressman.

Born on March 28, 1917, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Aaron Pressman was the oldest of John and Miriam Pressman's 3 children. The Pressmans were a Jewish family; in fact, all 4 of Aaron’s grandparents were born in Russia.
His father, John, owned a fruit store. The family lived on New Market Street in Philadelphia. Aaron seems to have lived here during his childhood and up until he went to war.
I don’t believe the building exists anymore; the current New Market Street literally butts up against I-95 and it’s a 1-lane street, with a narrow sidewalk and then the high freeway wall. So perhaps Aaron’s home was demolished at some point to make way for the freeway.
Regardless…
Aaron graduated from Central High School in 1935 and ventured into higher education at Philadelphia’s Temple University, with a Pre-Medical major, according to the school’s yearbook. And speaking of that college yearbook, when I first saw his photo in it, I thought it was a picture of him as a chubby cheeked, innocent-looking boy of 14. In reality, he was probably 20 years old in that photo.
Also, a newspaper reported that he was an athlete at Temple University. And he worked as a swimming instructor at the city pool in 1940, just before entering the army.
On September 6, 1940, Aaron enlisted in the US Army Finance Department and found himself in Manila when the war broke out. He was able to contact his parents in mid-December 1941, assuring them he was OK. But, of course, that Okay status wouldn’t last long, and he was taken to Cabanatuan with the rest of the Finance Department. But his stay was short.

On October 8, 1942 – a mere 5 months after being captured – SSgt Aaron Pressman and 1,960 other POWs boarded the Japanese transport ship Tottori Maru. He ultimately reached Hoten POW camp located in Mukden, Manchuria (today, Shenyang, in northeastern China). A history of that camp reads:
[Mansell] “11 November 1942 -- 1,202 American POWs arrive [in Mukden] … from Manila via Pusan on the Korean Peninsula, and are sent to the so-called North Camp, POW Camp Hoten No. 1, then a group of old Chinese Army board barracks built partly underground.”
[Narrator] From what I’ve found, these arriving POWs were the first prisoners at the camp. The men were sick – perhaps from the hellish conditions they endured on the transport ship or poor camp conditions … or both. They arrived at the beginning of winter, which didn’t offer any reprieve for those POWs who were already sick. In the first 3 months at Camp Hoten, more than 200 (of the original 1,200) POWs died.
Sadly, Aaron Pressman was one of them. He died February 14, 1943, at the camp hospital, a victim of Beriberi, Dysentery, and Corneal Ulcers (basically eye infections). He was buried in the Camp Hoten Cemetery. He would have turned 26 the next month.

His parents wouldn’t learn of his passing until at least 2.5 years later, at war’s end. In the meantime, however, they did receive other tragic news.
Back in Philly, Aaron’s younger brother Herbert had joined the Army Air Corps and was sent to Europe. On August 1, 1944, just 2 months after the Normandy invasion, 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Herbert Pressman, perished during a bombing raid in France. I believe he was on board a downed bomber. His remains were never recovered. Today, he is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Brittany American Cemetery in France.
As a parent myself, I’m trying to imagine the anxiety one would feel with their only two sons off at war, knowing one is in the line of fire and the other a prisoner out in the Pacific somewhere. Then learning that one son has died and the other … well, Aaron Pressman’s parents would have waited, and hoped, for more than a year after the news of Herbert’s death that Aaron was alive and coming home.
When the war ended, instead of a joyful homecoming, Aaron’s mother found herself writing the first of several letters to the Army, inquiring about her oldest son's burial at the Hoten camp and asking how to bring him home.
[Miriam] “I want very much to bring him home and let him rest among his own people and in the soil for which he and his younger brother died to defend.”
[Narrator] You’ll recall that her younger son’s remains were never found.
By early 1946, the local American Legion had been named the Sergeant Aaron A Pressman Auxiliary Unit, in Pressman’s honor. Miriam gifted two trees to the unit, one each in memory of her 2 sons who died in WW2.
Aaron Pressman's remains were returned to Pennsylvania in 1948, where they found their eternal rest at Roosevelt Memorial Cemetery.

