Collection (ca. 1936-1997) relates to the life and career of Arthur Greenville McIntyre; an Lieutenant Commander of the United States Navy who was a U.S. Naval Academy graduate (Class of 1941) and who served in the Pacific theater of World War II. McIntyre served on the submarine U.S.S. Grenadier until it was lost in April 1943 by Japanese bombing. As a result of the attack, he became a prisoner of war of the Japanese and was not released until September of 1945. The bulk of the collection is on McIntyre's naval career but there is also material containing his biographical information and information on his time as a prisoner of war. Of particular interest are documents that have information on the Japanese who ran the POW camps and who were tried in the war crimes trials that were held in Japan. The documents lists their names and the sentences they received as a result of those trials. The majority of the documents in the collection are in English but some are in Japanese and Spanish with no translation.
Lieutenant Commander Arthur Greenville McIntyre was born on June 2, 1917, to Charles McIntyre and Lena Jones in Bessemer, Alabama. He attended Bessemer High School in Bessemer, Alabama and graduated from there in 1935. McIntyre enlisted in the U.S. Navy right after graduation on August 7, 1935. Once he received his training, he served on the U.S.S. Portland for a year and then entered the U.S. Naval Academy in July 1937 where he became one of the graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy's Class of 1941.
McIntyre again reported to the U.S.S. Portland for duty in the Pacific and he served on that ship until July 1942, when he entered the U.S. Naval Submarine School in New London, Connecticut that same year. Once he completed his instruction at the Submarine School, he was assigned to the submarine Grenadier as part of the Submarine Force in the Southwest Pacific. The Grenadier was lost to bombing by Japanese aircraft in April 1943. The attack resulted in McIntyre being captured by the Japanese and being held prisoner by them until September of 1945.
After his recovery from his captivity, Arthur McIntyre served aboard the submarines Piper, Torsk, and Redfish from 1946 to 1950. In January 1951, he became the Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Lionfish and served in that post until 1953. McIntyre would later go on to serve as Naval Attache to Peru from 1955 to 1958.
McIntyre also got married during this time. He married Margaret Costello Murphy on April 19, 1953. Arthur G. McIntyre died on January 16, 1997.
Source: Arthur G. McIntyre Collection (#0928), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
The collection has a variety of paper documents, photographs, negatives, slides, and ephemera. These materials contain information on Arthur McIntyre's personal life, his naval career and his wartime experience serving in the Pacific theater during World War II. Some of the documents are in languages other than English. These languages include Japanese, and Spanish.
The paper documents consist of correspondence, both personal and naval business; printed material; clippings; forms; testimonials; an affidavit; diaries; notebooks; a yearbook; travel vouchers; certificates; awards; manuals; a manuscript; and charts. The photographs, negatives, and slides mostly show U.S. naval scenes and scenes of Japan and its' people. The collection contains acetate disc recordings containing messages of McIntyre that were recorded by him in 1941 while in San Francisco, CA. The ephemera mostly consists of McIntyre's military patches and medals awarded to him for this wartime service. The most unique of these medals is the medal that the Peruvian government awarded McIntyre for his service as a Naval Attache to Peru. What is also included are McIntyre's dog tags.
The bulk of the collection consists of McIntyre's naval records but what is of particular interest are the documents pertaining to McIntyre's experience as a prisoner of war (POW) of the Japanese as well as that of veterans who were also former Japanese prisoners of war. Arthur McIntyre was captured by the Japanese in April 1943 when the U.S.S. submarine Grenadier was lost due to Japanese bombing and was held prisoner in the Ashio POW camp (No. 9B) in Japan. The Japanese released him in September 1945. McIntyre described his POW experience through his diaries and notebooks and through an affidavit he provided as testimony on September 3, 1948. Correspondence and war claims also provide information on McIntyre's time as a POW. Letters from 1946 indicate that Arthur McIntyre aided in making a legal case against the Japanese who operated the Ashio POW camp. Testimonials and printed material describe the treatment that other former POWs received at the hands of their Japanese captors and the trama they suffered because of it.
Included in the collection's material is correspondence, lists and other documents on the Japanese who ran the POW camps. The lists contain the names of the Japanese military and the sentences they received in the war trials that were held in Japan. The oversized material includes an undated letter that was sent to former POWs of the Ofuna POW Camp along with a list of Japanese military personnel who were trialed and sentenced along with organizational charts of command of the Ashio Prisoner of War Camp (No. 9B) and an organization chart of the Omori Prisoner of War Camp. Among the printed material is an newsletter printed by the U.S.S. Grenadier (10/1/1995) which recounts the public apology from one former Japanese guard who served in Camp Omori (8/19/1995) for his mistreatment of the POWs who were held there.
The collection also has documents that include information on the U.S. Naval Academy Alumi Association and a large photograph of the attendees of the Academy's Class of 1941 reunion. Documents on the U.S.S. Grenadier and the U.S.S. Lionfish are included which were the ships that McIntyre served on during his time in the U.S. Navy. Personal items consist of papers and photos of McIntyre's wife, Margaret, clippings that cover the John F. Kennedy Assassination, and chapters from a manuscript on the Sculpin and the U.S. Sailfish/Squalus by author Carl LaVO.
Gift of Edward D. Costello
Encoded by Mark Custer, March 26, 2008; Processed by Nanette Hardison, March, 2024
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.