Captured: The Extraordinary Adventures of Colonel Hughes

James Clark Hughes led an extraordinary life. As a Kansan, Hughes is among a select number of soldiers who served in a major military expedition and two world wars. Through photographs, diaries, and personal effects, Hughes captured his service in great detail.

He took more than 600 images of his time at the Mexican border (1916) and in Europe (1919). As a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II he kept a daily diary and, upon liberation, brought home items from his imprisonment.

Later in his life Hughes and his family donated these items to the Kansas Museum of History. Now, through the record he left, his story can be told.

Bugle used by Hughes as a trumpeter in the Kansas National Guard.

The unit was dispatched to the Mexican Punitive Expedition, an effort to capture Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa. Here soldiers are marching near San Antonio, Texas, 1916.

At this time cameras were popular but not abundant. The Kodak Autographic Camera was unique in that allowed a photographer to write on one side of the negative without exposing the image. Hughes used a stylus to label and date his pictures.

Captain Hughes was assigned to the newly formed U.S. Army 35th Division made up of 23,000 soldiers from Kansas and Missouri. He was one of 3 million soldiers to join the war effort. He took his camera with him.

Arriving in August 1917, Hughes spent 10 months training at Camp Doniphan and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Captain Hughes commanded the field artillery battery standing for inspection at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, October 20, 1917.

In preparation for trench fighting in Europe soldiers experienced live artillery training in trenches at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, March 7, 1918.

Hughes’ battalion was constantly on the move, stopping in a different town almost daily before engaging in the Battle of Meuse-Argonne on September 26, 1918. This would be the final major Allied offensive in the war. The battle line stretched across the entire Western Front and lasted until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. It was the largest and deadliest battle in United States military history.

Captain Hughes, like many other soldiers, documented his time in World War I with more than just photographs. He also collected “souvenirs.” This German officer’s helmet was discovered by Hughes on the battle front of the 35th Division near Les Eparges, France.

Hughes continued to take photographs. On April 23, 1924, he captured the U.S. army balloon at the National Balloon Race in San Antonio, Texas. An estimated people 100,000 attended the event.

Hughes was part of the 10,000 U.S. troops sent to the Philippines a few months prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor to prevent a possible Japanese invasion. As commander of a field artillery battalion, he first engaged the Japanese at lIngayen Bay. Five months later, on April 9, 1942, Hughes and 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops fatefully surrendered at Bataan.

Every POW received an identification badge to help guards keep track of them. Hughes' POW badge #56 was issued at Camp Karenko, Formosa (Taiwan).

All soldiers captured at Bataan went to Camp O’Donnell, the first and worst POW camp that Colonel Hughes had to endure. Soldiers arrived at camp with nothing but the clothes on their back. Before they could eat at Camp O’Donnell soldiers had to scrounge for things as basic as a bowl and a cup. Colonel Hughes left a grim record of how he acquired some of his utensils: "the canteen I took from under the stiff outstretched hand of a thin [American] soldier who had died during the night half under the porch of the ODonnell hospital. …The cup belonged to Col Berry CAC who died at Tarlac. So my cup and my canteen both came from dead men."

All POWs lost weight due to the starvation diets. Colonel Hughes weighed 177 pounds before the war. At his lowest he weighed only 125 pounds. On August 15, 1943, he wrote: "How many people in the states could realize that for over a thousand consecutive meals I've had nothing but rice and soup." Hughes ate from this bowl for three years. It is inscribed with his initials, his status as a prisoner of war, and the name of his camp. “JHC PW TARLAC”

Like Hughes, who kept a diary, other officers found ways to record their time. Colonel Malcolm Fortier was captured at Bataan along with Colonel Hughes. He drew caricatures that upon his release were turned into the self-published book The Life of a POW Under the Japanese In Caricature. This drawing shows the types of beards worn in camp. Hughes is fourth from left.

Delivery of letters and Red Cross boxes were always met with great delight. It was a very special day when Hughes received his first personal Red Cross box and news from home. December 24, 1943: "Just think-a box-the first word in over two years-and it arrives the day before Christmas!!! It couldn’t possibly have selected a more appropriate date for itself."

Although free, it would take Hughes three months to reach the United States. During this time he learned of his father’s death and the safe release of his son (James Renwick) from a German POW camp.