12/15/2025
81 Years Ago on December 14, 1944;
TM2 John Harris was executed by the Japanese during the Palawan massacre, he was 26 years old…
John Solomon Harris was born on January 31, 1918 in Jasper County, Georgia to Samuel and Sarah Harris, he had a sister and a brother.
Another brother passed away at two years old.
In 1935 he enlisted in the Navy and in late 1941 was serving on the submarine tender USS Canopus AS-9 in the Philippines.
When the Japanese attacked the Philippines in 1941, USS Canopus and her crew continued repairing vessels, submarines, and equipment for the Army the best they could. Hit by two bombs and disabled, her crew scuttled USS Canopus in Mariveles Bay on April 9, 1942 after the surrender of US / Philippine forces on Bataan. The crew evacuated to Corregidor and fought with the Marine Battalions there until the surrender in May 1942.
On August 12, 1942, 300 US Prisoners including Harris were transported to Palawan Island to be used as slave labor in the construction of a Japanese airfield, a project that took two years.
In September 1944 half of the US Prisoners were transported to Manila leaving an estimated 150 on the island to be used for other construction projects.
On December 14, 1944, air raid sirens were activated and the prisoners were herded by the Japanese guards into trenches connected to previously constructed air raid shelters.
The Japanese then poured barrels of gasoline into the trenches and lit the trenches and the entrances to the air raid shelters on fire. Any prisoners who managed to escape the fires were gunned down.
An estimated 24 prisoners dug their way out the back of the shelters and escaped, but the Japanese hunted them down and only 11 managed to reach Philippine Guerrilla Fighters under the command of Nazario Mayor, where they were eventually rescued by a PBY sent for them.
TM2 John Harris was not among the survivors, his remains were identified after the war and buried at Mount Zion Cemetery in Jasper County, Georgia.
Younger brother Robert Hunter Harris also served in the Navy during WW2, he passed away at the age of 57 on April 20, 1979.
Post-War two Japanese officers; General Yamash*ta and Lt Colonel Satoshi Oie were tried and executed for war crimes in the Philippines including the Palawan massacre.
Ten other Japanese officers were either sentenced to death or prison terms for the Palawan massacre.
Those sentenced to death had their punishments commuted to a 30-year jail sentence by General MacArthur.
In December 1958, these officers still in prison were freed under a general amnesty for Japanese war crimes prisoners.
