Bruno S. Ulak
Bruno S. Ulak
Rank: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Serial: 0-341118
Unit: 698th Ordnance Company, Aviation
Entered service from: New Jersey
Died: , Mindanao Sea, Philippines (Missing in Action or Buried at Sea)
Memorial: Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines
Awards: Purple Heart
Biography
First Lieutenant Bruno Ulak was born in Camden, NJ on September 2, 1914, to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ulak. As a youth he attended St. Joseph Parochial School and graduated from Camden High School. He was a top student in math and science related courses, and was on the school football and track teams. He also was known for a fine singing voice.
He then went on to attend college at Lehigh University, where he graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and was a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu fraternities.
Bruno Ulak entered the Army early in 1941, and was commissioned as an officer. At the outbreak of hostilities in December of 1941, he was 27 years old. He was stationed at Manila in the Philippine Islands, and was captured by the Japanese when American forces fell on the island of Bataan.
Lt. Bruno Ulak survived the battles with the Japanese for the Philippines, survived the Death March of 1942, and survived over two years in the hell that was the Prison Camps of the Japanese. He was imprisoned at the Davao Penal Colony. The men were made to work in a large plantation, which provided food for the Japanese Army in the Philippines.
In September of 1944 the Japanese sent 750 prisoners from the Davao Penal Colony to Japan on the ship Shinyo Maru, with the intent of using the men as slave laborers. Bruno Ulak was one of these men; another was Corporal Edward L. Golden, also from Camden. They were locked in cargo holds with no sanitary facilities, and little if any food or water. This was the standard Japanese practice.
The Shinyo Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Paddle SS-263 on September 7, 1944. The ship was hit with a torpedo and when it started to sink, the Japanese threw hand grenades into the cargo holds which held the POWs. Prisoners were shot coming out of the hold, and shot in the water. As the surviving POWs started to swim towards shore, Japanese on small boats went by them shooting them as they swam or holding them down to drown them. Already weakened from disease, malnutrition, and the abuse of the Japanese, 688 men lost their lives that day. Both Lt. Ulak and Corporal Golden were among those murdered.
Bruno Ulak was survived by his mother and father, of 914 Atlantic Avenue, Camden, NJ. He was also survived by three brothers, Adolph, Rudolph, and Alphonse, and two sisters, Adela and Wanda.
Thanks to Fred Baldassarre of “The Battling Bastards of Bataan” who supplied much of the above information concerning Lieutenant Ulak’s whereabouts and the conditions he endured.
Camden High School 1932
Bruno S. Ulak — Camden High School yearbook, 1932.
Photos
Mrs. Frank Ulak, mother of Lt. Bruno S. Ulak, of 914 Atlantic Avenue, Camden, NJ.
Lieutenant Ulak Listed Jap Prisoner in Philippines Battle
Camden Mother Informed of Son’s Capture; Navy Reports I.R. Clark Killed
Lieutenant Brunislaus S. Ulak of 914 Atlantic Avenue was listed as a Japanese prisoner in the Philippines battle by the War Department last night. The list includes the names of 17 additional soldiers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
The Navy Department also announced Irwin R. Clark, Chief Machinist Mate, of 826 State Street, previously reported wounded, was killed in action.
Lieutenant Ulak, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Ulak, was graduated from Camden High School in 1932. He entered Lehigh University, completed a ROTC course and was graduated in 1936. Before joining the Army Ulak was employed as a geologist by an oil firm.
His mother said she received the notice from the War Department December 22 that her son was a prisoner. She got another letter Christmas Eve.
“The fact we learned he is still alive was the best Christmas gift we received,” Mrs. Ulak said. “We had not heard from him since June. We knew he had gone from Bataan seven days before the Japs took Corregidor.”
“His last letter was written in May. We did not get it until the following month. He said he was writing it by the light of the moon on Corregidor. He said the Americans were going through hell.”
“I hope this letter is received because I am writing it under dramatic circumstances,” he wrote.
The letter apparently had been placed in a second envelope and given to another person who got off the island before it fell to the Japanese.
Lieutenant Ulak has a brother, George, who is a sergeant at Fort Shelby.
