Local families find community after discovering that the POWs’ ancestors were in the same World War II prison camp

By Owen Sexton / [email protected]

While the phrase may be a cliché, the statement “It’s a small world” is sometimes true, particularly for the families of U.S. Army Sergeant George Frank Bishop and Army Private Robert H. Hanson.

Although Bishop and Hanson may never have actually met during their stay in the Philippines during World War II, their families met at Bishop’s funeral earlier this year.

The funeral was attended by approximately 100 people, including Soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, members of the local Patriot Guard Riders, veterans of foreign wars and American Legion posts, and community members from throughout Lewis County at Claquato Cemetery in Chehalis.

Before his burial, Bishop’s remains were found in the Tomb of the Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Bishop, of Centralia, was buried May 23 after his remains were identified using DNA analysis by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and Armed Forces Medical Examiner System scientists nearly 82 years after his death at the Imperial Japanese prisoner of war camp Cabanatuan in 1942.

Hanson died less than a month later in Cabanatuan, according to his niece and local Patriot Guard Rider member Mary Astrid of Centralia, who attended Bishop’s funeral earlier this year to both honor his sacrifice and meet Bishop’s family.

“We both have uncles who died in the same prison camp just a month apart,” Astrid told The Chronicle in an email. “The likelihood of meeting someone with a similar life story in Lewis County is unusual given the circumstances.”

Unfortunately, Astrid doesn’t know much about her uncle, as her grandmother was so traumatized by Hanson’s death that she didn’t talk about it for over a year, according to Astrid’s mother, who was 16 at the time.

“I don’t know Robert’s favorite foods, his favorite color, or did he own a car?” Astrid said. “My mother and her family never spoke about him.”

Like Hanson’s family, Bishop’s family didn’t know much about him, according to his nephew Stanley Yocom of Chehalis. All Bishop’s family had left before his remains were identified were a Christmas card and a small Filipino doll that he sent to his sister in 1940. Despite a search, no photos of Bishop were found.

After serving in the U.S. Navy himself, Yocom was aboard the USS Winston Andromeda-class attack cargo ship north of Manila Bay, Luzon in 1965 during the Vietnam War.

“I spent a year in Subic Bay in the Philippines and I didn’t even know he was there,” Yocom previously told The Chronicle.

What Astrid knows about her uncle comes from the personnel files of Hanson’s deceased army members. The information shows similarities between Bishop and Hanson’s lives that go beyond spending time together in the same prisoner of war camp.

They were both born before the Great Depression, with Bishop born on January 25, 1920 in Centralia and Hanson on October 8, 1922 in Hibbing, Minnesota. Bishop joined the army in 1939, Hanson in 1940.

After completing basic training, Bishop deployed and was assigned to K Battery, 59th Coast Artillery Regiment at Fort Mills on Corregidor Island, at the entrance to Manila Bay on Luzon Island in the Philippines.

There, Bishop helped operate stationary 3-inch coastal artillery pieces aimed at Bataan to the north, as well as 30-inch and 60-inch searchlights used to illuminate mine markers in Manila Bay became.

According to the National Archives database of World War II prisoners of war, Hanson was assigned to the Army Air Force’s 24th Pursuit Group, 693rd Ordnance Company and V Interceptor Command. Like Bishop, he deployed to Luzon in the Philippines.

The 24th Pursuit Group was a squadron consisting of Seversky P-35 and Curtiss P-40 aircraft and conducted both aerial reconnaissance and pursuit missions, according to the Office of Air Force History’s World War II Combat Units database.

As part of the orderly company, Hanson was responsible for storing and loading ammunition onto the squadron’s P-35s and P-40s.

On the day of the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the squadron attempted to attack enemy aircraft that had also been sighted near Luzon, Philippines.

Due to inadequate radar and visual confirmation of enemy aircraft, the 24th Regiment’s pilots were forced to land to refuel, after which Imperial Japanese fighters attacked, inflicting heavy casualties on the squadron.

Despite this, the squadron continued to operate in the Philippines as fighting rapidly intensified in the Pacific theater of World War II.

By the end of December 1941, ground personnel, including Hanson, had been integrated into other Army infantry units, while pilots were divided between evacuating to Australia or continuing combat operations in the Philippines.

On December 22, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces entered Luzon, and fierce fighting raged over the next four months until Bataan fell on April 9, 1942.

This was followed less than a month later by the fall of Corregidor Island and, on May 8, 1942, by the complete collapse of US military resistance in the Philippines.

Along with their American and Filipino comrades, both Bishop and Hanson were forced into the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March.

Both survived the march before being sent to the Cabanatuan prisoner of war camp in central Luzon.

After his incarceration at Cabanatuan, it was not long before Bishop became ill with diphtheria and dysentery and died in the prison camp hospital on July 28, 1942, at the age of 22. He was buried in Common Grave 215 at Cabanatuan.

Less than a month later, on August 21, 1942, Hanson also died at the age of 19 from complications of dysentery. He was also buried in Cabanatuan.

After the end of World War II in 1947, the bodies in the mass graves were excavated by the American Graves Registration Service to identify the prisoners’ remains. While Hanson’s remains were identified, Bishop’s remains never were.

His remains were left in the Tomb of the Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery until the DPAA identified them in 2023.

“(Hanson) was brought home by train on Oct. 25, 1949, to be buried next to his parents at Maple Hill Cemetery (in Hibbing),” Astrid said. “Robert’s courage and love of country are why our freedoms should not be taken for granted. Spilled blood and loss of life are too costly.”

To mark Veterans Day last month, Astrid laid red roses on the Freedom Walk at George Washington Park in Centralia, where Bishop is listed as one of the Centralia residents who made the ultimate sacrifice during their military service.

“I also honor and remember Private Robert Hanson,” said Astrid.

Both Hanson and Bishop aren’t the only Bataan Death March survivors who have descendants in the region, as Astrid added that she and her fellow Patriot Guard riders are on call if asked to attend Army Private’s upcoming funeral First Class Gordon N. Larson attend. 22, from Seattle.

According to KIRO 7 News in Seattle, the DPAA announced in early August of this year that Larson’s remains had been identified.

Like Bishop, Larson was assigned to the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment on Corregidor Island, but served in B Battery instead of K Battery.

While he also survived the Bataan Death March, Larson died shortly after Bishop and Hanson on November 14, 1942, according to Cabanatuan prison records. The date and place of his funeral have not yet been set.

“If the Patriot Guard Riders are asked to do so, it will be a privilege to stand up for this hero,” Astrid said. “If not, I will attend as part of his community.”