Major William Herald Walker of Salt Lake City survived being shot down over Tokyo, endured beatings and undernourishment in a Japanese POW camp, was liberated at the end of the war, only to die of disease at age 25 aboard a hospital ship on August 30, 1945.

He was a pilot serving in the Pacific with the 73rd Bomber Wing, The following biographical information is from a Walker family history published by the John Walker Family Organization, printed in 1953 by the Inland Printing Company, Kaysville, Utah:

William Herald Walker was the son of Dilworth Walker and Ada Melissa Howe Walker. His father was dean of the College of Business at the University of Utah. William was born November 28, 1919, at Rexburg, Idaho. After moving to Salt Lake City with his parents, he graduated from East High School and was a senior at the University of Utah when he entered the Army Air Forces in March 1940 . He received his commission at Brooks Field, Texas, where he continued to serve for some time as an instructor.

On December 27, 1944, William, being a Major, went on a bombing mission over Japan as an Observer on a B-29 Flying Fortress. In one of the most stirring stories of gallantry in World War II, the B-29 “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was rammed in mid-air by a Japanese suicide pilot. Major Walker survived a spectacular crash landing and was taken as a prisoner of war. At the end of the war, after being transferred from a Japanese prison camp to an American hospital ship, he died of beriberi at age 25 on August 30, 1945 and was buried at sea. He was married to the former Jean Sorensen of Salt Lake City, whom he married in January 1940. They did not have children.

The downing of the B-29 “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is one of the most storied aircraft incidents of the war. It is recounted in the book, “B-29 Story: The Plane that Won the War” by Colonel Gene Gurney:

_On December 27, 1944, they took off from Saipan in their Superfortress, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Piloted by Major John E. Krause, a rosy-cheeked youth from the Wisconsin dairy land, Uncle Tom's Cabin was the lead plane of the lower element of that day's formation and was beginning its bomb run on the Musashino Aircraft Company on the outskirts of Tokyo when the action opened. A Jap single-engined fighter, one of thirty or more, dived on them at an estimated ground speed of 700 miles an hour. It missed the lead plane of the upper element by 100 feet It missed another plane and rocketed into Krause's, its left wing ramming into the right side of the Superfort. Horrified, men in nearby bombers expected the giant to drop, but Krause brought it quickly back into control. _

_From the Superfort's cabin, broken open by the huge gash, padding and equipment went streaming out into the sky. A sheet of yellow flame spurted from the plane. As the wounded bomber poured out its return fire, Jap planes were falling and exploding, but whenever one fell, another roared in to take its place. _

_Jap machine-gun fire bit into the Superfort's No. 4 engine. Black oil and gray magnesium smoke began streaming from it. Still losing altitude and still knocking down enemy fighters, the bomber fought its way back to the right side, under the other Superforts on the bomb run. Then another Jap Tony crashed into the crippled plane. The enemy exploded and with him went the No. 3 engine, torn from its nacelle. _

_The bomber staggered and shuddered, but Krause again gained control and brought it back on its bomb course. Then came the third ramming; a Tony firing away at the Cabin's underside failed to pull away in time and drove straight into the plane's belly. The bomber broke into a spin, fighters following it down. At 500 feet Krause again got control, and his gunners made their ninth kill. _

But the Cabin had flown its last. Still firing defiantly, it flew level for a moment, then its nose dipped and it dived straight down into Tokyo Bay.

Walker and two others survived. He was held captive in the infamous Ofuna POW interrogation camp. Louis Zamperini, the former Olympian and subject of the book and movie “Unbroken,” was a prisoner at Ofuna from September 1943 to September 1944 before being transferred to another camp.

After Major Walker spent eight months in captivity, the Japanese announced their surrender on August 15. He was liberated on or about August 29 and taken to a hospital ship. He died of beriberi, a disease caused by malnutrition, on August 30, three days before the Japanese signed surrender papers aboard the USS Missouri.

According to a letter sent to his widow by the War Department in May 1946, “ . . . the remains of your husband were carefully prepared and committed to the sea at 34 degrees 24 minutes North Latitude and 139 degrees East Longitude, with full military honors from the USS Benham. This position is approximately twenty-five miles off Shima, Japan.” The letter included an application for a memorial flag, which she could order if she so desired. She returned the completed application and asked that the flag be sent to his parents.

It appears likely that Major Walker died aboard the hospital ship USS Benevolence. According to Navy records, she anchored off Yokosuka, Japan, August 29 to begin processing liberated Allied prisoners of war, where she screened 1,520 POWs. One of the Ofura survivors, William C. Cavanaugh, wrote in a memoir that he was taken to the Benevolence upon being liberated. Navy photos show former POWs aboard the ship. Some look fairly healthy and are smiling, while others are emaciated skin and bone and look much like photos from Nazi concentration camps. It’s likely Major Walker died the day after he arrived on the ship. Given the content of the letter to his widow, the remains of those who died aboard the Benevolence were probably transferred to the destroyer Behnam for burial at sea farther offshore.

Both the Benham and Benevolence were in Tokyo Harbor for the surrender ceremony on September 2. The Benevolence sank August 25, 1950 off the coast of San Francisco when it collided with a freighter in heavy fog while on the way to support the Korean War.

Major Walker’s widow remarried after the war, had two children, and passed away in 1996 at age 76. His father died in 1966 and his mother in 1994. He was also survived by four sisters and a brother, who was serving as an Army Major.

Major Walker is honored on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu National Memorial in Hawaii, and with an “In Memory Of” marker at Arlington National Cemetery. H was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, presented to his mother at a ceremony in 1946.