Eighty years ago, on Oct. 24, 1944, Lieutenant Guy W. Iverson from Cedar Falls sailed toward Japan on a ship called the Arisan Maru. Crammed into the ship’s cargo hold with him were nearly 1,800 other Allied prisoners of war, including 21 fellow Iowans.
These soldiers hailed from across the state and represented multiple military branches. Captain Roy B. Gray from Des Moines belonged to the Army. Staff Sgt. Clarence A. Estes from Mahaska County served in the Army Air Force. New Hartford native Orville W. King and John H. Hoover from Grinnell were Navy medics.
The Iowans were also survivors. Most had endured the notorious Bataan Death March and then over two years in brutal POW camps in the Philippines. But now, the sight of American airplanes over Manila signaled a shift in the tide of war.
Forces under General Douglas MacArthur landed in the Philippines just four days earlier in a massive amphibious assault codenamed “A-Day.” MacArthur fulfilled his famous promise: “ I shall return .” Liberation seemed just weeks or months away.