Paul Leroy Long

Staff Sergeant

United States Army Finance Corps

Paul Leroy Long, son of Myrtle Long Cannon, was born on 25 August 1916 in Lincoln, Kansas.  He was a member of the Lincoln Presbyterian Church.

After graduating from Lincoln High School in 1935, Paul enlisted in the United States Army on 12 August 1935.  After completing basic training, Paul would spend the next three years at Fort Riley, Kansas.  In 1939, Paul was transferred to the Philippines.  Some time after the Japanese attacked the Philippines; Paul made his way to Corregidor where he stayed to defend the island until captured by the Japanese on 7 May 1942.  He was sent Manila’s Bilibid Prison where he would stay for the next two and a half years. 

At 11:00 a.m. on 13 December 1944, Paul and the rest of the POWs passed through the gates of Bilibid Prison and in the sun and humidity, march through the streets of Manila arriving at Pier 7 three hours later.  After arrival at Pier 7, the POWs were ordered to board the Oryoku Maru for loading in the Number 1, 2, and 5 holds.  The forward hold consisted of around 600 men, the Number 2 hold held around 260 medics, and the rear Number 5 hold held nearly 860 POWs (It is unknown which hold Paul was placed in).  The air in the Number 5 hold grew hot and foul.  Latrine facilities consisted of five gallon buckets that overflowed quickly once they were issued.  In order to empty these buckets, the POWs passed the buckets over heads in total darkness.  These buckets were continually spilled as the POWs passed them to the front.  Conditions grew worse during the night.  Many of the POWs suffered from many tropical diseases, among them dysentery.  Added to the diseases, starvation and exposure took its toll on the men. Several officers and men suffocated during the night in the Number 5 hold. 

On the morning of 14 December, dive-bombers from the USS Hornet (CV-12) located the Oryoku Maru off of Subic Bay.  Attacks on the convoy continued all day.  The reactions of the POWs in the holds ranged from sheer terror to complete excitement.  Due to the attacks, the POWs would receive no food or water.  The night of 14 December proved worse than the previous.  Conditions resulting from the hysteria and the cruel treatment led to many prisoners committing acts of insanity.  Men slowly died of disease and in some cases, murder by their fellow soldiers driven insane by the conditions in the holds.  This night of madness took the lives of nearly 50 men.

Around 5:00 a.m. on 15 December, the Japanese called down into the holds and informed the prisoners to prepare to disembark.  With Oryoku Maru off Olongapo Point in Subic Bay, the Japanese ready to move Paul and the rest of the POWs ashore.  As they started to climb from the holds, U.S. Naval aircraft appeared.  The first aircraft dropped its ordinance and kept flying.  As the move continued, another flight of aircraft showed up and dropped a bomb directly into the Number 5 hold and exploded at the bottom of the ship.  A second bomb hit close to the port side aft of the Oryoku Maru.  In the hold beams and hatch covers fell everywhere.  The POWs started to climb the ladder to get out of the burning hold.  One of the Japanese guards assigned to the hold, started firing his rifle into the hold.  The POWs jumped back from the ladder.  The guard fired several shots into the hold.  After the smoke cleared, the scene in the Number 5 hold proved horrible.  Mangled bodies and dead prisoners lined the deck.  Two hundred and fifty POWs died.  The order finally came to abandon.   The POWs came out of the hold orderly and calm.  Once the POWs left the hold they received orders to swim ashore.  The water and fresh air revived many of the POWs.  During this time Japanese machine guns periodically opened fire of the swimming POWs.  Reports indicate a current pulled many POWs away from their instructed path.  The result was death at the hands of a Japanese Marine machine gunner.  As this happened the Hornet's aircraft returned and attached the vessel several more times.  The POWs waved and yelled at the aircraft.  In apparent recognition the plane dipped it's wings and ceased the attack.

Following the bombing of the Oryoku Maru, Paul and the other surviving POWs were put board the Enoura Maru.  Previously used to transport horses, the holds on the Enoura Maru were filthy with manure, yet into these holds were crammed was Paul and about 1,040 other POWs.  Some of the POWs were so hungry that they picked out grain from the manure or grain that had dropped from the horses’ mouth during feeding.  On 31 December the Enoura Maru reached Takao, Formosa.  The Japanese celebrated the New Year, leaving Paul and the other POWs to fend for themselves for the next four days.  During those four days thirty-four prisoners died.  On the morning of 9 January 1945, aircraft from the USS Hornet attacked Takao.  Little did the pilots know that the ship they were attacking had approximately 1,040 POWs crammed in the holds.  The killed 252 POWs and injured a similar number, many of whom later died from their injuries. 

 On 23 July 1945, Paul’s stepsister, Elizabeth Cannon, received a telegram from the War Department informing her that Paul was killed in action in the Pacific while being transported aboard a Japanese vessel.  It is unknown if Paul was one of the 252 POWs that were killed during the bombing in Enoura Maru or he died from wounds received from the attacked.  Unfortunately, his body was never recovered.

Paul’s mother proceeded in death.  His stepfather, John Cannon and stepsister, Elizabeth, survive him.

Staff Sergeant Paul Leroy Long, United States Army, is still listed a Missing in Action.  His name can be found on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery; Manila, Philippines.

Among Paul’s awards and decorations is the Purple Heart.

Source of information:

1.  National Archives and Records Administration. World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946 [database online]. Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, Inc., 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.

2.  United States. National Archives and Records Administration. World War II & Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas. [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000. Original data from: United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Register, World War II Dead Interred in American Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil and World War II and Korea Missing or Lost or Buried at Sea. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 19xx.

3.  American Battle Monuments Commission (www.abmc.gov).

4.  Center for Research Allied POWS Under the Japanese (http://www.mansell.com/pow-index.html).

5.  Lincoln (Kansas) Sentinel-Republican, 26 July 1945.

6.      World War II Casualties from Lincoln County, Kansas (http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/lincoln/military/honor.txt).

7.  1930 Federal Census; Kansas, Lincoln County, Lincoln City, Sheet 4A.