National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Recognition Day is observed on the third Friday in September, established in 1979. Herbert H. Hanneman from Madison, Wisconsin, was a prisoner of war during World War II. He served in the United States Army from 1941 to 1945. Since Hanneman had typing and shorthand skills, he was selected to be a clerk in General Douglas MacArthur's office in Manila, Philippines. The year was 1941, and the war hadn't started yet for American troops. The workdays were short, and the assignments were easy.

INTERVIEWER: Did you feel any threat from Japan?
HANNEMAN: None whatsoever. We just had a ball there. Clark Field was the Air Force airport, for the Army Air Force, nearest the Philippines. And they were always flying around, and then they had a coast artillery there for Manila. And they had an infantry there. And well, December 8th, that's when all hell broke loose as they say. Pearl Harbor was bombed. But to show you how alert we were, we came down for breakfast the following morning and we saw newspaper hawking, newspaper being hawked, says, “Pearl Harbor Bombed.” We hadn't even known about it.

Things shifted quickly from those easy, fun-filled days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Later in December, MacArthur's headquarters were moved from Manila to Corregidor in response to mounting pressure from the Japanese. The Japanese bombed MacArthur's temporary headquarters. Those surviving the attack, Hanneman among them, boarded a barge that floated towards Bataan. Once on shore, Hanneman joined infantrymen in a makeshift camp with limited facilities. Food was barely available, and there were no bathrooms. Hanneman went with a few others to a nearby stream to bathe.

HANNEMAN: But I remember that several of us, four or five of us, went down to a stream near there and wanted to take a good bath. So, we undressed and while we were undressed, all of a sudden we looked up and we were surrounded by Japanese soldiers.
INTERVIEWER: Bad timing.
HANNEMAN: Bad timing. Very bad timing. They did allow us to put our clothes on, but they took our wrist watches, and our rings, and ya know.
INTERVIEWER: Was that in--
HANNEMAN: With a little prodding, they got us to go to meet larger groups, and eventually, we were in a huge group.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum

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