1st Lt Merle Christensen was born in Oregon and, served with the Army 24th Field Artillery Regiment. He was serving in the Philippines during the fall of Bataan, and was forced along the Bataan Death March as a Prisoner of War to the Japanese. While a prisoner at the Camp #1 Cabanatuan 1-2-3 Nueva Province Luzon Philippines 15-121 POW Camp, he was boarded onto one of the Japanese “Hell Ships”. During WWII the Japanese took transport ships and used them to transport POW’s without labeling the ships as POW Transport ships. This created several issues as the Allied Forces would bomb the ships not realizing their own people were on them. 1st Lt Christensen survived the bombing of the Oryoku Maru transport ship, the survivors were then put onto the Enoura Maru which was then bombed by an American Air raid. From there the remaining survivors were put onto the Brazil Maru which left port on 14 Jan 1945. The Brazil Maru was used to transport livestock prior to the POWs boarding it and it wasn’t cleaned nor was food stocked for the POWs. It is unclear what 1st Lt Merle died of between sickness from the feces lack of water or lack of food. He died two days before the Brazil Maru docked. He was survived by his parents, five brothers and a sister.
http://goldstarfamilyregistry.com/heroes/merle-christensen-465105
https://www.abmc.gov/node/353125 https://www.oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx71bm10v#page/21/mode/1up/search/christensen (pg 21)
https://www.oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx71bm10v#page/3/mode/1up/search/christensen (pg 3)
https://www.oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx71bc76h#page/31/mode/1up/search/christensen (pg 27)
https://www.oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx71b966v#page/5/mode/1up/search/christensen (pg 5)