Camden Prisoner of Japanese Urges Dad to Keep on Ship Job
Camden Courier-Post —
Lt. Ulak Pens Veiled Hint on Postcard from Nip Camp
A South Camden Army officer captured by the Japs on the Philippines has not had his head turned by enemy’s “New Order.” The prisoner, Lieut. Brunislaus S. Ulak, 29, in his first communication with his parents in 17 months, urged his father to keep working hard to bring the war to a close and defeat his captors. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ulak, of 914 Atlantic avenue, said their son sent two printed prison camp cards in which Bruno filled in the blank spaces. On one of the cards following the printed words “please see that” the lieutenant wrote “Pop works hard at it.” The father is an employe of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. The message apparently meant for him to help as hard as possible to produce more ships—the nemesis of the Japanese navy. On the card, Lieutenant Ulak said his health was good and he is not under treatment. He also asked his parents to “take care of Wanda,” his sister, Mrs. Wanda Romanowski, and “Lucy,” a sister-in-law. Lieutenant Ulak was reported a prisoner of the Japanese by the War Department on December 22. The two cards were the first words the family received from him since a letter arrived in May, 1942, dated April 29, and postmarked on May 6, at an Army postoffice. Lieutenant Ulak was graduated from Camden High School in June, 1932, and completed a ROTC course at Lehigh University, graduating in 1936. Before entering the Army as a second lieutenant in March, 1941, he was a geologist for a Western oil firm. A brother, Sergt. Alphonse Ulak, is in the Army stationed in California. He has two other brothers, Adolph and Rudolph, and another sister, Miss Adela Ulak.
The Defenders of Bataan: An Outline of Events
(The purpose of this “Outline of Events” is to provide an overall picture into the plight suffered by the Defenders of Bataan. It is not meant to provide detailed, all-inclusive, information. If you wish detailed information on any of the steps of this outline, feel free to contact “The Battling Bastards of Bataan.” The intent is to provide the truth.)
1. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The American Pacific Naval Fleet suffered heavy losses in lives and ships. The Fleet was incapacitated and could not, in that state, defend American interests in the Pacific Rim and in Asia.
2. Only eight hours later, on Dec. 8, 1941 (due to the difference in time zones), Japan launched an aerial attack on the Philippines. Most of the American Air Force in the Philippines was destroyed, while the planes were on the ground.
3. A few days later, Japanese forces, led by Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, landed on the Philippines. The Japanese landings were in Northern Luzon and in the Southern Mindanao Islands.
4. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Commander of the Filipino-American forces, decided to meet the Japanese at their points of landing. This course of action deviated from the original War Plan, devised prior to WW II, which called for the American forces to withdraw into the Bataan Peninsula in case of attack.
5. Inexperienced troops failed to stop the Japanese at these points of landing. MacArthur had to revert back to the original plan, withdrawing the Filipino-American forces into the Bataan Peninsula. By January 2, 1942, the Northern Luzon forces were in place for the defense of Bataan.
6. Their mission, in the baseball vernacular, was to “lay down a bunt.” They were to stall the Japanese advancement, by forcing them to use much of their troops and resources in the capturing of the Philippines, for as long as possible. This would buy the necessary time needed to rebuild the American Pacific Fleet, which at the time had been crippled by the Pearl Harbor attack and the bombing of the American Air Bases in the Philippines.
7. The Filipino-American Defense of Bataan was hampered by many factors:
a) A shortage of food, ammunition, medicine, and attendant materials.
b) Most of the ammunition was old and corroded. The AA shells lacked proper fuses, as did many of the 155mm artillery shells.
c) Tanks, trucks, and other vehicles were in short supply, as was the gasoline needed to power these items of warfare.
d) Poorly trained Filipino troops, most of who never fired a weapon, were thrown into frontline combat against highly trained Japanese veterans. Americans from non-combatant outfits—such as air corpsmen and, in some instances, even civilians—were formed into provisional infantry units.
8. The Defenders of Bataan continued to hold their ground, without reinforcements and without being re-supplied. Disease, malnutrition, fatigue, and a lack of basic supplies took their toll.
