VOICES OF VALOR: POW museum’s collection grows with donation in memory of a Bataan Death March survivor

Contributed A TABLE OF HISTORY — Members of the Roulett family recently donated to the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum a wide variety of military equipment and other items that had been collected by Donald Roulett Sr., an Army World War II veteran and survivor of the Bataan Death March, and his brother, John, a Naval officer who served in the South Pacific and Aleutian Islands during the war. Seen with a table filled with the items are, from left, Margaret Roulett, Donald’s granddaughter; George Roulett, Theresa Roulett Kniphuisen, Donald Jr. and John Roulett, all Donald’s children; William Roulett, Donald’s grandson; and Connie Roulett, Donald Jr.’s wife.

WELLSBURG — The large collection of materials related to the experiences of the many who walked the Bataan Death March has grown recently with the donation of variety of weapons and other items collected by Donald Roulett, a Long Island, N.Y., man who survived the infamous march, and his brother John, whose own service during World War II took him to many places.

Since it was established in 2002, the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum at the Brooke County Public Library has strived to educate the public about the experiences of 120,000 U.S. and Filipino troops that fought against Japanese invaders of the Philippine Islands of Bataan and Corregidor in 1941.

Outnumbered and poorly equipped, the Allied troops were defeated after five months in battle.

About 70,000 Americans and Filipinos were captured by the Japanese and forced to walk the Bataan Death March, a 65-mile trek in which many died, succumbing to disease, starvation and extreme heat, or because they had been killed by their captors.

Survivors reached the ultimate destination of prisoner of war camps, where they were forced to work under similar conditions.

Among the many items donated by the Roulett family are a photo of Donald and other prisoners of war following their liberation from one of 11 POW camps near the Japanese city of Nagoya; a Japanese shotgun used during the reign of Emperor Hirohito; an M1 carbine rifle produced by the Rock-ola Jukebox Co., named because it manufactured jukeboxes before and after the war; two Japanese pistols, a pair of Japanese “Big Eyes,” binoculars with enormous lenses that offered a long-range view and immense magnification, and tripod; and two katanas, one hand-made and one issued by the government.

Brockman said the hand-made one has begun to rust, and he hopes to have it restored.

Also donated was a large magnetic compass used to navigate the Japanese Navy’s kamikaze torpedoes.

Dropped from naval vessels, the missiles were piloted by Japanese sailors who used the compass and a periscope to navigate it in the direction of an Allied ship, said Brockman.

Because the navigational equipment was primitive, the torpedoes had to be released at close range and their pilots usually died regardless of whether they succeeded in ramming the ships they had targeted.

“All in all, it’s a pretty neat collection. We’re very excited about it,” said Jim Brockman, the museum’s executive director.

The collection was donated in memory of Donald Roulett, a member of the Army Air Corps’ 27th Bomber Squad and survivor of the Bataan Death March, and his brother, John, who had served the Navy at the Aleutian Islands during the Japanese’ attempted invasion there and was at Okinawa when the Axis nation surrendered.

Theresa Kniphuisen, Donald’s daughter, added she’s been told her uncle was on hand during war crime trials conducted in Guam at the end of the war.

Kniphuisen said many of the items had been acquired by her Uncle John but were kept in her late parents’ basement.

“We know he had this stuff legally because we have papers,” she said.

The youngest of Donald and Georgiana Roulett’s four children, Kniphuisen visited the museum recently with her three older brothers, John, Donald Jr. and George; Connie, Donald Jr.’s wife; and William and Margaret Roulett, Donald Sr.’s grandchildren.

Kniphuisen said she enlisted her niece, Margaret Roulett, an archivist with the Library of Congress, to assist her in sorting the collection.

She said the two found many copies of The Quan, the quarterly newspaper of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, a nationwide group of veterans who had served on the two Philippine islands during World War II.

She said an official with the group suggested she take the collection to the museum, which is believed to have the world’s largest collection of artifacts related to the experiences of Allied troops in the two Philippine islands.

The museum sprung from a large display created for the library by the late Ed Jackfert, who had been leader of the ADBC, and his wife, Henrietta.

“I looked at the website (for the museum) and I said this is really special,” said Kniphuisen, who added, “I think he (her father) would be happy it’s here.”

Kniphuisen said her father was the youngest of nine children and their mother asked her Uncle John, an officer in the Navy, to find him.

Finding his brother in tattered prison clothes, John called for a sailor’s uniform for him to change into.

John Roulett, one of Donald’s three sons, said his uncle mailed a postcard to his mother, reassuring her that Donald was “in excellent health.”

He said it was a white lie intended to put his mother at ease because his father, like many held in Japanese POW camps, had lost a lot of weight.

George, another son, said before he was captured, his father had sustained shrapnel injuries along the left side of his body.

Some, but not all, had been removed, at a military field hospital, and he had been placed in a body cast to keep him immobile while healing.

John said following the injuries, the initial prognosis for his father wasn’t good, and he had been administered last rites.

“He had enough time to recover so he could survive the Death March,” he said.

John said his father didn’t speak much of his experiences as a prisoner of war, but he related an occasion when he was being reprimanded for an infraction.

He recalled the prison official slapping him repeatedly, causing him to fall to the floor. From there, he saw another G.I. motioning for him to rise.

Noting the Japanese troops were known to shoot or behead their captors without warning, John said his father felt that he also might have been killed if he had not stood up.

He said his father and other POWs had suffered from “malaria, bari bari, all of the tropical diseases” while in the Philippine Islands before they were put to work mining iron ore in the mountains of Japan.

Following his liberation from the POW camp, Donald continued to serve in the Army.

A competitive amateur golfer, he finished his military career as a golf pro and hockey rink manager at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

Donald’s brother John had graduated from college, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. prior to the war and served as an officer in the Navy’s construction battalion.

There he was involved in the construction of an airstrip during the Japanese’ attempted invasion of the Aleutian Island near Alaska among other tasks.

Rising to the rank of captain, he continued to serve in the South Pacific for a time after the war. Following his discharge, he and a handful of business partners brought cable television to the Bahamas, where he spent the rest of his life.

Two other Roulett brothers also were officers in the Navy. Harry and Edwin also were college graduates working as engineers before serving in the military and also entered as officers.

Brockman said the museum also recently received numerous items from the late Robert Doyle, a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville and veteran of the Vietnam War, for which he served as a reconnaissance pilot.

Doyle served as a consultant for the Bruce Willis film, “Hart’s War,” and has donated a script for the movie, which involves the experiences of World War II prisoners of war.

Doyle also is the author of “Men of God, Men of War: Military Chaplains as Ministers, Warriors and Prisoners” and a copy of that book is among many volumes on various historical subjects he left to the museum.

Another is a book of quotations from Mao Tse Tung, also known as Mao Zedong and the founder of the People’s Republic of China.

“We’re also very proud to have this collection,” said Brockman, who noted Doyle previously donated items that had belonged to his father, E.J., a Navy veteran.

Brockman said he has worked with staff at the Miko Hiramoto Nishiki Secret Base Museum in Kumamoto, Japan to identify artifacts from Japan, communicating largely through the internet.

“We send stuff back and forth and they translate stuff for us,” he said.

Brockman praised the museum’s director, noting she has the same goal of shedding light on an almost forgotten part of history.

“She wants to help her students understand what happened in World War II,” he said.

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