Col. Ronald Boone, Worth remembering

COL. RONALD BOONE
1896-1945

A MAN WORTH REMEMBERING

Under construction

1902, 1st grade -- #14

1902 Bunker Hill Country School north of Table Rock, Nebraska. In 1901, the Harry Boone family came back from Arkansas to live on the old Boone farm a while before heading to Idaho to join his mother & other family, in 1906. Ronald is #14, his sister Violet #13. He was born in 1896, so he probably was in 1st grade (there was no Kindergarten in country school). Photo 6922.

1916- graduation from naval academy

1916 Naval Academy Photograph

circa 1944 -- taking charge of cryptography for japanese communications

Undated, circa 1944-1945. Photo from "How I Discovered World War II's Greatest Spy, and Other Stories," by David Kahn

ronald aubrey boone

his early years

OVERVIEW: Col. Ronald Boone, U. S. Marine Corps, was a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He was a military intelligence officer in China in the 1920s and 1930s. He became the Chief of Intelligence in the Far East, and was heavily involved in cryptography for Japanese communications. When he died in 1945 at the age of 48, it was said that he had a "spectacular" military career. This involved a reported "famous slap" of Japanese general in 1937.

Ronald Boone was one of the grandchildren of Eli and Eunice Pepoon Boone. He was a Civil War vet, anfad he was from a prohibitionist family who had served as conductors on the Underground Railroad in Ohio. They came to Table Rock after the war, in 1867. Eunice's sister Mary remained in Table Rock and her grave is recognized by the U. S. Department of the Interior on the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom as one of 9 Underground Railroad conductors buried there. Had Eunice remained, her grave would likewise have been designated.

Ronald's grandfather Eli Boone died in 1893 is buried in Table Rock, along with other extended and related family. He suffered mental illness towards the end of his life and was committed to the Lincoln State Hospital for the Insane. The nature of his illness is unknown, whether dementia or something else.

According to the obituary of Ronald's grandmother Eunice, and a 1937 article in the Table Rock Argus, Eunice moved her family to Hardy, Arkansas in 1896, along with her oldest son Harry and wife Isabelle. Ronald was born to Harry and Isabelle just before the family left for in Arkansas.

Harry moved his family back to Table Rock in 1901. Harry and two sisters attended Bunker Hill Country School.

In 1906, Harry moved the family to Twin Falls, Idaho. Ronald graduated from there in 1916.

the marine corps - annapolis to east coast to the far east

Immediately after high school, Ronald went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Whether he had active service during America's participation in World War ! (1918) is unknown. He entered the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant after graduation from the Naval Academy.

After various assignments at Quantico and other East coast posts, Ronald headed west, to the Far East. It was the month that he turned 30 years of age. From October 1926 to January 1927, he was stationed in the Philippines And then in 1927 he he was sent to China, where he was to be stationed for eleven years. He served in Intelligence, was a Chinese language specialist, and was in China during important periods.

His first post in China was Peking. He was there until 1931. In 1932, he was stationed in Shanghai, "China's largest and most cosmopolitan city, known as the "Paris of the East." That year, the first Japanese attack on Shanghai took place. He was called back to Washington, D. C. There he underwent intensive language and other training.

For the next five years there were "ongoing armed conflicts" without any declaration of war. A "Peace Preservation Corps" manned by the United States and other countries, was formed and put in place.

In October 1935 he returned to Shanghai. He was Ca[tain Boone by then, and was the Marine's Chief of Intelligence for the Far East. He apparently had social responsibilities as one might expect of a high ranking officer. A newspaper account notes that Captain Boone was "a busy boy these days" after describing a performance in the drawing room of Ronald and his wife Patricia, a troupe of Chinese magicians.

According to Wikipedia, in 1937, the first of 22 major engagements were fought between the Chinese and the Imperial Japanese Army. That first was known as the Battle of Shanghai and lasted from August through November. The battle "signaled the totality of modern urban warfare" and has also been called "one of the most incredible defensive battles ever engaged on this planet." Ronald was there.

After an incident between Chinese and Japanese personnel (a Japanese officer correctly stopped by a Chines guard from driving into the airport area, shot the guard dead), Japan demanded that China dismantle the Peace Preservation Corps and remove their defenses of the city. Japan poured troops into the area and in response so did the Chinese.

In August 1937 Ronald, by anecdotal account, may have been involved in a "famous slap." He slapped a Japanese general, according to news accounts at the time of his later death in 1945.

The "famous slap" probably occurred at one of the conferences during which a ceasefire wa discussed. The first was on August 12 in Shanghai, attended by representatives from the U.K., France, the United States, and Italy joined Japan and China. It was unsuccessful as was another in Nanjing. The Japanese demanded that China unilaterally withdraw from Shanghai, on the grounds that China had violated the ceasefire by bringing in troops (in response to the Japanese inundation!). The Chinese refused, especially since the countries were already fighting a war in North China. China agreed not to fire unless fired on, which the Japanese found untenable.

When and why did Ronald slap the Japanese officer? We have no idea. It is a satisfying thought on the circumstances, a slap in the face being a high insult, as Ronald, with his Intelligence knowledge, would know

After that, the battle of Shanghai began. The Chinese set up a determined defense, without international intervention. Although the Japanese would win in the end, they were "shocked" by the extent of defense, having expected to take the city within days and China within months. More details can be found in the Wikipedia article. Assuming Ronald and the other Intelligence community was withdrawn once the battle began, we don't know any details at this time.

During that time, the newspapers reported that the family had received no word from "war-torn Shanghai, where hundreds of Americans are now imperiled." It was not until October, over six weeks after the beginning of the battle, that he was heard from and the family knew he was safe.

That was 1937. He was still in China -- until January 1939. Shanghai had fallen in NOvember 1937, and we don't know where hw was after that.

TO D. C., THEN the aleutian islands -- the end

Washington, D. C. was his next assignment and he was now Major Boone. In 1942, the Table Rock Argus reported that Ronald had been promoted to Lt. Colonel and was chief for "all naval intelligence in the Far East."

At some point, he was assigned to the Intelligence post in a remote but important island in the Aleutians, Adak. He was a full colonel by then.

What happened next, we do not know. The area was isolated, cold, forbidding, the work surely tedious and the resposibiities great. On June 29, 1945, he took his own life. He was buried in the Adak Island Post Cemetery, but later moved to the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Francisco.

Notices of his death referred to the "slap." The Idaho Falls Post-Register of July 3, 1945 reported some of the specifics:

Captain Boone was the hero of the the 'Shanghai incident' of 1937 in which he slapped the face of a Japanese general, it was recalled." His role in the 'incident' was chronicled in Time magazine and won wide attention. The colonel, then a marine captain, startled Japan and one Jap general in particular by refusing to be cowed by already overbearing Jap power. He brought the general up short by slapping his face. "

Where is the Time magazine article? We have not yet located it.

Another notice of his death, "Famous Idaho Colonel Dead," he was again referred to as "the hero of the 'Shanghai incident' of 1937" for slapping the face of a Japanese general. That was in the July 4, 1945 Spokesman Review of Spokane, Washington.

His life and career are worth remembering and we hope to be able to present a narrative about him. Until then, we are uploading all the information that we have in case someone is looking for him.