9. On March 11, 1942, Gen. MacArthur was ordered to Australia. Gen. Wainwright took his place in Corregidor as Commander of the Philippine forces, and Gen. King took Wainwright’s place as Commander of the Fil-American forces in Bataan.
10. Around the latter part of March, Gen. King and his staff assessed the fighting capabilities of his forces, in view of an impending major assault planned by Gen. Homma. Gen. King and his staff determined the Fil-American forces in Bataan could only fight at 30% of their efficiency, due to malnutrition, disease, a lack of ammunition and basic supplies, and fatigue. On April 3, 1942, the Japanese launched their all-out final offensive to take Bataan.
11. On April 9, 1942, Gen. King surrendered his forces on Bataan, after the Japanese had broken through the Fil-American last main line of resistance.
12. The Japanese assembled their captive Fil-American soldiers in the various sectors in Bataan, but mainly at Mariveles, the southernmost tip of the Peninsula. Although American trucks were available to transport the prisoners, the Japanese decided to march the Defenders of Bataan to their destinations. This march came to be known as the “Death March.”
13. The “Death March” was really a series of marches, which lasted from five to nine days. The distance a captive had to march was determined by where on the trail the captive began the march.
14. The basic trail of the “Death March” was as follows: a 55-mile march from Mariveles, Bataan, to San Fernando, Pampanga. At San Fernando, the prisoners were placed into train-cars made for cargo, and railed to Capas, Tarlac, a distance of around 24 miles. Dozens died standing up in the railroad cars, as the cars were so cramped that there was no room for the dead to fall. They were then marched another six miles to their final destination, Camp O’Donnell.
15. Several thousand men died on the “Death March.” Many died because they were not in any physical condition to undertake such a march. Once on the march, they were not given any food or water. Japanese soldiers killed many of them through various means. Also, POWs were repeatedly beaten and treated inhumanely as they marched.
16. Approximately 1,600 Americans died in the first forty days in Camp O’Donnell. Almost 20,000 Filipinos died in their first four months of captivity in the same camp. The healthier prisoners took turns burying their comrades into mass graves, just as they, themselves, would be buried days or weeks later.
17. Camp O’Donnell did not have the sanitation sub-structure or water supply necessary to hold such a large amount of men. Many died from diseases they had since Bataan. Many caught new diseases while at the camp. There was little medicine available to the prisoners. Their inadequate diets also contributed to the high death rate. Diseases such as dysentery, from a lack of safe drinking water, and beri-beri, from malnutrition, were common to the POWs. The Japanese soldiers continued to murder and mistreat their captives.
18. Due to the high death rate in Camp O’Donnell, the Japanese transferred all Americans to Cabanatuan, north of Camp O’Donnell, on June 6, 1942, leaving behind five hundred as caretakers and for funeral details. They in turn were sent to Cabanatuan on July 5, 1942. The Filipino prisoners were paroled beginning in July, 1942.
19. Cabanatuan was the camp in which the men from Corregidor were first united with the men from Bataan. No Americans from Corregidor ever made the “Death March” or were imprisoned in Camp O’Donnell. Not having suffered the extreme deprivations and conditions endured by the men from Bataan, the prisoners from Corregidor were, overall, much healthier. (There were Philippine Scouts and some men from the Philippine Army, captured in Corregidor, who were interned in Camp O’Donnell.)
20. Cabanatuan, for most prisoners, ended up being a temporary camp. The Japanese had a policy (which was a direct violation of the Geneva Convention) that prisoners were to be used as a source of labor. They sent most of the prisoners from Cabanatuan to various other camps in the Philippines, China, Japan, and Korea, where they were used as slave labor. Some worked in mines, others in farms, others in factories, and others unloading ships in port areas, for the remainder of the war. Each subsequent prison camp, after Cabanatuan, has a story of its own.
21. Left behind in Cabanatuan were approximately 511 officers and the prisoners too sick to move (and most of those too sick to move never recovered and died in Cabanatuan). Towards the end of the war, most of the men who stayed behind were placed on ships and sent to other camps in Japan, Korea, and China. The Japanese did not mark these ships to note that there were prisoners on board. They were bombed and torpedoed by American planes and submarines. Most of these men died by drowning at sea.
