Veterans' Memorial Project

Robert George Emerson

Chicago, IL

World War II

College: Engineering

Graduation Year: Attended 1939

Service Branch: Army

Rank: First Lieutenant

Date of Birth: 06/09/1916

Date of Death: 10/24/1944

Lt. Emerson served with the 31st Infantry Regiment. He was captured during the fall of Corregidor. He was in the Bataan Death March and was imprisoned for a time at notorious Camp O’Donnell. Lt. Emerson died while on a Japanese prison ship, Arisan Maru in the South China Sea. The shop was sunk by an American submarine; of the 1803 POWs on board, only 9 survived its sinking. Most of the POWs survived the actual sinking but the Japanese refused to rescue the POWs and allowed them to drown. He is listed as Missing in Action or Buried at Sea on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

-taken from Illinois Alumni News, April, 1947, and Web site above

Further information: https://www.abmc.gov

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