Harold Eugene "Hal" Joslin was born in 1918 in Port Angeles or Sequim, Washington. He was born and raised on a dairy farm. His dad worked on a railroad for awhile. During that period, the family lived in a logging community. The Great Depression had little impact on the family because they had the farm which provided plenty to eat. Joslin completed grade school and high school. Immediately after graduation, he entered the Navy. His career in the service spanned 39 years.

Harold Joslin joined the Navy around 1939. He liked the idea of going to sea. He also really wanted to get off the farm [Annotator's Note: he had grown up on his family's dairy farm in Sequim, Washington]. When he turned 18 years of age, he enlisted. He was given a qualification examination and it indicated that he would be best suited as a radio man. He attended training and instructions in the operation of communication equipment. Part of the education involved use of radio and Morse code. As war neared, it became obvious to Joslin and the men stationed on Guam, that they would be involved in the conflict. The island was under the governorship of a Navy captain named McMillin [Annotator's Note: US Navy Captain George Johnson McMillin]. The Captain told everyone under his command to evacuate all dependants on the next transport out of Guam. Joslin, along with nearly everyone else, did so. Joslin made sure his wife was on the next transport exiting the island. The only exceptions in the evacuation were the wife and baby of a chief petty officer who remained on Guam. Right after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese landed on the island and Joslin was captured shortly thereafter. Prior to being stationed on Guam, Joslin had mainly sailed the seas with the Navy. He enjoyed the Navy life up until that time. He had enlisted and rose through the ranks to retire as a Navy captain.

Harold Joslin was an intercept operator [Annotator's Note: communication code specialist who interpreted enemy coded radio transmissions] on Guam prior to the outbreak of war. His mission was to listen in on Japanese coded messages. In doing so, he could tell that the Japanese fleet was out of area. Shortly thereafter, they discovered that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Right after attacking Hawaii, Guam was attacked. The Americans went into the mountains and set up their radio equipment. That was where the enemy found Joslin and the nine other men he was with at the time. The men had fled into the mountains after the Japanese had begun to strafe and bomb their station and barracks. They determined that they would be better off leaving their facilities that were being bombed and go into the hills for sanctuary. The defense of the island was minimal. The troops only had old rifles and .45s to fight with. Prior to the war, the island had coastal guns and Marine aircraft. The Japanese had complained that the Americans were in violation of the Geneva Conference preventing them from having that equipment west of the 180th [Annotator's Note: meridian]. The island troops dumped their large guns into the sea as a result. That left only the small personal weapons issued to each individual for defense of the island. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise to Joslin even though he knew the enemy fleet was out of its area and they could not determine what the Japanese ships were planning. When the Pearl Harbor attack was announced, the men on Guam knew that they would be targeted next. The Japanese hit Guam right after the attack on Hawaii. When the Japanese landed approximately 6,000 troops on Guam, Joslin and his radio equipment were already up in the mountains. The 200 or so island defenders battled the Japanese to the best of their ability but were not able to stem the tide. The Japanese took over. There was an American chief petty officer named Lane [Annotator’s Note: no further name identification provided], who met the enemy and made an agreement with them. They captured Joslin's group as a result. The captain deferred decisions to the non-commissioned officer and the Japanese communicated through the non-com as a result. The chief was in charge even when the men were taken to Japan. While in the mountains, the Americans went into a valley surrounded by trees. The Japanese found them there. The enemy had lined up on a road ahead of them and motioned for them to come up and join them. There was a US Navy officer with them. He pointed out to the Japanese where the hiding communications men were located. The Americans had to climb up a hill to reach the enemy who trained their rifles and BARs [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifles] on them. The Americans wondered what was going to happen after their captured. They were glad they had removed their dependants from the island ahead of time. [Annotator's Note: US Navy Captain George McMillin, the commanding officer of the garrison on Guam, had told his men to remove their dependants from the island prior to the Pearl Harbor attack.] The Japanese rounded up the Americans and locked them in an old church. They were under guard there for about a month before being taken to Japan. The men were interrogated while in the church. The intercept operators were sure the Japanese would be looking for them in particular. They were concerned every time the Japanese came around to question them. The communication men were never sorted out by the enemy. The prisoners were harassed and made to bow to the Japanese. The captives were forced to ask permission to go to the head [Annotator's Note: "the head" is naval slang for the toilet]. While in captivity, food was scarce even though the enemy lived well off what was stored in the American commissary. For about a month, food was basically rice and soup. That was augmented by the food the Americans could steal while they worked on the docks. Some Chamorros, the local Guam populace, also managed to sneak some food into the church for the captured troops. The food would pass through a Japanese guard to an American standing near him. The guards kept some of the food but transferred some to their captives. One Chamorro tried to pass a note to the Americans about blowing up a building. The Japanese beheaded the man. After leaving the church, the Americans were marched to a small port called Piti. They boarded an old Japanese ship called the Argentina Maru. They were placed down in the hold of the ship with no idea of their destination. The ship had only a few guards on it so the Americans worked on a plan to overwhelm their captors and take control of the ship. There were engineers among the prisoners who could have run the ship. When they brought their detailed plan to Captain McMillin, he refused to support the plan. McMillin thought it to be "foolhardy." It likely was because the United States had no ships in the area. If the prisoners had taken the Maru, they still would have needed to reach Pearl Harbor for safety. The food on the ship was mostly rice with some kind of soup. The men who were being transported stuck together and helped one another. They made up code words for the guards. The names had to be changed frequently because the guards learned what they were. [Annotator's Note: Joslin chuckles atthe memory.]

