Back From The Living Dead by Bert Bank (latest novels to read txt) 📖

Twenty-One

 

On April 4, 1943, our first group of men escaped

from Davao. Ten men escaped on a Sunday morning.

This was the first group to escape and we were all

scared to death of what the reprisals would be. We

were all divided into shooting squads, and we had seen

them shoot 10 men before, so the whole camp was in

turmoil. Everybody expected others to attempt to

escape that night. I slept between two marines that

did escape. These men left at 7 o’clock in the morning

presumably to go to work, and the Japs did not know

anything about it until 6 in the afternoon. When they

came over to have roll call they first realized what had

happened. The first thing that they did when they

found out the news was to secure the names of all the

men who slept next to the escapees. Well, sleeping next

to two did not make me too popular with these Japs.

They were getting ready to carry out their idea of

mass punishment again. They were great believers in

such punishment. They told us that these men whose

names they had just secured would be shot for sleeping

next to the escapees. We were to be moved the following morning to another compound and there would

await our execution. We realized that you could not

be sure what the Nips would do, but I personally felt

that I had cheated death once before at O’Donnell

when I was sentenced to be shot, so I felt sure that

I could not do it again. That night I watched the

remainder of the sleeping companions to see that they

did not attempt to escape, because if any one attempted

to escape that night I knew the rest of us would not

have a chance. About 3 o’clock in the morning I saw

another Marine officer, a friend of mine, get up and

put his canteen belt on. I jumped up immediately and

asked him if he was going to try and get out the 3-12

strand barbed fences, and, if he was, I sure as hell

was going also. He said that he was just trying on his

belt. Well, I put my belt on also, explaining that I was

just trying on my belt and we remained up all night

watching each other. The next morning the Japs came

and took us away to a separate compound to watch us

until the day of the execution. We were taken away

and remained there for one month with extra guards

around us and no chance of escaping, as guards were

inside and outside the camp. We really lived in agony,

and prayed that they would come and shoot us right

away instead of letting us suffer for a whole month.

 

Condemned Men Await Execution

 

Well, one day the Jap Major sent word that he was

coming over and read our sentence the following morning. That night all of us stayed awake and talked of

many things, just as a man does while he awaits his

execution the following day. We all wished that we

would be given the same privilege that the men in the

States are given before being executed, that of order-ing anything they wished to eat. All night we said

that this expected death would not be so bad if we

could have some bread and butter and ham and eggs,

and some cold sweet milk. In fact, there were many of

us who would have given our lives for some food of

this type. The next morning arrived and not one of

the 21 men to be punished had slept a wink. At about

8:45 in the morning we looked down the road and

saw the major with a large group of the shooting squad

coming. Our friends who were working around the

barracks came up with tears in their eyes and told

us to take it like men, and that we were sacrificing

our lives for other Americans, and that it was a

wonderful way to die. One of the men to be shot asked

the prisoner sympathizing with us if he wanted to take

his place in the execution and die like a real American

but, of course, he received a quick negative answer.

 

“Fifteen Days of Meditation”

 

The major and his shooting squad entered the compound and we were all called outside and told to walk

20 paces to the front and stand at attention while the

major read our sentence. The major, through his interpreter, began reading the names of each of the

prisoners, and after reading all 21 names, ended with

saying, “You will now hear your punishment.”’ Between

the time he said this and the time the punishment was

read, I think 20 years elapsed. Well, my punishment

was 15 extra days meditation for the group escaping.

I had to meditate for 15 days over these men escaping.

1 could not go out to work for 15 days but had to

remain in bed and meditate, only being allowed to go

to the mess hall and the latrine. The other fellows

would go to work in the rice fields and I would tell

them not to bother me that I was meditating. The

officers in charge of the barracks from which these

men had escaped received 30 days meditation. You

just can’t figure out these people, and I assure you

that those 21 men probably lost more weight in those

30 days than any other group of men in American

history. At this time T was at my lowest weight, 102

pounds, and this mental worry did not help me at all.

 

Japs Tighten Up After Escapes

 

The Japs did not only punish us, but they punished

the entire camp. They came over and took our axes

away from us, and as a result we had no wood for the

mess hall. We were required to tear down our barracks

and get the wood from them. Of course, this meant

less shelter for us but we had to have a little wood

to cook the small ration of rice given to us by the Japs.

