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On September 15, 1945 we received official notice that <em>Lawrence “Chandler” Baldwin</em> had died in Japanese hands in Japan early In March, 1945. We had been anxious for months, and the notice was one of the last of those concerning prisoners of war in Japan. His ashes are now, for the time being, in the vault at the U.S. Military Cemetery No. 2 in Manila.</p>
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My good wife, before our marriage in 1909, was Philena Lawrence Chandler of Malone, New York. There are three sons: Karl, Jr., Chandler, and John. Chandler was born at Tokyo on April 23, 1915, and at that time I was a student officer at the American Embassy in Japan.</p>
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We moved to Washington, D.C., in January, 1920, and eight of the next nine years were spent there. These were the formative years in the Baldwin family and Chandler’s brightness and wit always stood out. We joined the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church while here. Chandler took responsibility well. When the John Greenleaf Whittier School was dedicated, he, then in the sixth grade, was selected to represent the student body because of a fine thesis he had written about the school.</p>
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In 1928 I was sent to the Fort Monroe Coast Artillery School, Virginia, and in 1929 to the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Chandler graduated from high school at Leavenworth as a cadet captain in the ROTC. By that time he had shown himself to be a good student and stood within the top third of his class with his subjects well balanced. He became an Eagle Scout with two Palms.</p>
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We returned to Washington in 1932, where Chandler entered Columbia Preparatory School for West Point. Procuring the appointment to the Academy was not easy, and we consulted many members of Congress. We, at last, found a friend in Stephen M. Young of Ohio, who provided an appointment for the following year. In the meantime Chandler spent a year at the University of Maryland.</p>
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He entered West Point in 1934. His Academic standing was always good. Although too light in weight for most athletics, Chandler did play some lacrosse and was cadet manager of the team his senior year. During his first leave from the Academy, in the summer of 1936, he was selected along with five other classmates to go on the midshipmen’s cruise to Europe.</p>
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The Christmas vacation of 1937 Chandler spent at Burlington, Vermont. I have no doubt that the two weeks spent there crystallized the love he felt so deeply for Kathleen Kieslich.</p>
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In June, 1938, the whole family was at West Point for Chandler’s graduation, and two days later Kay and Chandler were married in the beautiful chapel there. The new Lieutenant was assigned to the Coast Artillery and he and his bride set up housekeeping at Fort Monroe, Virginia, but about six months later he was ordered to Corregidor, Philippine Islands. Patsy (Patricia Ann) was born at Corregidor on October 24, 1940, and early in 1941 Kay and her infant daughter were forced to leave for the United States.</p>
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During the war Chandler was Battalion Adjutant, S-3, Operations Officer and Gas Officer for the First Battalion, 60th C.A. (Anti-aircraft) and his commander speaks in glowing terms of his able service. He is entitled to service ribbons with three bronze stars and the Distinguished Unit Badge with two Oak Leaf Clusters.</p>
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I was sent to Australia as Military Attaché in April, 1942, and Chandler and I were able to exchange messages before Corregidor fell (May 6). We know now that he left the Rock about May 24, 1942 for Manila. He landed by barge at Pasay and marched to the old Bilibid prison. After about a week there, he was sent with others to Prisoner of War Camp No. 1 at Cabanatuan—north of Manila. In late October about 1800 who had volunteered were returned to Bilibid and embarked for Davao, Mindanao, arriving there on November 8.</p>
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Several cards were received by Kay and Philena toward the end of 1943. In one he says, “For Kay read Robert Burns’ ‘A Red Red Rose’ and for the family to read Van Dyke’s ‘Prayer’ (God of the Open Air).” The cards received always reflected a strong feeling that Chandler’s “sense of humor and morale remained intact”. The following are extracts from a card to his mother.</p>
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“Farming daily for camp use.</p>
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“Please see that all of you keep strength, courage, and patience and don’t worry.</p>
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“Please see that Dad tells ‘Mac’ I miss him, to get on the ball and that I hope his promise is taken care of.”</p>
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The Davao Camp was not bad as Japanese prisoner of war camps went and the number of deaths there was quite low. Those who were with Chan there reported that his humor and high morale were life-savers.</p>
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Two-thirds of these prisoners were sent from Davao by ship in June, 1944, and arrived at Manila after a transfer at Cebu. We knew of this movement but did not then know whether Chandler was in that lot, nor whether this group stayed in Luzon or went on to Japan.</p>
