55 Year Later – Princeton U. Exhibit on Murder of CM Chaplain

The Murder of Chaplain John A. Ryan: A new look at the court-martial of Pfc. William C. Manis.

On the night of April 5, 1948, Capt. John A. Ryan, C.M. – Catholic chaplain Sugamo Prison – was murdered outside the main gate of the prison. Three months later, Pfc. William C. Manis, a 19-year old GI guard, was charged for the crime. The first such charge in Army history, this was a high-profile and potentially embarrassing case to American Occupation authorities.

At the court-martial, the main witnesses were two Japanese prostitutes whose original account was that Korean underworld figures were responsible. Nevertheless,

Manis, who to his dying day claimed innocence, was found guilty and given a life sentence. He served eight and one-half years in federal penitentiaries, was paroled in 1956, and returned to his native Tennessee, where he died this February.

This exhibition, presented at the seminary with which Father Ryan was associated and where he is buried, traces the histories of two men whose fates became entwined in the ruins of post-War Tokyo.

The East Asian Studies Program and the East Asian Library of Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, presents the exhibition: Encounters: Sugamo Prison, 1945-52. The exhibition is organized by Martin Colcutt, the East Asian Studies Program, Princeton University, in collaboration with Bill Barrette and Midori Sato. The documentary videos are by Lindsey Powell and Narumi Toyota.

For more of the story and pictures visit http://www.cmeast.org/pagesFeatures/109f.html