To commemorate today’s POW/MIA Recognition Day, volunteers of the nonprofit Stories Behind the Stars have written memorials to honor the American Prisoners of War who perished in the World War II sinking of the Japanese hell ship Arisan Maru.

Of the 1,779 Allied POWs who died in the sinking, 80 were from Pennsylvania.

Arisan Maru was the largest loss of American lives in a single disaster at sea during World War II.

Four of the fallen were from Schuylkill County: PFC Anthony A. Aftuck, Capt. Peter P. Bernd, Pvt. Michael Fadorchak, and Pvt. Joseph A. Wydel.

Fadorchak, born on June 10, 1917, in Patterson, New Jersey, grew up in Coaldale.

By 1930, he and his mother were living in Coaldale with his stepfather, John Molotzak.

Fadorchak joined the Army on March 12, 1941. He was with the 7th Chemical Company, Aviation, of the U.S. Army Air Forces in the Philippines when the Japanese captured American and Filipino soldiers after the Battle of Corregidor in April 1942. He was imprisoned in the Cabanatuan POW camp until he was moved to the Arisan Maru in October 1944.

Others lost included:

• Anthony A. Aftuck of Shenandoah. Just before the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Aftuck and his regiment’s E Battery staffed Fort Drum in Manila Bay, Philippines. On May 6, 1942, Fort Drum surrendered to the Japanese forces. Aftuck became a prisoner of war and was detained in a Philippine Military Prison Camp for the next 17 months.

• Peter Paul Bernd, born on Aug. 4, 1909 in Tremont, entered the Army on Aug. 9, 1927. Bernd deployed overseas on April 8, 1941, with the 745th Ordnance Company, Aviation at the 20th Air Base Group at Nichols Field, Philippines. With the fall of Corregidor on May 6, 1942, Bernd became a prisoner of war and was detained in POW Camp #1 at Cabanatuan, Luzon and others.

• Joseph Wydel, born on Christmas Eve in 1923, was the adopted son of Charles and Catherine Wydel of New Philadelphia. Wydel was with the 4th Chemical Warfare Company (Aviation) that was stationed in the Philippines when Japanese forces invaded the islands. The company surrendered on April 9, 1942. After 17 months in captivity, he was moved to the Arisan Maru.

The Arisan Maru was initially used as a troop transport. On Oct. 11, 1944, it left with 1,782 Allied POWs at Manila.

Each POW was given eight five-gallon oil cans for their waste, which quickly overflowed due to many men afflicted by dysentery. The POWs suffered through unsanitary conditions, extreme heat of 120 degrees within the hold, and a lack of water. Four POWs died from sickness and another was killed attempting escape.

Along the Palawan coast, the Arisan Maru waited several days while Allied air raids hit Manila. On Oct. 20, 1944, the ship returned to Manila.

On Oct. 21, 1944, the Arisan Maru departed Manila again, joining a convoy comprised of 13 merchant vessels, three destroyers, and a fleet supply ship. It was the slowest in the convoy.

On Oct. 24, 1944, Arisan Maru was traveling alone in the Bashi Channel between Formosa and Luzon with no markings to indicate POWs were aboard. It was hit by a torpedo from USS Shark (SS-314) in the No. 3 hold. Some records indicate the torpedo could have been from the USS Snook (SS-279). The Arisan Maru’s midships buckled, its engines stopped, and the aft mast fell. The vessel sank two hours later.

In response to the torpedo attack, the Japanese destroyers Take and Harukaze sent the USS Shark to the bottom with her crew of eighty-seven. The USS Snook was lost on April 8, 1945 in the Luzon Strait with 60 on board.

No POWs aboard Arisan Maru were killed by the initial torpedo strikes. Nearly all were able to leave the ship’s holds, but were not rescued by the Japanese. In the end, only nine POWs survived.

Aftuck, Bernd, Fadorchak, and Wydel were killed in action during the sinking in the East China Sea.

The four were memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines.

They were posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. Bernd posthumously was awarded the Bronze Star.

To volunteer or to get more information, contact Kathy Harmon at kharmon@storiesbehindthestars.org or visit http://www.storiesbehindthestars.org.