Arthur Kuykendall
[Narrator] SSgt Aaron Pressman’s departure from Cabanatuan in fall 1942 was soon followed by SSgt Arthur Kuykendall. He followed Pressman northward in November 1942, only Kuykendall was headed for Japan.

Born on June 7, 1920, in Reeses Mill, West Virginia, Arthur Greenwell Kuykendall's life unfolded against the backdrop of rural America. He grew up on the family farm amidst the charming northeastern West Virgnia landscape with his parents and four older siblings.
I used to live in Maryland, just north of DC, and I’ve driven through this rural area of West Virginia during the fall. It is beautiful and picturesque. It still has that old American charm, what I’d imagine the American colonies to have looked like just before the Revolution.
Arthur was active in athletics in high school. Eager to pursue agriculture, he enrolled at Potomac State College in Keyser, West Virginia, the closest town to the family’s rural farm. He was active in the local 4H unit (an agricultural organization) and participated in 4H summer camps.
His life took a somber turn in May 1937, when Arthur's father, Robert, passed away from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his abdomen. I tried to find more information about this event but came up empty handed.
Regardless, Arthur continued his education. He seems to have graduated college in spring 1940 and then spent that summer working on the family farm with his 3 older brothers. By the way, that family farm was worth $11,000 in 1930. In 1940, the farm where the family resided was worth $3,000. We can clearly see the damaging effects of the Great Depression -- the family farm lost nearly 75% of its value. Unthinkable.
In October 1940, Arthur enlisted in the Army’s Finance Department, and 18 months later found himself imprisoned at Cabanatuan POW camps.
On November 7, 1942, SSgt Arthur Kuykendall, along with 1,600 other POWs, left Manila on the hell ship Nagato Maru. On November 27, 1942, he and 400 other Nagato Maru POWs arrived that Tanagawa POW Camp near Osaka, Japan, on the country’s main island. A fellow shipmate wrote this account of arrival at Tanagawa:
[POW] “We marched into Tanagawa at nightfall. There were five new barracks very flimsily constructed with dirt floors and paper-thin walls coming to six inches off the floor. The barracks were very cold. There were two decks of bunks with a ladder going up every twenty feet to the second deck which was 8 to 10 feet off the ground. Shoes had to be taken off at the foot of the ladder. At the foot of each bunk were five synthetic blankets made out of peanut shell fiber and a rigid pillow in the shape of a small cylinder packed with rice husks. The barracks had no heat and with temperatures falling below freezing, the conditions were pretty tough. After coming from the tropics, this was quite a shock to your system.”
[Narrator] SSgt Kuykendall’s life at Tanagawa was difficult. The POWs were severely malnourished, and the camp had an excessive death rate. The imprisoned men worked to “manually tear down a mountain side to build a breakwater for a primitive dry-dock and submarine base.”
I don’t know exactly what “manually tear down a mountain side” means, but I do know that at other Japanese work camps, POWs would use shovels and pick axes to dig away the base of hills until the dirt above collapsed – and hopefully the POWs could retreat from the falling earth and escape being buried alive.
In April 1944, nearly 1.5 years after Kuykendall’s arrival, Tanagawa Camp closed, and he was transferred with 105 POWs about 275 miles/440 km north to the Omi POW camp, near the city of Oumi, on Japan’s western coast. Arthur worked with the other POWs in a quarry and a cement factory.
I found a group picture of all the Americans in this camp – and am 99% certain I’ve identified Arthur in it, sitting in the front row. That picture is on Facebook and Instagram.
Omi Camp was liberated by Allied forces on September 6, 1945. 25-year-old Arthur Kuykendall, a free man once again, was trained across the island to Yokohama to await transportation home. 5 days after liberation, Arthur’s mother received the first notification about him since the fall of Corregidor.
The news that her youngest son was alive – after almost 3 years of silence about his whereabouts – must have relieved a tremendous anxiety, since two more of her sons were serving in the war.

Meridith Hough

[Narrator] You’ll recall that SSgts Arthur Kuykendall and Aaron Pressman both left Cabanatuan in fall 1942, leaving 2 of our 5 POWs remaining at Cabanatuan, including SSgt Meridith Hough.

