Ina E. Ohnick, Magnate's Widow Who Survived A Wartime Prison

Poverty to wealth . . . a romantic marriage.

Capture by the Japanese . . . years in prison . . . a dramatic rescue by their son.

Even a word like "saga" does not quite describe the breadth of events that Ina E. Ohnick enjoyed and endured before she died Sept. 4 in Aptos, Calif.

Her death at age 92 ended an international life, including a period when she and her husband reigned among Seattle's most wealthy and respected families.

Mrs. Ohnick was born in Austin, Ill., near Chicago, and as a young woman came to Seattle, where she found work as a secretary.

She met a young attorney here, Ben Ohnick, a former football player at Lincoln High School and the University of Washington and graduate of the UW law school.

In the late 1930s, the Ohnicks frequently crossed the Pacific on flying boats, the Boeing Clippers, rating attention in the "society pages" that followed their activities.

"Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Ohnick and family of Seattle and Manila fly through the air with the greatest of ease. The Ohnicks have a beautiful home in the Uplands where they spend several months each year, Mrs. Ohnick generally leaving here in September and returning from Manila in the early spring," said such a story in The Seattle Times in April 1940.

Another version of their lives was given in April 1942, after they were captured by the Japanese in the fall of the Philippines, the newspaper reported.

"When the Pacific War began, Ohnick was one of the wealthiest men in the Philippines. His millions had been gathered magically in 20 years since he went to Manila from Seattle in 1922, broke and discouraged because the fact he was part Japanese had been a barrier to success here . . . His father was a Japanese banker and was a moderately wealthy man, but shortly before Ohnick was graduated, the family money disappeared in a bad investment, and the young attorney faced the world without a dollar."

In Manila, Ohnick distinguished himself, winning a million-dollar lawsuit and establishing his reputation. Later, he became an attorney and senior officer for Marsman & Co., which developed into one of the largest mining companies in the world.

The Ohnicks bought a fabulous waterfront house here at 7326 Bowlyn Place, near Seward Park, and sent their three children to school in Seattle, splitting their time between Manila and Seattle.

But their storybook life ended in December 1941.

A Dec. 29, 1941, newspaper told how friends of the Ohnicks in Seattle were concerned about what had happened to the couple in Manila. The only word was a cable sent 10 days earlier that said, "We are all right so far." Their children remained in Seattle at the time.

But in March 1942, the names of Ben and Ina Ohnick showed up on a list of prisoners being held by the Japanese in the Santo Tomas prison.

No direct word was heard from them until December 1943, when a prisoner returned to the United States said they were "well and healthy."

That proved to be an overstatement.

In February 1945, their son Van Ohnick, who had joined the Army, was reported as having helped rescue his parents from the prison after American forces landed in the Philippines.

Van Ohnick said recently that he did participate in the rescue and has a vivid recollection of the three of them being photographed outside the prison by a newspaper photographer, their arms around each other, grinning at their reunion.

Still, the life they'd known was gone.

Ina Ohnick returned to Seattle in May 1945.

"Santo Tomas was livable for two years," she said then. "After that, there was a policy of deliberate starvation. The food was reduced each day. When I say food, I mean rice. Only rice. There were 800 women and children and two bathrooms. Never do I want to hear talk among women about dieting."

By October 1945, Ben Ohnick also was back in Seattle, talking about the future of the Philippines and the need for American help there. He had lost 61 pounds.

"They survived, but he never recovered his health," said a daughter, Barbara Ohnick, now a Seattle attorney. He was 60 when he died in 1951.

Ina Ohnick continued to live here for a few years, but moved in the mid-1950s to California for its warmer climate. She was living there with son Van when she died.

She'd been a member of the University, Sand Point and Rainier golf clubs, the Washington Athletic Club and the Seattle Tennis Club.

Another son, Ben Ohnick, lives in Tacoma. No services were held. Memorials are suggested to the Red Cross or Children's Hospital & Medical Center.