James Murphy Offield was the son of James Murphy Offield and Ethel Blevins. He enlisted on 21 February 1941 in Roanoke, Virginia.
James Offield was captured on 7 May 1942 in the Southwest Pacific Theatre: Philippine Islands and died as Prisoner of War on 7 September 1944 on the Japanese Prison Ship Shinyo Maru.
He is Memorialized at Manila American Cemetery, Philippines and at Weaver Cemetery in Bristol, Sullivan County, TN
The Allies intercepted a message about the Shinyo Maru and, thinking it was carrying enemy soldiers, the USS Paddle attacked it on September 7, 1944 off the coast of Mindanao. There were 750 American prisoners of war aboard. Some Japanese guards shot prisoners as they struggled from the holds or were in the water; 688 died when the ship sank, leaving only 82 survivors; 47 of 52 Japanese guards died.
The Bristol Herald Courier, 12 September 1943
Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Offield of the Weaver pike received the past week the first news from their son, Pfc. James M. Offield, since the fall of Corregidor, the letter from Pfc. Offield relating that he was a prisoner of the Japanese and was in excellent health and that the treatment was good. Young Offield has been a prisoner of the Japs since the fall of Corregidor. He graduated from the Holston Valley high school and was employed by the Gray Hosiery Mill in Bristol before enlisting in the Army Signal Corps as a radio man. After attending a training school in the east he was sent to the Pacific area.
- Rank: Technician Fifth Class
- Date of birth: 19 February 1919
- Date of death: 7 September 1944
- County: Sullivan
- Hometown: Bristol
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: Signal Air Wing Company
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Awards: Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Manila American Cemetery, Fort Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XVIII, Top Panel
- Contact us to sponsor James M. Offield
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