May 11, 2000 – The monument on the Bruce Square displays the names of the valiant soldiers from Calhoun County who gave their lives for the cause of freedom.
Today they are names carved in stone – yesterday they were all young men with dreams of their own. Among those listed is John Allen Ellard, Jr., who was promoted to the rank of captain just before being captured and imprisoned at Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.
Ellard was the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Allen Ellard of the Pittsboro area. His father brought notoriety to Calhoun County by serving in the capacity of state superintendent prior to the war.
Ellard had just completed his education at Mississippi State University and was a newlywed of three months when he was called to duty. His parents were living in Jackson at the time.
Ellard died in a prison camp in Umeda Bunshu on Dec. 4, 1942. It would be almost 50 years later that his brother, Dr. Robert Ellard of Clarksdale, would finally get some closure to his brother’s death by an eye witness account of the conditions his brother endured during those final months.
In 1991, Dr. Ellard had requested information about his brother in a newsletter entitled the “The Zentssujian.” A retired Army Colonel Frank G. Jonelis, then 80 years of age, served as a first lieutenant and was with the Philippines Scouts of the 91st Coast Artillery. Even though he never met Ellard, he was sure that he had traveled with him to the prison camps.
At 80, he wrote of the events as if they were yesterday. He had arrived in September of 1941 on the island of Corregidor which was already in full 24-hour red alert.
He told how the Japanese began attacking the Cavity Naval Base near Manila.
“Manila became declared an open city and about 30,000 Americans and 80,000 native troops fought and maneuvered themselves into the jungles of Bataan. Starved, sick, wounded and almost immobilized, the troops in Bataan surrendered. Many soldiers escaped to Corregidor but most made the infamous “Bataan Death March.”
He told of the meager rations – no power, no water and very little food.
“We were eating dried coconuts, raisins, tons of Hershey chocolate, condensed syrup milk plus small amounts of rice. Bowel problems bothered all,” he wrote.
He told having to live in freezing conditions and being transported from one camp to another – sleeping on straw when they were allowed to sleep.
According to Jonelis, all POW’s were worked and fed only enough to keep them alive. When they did get sick their food supply was reduced by half as they were nonproductive and a burden on the prison camp.
Jonelis himself was one of the sick losing down to 80 pounds. There was no medicine, nor medical supplies at the POW compound and the food dwindled to one-half coffee cup of loosely packed rice three times a day.
“Nearly every POW was afflicted with one or more illness. The most common ones were beriberi –a severe malnutrition condition which either swells up your body with excess fluid or shrinks your body to a skeleton like condition. There were also other diseases like dysentery, malaria, hepatitis and open wounds that would not heal. Starvation caused strange and dangerous illness,” he wrote.
As horrible as the picture was, the Lt. Col. said he wanted Dr. Ellard to know it would help him find peace. Being that Captain Ellard died on December 4, 1942, it was likely that he was very sick when he reached Umeda Bunshu as he died two weeks after arrival.
Jonelis explained that the burial practices were reasonably decent and humane. The dead person was placed in a rolled fetal position and placed into a wood cask or barrel.
If it was an officer, a branch from a pine tree was placed over the body. An enlisted man then transported the body on a cart and carried to a crematory.
Jonelis was reasonably sure that Captain Allen Ellard was buried in such a manner. He would be the one of the few Calhoun County soldiers who gave his life on foreign soil whose remains were not returned home.