22. Most prisoners who left Cabanatuan in 1942 were sent to the other countries mentioned in ships appropriately called “Hell Ships.” These “Hell Ships” sailed from Manila to their various destinations in Japan, Korea, or China. As mentioned earlier, the Japanese did not mark these ships as being prison ships, so they were targets for American planes and submarines. Thousands of Americans who were passengers on these ships met their deaths by drowning at sea.
23. The conditions on these ships are indescribable and far worse than the conditions endured in the “Death March” and Camp O’Donnell.
24. For the remaining three years of their captivity, the Defenders of Bataan were spread throughout the various slave labor camps in Japan, Korea, China, and the Philippines, until each camp was individually liberated in 1945. These prisoners endured the whims of their brutal captors, with similar conditions and mistreatment as those experienced in the “Death March” and Camp O’Donnell, and the uncertainty of when, if ever, their captivity would end.
25. Coming from the warm tropical climate of the Philippines, the men sent to Japan, Korea, and China had to adjust to the sub-freezing temperatures of Northern Asia, without the proper personal equipment and indoor heating to survive such cold temperatures. In Manchuria, China, the POWs who died in the winter were placed in an unheated shack for their bodies to freeze, because the ground was so frozen and hard that they could not be buried until the spring.
26. After they were released, these men were sent to various military hospitals for physical examinations. Many of their ailments, due to malnutrition, went undiagnosed. Many of the systemic fevers they had contracted went undiagnosed. More importantly, the psychological scars they suffered were never recognized. It was not until years after the Vietnam War that the US government recognized “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” or PTSD as a legitimate disorder. It is safe to say each of these men carried these scars for the rest of their lives, and indirectly, so did their families.
27. After the war, little was made of the plight of these men. Until recently, few books were written about their ordeal. There were many reasons for this: by the time the Defenders of Bataan came home, the US had already heard a multitude of war stories about the great battles in the Pacific and in Europe. The Defenders of Bataan had surrendered. (Most Americans failed to recognize that the Defenders of Bataan were surrendered as a force by their Commanding General. They did not surrender as individuals.)
28. After the war, Japan and the US formed an alliance to ensure their mutual economic prosperity and to ensure their mutual security. It became an unwritten policy to play down Japanese war crimes, satisfied with the meager results produced by the Tokyo and Manila War Crimes trials.
29. Unknown to most: POWs held by the Germans died at a rate of 1.1%. POWs held by the Japanese died at a rate of 37%. The death rate amongst the Defenders of Bataan was much higher, because of their weakened condition prior to their capture.
30. Germany has acknowledged their war crimes and has made restitution to the victims. Japan has denied everything. In their history books and in their school books, they have re-written history in an effort to falsely show they were the victims of the war, citing the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as proof of their victimization.
After the war and faced with the threat of the Soviet Union, the United States and its allies permitted Japan to escape the close scrutiny given to the Germans. Known Japanese war criminals went free to, not only, walk the streets of Japan, but the streets of the United States as well.
Please bring this outline to the attention of your school systems, which are negligent in presenting this part of World War II to the American youth.
Additional Resources
The Hell Ships of World War II
St. Joseph's Church Keeps in Touch with Men and Women in Armed Forces
Camden Courier-Post — 1944
Four Sons Killed and Two Missing
By Frank Sheridan
With many of their loved ones and relatives either killed, starved or reduced to slavery by the Nazi invaders of Poland four years ago, 1154 mothers of this city have given sons and daughters to fight for defense of the United States.
They are members of St. Joseph’s church, Tenth and Mechanic streets. Four sons were killed in line of duty, two others are missing and another is reported a prisoner of the Japs.
The mother of Staff Sgt. Roman Drapinski, 1468 South Tenth street, killed by a dynamite blast, is somewhere in Poland, but her name is honored equally with other mothers by the parish.
