Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Arthur Whitney III HOWE
Arthur W. Howe III, 88, formerly of Chestnut Hill, a retired insurance executive and World War II Navy pilot who endured seven months in a notorious Japanese camp, died of pulmonary fibrosis Thursday, March 10, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Charleston, S.C.
Mr. Howe grew up in Chestnut Hill and graduated from St. Paul's School in Hanover, Mass. He attended Williams College before enlisting in the Navy and becoming a fighter pilot in the Pacific.
In September 1944, his plane was hit during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. Another flier performed a series of maneuvers to direct enemy fire away from Ensign Howe, who parachuted into the gulf. While still in the air, Ensign Howe had recognized the other pilot. It was his childhood friend W. Thacher Longstreth, who, unbeknownst to him, had also become a Navy pilot.
Longstreth eventually became a city councilman in Philadelphia and often recounted the story of their chance encounter.
Ensign Howe was captured by the Japanese and taken to Manila, where he was beaten with fists and rifle butts. He was then taken to the Ofuna, an intimidation camp in Japan.
At Ofuna, "Beatings were conducted on a regular schedule," he later told The Inquirer. "I know of two men who died as the result of these beatings over a long period of time."
The prisoners survived on a small amount of rice daily and occasionally soybean soup. They were stacked in rooms so tightly they had to sleep on top on each other, and there were no sanitary facilities, he said. In violation of the Geneva Convention, they were never registered as prisoners of war.
After seven months, he was transferred to a prison in Omori, Japan. "Most of our Red Cross parcels were stolen by the Japs," he told The Inquirer. "They did not distribute the vitamin pills to us, which would have helped a lot, but after Aug. 15 they decided to hand them out, and each man got 2,000 pills."
At first the prisoners could not believe reports the war had ended, he said. "Finally when the Navy men came ashore and we were sure, we became numb. Some of the boys broke down and cried, others cheered loud and long." Weeks later, he told The Inquirer, "Even now I feel some uncertainty that the rescue is a fact. I can't tell my feelings. I'm too filled up and too happy."
Mr. Howe submitted a detailed account of Ofuna to the military, and the main guard there, nicknamed Congo Cho, was sentenced to death by the War Crimes Tribunal.
He did not share his experiences with his family, though, his son, Arthur, said, until last year, when the book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hellenbrand was published. When told that the book chronicled the brutalities at Ofuna, he acknowledged what had happened to him there, his son said.
Mr. Howe was awarded a Purple Heart and the Air Medal for his World War II service.
After the war, he remained in the Navy and flew fighter planes in Korea. He went on to test aircraft for the Navy and was one of the first pilots to fly a jet plane more than 1,000 m.p.h. and break the sound barrier, his son said.
After retiring from the Navy in 1962, he became director of public relations for the Insurance Co. of North America in Philadelphia and helped assemble an exhibit on the history of firefighting at INA.
From 1970 to 1972, he was loaned by INA to be manager of job placement and procurement for the National Alliance of Businessmen in Philadelphia. The alliance recruited companies to hire the unemployed.
Mr. Howe eventually became president of the company's foundation. He worked closely with civic leaders and was active in the civil rights movement, his son said, and was involved with planning the first Earth Day.
Mr. Howe and his first wife, Susan Thomas, married in 1947. They divorced in 1956. She died in 2007.
In 1957, he married Jean Craig Ashe.
After he retired from INA in 1980, Mr. Howe and his wife moved from Chestnut Hill to Kiawah Island, S.C. He was involved with the planning and development of the Bishop Gadsden Retirement Community near Charleston, where he and his wife had lived in 1999.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Howe is survived by a daughter, Helen Turnage; stepchildren Frederic and Craig Asche and Lisa Mittnacht; a sister; and nine grandchildren.
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