A WIFE SENDS MAIL TO HER CIVILAN HUSBAND WHO AFTER BEING SHOT IN THE BACK AND PARALYZED DURING THE INVASION OF GUAM WAS IMPRISONED IN A JAPANESE POW CAMP; Mail sent to Mr. Frank Perry at a Japanese prison camp by his wife in San Francisco
1945009623This legal-size envelope is addressed to "Frank Perry American Civilian Internee Held by Japan / in Zentsuzi War Prison Camp / Zentsuzi Skikoku Island Japan / Via: New York N.Y." The return address on reverse is "Mrs. Florence E. Perry 77 Carmelita St. / San Francisco California". It is franked with a pair of 3-cent Presidential Jefferson horizontal- coil stamps Scott #842 canceled with a New York city machine postmark dated 17 March 1945. U.S "Examined By" censor tape with purple text reading "11877 / U.S. Censor" has resealed the left edge of the envelope. A Japanese blue censor handstamp with three Japanese characters reading Ken'etsuzmi censored and an addition orange-red oval Wada censor mark are applied below the address. No contents; envelope only. <br /><br />Perry was an American civilian radio operator who worked on Guam at the time of the Japanese invasion which began on 8 December the day after the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. During the assault Perry was shot in the back by Japanese solders and paralyzed from the waist down. After being treated at the captured American Naval Hospital on Guam Perry was shipped to the Zenstsuji Prison Group complex near Hiroshima and survived the war. <br /><br />A photostatic copy of a reference document accompanying this envelope states that "This item was bought from Tom Jackson. It was given to him in the camp in Japan." Jackson was a former British airman who had been captured on Java and imprisoned at Zentsuji Sub Camp No. 2 Innoshima Island. <br /><br />At their peak the Zentsuji camps held about 5500 British Australian and American prisoners during the war. Little has been published in English about them however the Gibbs Report stated that prisoners worked as laborers in nearby shipbuilding facilities. For more information see Mansell's <i>Capture: The Forgotten Men of Guam</i> Niiyama's "British POW Leaves Diary. . . at The Chugoku Shimbun Hiroshima Peace Media Center online C<i>enter for Research: Allied POWs Under the Japanese: Zensuji Camp Shikuko 1942-1945 and Hiroshima POW Camp #5-B Innoshima</i> Department of the Army All -Japan POW Camp Group History and Gruenzner's<i> Postal History of American POWs. . . .</i> <br /><br />Quite a scarce item documenting the imprisonment of a paralyzed American civilian in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. books
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