Gave So Much, Asked So Little
By Matthew Dohle and Karina Irvine
William Howard McClure
July 24, 1923-December 5, 2009
During World War II, Japanese forces captured and interred around 27,000 American military personnel and 19,000 American civilians.[1] These war prisoners were sent to Prisoner of War camps, where they faced some of the most inhumane conditions the war had to offer. Many of these camps were run by the Japanese secret police, known as the Kempeitai. Forty percent of the 27,000 American soldiers died while held captive by what was known as the ‘Japanese Gestapo,’ and many of those who did survive were left permanently disabled or traumatized.[2] William Howard McClure was one of the lucky few who not only survived the atrocities he faced while he was a Prisoner of War, but also made a life for himself in the aftermath of World War II.
Born in Chicago on July 24, 1923, to parents William and Mildred, William Howard McClure was the second of three children. He had an older sister named Mary and a younger sister named Ruth.[3] After graduating from Emil G. Hirsch Metropolitan High School in 1942, William spent time working for a construction company before enlisting in the US Army on June 29 of that same year.[4] With Word War II raging, McClure, feeling a sense of patriotism and duty, decided to join the Air Army Corps, and was stationed with the 882nd Squadron, 500th Bomb Group, 73rd Bomb Wing.[5] Part of the “McClure Crew,” William, along with his other squad members, oversaw carrying out the strategic bombing campaign against Japan, which included air strikes and POW rescue missions.[6]
William McClure, standing in the center (soldier #3). Photo retrieved from "Find a Grave"
On May 25, 1944, McClure was shot down over Tokyo Bay while on a night bombing mission.[7] He was the only member of his crew who survived the crash. He was taken prisoner and held in the Kempeitai-ran Omori prison. The treatment of Allied POWs at the hands of the Japanese was utterly ruthless. Japan failed to adhere to the Second Geneva Convention, a treaty signed in 1929 that attempted to curtail the inhumane treatment of prisoners. Although the exact details of what McClure faced are unknown, burning, electrocution, force feeding, beating, and rice torture were among some of the torture methods the Kempeitai were known to use.[8] Fiske Hanley, another B-29 pilot held captive in the same Omori prison as McClure, recalled that, “...prisoners were denied soap, razors, toothbrushes, shoes, belts, bedding, and medicine. We never saw the sun. We were not allowed to exercise. There were no baths for us and no changing out of our filthy, ragged, vermin-ridden clothing.”[9] McClure spent the last few months of the war in this facility, until he was freed by Allied forces and returned home to the United States at the end of September. He was just 21 years old.
After the war, William married his high school sweetheart, Emma Lee Lallemand. They married in 1944 and settled in Naperville, a suburb west of Chicago. William attended Northwestern Dental School and graduated in 1950, after which he went on to practice dentistry in Illinois and Arizona.[10] Along with serving as the president of the American Prosthodontic Society in 1986, McClure was also a member of the American Dental Association and the Chicago Dental Society. He retired in 2000 and moved to Aurora, Colorado with Lee. He died on December 5, 2009, just a few short months after Lee’s death on August 10th. [11]
Footnotes ↓
[1] Reynolds, Gary K. “US Prisoners of War and CIVILIAN American Citizens Captured.” Naval History and Heritage Command, July 29, 2020. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-listalphabetically/u/us-prisoners-war-civilian-american-citizenscaptured.html#:~:text=Of%20the%20approximately%20130%2C000%20American,captured%20and%20interned% 20by%20Japan.
[2] “Information about the Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1939-1945,” Information about the Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1939-1945, accessed August 20, 2021, https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/prisoners-of-war-of-thejapanese-1939-194
[3] Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00937; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 103-51
[4] National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Illinois, 10/16/1940- 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1161
[5] Master File A-Z, Reconstruction of Some Personnel Records, pg 158. http://www.500thbombgroupb29.org/Master%20File%20500th.pdfhttps://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_79_2005-02-02.html.
[6] 500th Bomb Group B-29 Memorial, http://www.500thbombgroupb29.org/about.htm
[7] “William Howard MCCLURE (1923-2009) - Find a Grave...,” Find a Grave, July 3, 2011, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/72598499/william-howard-mcclure.
[8] Bonny Tan and Heng Wong, “Kempeitai,” Infopedia (National Library Board Singapore, September 28, 1997), https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_79_2005-02-02.html.
[9] Accused War Criminal: An American Kempei Tai Survivor by Fiske Hanley Fiske Hanley, Accused War Criminal: An AMERICAN Kempei Tai Survivor (Dallas, TX: Brown Books Publishing Group, 2020).
[10] “Obituary of William MCCLURE: All Veterans Funeral & CREMATION - Wheat Ridge,” Funeral Homes & Cremation Services, accessed August 20, 2021, https://allveterans.com/tribute/details/158934/WilliamMcClure/obituary.html.
[11] “Obituary of William MCCLURE: All Veterans Funeral & CREMATION - Wheat Ridge,” Funeral Homes & Cremation Services, accessed August 20, 2021, https://allveterans.com/tribute/details/158934/WilliamMcClure/obituary.html.
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