Focus on History in Today’s Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder-World War II soldier Alton Swann of Gloversville fought in the Philippines and was a Japanese POW for three years and James Kirby Martin is executive producer of the documentary Benedict Arnold: Hero Betrayed.  The film is based on Martin’s 1997 book Benedict Arnold Revolutionary Hero.  The documentary is streaming on several TV platforms, narrated by Martin Sheen and stars Peter O’Meara.  Three men from the Mohawk Valley area created the documentary: Niskayuna native Chris Stearns, Saratoga Springs native Tom Mercer and Fort Johnson native Anthony Vertucci. Saturday Historians Podcast "38 Minutes"

 Triumph after three years as a Japanese POW

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History

   Michael Swann’s mother told him, “Don’t ever talk to your father about the war.”  Many years later after their father had passed Michael and his brothers learned some of the reasons.

   Michael’s father, Alton R. Swann, was born in Schenectady in 1916, son of Ora and Helen Swann.  At eight years old he moved to Gloversville with his mother and four siblings after Ora Swann died.

   Alton was on the debate team, edited the school newspaper and excelled in track at Gloversville High.  After high school he graduated from Gloversville Business School in 1937.  He was hired as an accountant at Schenectady General Electric. 

   He was drafted by the Army in May 1941.  He was assigned to Clark Air Base in the Philippines with the 803rd Engineer Battalion.

   Within hours of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese bombing attack on December 8 resulted in destruction of Clark Field.  Swann was reassigned to the battle for Bataan which the Americans lost to the Japanese.  He fought at Aglaloma where his 803rd battalion was decimated.  

   Swann was put on board a transport ship which took survivors to the American island fortress of Corregidor.  Swann told his eldest son that his superiors were impressed he was able to maintain his composure when Japanese planes strafed their ship. 

   Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese in May 1942.  Taken prisoner, Swann survived a death march on Bataan where hundreds were killed or died while marching to internment camps. 

   He was held at Camp 10C in the Philippines until September 1944 when transported to Japan aboard a “hell” ship, the Noto Maru.  Hundreds of prisoners were forced to stand upright in the hold in tropical heat.  U.S. submarines mistakenly sank many such overcrowded ships carrying American prisoners.

   In Japan he was imprisoned at a POW camp and used as slave labor, shoveling manganese ore into furnaces.  Tooth decay and gum diseases developed as well as malaria, beriberi, and dysentery. Treatment by prison guards was brutal.

This Monday, February 14, 2022- Story Behind the Story podcast is an audio version of Saturday’s column on World War II soldier Alton Swann of Gloversville fought in the Philippines and was a Japanese POW for three years. Monday Podcast  "7 Minutes"

   Liberated in September 1945 after the Japanese surrender, he was put aboard a hospital ship, the Monitor, where he wrote his fiancé, Glendean Brooks in Gloversville, asking if she was still waiting for him.  She was.

   He spent time in Manila before returning to San Francisco aboard the transport Bolivar.  All his teeth were pulled, and he was fitted with dentures.

   For his part in the Philippines campaign, Sergeant Swann received the Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal and various campaign ribbons.

   In his first letter home he said memories of loved ones “brought him through experiences better left undescribed.”  Alton’s mother received a telegram saying her son was on his way home.  He arrived in November. 

   Alton married Glendean at the parsonage of Gloversville’s Methodist Church Thanksgiving afternoon, 1945.

   Their son Michael Swann was born nine months later.  As a child he never was really aware of it but his mother told him his father suffered from what we would call PTSD.  He had a lifelong issue with sleeplessness and nightmares of the war.

   Alton went back to work at Schenectady GE.  The couple had two more sons, David and Thomas.  In 1953 Alton was transferred to a GE plant in Connecticut and lived many years in Monroe, Connecticut.

   Alton’s son Michael made frequent business trips to Japan.  He was “humbled by a visit to the site of the Nomachi POW camp near Toyama.” The factory where his father slaved still stands.

  Glendean Swann died in 1992.  Alton Swann died in 2002 at age 86.  Burial with full military honors took place at Pine Hill Cemetery in Southbury, Connecticut.

Tomorrow, Sunday, February 13, 2022--From the Archives-Friday, September 20, 2019-Episode 284–Duncan White talks about Howard Fast (who wrote the novel that was the basis for Kirk Douglas’s movie Spartacus), Boris Pasternak and other authors described in White’s book: “The Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged The Literary Cold War.” 

“Rediscovering the Forgotten History of Blacks in Schoharie County” an educational series led by the Schohaire County Historical Society will continue on Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Library, located at 110 Union Street, in Cobleskill, NY. https://theoldstonefort.org/category/2022-events/

Episode #409 James Kirby Martin

 Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, February 12, 2022

Mohawk Valley News, Saturday, February 12, 2022

Daily Gazette

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Leader Herald

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