Meridith Hough was born on January 16, 1910, in Texas to Seymore and Alice Hough. All the sources are in agreement with that. But, just 3 months later, the infant and his parents lived in a Tacoma, Washington, boarding house. Now a move like that with a newborn would be difficult today – I can hardly imagine such a move back in 1910.
They stayed in Washington state until at least 1912, when Meridith’s younger sister and only sibling was born. But by 1920, 9-year-old Meridith and his family resided in northeastern Nebraska where his father Seymore worked as a manager for an electric company. Five years later, however, the family had relocated to rural southwest Iowa.
And 5 years after that – in 1930 – they lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Meridith’s father Seymore was originally from. 20-year-old Meridith didn’t have a job, it seems, but his father worked as Mechanic at a Machine Manufacturer. Why the family moved around so much – I have no idea. They seem to have relocated at a fast pace.
Tragedy struck in 1937, with the death of his father, that’s the same year that Arthur Kuykendall’s father died.
Meridith Hough, a 5'8", 151 lbs 28-year-old with grey eyes and brown hair joined the Army’s Finance Department in December 1939.
After capture, he didn’t remain long at Cabanatuan because Japanese officials seem to have moved him through several other Philippine work camps.

In March 1943, after a year of silence regarding her son’s whereabouts and status, Hough’s widowed mother Alice learned that her son was a prisoner of war. Nearly a year after that, the American public was finally informed about the atrocities committed by Japanese military against Allied POWs, including details of the Bataan Death March.
Alice Hough had no way of knowing that her only son was not on that march when she told a newspaper:
[Alice] “This report [of Japanese atrocities] should shake the nation from top to bottom.”
[Narrator] In the same article, a sister of another POW stated:
[Sister] “All I can think of is, if that sort of thing is going on, what do our boys over there think of us. Certainly we haven’t been into this with as much force in that area as we should have. It’s just terrible to think of them just waiting and hoping.”
[Narrator] Waiting and hoping – and trying to survive. That was Staff Sergeant Hough’s life until October 1944 when he (like Sgts. Aaron Pressman and Arthur Kuykendall 2 years earlier) was loaded onto a Japanese transport ship called the Arisan Maru with some 1,800 other POWs.
The Arisan Maru had no markings to indicate the “cargo” it held as it sailed north in the South China Sea as part of a Japanese naval convoy. The American submarine USS Shark torpedoed the Arisan Maru around 5 pm on October 24, 1944.
Most of the POWs escaped the ship’s holds and swam to other ships in the convoy, only to be beaten away by long poles wielded by Japanese sailors. Only 9 POWs survived the sinking.
On the third anniversary of the ship’s sinking, SSgt Hough’s mother Alice wrote a letter to the US Amry’s Quartermaster General’s Office:
[Alice] “My son Staff Sergeant Meridith L. Hough lost his life on a prison ship on October 24, 1944, in the South China Sea. I have waited three years hoping that by some way he might have been saved when [the]ship went down. But have decided now that here is no hope.”
[Narrator] And she was correct. 34-year-old Staff Sergeant Meridith Hough had not survived the sinking. Also perished in this ship’s sinking were Don Robins from Episode 4, Alan Manning (episode 10), and Adolphus Hutchison (episode 12).
After realizing her son wouldn’t be coming home, she asked:
[Alice] “I would very much like to have the flag that covered his casket had he like thousands of others been shipped home for burial. I have no place that I think of as his final resting place. So would like his flag to fly on the days our flag flies in honor of our war dead.”
[Narrator] She also asked in this and a second letter for an official military grave marker to place in their local cemetery in his honor.
She received the flag – but not the grave marker. A government letter told her:
[MemDiv] “It is with regret that this office must advise you there is no authority whereby a Government headstone or marker may be furnished for a member of the Armed Forces whose remains have not been recovered. Legislation to provide for such memorials has been submitted to Congress during previous sessions; however, this legislation has not been enacted into law.”
[Narrator] Today a cenotaph – that’s a marker in honor of someone not buried at the location – in memory of Staff Sergeant Meridith Hough resides at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. It is not an official military headstone/marker. SSgt Hough’s name appears with the other Arisan Maru victims – and that of fellow Finance Department SSgt Walter Werhner -- on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery. Hough received posthumously the Purple Heart medal.

