Hello Carpenter Cousins,
As November 11, 2019 approaches, my thoughts were turned to Claude Emerson
Carpenter-129491.
I was doing some duplication clean up and took the opportunity expand the material I had
on him.
This led me to discover that he has three (3) Find A Grave memorials and one (1) Billion
Graves memorial.
The three Find A Grave memorials are in 1) Japan where his cremains are intermingled with
other POW remains, 2) in Nebraska where a US Military memorial marker was placed by his
parents and 3) in South Carolina where a duplicate stone memorial marker was placed next
to his wife’s grave marker.
This makes three (3) entries as a son/sibling on Find A Grave. Please see his entries at:
1)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14514361 – in Japan
SUGGESTION MADE: Add
Technical Sergeant Claude Emerson Carpenter died while a Prisoner of War (POW) in Moji,
Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, Kyushu Island, Japan. His body was cremated and his ashes were
intermingled with other POW cremated remains. A sampling of those co-mingled remains were
interred at the Yokohama Cremation Memorial and his name is enshrined on the wall with
other known deceased POWs that died at Moji.
Inscription: Add
(Memorial plaque over large metal urn)
1939-1945
IN THE URN BELOW REST THE ASHES OF 35 SAILORS, SOLDIERS AND AIRMEN OF THE BRITISH
COMMONWEALTH. THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WHO DIED AS
PRISONERS OF WAR IN JAPAN. THE NAMES OF 284 ARE INSCRIBED ON THESE WALLS: THE IDENTITY OF
THEIR 51 COMRADES IS UNKNOWN
THERE BE OF THEM THAT HAVE LEFT A NAME BEHIND THEM THAT THEIR PRAISES MIGHT BE REPORTED
AND SOME THERE BE WHICH HAVE NO MEMORIAL
BUT THEIR RIGHTEOUS HATH NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN AND THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT
(Panel 7 contains names of US Army POWs who died at Camp Moji Fukuoka (Hospital))
C. E. Carpenter
Technical Sergeant
2)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21147267 – US Military brass memorial marker placed
by parents.
Inscription: Add
NOTE: Headstone (US Military brass style) reads:
In Memory of
Claude E. Carpenter
Nebraska
T. Sgt Coast Arty Corps
Word War II
Sept. 26, 1915 - July 8, 1945
3)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120220773 - Stone memorial marker placed by wife’s
grave marker.
NOTE: Headstone (Not a US Military marker) reads:
In Memory of
Claude E. Carpenter
Nebraska
T. Sgt Coast Arty Corps
Word War II
Sept. 26, 1914 - July 8, 1945
NOTE: Suggestion made to correct year of birth to 1915, add parents and cite two other
Find a Grave entries.
Normally there is an effort to merge same/similar memorials on Find A Grave. But each one
of these are unique and I made suggestions that they should cross reference each other,
along with adding missing details.
Claude Emerson Carpenter-129491 was born 26 Sep 1915 in Sargent, Custer, Nebraska and
reportedly died as a P.O.W. at Moji, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, Kyushu Island, Japan on 8 July
1945. While training in the Coast Artillery School in Fort Monroe, Virginia in 1938, he
met Lorraine Olise Easton (1916-2013). They were married on 12 Dec 1939. He was
transferred to the Philippines Islands in 1940 and his wife followed him. He re-enlisted
as a Technical Sergeant in the Coastal Artillery Corps on 25 July 1941.
At the beginning of the USA war with Japan on 8 Dec 1941 (7 Dec 1941 on the other side of
the date line at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii), his wife Lorraine was successfully evacuated to
the US mainland. She never saw him again. He was confirmed as a Prisoner of War on 7 May
1942. After learning about his death in 1945, she vowed to never re-marry and died his
widow on 7 March 2013 in Columbia, Richland, South Carolina.
For those who can accept attachments please see the eleven page attached CEC-129491.pdf.
For those on Rootsweb who wish to see it, please email me off list and I will send it.
May we remember our Carpenter Cousins Ancestors that served and died for our Freedom.
Freedom is not Free, it is bought and paid for very dearly.
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA USA
Carpenter Cousins Project - Our main support page!
https://carpentercousins.com