KEELER, Ora Kenneth c1912-1943

KEELER, ANDERSON

Posted By: Andrew Brown (email)
Date: 11/13/2010 at 02:25:31

Ora Kenneth KEELER

Word was received this week (JAN 1946) by the family of Ora Kenneth KEELER, Waterloo (IA) carpenter employed in construction work on Wake Island at the time of the Japanese attack on the United States, which leads them to believe that Keeler was one of the 98 men massacred by the Japanese on Oct. 7, 1943.

According to the Waterloo man’s mother, Augusta (Anderson) Keeler, Oelwein, Ia., records of the contractors (Morrison-Knudsen) personnel reveal that her son was not evacuated from Wake Island.

Keeler was originally presumed to be a prisoner of war, according to a Navy announcement in February 1942. No further word has been received from the government..

A son of Ora H. Keeler, 240 Evans road (Waterloo IA), Keeler, who would be 33 now, left for Wake Island in September, 1941.

(Waterloo IA Daily Courier 04JAN1946)

Notes: Burial: Honolulu Memorial
Plot G, Grave 68
(A mass grave with his comrades)
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

American marines on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese on 24 DEC 1941 with almost a 1,200 American civilian construction workers included in the surrender. Evidently KEELER was one of those later executed by the Japanese. On 18 JUN 1947, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, who had ordered the executions was himself hung by the Americans.