Lost Battalion (Pacific, World War II)

The Lost Battalion (Pacific, World War II) was the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, 36th Infantry Division (Texas National Guard) of the U.S. Army. The men of the battalion, plus the survivors of the sunken ship USS Houston, were captured by the Japanese on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in March 1942. It is called the lost battalion because the fate of the men was unknown to the United States until September 1944. They were prisoners of war for 42 months until the end of World War II.

534 soldiers from the battalion and 368 survivors of the Houston were taken prisoner. Most of the men were sent to Thailand to work on the Burma Railway, the building of which is portrayed in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai. Of the 902 soldiers and sailors taken captive, 163 died in captivity. Most of the prisoners of war were from western Texas.

Sergeant Frank Fujita was a notable survivor who was a POW for three and a half years. He went on to write the memoir Foo: A Japanese-American Prisoner of the Rising Sun.

The parent organization of the 2nd Battalion, the 36th Division, Texas National Guard was mobilized on 25 November 1940. The battalion of Texas soldiers consisted of a Headquarters Battery from Decatur and Wichita Falls, Firing Batteries D, E, and F from Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Jacksboro respectively, a Service Battery from Lubbock and Plainview, and a Medical Detachment from Plainview. The majority of the men were from 18 to 22 years old.

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