Harold Joslin was transported from Guam directly to Japan on the Argentina Maru. [Annotator's Note: Joslin had been captured by the Japanese after the fall of Guam in December 1941.] The ship went directly into the inland sea. It was extremely cold and snowy in the dead of winter. The men were placed on an open lighter or barge. The captives were in their whites from the island. They huddled together in an attempt to keep warm. They traveled on a streetcar through the city to reach the prisoner of war camp. The Japanese civilians paid no heed to the Americans as they traveled through their city. The Americans were brought to a prison camp in Zentsuji [Annotator's Note: Zentsujichó, Japan]. The men were freezing. They had been anxious to reach their destination so that they could get warm. They discovered no warmth in the barracks when they arrived there. It was 1942. The men were given blankets for warmth. Joslin was awoken in the night when a rat bit him though his lip. He knocked the rat away. A corpsman named Truman Keck [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] treated him with medicine and stitches. Joslin never lost faith that he would return home. He worked every day and was under constant guard. When the Japanese lost a battle in the Pacific, they would get high on sake and come in the barracks to take their anger out on the prisoners just for fun. Joslin worked as a stevedore. He loaded and unloaded boxcars. The Japanese used wooden barrels to ship things. The POWs would open the bung and force horse manure or urinate into the barrel. That was how the material would be shipped to the front. [Annotator's Note: Joslin laughs.] The prisoners also sabotaged equipment when they could so that it would be useless after arrival. They managed to do a lot of harm to the enemy's war effort. The POWs used various techniques to steal and transport food from the docks to the barracks. They were called out on it one time by a Japanese sergeant. He admonished his captives to steal less or they might have their heads taken off. [Annotator's Note: Joslin laughs.] Some punishments were more severe. Joslin was beaten with a bamboo stick when he was caught inside a boxcar damaging soda pop bottles that were in transit. Joslin remained in one camp during the entirety of his imprisonment. It was one of the better camps to be held as a POW. The camp at Zentsuji had a varying group of Allied prisoners from different nations and branches of service. Joslin knew of Ray Church either before or after the capitulation of Guam. [Annotator's Note: Church had taken part in the defense of Guam and became a POW afterward. Church's oral history is also available on this website.] Joslin knew Ernest Rogers in the camp. [Annotator's Note: Rogers was captured on Wake Island while serving as an Army radio operator. Rogers' oral history is also available on this website.] The captives would put on a little show for their own entertainment. The British especially liked to do so. Joslin continued to do stevedore work throughout his captivity. It was good to have work. It provided some opportunity to steal food plus feel like he was helping the war effort. The officer POWs were not forced to work as the enlisted men were. They would sit around all day with nothing really to do. It was boring for them. Anytime the officers tried to get something going with raising animals, the Japanese would steal from them. The POWs could tell when the war turned on the Japanese. The prisoners were not forced to work after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The prisoners went to the enemy and said they knew the war was over. They demanded that the guards turn over their weapons to the Marines who would take control of the camp. The Japanese did so. The Americans took over and went on liberty afterward. There were numerous books available in the camp. When the American embassy had been taken over, the books that were there were shipped to the camp. Red Cross packages were not distributed until after the Americans took over the camp. The Red Cross was not effective during the war. The Japanese brought in more food to their former captives after the camp was transitioned. The POWs saw American planes overhead when they observed the contrails. Joslin worked at a place called Takamatsu. On one 4th of July, American bombers burned out that whole city. It made the POWs proud to see that happened. After the end of the war, planes flew over and dropped supplies to the POWs. Some men on the ground were hurt trying to get to the supplies as quickly as they could. Some people just gave up hope and died despite having vitamins in their kit that had been saved. Joslin was always religious. He remembers some church services being held.