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In September, 1944, a second ship carrying the remainder of the Davao men was torpedoed north of Zamboanga and all but about eighty-two men perished. Chandler lost his good friend, Charlie White, West Point ‘39, and many other close friends. Both Kay and I were able to interview some of the survivors and obtain fairly good information on the Davao camp. Later we learned that Chandler was interned at Cabanatuan and that in July he had received a quantity of mail and some Red Cross supplies.</p>
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While in Davao Chandler compiled a history of the Philippine Campaign. This was prepared after conferences with hundreds of his mates and the final volume was written in collaboration with Captain Frank O. Anders, who specialized in the history of the non-regulars. The finished product consisted of hundreds of pages and about 300 maps and illustrations. It has been pronounced as most excellent by surviving officers. Both Captain Anders and Chandler made copies, but the Japanese, by a surprise inspection of Billbid just after the return of the men from Davao, discovered and confiscated the copy possessed by Anders. A grapevine message to Chandler, who was bunked on an upper floor, enabled him to throw his volume out a window. It was kicked under some brush by other prisoners, later recovered, and a few weeks afterward buried at Cabanatuan. In early 1945, after the recapture of the Philippines, the history was dug up and was seen by Anders and others, but all efforts to locate and secure the volume for Kay have so far been unsuccessful. Ninety-five per cent of the men who helped compile this history are now dead and it is most unfortunate that it cannot be found and properly utilized.</p>
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A ship left for Japan in October loaded with 1,600 American prisoners of war. This vessel was torpedoed by an American submarine and less than ten men appear to have been saved. As with the previous sinking, Chandler lost many friends.</p>
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About this time his group was moved from Cabanatuan to Bilibid, the native prison in Manila.</p>
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On December 13, 1944, the last of the physically-able Americans (about 1,620) were shipped out from Manila on the Oryoku Maru. This was strafed, bombed, and finally sunk in shallow water in Subic Bay, where about three hundred of our boys lost their lives.</p>
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The survivors were sent north via truck and rail to San Fernando Union. On December 27 they were loaded on two ships, Chandler sailing in the hold of the smaller ship with over two hundred others. Four tablespoons of water and two tablespoons of uncooked rice comprised the daily and monotonous ration. Many died en route to Takao, Formosa, where they arrived about a week later.</p>
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At this port Chandler’s group transferred to the larger ship which had brought most of the remainder from San Fernando Union. This vessel was badly bombed at Takao on January 9, 1945, at which time about 350 of our men were killed. Survivors were then transferred to another dirty and congested ship which sailed on January 15. After calling at many Chinese ports, this ship finally reached Moji on the Island of Kyushu, Japan, on January 30, landing about 450 men, of whom about 150 were very sick.</p>
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The trip had been very hard on the men and the life in the “hell holes” (holds) records the blackest page of Japanese inhumanity to other men. Many were starved beyond endurance. Scores died daily and were tossed into the sea. Chandler was one of many seriously afflicted with dysentery when the ship docked. Of 51 sick officers who landed at Moji, not over five or six remain alive, and of the 1,620 men who left Manila together, only about 250 are now living. Many of these have been physically wrecked for the rest of their existence on this earth. One of the last acts of Chan’s was to care for a sick friend before he died.</p>
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At Moji a friend helped Chan over the side of the vessel and later into an ambulance. Better treatment was hoped for at the hospital but it was not received. Starvation, dysentery, and abuse at the hands of the Japanese took his gallant life.</p>
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A survivor has stated, “When one talks of the heroic and the good, don’t talk about us, the survivors. The generous men, the true men, the unselfish men are the men who for the most part perished.”</p>
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In mid-March of 1945 I visited Manila with Mr. Nelson T. Johnson, the American Minister to Australia. We went through Bilibid Prison and saw the conditions which our men had been required to endure. I looked over the death list and prison records, for at this time we did not know what had happened to Chan.</p>
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Mr. Johnson and I had two chats with General MacArthur, who was always kind and spoke well of my son. On this occasion he told me that he had asked his generals to be on the lookout especially for Captain Baldwin, Colonel Baldwin’s son, as he hoped to recover him and send him to meet me in Australia. The general added, “We have no proof that he is not alive and it may be that he is in Japan with others”. Later, on learning of Chandler’s death, General MacArthur expressed his sincere condolence.</p>
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Words almost fail me when I think of the faith that Chandler had in God, his fellow-men, and in himself; of the confidence that he had in his country; in fact, the trust that he even had in Japanese justice. His love for comrades was extremely deep, but he accepted his lot and carried through. I never believed that Chandler would try to escape—his thought was concerned with the retribution and brutality that might have been meted upon his friends in case he did so. All surviving officers who knew Chandler have spoken of his patience and tolerance. He never took water or food from another, and when his own meagre ration was stolen, he bore it like a man with great forbearance.</p>