The deaths of SSgts. Meridith Hough, Walter Wernher, and Aaron Pressman decimated each of their families. Sgts Hough and Wernher were the only sons in their families. Aaron Pressman and his only brother both died in the war. With their deaths, all 3 of these family names died with them (as far as their immediate family goes). Thankfully, each man had a sister, who could, hopefully, pass these heroes’ memories and legacies to future generations.

Paul Wing
[Narrator] Major Paul Wing, our Academy Award winner, remained at Cabanatuan for 2 years and 9 months. During his stay there, he helped create the camp’s library. The Japanese officials over the camp allowed the POWs living there, especially those too sick or disabled to do hard labor, to create some semblance of normalcy – like church services, theatrical plays, and, even, establishing a library.
I suspect that Major Wing was unable to perform hard labor due to lasting issues from his neck, which was broken in the plane crash, as well as the disability that caused him to retire from the military in the early 1920s. He was also 53 by war’s end, so age probably played a factor in his abilities.
My great-grandfather Alma Salm lived in the same Cabanatuan bunk house as Major Wing. Salm recorded in his memoir:
[Salm] “Many of the men had included in their packs and bags a book or two. As a result, this furnished the nucleus of a library which was established by pooling these volumes. Books on mathematics, chemistry, biography, religion, fiction, economics, law, history, geography, etc., plus a few movie, detective, and similar magazines made up this diversified and amazing collection. …
“Major Wing [and another Army officer], together with a few assistants who were unable to perform hard labor due to physical incapacitation, handled the library. The circulation and records were patterned after the library set-up here in the United States. For index cards we cut up and used the pasteboard and plyboard boxes in which our Red Cross supplies had been shipped.
“There was a detail of men constantly at work repairing books which had been damaged by constant thumbing. Of course, we had to resort to primitive methods but it did the trick. Paste was made from rice residue, and a homemade bookbinding press was fashioned from a few boards into which a short piece of galvanized pipe had been inserted and wooden screw carved out with a pocketknife.”
[Narrator] Wing secretly – and at risk of severe punishment or death -- took pictures in the camp. After the war, the pictures allowed US officials -- and now us -- to see exact conditions inside the camp. How he could have kept his camera and film despite Japanese body searches, I have no idea. After the war, he was awarded the Legion of Merit for taking those pictures.
I’ll post 1 or 2 of those pictures on Facebook and Instagram.

In fall 1944, the Japanese transferred about 1,500 Cabanatuan POWs out of the camp for transportation to Japan. Only 511 POWs – including Paul Wing and my great-grandfather – remained at the camp. These were the men too sick, too disabled, and too weak to perform hard labor, as well as medical staff to look after them.
Those disabilities likely saved Wing’s life, because the overwhelming majority of the 1,500 POWs transferred out of Cabanatuan in fall 1944 died en route to Japan. Interesting how life’s challenges can sometimes become blessings.

