A Bronze Star & Purple Heart to 1st Lieutenant Lawrence Derby, Jr., 88th Field Artillery Regiment, Philippine Scouts, Died of Wounds While Aboard the Japanese POW Hell Ship Brazil Maru 1945: Bronze Star (bronze, engraved "ARTHUR L. DERBY, JR" on the reverse, 35.2 mm x 36.8 mm, original ribbon with brooch pinback, with its 9.8 mm x 36.5 mm Ribbon Bar, in its hardshelled case of issue, marked "BRONZE STAR MEDAL" on the lid); and Purple Heart (two-piece construction, bronze gilt and enamels, engraved "ARTHUR L. DERBY JR." on the reverse, 35.2 mm x 43.5 mm, original ribbon with brooch pinback, intact enamels, with its 3.7 mm x 17 mm Enamelled Ribbon Bar with button hole attachment, in its hardshelled case of issue, marked "PURPLE HEART" on the lid). Extremely fine. Accompanied by a duo-tang binder containing assorted research papers.
Footnote: Arthur Lawrence Derby, Jr. was born in Eastham, Albemarle County, Virginia, the son and only child of Arthur Lawrence Derby Sr. (1884-1961) and Jeanette Fleming Barr Derby Sr. (1895-1965). He graduated from Harvard University, Class of 1939 and listed his hometown as Charlottesville, Virginia. He was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Field Artillery Reserve and entered the service from Massachusetts, volunteering for special service in the Philippines. 0-374870 1st Lieutenant Arthur Lawrence Derby, Jr., 88th Field Artillery Regiment, Philippine Scouts was captured at Bataan. Derby was forced to make the Bataan Death March, which was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000-80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war from Saisaih Point and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, via San Fernando, Pampanga, where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. The transfer began on April 9, 1942, after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during the Second World War. About 2,500-10,000 Filipino and 100-650 American prisoners of war died on the march before they reached their destination. The reported death tolls vary, especially among Filipino POWs, because historians cannot determine how many prisoners blended in with the civilian population and escaped. Placed aboard the Oryoku Maru, a Japanese passenger cargo ship which was commissioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the war as a troop transport and Prisoner of War (POW) transport ship. Japanese POW transport ships are often referred to as "Hell Ships", due to their notoriously unpleasant conditions, with a reputation for cruelty among the crew and the many deaths that occurred on board. The ship left Manila on December 13, 1944, with 1,620 prisoners of war (including 1,556 American, 50 British and Dutch, 7 Czech, 4 Norwegians and several other nationalities) packed in the holds, and 1,900 Japanese civilians and military personnel in the cabins. As she neared the naval base at Olongapo in Subic Bay, US Navy planes from the USS Hornet initially attacked the unmarked ship on the 14th, but was evening approached, the attach was called off. The following day, the planes returned and continued their attack, causing it to sink on December 15th. About 270 died aboard ship. Some died from suffocation or dehydration. Others were killed in the attack, drowned or were shot while escaping the ship at it sunk in Subic Bay. 1st Lieutenant Derby was listed on the roster of the Oryoku Maru and was initially thought to be Missing in Action, then Killed in Action during the attack. He turned out to be one of the survivors of the attack, and along with the other survivors of the sinking, were held for several days in an open tennis court at Olongapo Naval Base. While there, the prisoners were afforded no sanitary conditions whatsoever. Prisoners experienced severe mistreatment, and several deaths occurred. The group of prisoners was then moved to San Fernando, Pampanga. While in San Fernando, 15 weak or wounded prisoners were loaded on a truck, believing they would be taken to Bilibid Prison for treatment. In the 1946 war crimes trial, they were reported to have been taken to a nearby cemetery, beheaded, and dumped into a mass grave. The remaining prisoners were then transported by train to San Fernando, La Union. There, about 1,000 of the survivors were loaded on another Japanese ship, the Enoura Maru, while the rest boarded the smaller Brazil Maru, one of which was Derby. Both ships reached Takao (Kaohsiung) harbor in Taiwan on New Year's Day. On January 6th, the smaller group of prisoners was transferred from Brazil Maru to Enoura Maru, and 37 British and Dutch were taken ashore. However, on January 9th, the Enoura Maru was bombed and disabled while in harbor, killing about 350 men. The survivors were put aboard the Brazil Maru which arrived in Moji, Japan, on January 29, 1945. However, 1st Lieutenant Derby had died two weeks earlier from his wounds sustained during the attack on January 9th, dying on Thursday, January 25th. His body was thrown into the sea before the ship reached Japan on January 29, 1945. On arrival in Japan, only 550 of the 900 plus who sailed from Taiwan were still alive; 150 more men died in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea in the coming months, leaving only 403 survivors of the original 1,620, to be liberated from camps in Kyushu, Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan in August and September 1945. 1st Lieutenant Arthur Lawrence Derby, Jr., 88th Field Artillery Regiment, Philippine Scouts was a recipient of the Bronze Star and is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery at Fort Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines. A military headstone for Derby is placed in Grace Episcopal Church Cemetery, Cismont, Albemarle County, Virginia, the same cemetery where both his parents are interred.