Matthew Bailey

Professor Presnell
URWT 1103
October 1, 2014
Who is Donald Clark?
Introduction and Prior Knowledge
Donald Clark was my great grandfather. He served in World War 2 in company I of the 31st
infantry. His company was stationed in the Philippines and was forced to surrender and become prisoners
of war. He survived 39 months and 23 days in captivity. I never had the chance to meet him and ask him
about his time during the war. I want to find out more about his war career and his time in the POW
camp. I do not know anything about him other than the article that my grandmother had about him. I
became interested in this topic because of the article. I remembering hearing a little bit about it when I
was younger but I just recently read the article again.
Interest
This topic interest me because it is about one of my family members. He was my great
grandfather so his story has affected three generations of my family. So, in a way this story affects most
of my family that I have met. It definitely affected my grandmothers life. She ended up living with her
aunt and uncle partly because of this story. It also greatly affected his life. My interest in this came up
recently. It popped back into my mind when you asked my class about family stories. This topic also
interests me because I enjoy history. I would like to see what battles he was in and how they related to the
bigger picture of World War II in the Pacific. It says in the article I have on him that his company held of
the Japanese so long that one of their generals committed suicide. I do not know if this is true or if the
newspaper just wrote it to be more interesting but if definitely makes it more thought-provoking.
Research
The research that I have done on him has not turned up anything about him really except for the
newspaper article that was written about him. The newspaper article was written by a reporter named
Charles H. Deal who interviewed him in the mid-1960s. I found a book, named Death March: The
Survivors of Bataan, that was written by survivors of the Bataan Death March in the library and I am
currently looking through it. I believe the experiences these men faced were very similar to the ones my
great grandfather went through and I plan on using them in my report. Just by reading the newspaper
article more thoroughly I have on him, I have come across more information. He was in prison Camp 17
and he also spent time at Camp ODonnell. Camp ODonnell is the camp where a lot of the book I
checked out is based. In the article he said he would be unconscious for 10 to 12 hours and he also said
that he would have probably died if he would have not joined a work party of prisoners to retrieve scrap
metal after battles. Donald worked in Japanese coal mines at the main prison where he spent 25 months.
Conditions were terrible in the camps, there was no food or medicine and he had to work 12 to 18 hours a
day. One interesting fact that I learned from my research is that he saw the mushroom cloud of the second
atomic bomb. The bomb was dropped 38 miles from his prison camp. In the article he says that several
days after the mushroom cloud, American planes flew above the camp and dropped food and notes that
said to walk to Takashima Air Base to be returned home. Another statement that really surprised me was
when Donald said that he had no revenge desires against the Japanese. This really surprises me because
he spent three years of being a prisoner of war to them. He was treated like dirt, barely kept alive and

forced to work 18 hour shifts and has no revenge desires, but maybe that just shows how much of a man
he was.
Questions
Some of the things I still want to find out about him are where all he went during the war. Which
battles he was in and which battle he surrendered at. How he was captured/ forced to surrender. I want to
find out more about the Bataan Death March, how long was it, how many people died during it, the
conditions of it and the amount of time it took. His time in the Death camp. The conditions of the death
camp. The differences, if any, between the death camps he spent time in. His life before the war and after
the war, whether he enlisted or was drafted and how his war experience affected him and his four
daughters, of which one of is my grandmother. I would like to find a photo of him during service. I would
also like to see how it affected my grandmother and how Donald became re-accustomed to civilian life.
Why it matters
At this point, this story matters to me because it is a part of my family history. A lot of the older
relatives in my family have been in wars. My grandmother had two important people in her life go into
war and come home from it. My great grandfather, which was her dad, served in WWII and my
grandfather, her husband, served in Vietnam. It affected my great grandfather and also my grandmother
and her sisters. It also matters to me just because World War II was a major part of history. War has
shaped my family and finding out more about just one persons experiences and if he received any medals
would add to not only my knowledge, but also to other generations in my familys knowledge.