The Cabanatuan POWs noticed a lot of airplane activity over camp on January 30, 1945. My great-grandfather wrote:
[Salm] “The evening had drawn to a quite close after an unusually active day filled with the sweet hum of American aircraft overhead. It was the heaviest umbrella of air activity we had experienced and we were sure it might be a prelude to another landing by our troops on Luzon.”
[Narrator] Quick note – American forces had landed on Luzon Island a few weeks before this, and the Cabanatuan POWs had learned about it – perhaps from their secret radio.
[Salm] “Little did we realize during those last passing hours that all [the airplane activity] was for our immediate and direct benefit. Several of us, Major Wing, and … other officers were sitting as usual on our home-made easy chairs in front of our bahay chatting and meditating.
“Just as daylight was signing off a couple of fighter planes passed us toward the west. Off in the distance an occasional flare could be seen and now and then the flash of artillery fire over the horizon to the northwest. Suddenly, from the direction of our rear camp gate not many yards away the roar from many guns was heard. At the first burst, we instinctively dropped flat to the ground.”
[Narrator] A Private in the camp later told reporters:
[Private] “We heard shots just as we were about to go to bed. Then someone came running through the camp yelling ‘Get out, fellows. The Yanks are here. Everyone go to the main gate.’ Then a Ranger grabbed us and helped us out. Some of us thought at first it was a Jap trick to lure us out and shoot us.”
[Narrator] Here’s my great-grandfather again:
[Salm] “Pandemonium reigned for about twenty minutes then the sound of hurrying footsteps punctuated by shouting voices and – Almighty God! They were speaking English!”
[Narrator] The forces were a group of US Army Rangers and Filipino guerillas who travelled behind enemy lines to liberate the Cabanatuan POW camp. American forces had mounted the operation because of concerns that the Japanese would execute the camp’s prisoners, as they had at other POWs camps.
A newly liberated Major Paul Wing told a reporter:
[Wing] “Those Rangers gave me more drama than I expect to see in all the rest of my eventful life. Are all American soldiers like those Rangers? Those boys saved 510 lives because I’m certain the Japs were going to use us as hostages.”
[Narrator] The guerillas and Rangers led the sick, disabled, but gratefully liberated POWs back to American-held territory where they received medical treatment and wrote letters to their families. A newspaper reported:
[Newspaper] “All were anxious for news from home. The first question many asked was: ‘Who was elected vice president?’ They all knew President Roosevelt was reelected but didn’t know the name of his running mate.”
[Narrator] Instead of coming straight home, Major Paul Wing rejoined the Signal Corps staff in time to help with the capture of Manila in February 1945.

After the War & Legacy
[Narrator] After the war, Paul Wing was advanced to the rank of Lt. Colonel, and by early 1947 had retired from the US Army at the rank of Colonel.
In the late 1940s, he settled with his wife on a farm Chesapeake, Virginia, where he worked the land. He was involved with community organizations, even becoming commander of his local American Legion unit in 1953.
65-year-old Paul Ruben Wing passed away at the Naval Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 29, 1957. He had heart disease and suffered a heart attack a couple days before. Heart disease was not uncommon among liberated POWs; a byproduct of the diseases and malnutrition they suffered as prisoners.
This multi-talented, extraordinary man today rests at the Christ Church Kingston Parish Cemetery in Virginia.

[Narrator] Arthur Kuykendall, who we left in Yokohama, Japan, waiting for a transport back to the United States, remained in the Army Finance Department after the war. In 1946, he tied the knot with Irene H Cool. The couple likely met through the 4-H in Keyser, West Virginia, where Irene served as a 4-H Club Agent. Irene was a college graduate and schoolteacher, but when
[Obit] “World War II broke out, and in a “burst of patriotic zeal”, she became a “Rosie the Riveter”. She worked special jobs for the military in everything from electric welding to airplane manufacturing.”
[Narrator] After their marriage, Irene left the 4-H and followed Arthur on his various military assignments. In 1947, he was assigned to the 4th Army headquarters finance section at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.
The couple had at least 3 sons during their travels with the military, which included stops in South Carolina and Indiana. Arthur’s military dedication persisted until February 28, 1961, when he retired as a Captain after 21 years of service in the US Army's finance department.
That’s when those country roads took Arthur and Irene home to northern West Virginia, which we know from John Denver is “almost heaven.”
Arthur initially entered the insurance industry, becoming a State Farm salesman by fall 1961. I’ve even found a couple of his insurance advertisements in local newspapers.
In 1963, Arthur joined the Liberty Trust Company of Maryland, overseeing loans and the discount window at the local branch, which I believe was in Cumberland, Maryland, just over the border from his beloved West Virginia home. His prowess in the financial sector led him to become the bank’s Assistant Treasurer – which, if I’m understanding correctly, was part of the bank’s Board of Directors. He retired from Liberty Trust Bank in 1985.
Beyond work, Arthur was actively involved with several community organizations, including West Virginia 4-H All Stars, Masonic Lodges, and a couple of veterans’ organizations. He served as an Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Cumberland, Maryland. He also spent 30 years in the church bowling league, which may not have been an extremely spiritual experience, but it would have elevated his bowling game.
On August 28, 1994, 74-year-old Arthur Kuykendall passed away at Sacred Heart Hospital in Cumberland, Maryland, after a long illness.
His wife, Irene, passed away in 2019, at age 97. Today their family has grown to include at least 9 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
As I ponder Arthur Kuykendall’s service and legacy, I wonder what his fellow Finance Department Staff Sergeants Walter Wernher, Aaron Pressman, and Meridith Hough would have accomplished if their young lives hadn’t been ended way too early. It’s a question I often wonder about the thousands upon thousands of young, single men who lost their lives during the 2nd World War and other conflicts.

