Kenneth Otto Beach graduated with a B.A. from the University of Michigan, and then from the University of Miami Law School. He then entered the U.S. Army as an ROTC Second Lieutenant and was sent to the South Pacific Theatre of Operations.
From this point, the story of what transpired with Captain Beach is best told by his eldest brother, retired four-star U.S. Army General Dwight E. Beach, and by a family friend. This story was conveyed to author Cynthia Furlong Reynolds and contained in her award-winning book, ‘OUR HOMETOWN: America's History Seen Through The Eyes of a Midwestern Village.' It is provided in this memorial with her gracious consent.
General Beach winces when he tells his brother's story. "He was captured on Bataan when we surrendered there and he was interred on the island in the Philippines called Mindanao, in a prison camp. I finally got in there three months after the Japs abandoned it. I was the first point man to get there, but I couldn't find any trace of my brother."
The Japanese had tried to move all the prisoners of war to Japan. General Beach's brother was with a group of 1,200 Americans in fair shape that left Manila in December 1944. "But only 200 got back to the U.S. after the war," the General says. "They were jammed into unmarked ships and U.S. bombers sank a lot of those ships. The Japs made no efforts whatsoever to mark those ships as either hospital ships or ships carrying prisoners of war."
"Kenny survived the Bataan Death March and Mindanao, then survived the bombing of the ship and swam to an island," explains family friend Claude S. Rogers. "The account given to me by Kenny's brother David and by Dwight's son, Col. Dwight E. Beach, Jr., says that the Japanese recaptured Kenny and loaded him onto another ship, which was also bombed. He subsequently died from an infected and broken leg."
The Cenotaph shown in the photo is inscribed with a date of death that is different from official records, which indicates it was 28 January 1945.
Honors
CPT Kenneth O. Beach has Honoree Record 3261 at MilitaryHallofHonor.com.
Bio compiled by Charles A. Lewis
From this point, the story of what transpired with Captain Beach is best told by his eldest brother, retired four-star U.S. Army General Dwight E. Beach, and by a family friend. This story was conveyed to author Cynthia Furlong Reynolds and contained in her award-winning book, ‘OUR HOMETOWN: America's History Seen Through The Eyes of a Midwestern Village.' It is provided in this memorial with her gracious consent.
General Beach winces when he tells his brother's story. "He was captured on Bataan when we surrendered there and he was interred on the island in the Philippines called Mindanao, in a prison camp. I finally got in there three months after the Japs abandoned it. I was the first point man to get there, but I couldn't find any trace of my brother."
The Japanese had tried to move all the prisoners of war to Japan. General Beach's brother was with a group of 1,200 Americans in fair shape that left Manila in December 1944. "But only 200 got back to the U.S. after the war," the General says. "They were jammed into unmarked ships and U.S. bombers sank a lot of those ships. The Japs made no efforts whatsoever to mark those ships as either hospital ships or ships carrying prisoners of war."
"Kenny survived the Bataan Death March and Mindanao, then survived the bombing of the ship and swam to an island," explains family friend Claude S. Rogers. "The account given to me by Kenny's brother David and by Dwight's son, Col. Dwight E. Beach, Jr., says that the Japanese recaptured Kenny and loaded him onto another ship, which was also bombed. He subsequently died from an infected and broken leg."
The Cenotaph shown in the photo is inscribed with a date of death that is different from official records, which indicates it was 28 January 1945.
Honors
CPT Kenneth O. Beach has Honoree Record 3261 at MilitaryHallofHonor.com.
Bio compiled by Charles A. Lewis
Kenneth Otto Beach graduated with a B.A. from the University of Michigan, and then from the University of Miami Law School. He then entered the U.S. Army as an ROTC Second Lieutenant and was sent to the South Pacific Theatre of Operations.
From this point, the story of what transpired with Captain Beach is best told by his eldest brother, retired four-star U.S. Army General Dwight E. Beach, and by a family friend. This story was conveyed to author Cynthia Furlong Reynolds and contained in her award-winning book, ‘OUR HOMETOWN: America's History Seen Through The Eyes of a Midwestern Village.' It is provided in this memorial with her gracious consent.
General Beach winces when he tells his brother's story. "He was captured on Bataan when we surrendered there and he was interred on the island in the Philippines called Mindanao, in a prison camp. I finally got in there three months after the Japs abandoned it. I was the first point man to get there, but I couldn't find any trace of my brother."
The Japanese had tried to move all the prisoners of war to Japan. General Beach's brother was with a group of 1,200 Americans in fair shape that left Manila in December 1944. "But only 200 got back to the U.S. after the war," the General says. "They were jammed into unmarked ships and U.S. bombers sank a lot of those ships. The Japs made no efforts whatsoever to mark those ships as either hospital ships or ships carrying prisoners of war."
"Kenny survived the Bataan Death March and Mindanao, then survived the bombing of the ship and swam to an island," explains family friend Claude S. Rogers. "The account given to me by Kenny's brother David and by Dwight's son, Col. Dwight E. Beach, Jr., says that the Japanese recaptured Kenny and loaded him onto another ship, which was also bombed. He subsequently died from an infected and broken leg."
The Cenotaph shown in the photo is inscribed with a date of death that is different from official records, which indicates it was 28 January 1945.
Honors
CPT Kenneth O. Beach has Honoree Record 3261 at MilitaryHallofHonor.com.
Bio compiled by Charles A. Lewis
From this point, the story of what transpired with Captain Beach is best told by his eldest brother, retired four-star U.S. Army General Dwight E. Beach, and by a family friend. This story was conveyed to author Cynthia Furlong Reynolds and contained in her award-winning book, ‘OUR HOMETOWN: America's History Seen Through The Eyes of a Midwestern Village.' It is provided in this memorial with her gracious consent.
General Beach winces when he tells his brother's story. "He was captured on Bataan when we surrendered there and he was interred on the island in the Philippines called Mindanao, in a prison camp. I finally got in there three months after the Japs abandoned it. I was the first point man to get there, but I couldn't find any trace of my brother."
The Japanese had tried to move all the prisoners of war to Japan. General Beach's brother was with a group of 1,200 Americans in fair shape that left Manila in December 1944. "But only 200 got back to the U.S. after the war," the General says. "They were jammed into unmarked ships and U.S. bombers sank a lot of those ships. The Japs made no efforts whatsoever to mark those ships as either hospital ships or ships carrying prisoners of war."
"Kenny survived the Bataan Death March and Mindanao, then survived the bombing of the ship and swam to an island," explains family friend Claude S. Rogers. "The account given to me by Kenny's brother David and by Dwight's son, Col. Dwight E. Beach, Jr., says that the Japanese recaptured Kenny and loaded him onto another ship, which was also bombed. He subsequently died from an infected and broken leg."
The Cenotaph shown in the photo is inscribed with a date of death that is different from official records, which indicates it was 28 January 1945.
Honors
CPT Kenneth O. Beach has Honoree Record 3261 at MilitaryHallofHonor.com.
Bio compiled by Charles A. Lewis
Inscription
Capt. Kenneth Otto Beach
9 NOV. 1912 - 26 JAN. 1945
Veteran of Bataan, The March of Death
33 Months Japanese Imprisonment
Died of Wounds and Buried at Sea
Near Okinawa, Pacific Ocean
