Former North Las Vegas mayor survived being a POW three times
William Taylor survived 3½ years as a prisoner of war during World War II.
He was starved, beaten and forced to jump out of a moving train to escape captivity.
The former mayor of North Las Vegas, who died May 25 in Provo, Utah, at age 94, was captured by the Japanese on Wake Island, about 2,000 miles west of Honolulu, during the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. At the time, Taylor was an ironworker for a company from Idaho.
He would escape and be recaptured three times by various militant groups before finally making contact with Americans, thanks to the help of Mao Zedong -- many years before Zedong would lead the Chinese Revolution. In 1945, the Japanese decided to cart prisoners from China to Japan because they were losing the war. Taylor was able to get through the window in his car and jump to safety.
Taylor wrote about his struggle to walk 1,500 miles across China to safety in his 2007 book "Rescued by Mao: World War II, Wake Island, and My Remarkable Escape to Freedom Across Mainland China."
"At about eleven o'clock that night, I started working on the window with my pliers," Taylor wrote. "There was a bedroll hung from the roof of the car and this partially shielded the upper half of my body as I worked on the window. Every half hour the guard would count us off. One time when he came in, he shined his light twice on me. He must have become suspicious because the second time, he let it linger on me for awhile. I knew I was in a pretty tight spot and that he was watching me pretty closely, so I just pretended I was getting enough fresh air and then turned around and sat down. When I sat down, the guard turned his light off."
Former North Las Vegas City Councilman Wendell Waite was a close friend of Taylor's for 55 years and served on the City Council with him in the late 1960s. Taylor was mayor for eight years, beginning in 1961.
"He was an oxymoron," said Waite, 82. "He was what I call an honest politician. He was a good man. We shared a lot of confidential things together (and) tested ideas out with one another before we approached the rest of council. Sometimes we'd get shot down."
Photos of a young Taylor standing next to a young Zedong are published in the book. Taylor looks relieved and exhausted.
"(Zedong) saved Bill's life," Waite said. "He always felt close to him for that reason."
During his tenure, Taylor helped transform the city into a community with paved streets, sidewalks, a city hall complex, a public library, two fire stations and American flags flying from each street pole.
As he sat in the plane on a flight to Miami -- the final leg of his exhaustive journey as a prisoner of war -- the first image Taylor saw was that of an American flag blowing in the wind. It was that image, Waite said, that was etched in his mind. For that reason, Taylor became the "Flag Man," making sure American flags were always flying in his neighborhood.
"Are you for real?" Taylor asked the first American he spoke with by telephone. " This is the first free American I have talked to in many years."
According to a written account by Taylor's wife, Barbara, he was asked to move to North Las Vegas in 1956 to be the bishop of the Fourth Ward. He supervised the building of the Fourth Ward Chapel and served as bishop until 1960, when he became president of the Las Vegas North Stake.
When he was mayor, Taylor served as chairman of the Greater Las Vegas Valley Water District, as a member of the Boulder Dam Area Council of Boy Scouts, as president of the Boys Club of Clark County -- where he supervised the fundraising and building of a gym in North Las Vegas -- as chairman of the Clark County Civil Defense Agency, as a director of the Las Vegas Convention Bureau and on the board of directors for First Western Savings.
For his service, Taylor received the Navy's Legion of Merit with a V for Valor.
" Taylor continually volunteered for various duties, specifically in re-locating anti-air and anti-surface batteries, during the massive enemy bombardment and invasion of Wake Island. he ensured fair distribution of meager rations, the best possible care for the wounded and the highest morale of all," the award read.
Contact Downtown and North Las Vegas View reporter Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@viewnews.com or 383-0492.
