Blood Brothers: A Medic's Sketch Book Part 12

Glee Club: Several times, Sgt. Clarence Sayre's Glee Club put

on entertainment in the three groups and in the hospital: "The Halleluiah Chorus" was among all time favorites.

News Reels: On a rare occasion, when the j.a.ps had a big victory to gloat over, they would show the camp a news reel. The photography was horrible. They had not yet achieved the American know-how in making cameras, film, radios, televisions, automobiles, computers, etc.

Library: Some two hundred books were collected from the barracks in Group II. Records were kept on the back of labels off condensed milk cans. Other groups started collecting books and the number reached nine hundred including magazines.

In November, 1942, a camp library was started by Lt. Col. Babc.o.c.k, a.s.sisted by Capt. Brunette and Lts. Trifilo and Edwards. Prisoner details were sometimes able to obtain books or magazines on their journeys.

Cla.s.ses: Captives were forbidden to gather in groups without special permission. Cla.s.ses were formed in many subjects: j.a.panese, German, Spanish, Russian, and Tagalog (native Philippine language). There were cla.s.ses in astrology, banking, photography, history, cheese and wine making, menus, diets, etc. One prisoner, almost blind, wrote a cookbook.

Games: Many games were played during off-duty hours: cribbage, acey-ducey (U.S. Navy), chess, checkers, bridge, poker, and the like.

At times baseball and volleyball were attempted, but beriberi definitely limited any enthusiasm and the games died out.

Soochow, a Chinese bulldog and Marine mascot, gave much pleasure to many prisoners-he thought he was an officer.

Masons: In August, 1943, two Masons, Chap. John Borneman and Major Howard Cavender (former manager of the Manila Hotel), were instrumental in getting money, medicine and food from Masons in Manila through the underground and donating it to prisoners.

In a camp where compet.i.tion for survival was becoming a serious problem, where officer was stealing from officer, it was a real joy to see the brotherly love of Masons for their fellow men. I decided that someday I would be a Mason.

The Morgue: It was only a short distance from Zero Ward to the morgue, where bodies were acc.u.mulated, awaiting the daily trip to the cemetery.

The Cemetery (Group IV): Once each day, thirty to fifty

captives formed lines at the morgue to carry the naked bodies on window shutters to the cemetery, about one-half mile from camp.

Following a brief religious ceremony, the skeletonized bodies were lowered into common graves. On rainy days the graves filled with water; it became necessary to hold the bodies down the poles, while dirt was shoveled on to them. Sometimes the rain would uncover an arm or leg; then animals ate away the flesh.

BOOT HILL *

No monuments nor flowers there amid the fields of cane,

No birds their song to fill the air, No trees to s.h.i.+eld the rain.

We've watched these things through tear-dimmed eyes,

We've felt a sense of shame,

But now we see as time goes by,

We are really not to blame.

No, it's surely not the best,

No glory does it claim,

It's just the place where we laid them to rest,

Our friends who lost the game.

Chapter VI

j.a.pANESE ATROCITIES

The j.a.panese were a proud people, regarding themselves as descendants of the G.o.ds, a superior race, destined to bring light into a darkened world. Should any wicked nation dare to impede or to obstruct their Emperor in carrying out his celestial undertakings, j.a.pan would fight-by the command of the j.a.panese G.o.ds to reunite all nations under the rule of the j.a.panese Emperor.

The Imperial Rescript of the Emperor to his military powers included the following statement: "Should any emergency arise, "Boot hills were at Camps O'Donnell & Cabanatuan, written by Ed "Tommie" Thomas while in the hospital at Cabanatuan with diphtheria. The burial details went by the barracks each morning as he watched, wondering if he would be on one of those litters the next morning.

offer yourself courageously to the state, and thus regard to maintain the prosperity of our Imperial Throne, Coeval with Heaven and Earth."

As late as 1877, the ancient custom of making trophies of the heads of the enemy soldiers was still in effect in j.a.pan.

j.a.pan violated the Geneva Convention in 1931 when she invaded Manchuria, and again in 1937 when she invaded China both without a declaration of war. The world shouldn't have been surprised when the j.a.panese bombers made their sudden attack on Pearl Harbor without a declaration of War, further violating the Articles of Code 1929.

Actually, the j.a.panese had never approved the Geneva Convention, either in theory or in practice, especially concerning P.O. W. s.

To the j.a.panese, surrender was a violation of military morality. In any defeat, a loyal j.a.panese soldier would commit hari kiri.

Discipline in the Imperial Army was enforced by frequent slapping, beating and kicking of junior officers and enlisted men for rather minor offenses. For serious crimes, discipline was more complex. The victim could be turned over to a Judo expert for suitable punishment.

He could be given the water treatment. He could be tied to a fence post, and slapped beaten or kicked by each pa.s.sing soldier. He could be used for bayonet practice by recruits. Severe crimes called for an officer to unsheathe his samurai sword and behead the criminal. The head was displayed to others, tied to a bamboo pole, so the observer would learn that crime does not pay. Enlisted men with little or no rank, had no one to slap, beat or kick, so a captured enemy filled an important gap in their system. In the minds of the j.a.panese, they were. Not barbarians or savages, but merely loyal and patriotic personnel administering a just punishment to those who dared to defy authority, the Emperor or the G.o.ds.

Atrocities were committed on many work details, including the farm.

Some were for the punishment of rather minor rules and others were for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the guards, who enjoyed watching the Americans performing super Herculean tasks.

Once a month, I had to carry hundred pound sacks of rice from the gate to mess halls. This could have been easily accomplished by carts, but the j.a.panese thought that the Americans should "pay the price!" As a result I developed three hernias, which became a considerable handicap in completing my tour with "the Sons of Heaven."

The j.a.panese seemed very little concerned that more Americans and Filipinos died as their prisoners, on the "Death March," in prison camps, on labor details, h.e.l.l s.h.i.+ps, and working in coal mines and munitions factories, than died at the hands of the j.a.panese on the battlefields. Those of us, who were guests of the Nipponese Emperor, have little doubt that some of the treachery was learned from the German Kulture.

We, who were captives and prisoners of the j.a.panese, will never be able to forgive them, but knowing their background did help to explain some of their vicious actions. However, it did not make their barbarous, brutal, cruel savagery any easier to endure.

Very few ex-P.O.W.s will ever drive Toyotas, Datsuns or Mazdas.

Chapter VII AMERICANS!

We kept getting reports on our little radio that MacArthur was winning battles in many places, some of which we'd never heard of:

March, 1944 - Palau;

April - Hollandia;

June - Saipan.