Harold Joslin and his fellow prisoners of war tried to keep their humor up. There was a Japanese guard who marched them to a train which took them to their worksites. Invariably, the procession would cross paths with Japanese officers. The POWs were expected to face and salute the enemy officers. The Japanese guard would call out "eyes right" in Japanese and the Americans would respond and face the oncoming officers. One day the guard asked how to say "eyes right" in English. The Americans said it was "fuck you" [Annotator's Note: Joslin's words]. The next day when the Japanese guard passed the officers, he shouted out "fuck you" and the Americans turned to the officers and did a nice eyes right. The next day, the befuddled guard discovered what he was actually saying and let the Americans know that he understood the trick that had been played on him. [Annotator's Note: Joslin laughs]. Most guards with the POWs were pretty good except for the cruel guards who had been wounded in action. Most of the dock work that Joslin performed for the enemy involved loading and unloading food and war supplies going to the front. The Japanese always told their captives that they were winning in the Pacific. It is interesting to know the actual history as opposed to the picture that was painted by the Japanese. One American-Japanese individual had the misfortune of being in Japan during the outbreak of the war. He was forced to join the enemy army. He would tell his fellow Americans that he knew the Japanese could not possibly win the war. Joslin returned to Japan for duty after the war. He held no animosity toward the Japanese. Some POWs did stay angry, but he did not. Joslin's family found out about him being a POW after he broadcast a message that was picked up by a ham radio operator. His parents were notified of his status as a result. There were very limited and sporadic transmittals of mail allowed going to the family. Joslin's wife worked throughout the war as a purchasing agent for a radio corporation. Their equipment was placed on fishing ships. After the atomic bombs were dropped, the camp was transitioned to American custody. It was discovered later that the Japanese were also working on the atomic bomb. If they would have gotten it first, it would have been bad.

Following the end of the war, Harold Joslin remained in Japan briefly. The former captives were brought to a landing area in the inland sea in preparation for a sea voyage home. He returned to the United States on an American transport vessel. The voyage on a destroyer escort back to Guam seemed to take forever. There was abundant food available to the former prisoners. After the voluminous food intake, the ship rode through a typhoon. All the men were on the deck sick. [Annotator's Note: Joslin laughs.] Upon reaching the United States, the men no longer felt they were POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. It was a great feeling. Upon reaching San Diego, a small band welcomed them as Dale Rodgers sang her greeting to them. She was the wife of Roy Rodgers. [Annotator's Note: Both Dale Evans Rodgers and Roy Rodgers were western movie and television stars of that era and after.] Joslin had no family to immediately welcome him. His wife came later to greet him. He was checked into a hospital to confirm that he was in good shape. He had no issues. After his wife arrived, they purchased an old Pontiac car and traveled to Mexico City. They had a wonderful time reuniting before they went home. They had been apart for four years, and it was quite a reunion. Joslin would go on to have a daughter and grandson. With gasoline being rationed, the couple had to get in line for fuel each morning. After the war, Joslin went to work for the National Security Agency until he retired. Joslin learned many things as a POW. He learned things about himself as far as his strong points and weak points. He learned of the depth of his faith. He learned the meaning of a good friend as opposed to an acquaintance. Some POWs were closer friends than others. Many remained friends afterward. Joslin feels The National WWII Museum is important as a means to record history for future generations. Historic museums are very important. Joslin's message to future generations would be to avoid wars using diplomatic efforts if at all possible. Having said that, he feels that appeasement is not the proper answer. If a person is a POW, it is necessary to take each day one day at a time. Learn to take care of each other. The officers were not forced to work like the enlisted men. The enlisted workers stole food to share with those who did not have the same opportunity as they did. Joslin would recommend developing a sense of self and religion. Do not despair while in captivity. The Second World War does not register much with students in high school today. Nevertheless, lessons learned from the conflict should not be forgotten. To Joslin, the most significant thing about his time as a POW was his liberation.