Paul "Judge" Bostick Private, U.S. Army 06281824 31st Infantry Regiment Entered the Service from: Texas Died: October 24, 1944 Missing in Action or Buried at Sea Shown left are tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery Manila, Philippines Awards: Bronze Star, Purple Heart

Paul "Judge" Bostick was stationed in the Philippines during World War II.  When the invading Japanese forces cut the American supply lines and our soldiers began running out of food, the 31st Infantry men were forced to surrender.  Judge marched the Bataan Peninsula; he received no water and only a small meal of rice.  Many men died or were murdered during this march, an ordeal which lasted six days and was merely the beginning of the nightmare that Judge was to experience in the next two years.  When he arrived at the prisoner of war camp, he was faced with hard labor, exposed to horrible "sporting" atrocities and denied medical care.  We received some correspondence from him during his internment. The only information he was able to pass through the Japanese was in pig-Latin - he was starving.  In October 1944 he and 1,791 other American POWs were packed into the Arisan Maru, an unmarked transport ship traveling with a Japanese convoy bound for Japan. The POWS, already sick and suffering from dysentery and malaria, were being sent to the mainland to be used as slave labor.  On October 24, 1944, the American submarine, USS Snook, struck the Arisan Maru with a torpedo.  As it began to sink, the Japanese soldiers escaped on the ship's only two remaining lifeboats and made their way to other ships in the convoy.  Judge and the other American POWs were left behind to drown and of these almost 1,800 men, only eight survived.  Make no mistake.  Judge did not die because of a military action or horrible accident.  Judge's life ended in what could only be termed as murder, but not until the Japanese forces had made his existence as cruel and undignified as anyone could endure.  Judge should have returned home to his family after the war and should now be enjoying his old age with his sister and brothers.  Know this - Judge is not just a footnote in military history nor an entry in a genealogical database - he was our brother, our uncle...our family.  Paul "Judge" Bostick, we will remember you.    -Memorial Day, 28 May 2001