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In October, 1945, Kay had a beautiful memorial service held for Chandler at St. Paul’s Church in Burlington, Vermont. The mayor had the flag on the city hall flown at half-mast in Chan’s honor. Kay and her many friends decorated the church with armfuls of asters and marigolds. There were boxes of gladiolas and chrysanthemums—huge and red. The organist played the West Point songs, “The Corps” and “Alma Mater”. It was a wonderful service, so reminiscent to Kay of the many splendid hours that she and Chandler had sat together side by side in the West Point Chapel. Eighty or ninety close friends were there to share with her the sincere sympathy that they all felt.</p>
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Chandler traded his West Point class ring, his last possession of any value, for sulpha drugs shortly before his death. After the Japanese surrender a Japanese woman of Fukuoka, whose family had been kind to American prisoners of war, gave this ring to Sergeant Bedeman, a British prisoner of war. He carried this to England, found Kay’s address through West Point and returned the ring through our Military Attaché in London. Thus though Chandler was born in Japan and died there under appalling circumstances, a Japanese figures in the return of this, his treasured West Point ring.</p>
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Five hundred friends sent messages of condolence and sympathy, and I shall mention a few which seem very close to us.</p>
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A widow in Melbourne, Australia, whose only son had been lost in action shortly before wrote: “Our hearts go out in loving sympathy to you both and to your daughter-in-law, whose love for you will help you bear this sorrow; and Chan’s gift of love—your little grand-daughter—will brighten the years that lie ahead.</p>
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“Your son would not have you grieve unduly. He has lived his brief manhood among men, knowing what is best in them: and has gone out untouched and undefeated by the petty strife of a world at peace”.</p>
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Another Australian, himself a prisoner of war in World War I, wrote: “Your grief at his loss, and the heavy toll taken of young lives in achieving victory, will, to some extent, be mitigated, I hope, as the soldier father of a soldier son, in the proud knowledge that he was one of the gallant few who took the first brunt of battle and paid the price; and that, by their fortitude, comradeship, courage, and patience, they showed that their minds and thoughts were never captive, whatever the bodily hardships. Their superb example should inspire us all, and must never be forgotten by the more fortunate of us”.</p>
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Many expressed the finest of Christian faith and trust and gave strength to us all, but the truest perspective came from some eighteen boys who went all the way with Chandler but lived. Here are but a few extracted quotations:</p>
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“One of the things that impressed me most about Chan was the healthy mental outlook he had about imprisonment. Many people let it get them down, and while none of us were happy about our lot, still it didn’t pay to worry about a position for which there was no immediate remedy. Chan kept in good spirits, was active, and devoted most of his spare time to planning what he was going to do when he got back, and you (Kay), of course were the focal point around which these plans revolved.”</p>
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“I know there is nothing I can say or do which will lighten your burden of sorrow. You may be very proud of Chan, however, for he was every inch a soldier, and always conducted himself as an officer and a gentleman .</p>
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I know that I consider myself fortunate to have known him and do respect him very highly.”</p>
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“Chan did a fine job during the war and it seems a sin to lose such a brilliant officer when everything was so near the end. It seemed like the best were the first to go.”</p>
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“The pictures you received were some of those Chan carried with him that he had received in his mail. He was very (quietly) proud of you as a school teacher (made me envious), knew that Patty went to nursery school, and knew that you had quit teaching and had gone west. Those pictures were dog-eared because they had been looked at!</p>
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“Chan was more than proud of Patty and had a right to be. He was also, very quietly, proud of his father. It stuck out like a traffic light every time he spoke of him.”</p>
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To his parents and family, Chandler will remain forever young, cheerful, courageous, and Christian. He was the embodiment of the best results of our wonderful West Point training and ideals. On him the blows fell most heavily but strong character stood through it all. There in Heaven Eternal he stands today as proof that—</p>
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“Greater love hath no man than this,<br />
That a man lay down his life for his friends”.</p>
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<em>—His Father, (Colonel Karl F. Baldwin, U.S.A., Retired)</em></p>
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