The name Henry Kwan is not on the US Archives List: DRAFT ROSTERS OF POW'S SHOWING TRANSFERS FROM BILIBID PRISON TO OTHER CAMPS IN 1944      (from the battling bastards of battaan Website) - this does not mean he was never a prisoner or surrendered, because some records are missing.      Some Phillipine prisoners in the Scouts were quickly let go.  What was his rank and serial number, that would help?  remember, there was no law ever passed to give compensation or allow the Scouts to obtain US Serviceman benefits.

I don't know if there was a 12th Infantry Division either Phil. Scouts or regular US Army in 1941-1942.  There were however the 12th Quarter Master Reg't (PS), the 12th Medical Regt. (PS), 12th Signal Regt. (PS) and 12th QM Regt. (PS).      They were all in the Phillipine Division.      I would need to do further research to find out more.  There is a great book (if still available) here to purchase at this website by COl. John Olson, Phillipine Scouts[u][/u] that may help.  Here is a link to the US Army History Center that discusses the battles, and each of the units - you may find more there>

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_Contents.htm#part2

Good luck and let me know if I can help.  I am in oontact with West Coast Phillipine Scout organizations.

Peter Olsen
pcolsen@verizon.net

Peter,

I have got some more information on Henry Kwan.  Enrique is the Spanish name for Henry and sure enough our boy was enlisted under Enrique Kwan.  I found a Feb 26, 1945 enlistment date.  He probably never left the Philippines but I have him with a Montana Residence.  I have run into a lot of enlistments of Filipinos into the US Army in 1945 being enlisted through Montana even thought the individual never left the Philippines.  But with Enrique he also has Portola, California has place of enlistment.  This is confusing.

He is a corporal in Field Artillery, born in the Philippines in 1918, a Filipino, not yet a US Citizen.

Hope this is some help, maybe you could research him as Enrique Kwan also, maybe be some additional information.

Regards,

Tom McGeeney

Peter,

While Henry has a 1945 enlistment date, he could have been fighting as a guerrilla, unless it can be proven he was outside the Philippines during the fighting there.  I have run into Filipinos who never left the Islands, yet had enlistment records like Henry with stateside places of enlistment.  I am thinking he, like a lot of Filipinos, enlisted in the US Army in the early months of 1945.  Even tlhough he was always in the Philippines.  The Army ran a lot of these enlistments through Montana and the individual never left the Philippines.

Because the 70,000 man Filipino Army didn't have paper work (I understand a lot of 1st Sgts in the Filipino Army couldn't read or write), there is a very good chance Henry went through the Death March.  A lot of these 1945 enlistments saw duty in the occupation of Okinawa after the war.

NARA, aad, has WW II Records on POWs.  Ancestry.com has the same records but you have to pay.  Sometimes I get the record from both, generally though a record is gotten from only one of them.  I belong to Ancestry.com and use NARA, aad to keep Ancestry honest, so to speak.  My wife is from Mexico and my children went to school there when I had a house.  So they are bilingual.  When I saw Henry I thought he enlisted under Enrique (the Spanish name for Henry) and sure enough.

As far as determining who went through the Death March that is a tricky subject as there is no paperwork to verify it.  Because he enlisted in 1945 there is a very good reason to believe he fought before he enlished.  He was old enough.  From what I have heard they formed up the Filipino Army, everyone had to go, unless he had pull, then they made him an officer.

There were a group of Filipiinos that came from an island near Cebu and after the Surrender and their release (1942)they had no where to go.  Didn't speak the dialect and from what I read,l they were causing trouble and all they wanted was to go home.  I forget but I think the Japs could care less and it was the Guerrillas that enlisted who they could and got the rest home.

Regards,

Tom McGeeney

Henry A. Kwan was a family friend of ours and I'm sorry to say he passed away on July 12, 2010 just a few days after his 92nd birthday on July 8th which was also his wedding anniversary.  His wife and some family are still living in the DC/MD/VA area.  The viewing was on Sunday July 18th.  Because of the backlog at Arlington, he will not be buried until Oct.26th at Arlington Cemetery.  There will be a funeral mass at St. Jude's Church in Rockville, Md at 12:00PM followed by interment with a full military ceremony at Arlington at 3:00PM.  Some details are available on the funeral home's website.  Just do a search on their website for Henry Kwan, or click on view all services.  You may want to call the funeral home, Hines Rinaldi Funeral Home on (301) 622-2290 as I don't know if the family put a notice in the newspaper (I live in PA) , but perhaps they can provide additional information.  The family had contacted my family so that some of us were able to attend the viewing in time.  Henry had joined the US Army and raised a family in Maryland.  He passed away at the National Naval Medical Center.

-- Anita Ghebeles