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About William P. Oliver

About the author: William P. Oliver (June 1, 1913 — October ?, 1944), 1st Lieutenant, US Army. Thomas Powers, in Balita mula Maynila: News from Manila, writes:

While working towards his master’s degree at The University of Michigan, William P. Oliver was called up by the Army, and ultimately sent to the Philippines in April of 1941. With the fall of Bataan he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and sent to a prisoner of war camp. For three and a half years he kept a diary of his experiences in the camp…

The Michigan Alumnus newsletter Vo. 50 lists him as ’37 and M.S. ’42.

About the diary: The version used here is from a digital copy of Box 137, Entry 1067, Philippine Archive Collection, Record Group 407, National Archives, College Park, MD, in the digital collection the PVAO.

Richard B. Meixsel, in Philippine-American Military History, 1902-1942: An Annotated Bibliography, says:

Oliver died aboard an unidentified ship (Arisan Maru) in October 1944. The diary had been buried in the Philippines, where it was recovered and sent to his family.

Also published as Diary of William P. Oliver, a Prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippine Islands (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, 1947). A copy of the diary itself is also at the Michigan Historical Collections.