World War II POW ‘Hap’ Halloran dies at 89
Raymond “Hap” Halloran, a World War II prisoner of war who returned to Japan decades later to meet his captors, died in Menlo Park on June 7. He was 89.
After his liberation in 1945, Mr. Halloran suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Hoping to deal with his agonizing memories and because he was curious about his past, Mr. Halloran contacted U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield in 1984 and organized a trip to the country.
By looking at archived photographs, he was able to find the pilot who had shot down his B-29 bomber nearly half a century earlier. He also met and befriended guards from the Tokyo prison camp where he was tortured and starved for seven months.
It was the first of several visits, a trip that inspired him to spend the rest of his life sharing his story and working on “international bridge building,” said friend Mike Brown.
Mr. Halloran, who earned the nickname Hap because he was always grinning during his early days in the Air Force, gave motivational lectures at military gatherings, corporate events and schools in Japan and the United States. He appeared in numerous World War II documentaries.