COURTESY OF U.S. NAVY World War II ended aboard USS Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945, when representatives of 10 nations, including U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, assembled on the ship's deck in Tokyo Bay, Japan, to receive the surrender documents from Japanese officials.

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POW lives to tell story
at WWII ceremony

The retired colonel will speak
about his Japanese captivity

Survival, loyalty and faith kept Col. Ben Skardon alive during three years as prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II.

Skardon, who survived the 10-day Bataan death march when the Philippines fell in April 1942, was to be one of several guest speakers this morning at the 60th commemoration of the end of the Pacific war, to be held on the decks of the battleship USS Missouri.

His speech was to center on "certain episodes" that "kept me alive" while he was held in four Japanese prison camps, three in the Philippines and one in southern Japan.

"There was the personal sacrifice of fellow officers who were Clemson University graduates like myself and by bits of food secretly obtained in exchange for his Clemson ring," Skardon said.

"You have to realize when you are a prisoner of war, there is very little to look forward to," Skardon said. "Those guys returned my life and kept me going."

He also recalled the sacrifice of a Catholic chaplain while being held at Camp Fukuoka No. 3 in southern Japan.

"There was a soldier who had pneumonia," Skardon said, "and couldn't stand up for roll call. The Japanese wanted to punish him by taking all his clothes, threaten to throw a bucket or water on him and make him stand outside. This was in January.

"The Catholic chaplain volunteered to take his place, but for some unknown reasons the punishment didn't take place."

Skardon recalled on Dec. 13, 1944, he and some 1,600 prisoners of war were herded into the belly of the Oryoku-Maru in Subic Bay, which was attacked by Navy dive bombers. He was one of 450 Americans to survive when the ship sank, only to be recaptured.

For his suffering as a prisoner of war, Skardon was awarded two Silver Star and two Bronze Star medals. He retired from the Army in 1962 with 23 years of service, which also included another combat tour in the Korean War.

This morning's ceremony will feature a 21-gun salute and a missing-man formation flyover by F-15 fighter jets of the Hawaii Air National Guard.

Adm. Gary Roughead, commander of the Pacific Fleet, is scheduled to address a crowd of veterans -- many of whom once served on the Missouri -- their families and guests.

Other commemoration ceremonies were to be held today at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan gained control of the Pacific, with Guam, Wake Island and Hong Kong all falling within the next three weeks. The following April, the Allies faced another major defeat with the fall of Bataan in the Philippines.

The turning point came in June 1942, when U.S. naval forces stopped the Japanese advance during the Battle of Midway.

In 1945 the Allies delivered Japan the Potsdam Declaration, demanding an unconditional surrender. When Japan ignored the ultimatum, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Emperor Hirohito conceded defeat in a radio address to his nation on Aug. 15, 1945.

Japan's formal surrender was made aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945.

Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander, joined nine other Allied officers to accept the surrender from Japan's foreign minister and the commander of Japanese forces. The 18-minute ceremony ended a war that began three years, eight months and 22 days earlier at Pearl Harbor.

The Missouri -- now a floating museum -- is anchored at Ford Island within a few hundred yards of another battleship: USS Arizona, sunk during the Pearl Harbor attack. The "Mighty Mo" was decommissioned in 1992 after serving in two other wars: Korea and the Persian Gulf.