Courtney Meets with WWII POW Recently Returned from Visit to Japan

Norwich, CT—Yesterday, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-2) met with Darrell Stark, age 92, of Stafford Springs to learn about Mr. Stark’s recent trip to Japan. Mr. Stark and six other former prisoners of war of Japan during World War II made the journey as guests of the Japanese government to revisit and reconcile with their past. Their trip was part of an ongoing reconciliation process that began in 2010 when the Japanese government delivered to the first American POW delegation an official Cabinet-approved apology for the damage and suffering these men endured.

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Congressman Courtney entered a tribute to Mr. Stark into the Congressional Record on November 20. Pictured above, Congressman Courtney presents Mr. Stark with a copy of the statement. Click here to read Congressman Courtney's statement [LINK].

“Mr. Stark is an American hero for his service to our country during World War II,” Courtney said. “After his capture on April 9, 1942, he endured unimaginable hardship and suffering for three and a half years in the Philippines and Japan. I was honored to assist Mr. Stark in his effort to return to Japan to receive a formal apology from the government and achieve some measure of closure for the strife he survived nearly 70 years ago. I am awed by his strength, dignity, and grace evident in his reconciliation with the Japanese government and people.”

Prior to the trip, Mr. Stark’s daughter contacted Congressman Courtney for assistance in quickly securing a passport for her father to ensure he could travel to Japan. Working with the State Department, the Congressman’s office accelerated the process and Mr. Stark was able to join the trip on October 11th.

Mr. Stark joined the Army at age 17 in 1941, and was immediately sent to the Philippines where he was assigned to a heavy weapons company as a weapons carrier and runner. He participated in the defense of the Bataan peninsula, where despite disease, lack of supplies and obsolete weapons, he and his fellow defenders were able to fight the Japanese to a four-month standstill. Despite their efforts, however, Bataan was surrendered on April 9, 1942. Mr. Stark was taken prisoner and over the course of the next three and one half years was held in a number of POW camps on The Philippines Islands and eventually sent on a “hellship” to Japan to be a slave laborer at a copper foundry. He suffered extremely harsh and difficult conditions. After being liberated in September 1945, Mr. Stark returned home for over a year of recovery, eventually settling in Connecticut where he worked for the Department of Corrections and spoke often to students about his role in in the defense of the Philippines.

As part of the delegation, Mr. Stark was able to travel to his former POW camp in Yokkaichi near Kyoto. The managers of Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha (ISK), the company that controlled the camp, not only received him warmly, but honored him. ISK is now a multi-national chemical company with operations in the United States and one of only a handful of companies that have apologized to POWs forced into labor.

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