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Concerning Orville Stanford. POW in Japan during WWII. Captured in the Philippines as a civilian oil driller and later commissioned an emergency 1st Lt. in the U.S. Army, just prior to capture. Was a POW in Japan from 1942 to 1945, 3 1/2 years. After returning home to Manhattan Beach, Calif. in 1945 he subsequently retrned to Japan to tesatify in the War Crime Trials held there. His testimony resulted in the conviction and execution of war criminals. Specifically, those war criminals who were in charge of the slave labor camps. Orville returned to Manhattan Beach and lived there the rest of his life. Orville succumbed of cancer at the Long Beach Veterans Hospital in 1973.
Orville's frined Sport Jordan, who worked for the same drilling company was also captured by the Japanese. Sport died in the Japanese transport ship that was transporting POW's to Japan. The ship was destroyed by a U.S. warship because it was unmarked and assumed to be a supply ship.
Emmerson Loewe also returned with Orvilled to Japan to testify in the trials. However, Emmerson was killed in a jeep accident the evening before he was to testify. (See links to the right to other Stanford Family members.) |
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