As you may recall, the last photo featuring the men was smuggled off Corregidor Island on the last submarine to evade the Japanese navy gauntlet before The Philippines fell. Also escaping on that submarine were a handful of nurses and high-ranking officers who were about to endure life on a WW2-era submarine.
So be sure to hit the follow button because there will be more on that next time.
This is Left Behind.

Outro
Thanks for listening! You can find pictures, maps, and sources about these 5 men on the Left Behind Facebook page and website and on Instagram @leftbehindpodcast. The links are in the show description.
Left Behind is researched, written, and produced by me, Anastasia Harman.
- Voice overs by: Jake Harenberg, Mike Davis, Valerie Scatena, Tyler Harman, Paul Sutherland and Emily Harenberg.
- Special thanks to Steve Riggens, great-nephew of Walter Wernher, for his time and photographs.
- Dramatizations are based on historical research, although some creative liberty is taken with dialogue.
Remember to subscribe to Left Behind because you won’t want to miss next time’s harrowing, underwater journey across the equator in a WW2-era submarine.

Sources
Meridith Hough
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SSGT Meridith L Hough (1910-1944) - Find a Grave Memorial, 26 December 2023.

Arthur Kuykendall
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Aaron Pressman
“2 Phila. Soldiers Die in Jap Camps,” 07 Jul 1943, Page 2, The Philadelphia Inquirer, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 26 December 2023.
Aaron A Pressman, The Templar, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1938, page 74, in “Yearbooks | High School Yearbooks, 1900-2016,” database online: Ancsetry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2010, accessed 26 December 2023.
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Walter Wernher
“58 Graduates at Swathmore,” 13 Jun 1931, Page 3, Delaware County Daily Times, Chester, Pennsylvania,online at Newspapers.com, accessed 23 December 2023.
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“Walter A Wernher,” 27 October 1945, page 2, Chester Times, Chester, Pennsylvania, transcription at SSGT Walter A Wernher (1911-1942) - Find a Grave Memorial.

