Woodstock, IL.
Date of Birth: 4 October, 1916
Date of Death: 24 October, 1944
Branch of Service: United States Army
Rank: Corporal
Unit: Battery M, 60th Coastal Artillery Corp
Place of Death: Bashi Straits, Western Pacific Ocean (Aboard Japanese Hell Ship Arisan Maru)
Corporal Edwin A. Riley
In a letter home, U.S. Army Corporal Edwin “Eddie” A. Riley wrote that he was in good health, and “hoped that folks back home were also enjoying good health.” After 3 years in harsh captivity, Eddie let the world know that he was still smiling.
Ten hours after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese forces invaded the Philippines. Despite fierce resistance, American and Filipino defenders faced overwhelming opposition and were forced to surrender in the spring of 1942. Corporal Riley, of Woodstock, Illinois, was among those captured. His last known unit and location in early December had been Coast Artillery, Fort Mills, near Bataan. Later reports told of his bravery carrying several wounded men to the hospital and securing badly needed ammunition for units of his battery.
As the War Department lost contact with the Philippines after the Japanese takeover, determining the whereabouts of American servicemen became nearly impossible. For families trying to stay in touch with loved ones serving halfway around the world, the situation was agonizing. Sometimes updates came from handwritten letters, sometimes from official War Department notices. One day soon after the invasion, James and Jennie Riley, living on Washington Street in McHenry, received word that their son Edwin was missing in action and presumed captured by Japanese forces. At that time, Edwin’s older brother James Jr. was also serving, stationed at Pearl Harbor.
In mid-1944, the Japanese government notified the United States of captive personnel, and Edwin’s family learned he had been transferred between prison camps in the Philippines. His parents received word in September and were overjoyed. Among the prisoners with him were other locals from McHenry County: Bud Long, Hugh Price, and Gerald Peachy.
An Army chaplain reported he had last seen Edwin in October 1944. Despite suffering bouts of malaria, Edwin maintained high spirits. They were together on a prison work detail at the Luzon airfields before Edwin Riley was selected to be sent to Japan alongside 1,775 fellow prisoners of war.
On October 24, 1944, the Japanese transport ship Arisan Maru was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine approximately 200 miles from land. The vessel, one of the notorious “hell ships” used to transport Allied prisoners, sank rapidly. Of the 1,782 prisoners aboard, only five miraculously reached the Chinese coast. Edwin Riley was not among them. Born on October 4, 1916, he had celebrated his twenty-eighth birthday just three weeks before his death. From retail manager in Jackson, Missouri, to the Artillery Corps half a world away, Eddie had answered the call to serve just eight months before Japan invaded.
On June 21, 1945, the Woodstock Daily Sentinel reported that Corporal Edwin A. Riley had died en route to Japan. He is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery on the Tablets of the Missing.
By Austin May
60th Coastal Artillery Corp
Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
Also known as Fort William McKinley Cemetery
Manila, Capital District, Philippines
To visit the cemetery, click on the Memorial