The Japs became much more cruel on details after

this. All the guards were told to take more precautions

and to shoot if anyone even looked like he wanted to

escape. I remember that a soldier was just outside the

fence working with a detail and the guard was watching them. The soldier called back over the fence and

asked his friend to throw his canteen to him as he was

thirsty. The friend went into the barracks and returned with the canteen and tossed it over to the soldier

outside the fence, and the guard shot the soldier outside the fence, standing only a few feet away from him.

When the first bullet hit the soldier, he was knocked

to the ground. He begged the guard not to shoot him

any more, but the guard pumped three more shells

into the dying American. The friend who had tossed

the canteen from within the fence began running to

his barracks, and the guard, who had just killed an

innocent American, opened up on the running man

who was seeking shelter within the fence. Bullets were

flying all through the compound, but, thank God. no

one was hit.

 

The same sort of incident occurred at Cabnnatuan.

An officer who had been on the High Commissioner’s

staff in Manila before the war was shot in cold blooded

murder just as this soldier had been shot. This officer

was near a small garden he had, and the Jap said

that he was too close to the fence, so he decided that

he would shoot the officer. He killed the officer and

then explained that the officer was attempting to

escape, when all the time he was within the limits set

by the Japanese. Of course, the Jap officials came

back with their same old reply. “That is very unfortunate, you are prisoners of war, we are so sorry,

it is your misfortune.” The Jap guards would sometimes induce the Americans to come to the fence by

showing the Americans tobacco, something they had

not seen or smoked for three years. When the Americans would get close they would shoot, but, fortunately,

I do not remember anyone being killed, although some

of the Americans say that there were a few who were

killed by this trick on the part of the sly Japanese

guards.

 

Impromptu Entertainment included Orchestra

 

For our entertainment in camp we held lectures as

often as we could. The Japanese issued an order that

no meetings or assemblies could be held, but in the

barracks on many occasions we held discussions. Some

person from New York would tell us of the most interesting places to see while on a visit there, while others

would tell us of the best places to ent. This was more

interesting to everyone. Others would tell of New

England and a few of the lawyers carried on discussions on some points of law. One of the most common

pastimes was the discussions of building houses. There

were many who had been contractors and architects

before entering the Army, and they would tell us about

planning and give ideas concerning the construction

of homes. For a short period we had an orchestra in

camp with some wonderful musicians. The only reason

th:it the Japs allowed this music in camp was because

they are crazy about music themselves. They let us

have a show each Sunday night for just a few minutes,

until they saw that we were enjoying the music too

much, then they took up all the instruments that they

had given to the Americans. They would let us play

popular music, but were always present to see that

we did not play patriotic songs. They had the Americans playing Japanese numbers. In fact, they stopped

the shows and made the musicians learn Japanese

music to play on their occasions. The Japs have quite

a few celebrations, and the Americans were required

to play for these occasions in Japanese music.

 

Japs Issued No Clothes Save “G-Strings”

 

The Japanese gave us no clothes with the exception

of a few G strings. This is, as one person called it, a

large diaper. Of course, we did not need many clothes

because it was always hot. On detail we would get very

wet, as they required us to work in the rain and many

developed pneumonia. When we came in, we would

take our clothes off and hope that they would dry

during the night. But if they were not dry by the next

morning, we would have to wear wet clothes. Very few

had long pants, but some did.

 

Our mental attitude remained very good, but we

had several men go insane here. I remember one lieutenant colonel who held a responsible position during

the war. lost his mind and it was very pitiful to see

him tied up in a room. The Japanese knew that he was

insane and did not pay attention to his yells and

screaming. This lieutenant colonel always had a rope

around him, and two attendants when he went outside

the building. Many men acted a little peculiar and all

of our minds degenerated during the years of total

ignorance.

 

Letters Mutilated Beyond Recognition

 

We were allowed a few letters in early 1944. The

Japs came over to our compound and told us that they

had 10,000 letters for 2,000 prisoner, and we were

all elated over this as we expected to get a lot of mail.

They would bring maybe two or three letters every

six months and purposely keep the others from us just

to humiliate us. When we did receive the letters every

other word would