Names on Honor Roll
Others on the honor roll are Mrs. Stella Dziengowski, 1476 Louis street, mother of Sgt. Gustave Dziengowski; Mrs. Antonia Koscianski, 966 Bulson street, mother of Pvt. Walter J. Koscianski; and Mrs. George Lozowski, 1143 Sheridan street. Mother of Pvt. John Lozowski, killed in line of duty; Mrs. Jessie Piotrowski, 1343 Chase street, mother of Machinist Mate Joseph S. Piotrowski; and Mrs. Boleslau Poduszczak, 1105 Lowell street, mother of Second Lieut. Leopold Poduszczak, missing in action; and Mrs. Frank Ulak, 914 Atlantic avenue, mother of Lieut. Bruno Ulak, prisoner of the Japs.
A service bureau set up by the church keeps in contact with those in the armed forces. Letters and gifts keep flowing, and those in the service reply. An index system shows the thoroughness of the records directed by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Arthur B. Strenski and his assistants, Rev. Leon S. Winowicz, Rev. Lawrence Faber and Rev. Henry Blaszczynski. They are aided by members of the parish in keeping the records.
Sergeant Dziengowski was the first member of the parish to give his life. He was killed in an airplane crash near White City, Kan., on Jan. 12, last. Ten others were killed. They were on a trial trip in a flying fortress. He was buried at St. Joseph's cemetery, Chews Landing, with military honors after a Solemn Requiem High Mass at the church.
Brother Seized in Poland
Drapinski entered the service in September, 1941, and was attached to the Twelfth Armored Division. He came to this country from Poland five years ago and worked with his brother, Adam. Another brother, Stanislau, is a prisoner of the Germans. He was captured during the invasion of Poland. His father died in Poland two years ago and the whereabouts of his mother in Poland is not known.
Private Lozowski died in an airplane accident near a Marine base at Atlantic Field, N.C. The plane was on a trial trip and fell into a bay. Four days after the accident on April 4, the body was recovered and sent back to his parents. It was buried with military honors after a Solemn Requiem Mass at the church.
Lozowski was 20 and was a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High school. He was employed by the Radio Condensor Company before his enlistment last November.
Piotrowski, who was 22, survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, but was reported lost when the cruiser Helena was sunk in the battle of Kula Gulf early in July. Admiral Jacobs, chief of Navy personnel, notified the mother of the young seaman of his apparent death.
Father Served in Army
Piotrowski was a graduate of Camden High school. He worked with his brother, Henry, in the interior decorating business before joining the Navy four years ago. He was last home on leave in April, 1942. He has another brother, Edward, and a sister, Irene. His father, John, who died several years ago, served in the Polish Army in World War I, joining a volunteer force organized in Canada. He also served as a commander of Iaskowski-Wojtkowiak Post, American Legion.
Lieutenant Poduszczak was reported missing in action since July 26, when he participated in an air raid over Hanover, Germany. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941.
Enlisted in Air Corps
The sergeant was a graduate of Camden High school and starred in both basketball and football. He was employed 12 years by Public Service and enlisted in the Army Air Corps on April 7, 1942.
Private Koscianski died in action in the African campaign. Several letters sent him by the service bureau were returned unclaimed. The War Department notified his mother he was killed in Algeria on Feb. 6, last. His body was buried between two sergeants and white crosses were erected over their graves.
He worked for the Camden City Parks Department as a truck driver for five years before he was inducted June 4, 1942. He was in the Signal Corps and was driving a truck when killed. He was sent overseas two months after his induction.
Sergeant Drapinski, brother of Adam Drapinski, died July 18, last, from injuries received in the premature explosion of dynamite at Camp Campbell, Kan. Drapinski, who was 23, was giving instructions to a group of recruits when the explosion occurred.
He received his wings on Nov. 21, 1942. He was home for two days last May before going overseas. He attended Camden schools and also studied in Poland from 1932 to 1936. His brother, Richard, is a corporal in the Army Air Corps.
Lieutenant Ulak was taken prisoner at Corregidor by the Japs. He was a reserve Army officer when the war broke out and was called into active service. Ulak was born in Camden and attended St. Joseph’s school, Camden High school and was graduated from Lehigh University. He has three brothers and two sisters, besides his parents. A brother, Alfonse, is an Army sergeant in California. Other brothers are Adolph and Rudolph. The sisters are Mrs. Wanda Romanowski and Adella.