Paul Wing
“About S.M.A Alumni,” 19 Feb 1920, page 3, The Daily News Leader, Staunton, Virginia, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
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“Colonel Wing, Aged 65, Dies in Hospital,” 31 May 1957, Page 39, Daily Press, Newport News, Virginia, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
“Col. Wing Is Installed Legion Head,” 06 Aug 1953, Page 12, Daily Press, Newport News, Virginia, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
“Fort Bliss Notes,” 17 Jun 1922, page 4, El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
Gertrude Madison Wing entry, 19 November 1916, “Washington, U.S., Birth Records, 1907-1920,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2002, original data: Washington State Department of Health, Washington State Births 1907-1920, Washington, USA: Department of Health, accessed 29 December 2023.
Ida May Wing and Jno J See entry, 15 September 1918, “Washington, US, Marriage Records, 1854-2013,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, original data: Washington State Archives, Olympia, Washington, accessed 29 December 2023.
“Inquest Is Begun into 4 Deaths on For-Wrecked Liner,” 07 May 1935, Page 1, Albuquerque Journal, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
“Major Wing of Film Fame in Both Wars,” 02 Feb 1945, page 3, Daily News, Los Angeles, online at Newspapers.com,
Martha Virginia Wing entry, “Virginia, U.S., Birth Records, 1912-2015, Delayed Birth Records, 1721-1920,” database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2015, original data: Virginia, Births, 1721–2015, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing entry, “U.S., World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2010, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, 1941-1945. ARC ID: 212383, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese Data Files, 4/2005 - 10/2007, ARC ID: 731002, Records of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Collection ADBC, ARC: 718969, National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul Ruben Wing and Martha G Thraves, 24 December 1912, “Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785-1940,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2014, original data: Virginia, Marriages, 1785-1940, Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013, accessed 29 December 2023
Paul Ruben Wing entry, 29 May 1957, “Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014,” database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2015, original data: Virginia, Deaths, 1912–2014, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing entry, “U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2005, Original data: United States, Selective Service System, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, M1509, 4,582 rolls, Imaged from Family History Library microfilm, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing entry, 1942, “U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985,”database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2013, original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985, Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing entry, “Washington, U.S., Military Records, 1855-1950,” database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2021, original data: Military Records, Olympia Washington, USA: Washington State Archives, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing (indexed as Pine R Winy), Corozal, US Military Forces, Panama Canal Zone, “1920 Census | 1920 US Federal Census Records,” Database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, UT, 2010, 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 and Records Administration, Washington, D.C, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing, 13 April 1928, California, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959, database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2008, Original data: Selected Passenger and Crew Lists and Manifests, National Archives, Washington, D.C., accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing family, Chesapeake, Mathews, Virginia, ”1950 United States Federal Census,” database online, Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2022, original data: Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules for the 1950 Census, 1950 – 1950, Washington, DC: National Archives, Washington, DC., Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, Record Group 29, 29 December 2023.
Paul R. Wing family, Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, “1930 US Federal Census Records,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 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 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing entry, 1931, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2011, Original data, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul Wing entry, 14 Dec 1936, “New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., Passenger Lists, 1813-1963,” original data: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2006, Original data: Selected Passenger and Crew Lists and Manifests, National Archives, Washington, D.C., accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing I entry, 1940, “California, U.S., Voter Registrations, 1900-1968,” database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2017, original data: State of California, United States. Great Register of Voters. Sacramento, California: California State Library, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul R Wing entry, “U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2005, original data: 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., accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul Ruben Wing entry, “U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1985,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, original data: Applications for Headstones for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1941, Microfilm publication M1916, 134 rolls, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives at Washington, D.C., and Applications for Headstones, January 1, 1925–June 30, 1970 NAID: 596118, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, Record Group 92, National Archives at St. Louis. Missouri, accessed 29 December 2023.
Paul Reuben Wing (1891-1957) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 29 December 2023.
Pat Wing, Biography, IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0934976/, accessed 29 December 2023.
Pat Wing - IMDb, accessed 29 December 2023.
P Benson Wing family, Tacoma Wat 01, Pierce, Washington, “1900 Census | 1900 US Federal Census Records,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2004, original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900, T623, 1854 rolls, accessed 29 December 2023.
PB Wing family, Tacoma War 1, Pierce, Washington, “1910 Census | 1910 US Federal Census Records,” Database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, UT, 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 and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., accessed 29 December 2023.
“Tacoma Officer Wins Captain’s Commission,” 15 Sep 1918, page 8, The Tacoma Daily Ledger, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (film) - Wikipedia, accessed 29 December 2023.
Toby Wing - IMDb, accessed 29 December 2023.
“Tournament Floats Will Set Precedent,” 30 Dec 1930, page 7, The Pasadena Post, California, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
United States Army Hospital Corps - Wikipedia, accessed 29 December 2023.
“Three Wives Fly to Scene,” 07 May 1935, page 3, The Los Angeles Times, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023; “Major Wing of Film Fame in Both Wars,” 02 Feb 1945, page 3, Daily News, Los Angeles, online at Newspapers.com,
“Thrilling Rescue of Bataan Yanks Told,” 02 Feb 1945, page 3, Daily News, Los Angeles, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 29 December 2023.
TWA Flight 6 - Wikipedia, accessed 29 December 2023.