Captain Ralph L. Rowland served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and was assigned to Station Hospital, Fort Mills, on the Corregidor Island of the Philippines when he became a prisoner of war (POW) of the Japanese Empire on 6 May 1942. He was held prisoner in the Philippines until December 1944 when the Japanese military moved POWs to Manila for transport to Japan aboard the transport ship Oryoku Maru. The next day, not knowing Allied POWs were aboard, U.S. carrier-borne aircraft attacked the Oryoku Maru, which eventually sank in Subic Bay, Philippines. Captain Rowland survived that attack.

After a series of land and naval transfers, Captain Rowland was transported to Takao, Formosa (present-day Taiwan), aboard the Japanese transport ship, Enoura Maru. On January 9, 1945, the U.S forces, again not knowing that POW’s were aboard, attacked and sank the Enoura Maru. The Japanese reported to the International Red Cross that Captain Rowland died during that January 9, 1945 attack.

After a May 1946 exhumation of a mass grave associated with Enoura Maru casualties was conducted on a beach at Takao, Formosa, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) Search and Recovery Team #9 reported recovering 311 bodies. The vast majority of these remains were not able to be identified, were designated Unknowns, and subsequently interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP). Capt. Rowland's remains were DNA identified this past year and returned to his family for burial.

Burial service, with military honors, for Captain Rowland will be held at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, Aug 16, at Oakwood Memorial Park, 3301 Paul Sweet Rd, Santa Cruz, CA. Captain Rowland will be led to rest with his wife, Flora Rowland, who passed away in 1979.