POW CARL IRETON INSCRIBED JAPANESE ONE PESO

A Note Goes Home
by Brittany Pelton-Scallon

I discovered this Japanese occupied One Peso note in a pile of notes to be sorted. Unlike a "short snorter", this note was signed by a single soldier - Carl Ireton.

On the note is written:

"From Carl Ireton - New Mexico
P.O.W. 4/42-10/45
Rec'd 10/23/45
'Itchiban'".

I was intrigued to find out about this soldier, especially since he was a POW. The specific details made it easy to discover a website dedicated to PFC Carl V. Ireton. I was excited to discover that the website was established by Ireton's great nephew, Mark Ireton. Mark describes that Carl was in the New Mexico National Guard, 200th Coast Artillery, a PFC in the Headquarters 2nd Battalion. The 200th was sent to the Philippines in 1941.

In April 1942, Ireton, along with the rest of the 200th, were taken prisoner by the Japanese. Rather than stay in a POW camp in the Philippines, Carl boarded a "Hell Ship" to Mukden, Manchuria (China) to serve as a slave laborer. In September of 1945 after a combined effort by the OSS and Russian forces, Carl and the other POWs were evacuated by rail. After the war, Carl went to OK where he died in 1969. He is buried in New Mexico.

I reached out to Mark Ireton and his family, and am very pleased to be able to return the note to his family in Oregon.

How this note made its way to Don Rinkor's Coin Shop in Santa Rosa, CA is a mystery, as I didn't notice it's uniqueness until long after we had purchased it. But it is an honor to send the note home, and to have learned about Carl. As Mark said, "it is important to honor Carl's sacrifice by remembering him". This note is just one more piece of Carl's memory.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web