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OH 0475

About the Interviewee

IntervieweeDETRE, George E. (b. 1918)
Military ServiceU.S. Navy WWII Veteran
Notable infosurvivor of the sinking of the USS Houston

About this oral history

Interview ID #OH 0475
Date(s) of interview
DescriptionSurvivor of the sinking of the USS Houston. His experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II. Sinking of Houston, 1942; capture and imprisonment at Serang, Java; Bicycle Camp, Batavia, 1942; Changi Prison Camp, Singapore, 1942; building the Death Railway, 1942-44; Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 1944; Singapore, 1944-45; hell ship to Japan, 1945; coal mining at Senju, Kyushu, 1945; liberation.
Interviewer(s)Ronald E. Marcello
Physical Description230 pp.
Terms of UseOpen