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

be deleted so that sometimes we

could not even tell who they were from. Of course, this

lack of information for such a long time was one thing

that made it difficult for us to keep up the morale.

 

One word that was used by everyone in camp was

the word “quan.” “Quan” means anything you may

desire to use it for. I do not have any idea how it

originated, nor do I think that anyone else does, but it

was originated in prison camp. You can use it as an

adjective, noun, pronoun, adverb, conjunction or what

have you. Everything was referred to as “quan.” Another word used was “SNAFU.” Snafu means situation all fouled up. When things did not go right as they

often didn’t, we used to say “snafu.” From this statement you can see that this word was used plenty. We

called each other Joe as this is what the Filipinos call

the American soldiers. This was true even before the

war. If you asked a Filipino something he would

always finish the statement with “Joe.” We had no

new jokes to tell after the first two years, as there

was no source of information. We exhausted all the

jokes, but on my return to the States I see that there

aren’t too many jokes of new origin floating around

today.

 

More Escapes From Davao Colony

 

Including the 10 men that escaped in 1943 we had

21 men escape. All were successful except two. One

major, while working on the rope detail in the compound hit a guard over the head and grabbed his

rifle, but at the time the rifle had no ammunition in

it, and he was apprehended in the compound and taken

away. All night we heard him screaming from the

torture being given by the Japs. The next morning

the Japs announced that he died from wounds received

in the scuffle during his apprehension, but he did not

receive a scratch during the scuffle. He was killed by

the Japs, and I am positive, as are other Americans,

that this major welcomed death.

 

One of the unfortunate things about this incident

was the fact that the major failed to kill the guard

when he hit him on the head. The remaining members

of the detail were tortured for 10 hours as punishment,

for this incident. They were required to sit on their

knees and lean back on their haunches in an erect

position, which is a “pain killer.” The Japs stood

guard over them and, when one of the prisoners

weakened, he was immediately bayonetted in the buttocks or beat on the head with the butt of a rifle. When

at the expiration of 10 hours, they told the Americans

that they could go home, and we had to carry all of

them in. The Japs sent for us to bring them to the

barracks. Their shins were all bruised where they had

been kicked, which is a favorite type of punishment

of the Japs, as I mentioned previously. These Americans were in awfully bad shape, but were very

fortunate that they all had not been shot, as the Japs

told them at first that they were going to shoot all

the detail. This incident also brings out the fear that

we were living in from day to day. You could always

expect someone to do something to jeopardize the wel-fare of others. But this is common in normal times,

except that the retaliation or reprisals may not be as

severe as it was with the Japanese.

 

Hits Guard With Shovel

 

Right after this incident, there were eleven men

working on a detail on the edge of the jungle, when

one of the men hit a guard on the head with a shovel.

Seven men, including the one that hit the guard, ran

away into the jungle while four were unable to get

away as the guards immediately caught them. The

seven men who were fortunate enough to flee, were

later surrounded in an abaca field and one man, a Navy

lieutenant, was killed. This lieutenant’s body was

brought back to camp and we were allowed to bury his

body. The remaining six fled to safety, we later ascertained when we reached the States. The four men who

did not escape were brought back to camp and thrown

in the Japanese guardhouse and brutally tortured for

two weeks. They were released and when they returned they were unable to mention anything about

their torture because they had been warned by the

Japanese commander that if they opened their mouths

they would all be executed. Even though they had been

tortured they were mighty fortunate that they had

not been killed. It was a miracle that they were not

shot. When the men came back to the compound they

had lost about 25 pounds each, and had bruises all over

them with scars of two weeks of hell. They had only

been given one spoon of rice twice a day and a little

water, so it was easy to understand how they had lost

so much weight. They were kept inside and someone

worked for them, that is someone who was just a little

better off than these four men.

 

Of course, the Japs punished the entire compound

again for this incident by refusing to give us food

for a week or more. We had saved up a little rice which

was to be used just for such occasions. They did as

they had done before took our axes and we had to

tear down some of our buildings again. If these

escapes continued we would be sleeping completely in

the open, as our buildings were getting less and less.

 

Jnp.t Hold Mortal Dread of Guerrillas

 

A few weeks later two enlisted men walked away

from the rice fields during lunch period and we had

the same thing happen in regard to punishments as

had happened before. The most amazing thing to us

was that the Japs did not shoot anyone for these

escapes. But you could never tell when they would

decide to do so. This was the last attempt to escape

until we were on the boat returning to Luzon in June

of 19-14. You must remember that these guards were

much meaner after each escape because sometimes

they were shot if they let an American escape from

the details they were acting as guard for. They

watched us closely and many times would not let us

go to the edge of the field to urinate or deficate because they were of the opinion that you were going to

escape. Another reason, secondary to this, was the

fact that they were afraid of the guerrillas in the

jungle. Once on a detail one of the Filipinos cut off a

head of one of the guards, and they were all scared

of the guerrillas. This particular Filipino had worked

with the Japanese, but he fled to the jungle when he

had completely decapitated the Jap guard. In each

corner of the compound at Davao, which was a perfect square, they had a 50 calibre machine gun facing

the jungle to prevent any attack from the guerrillas.

When we would go and work on the edge of the jungle

they would always get in the middle of the Americans

while walking to and from work. While working on

the edge they would have guards facing the jungle as

well as facing us working in the fields. One morning

on arriving at the bodagos at the rice fields some

vitamin tablets had been left in conspicious places with

the hope that the Americans would see them first, but

the Japs guarding the Americans saw them and took

the tablets, which had been left by the guerrillas. The

Japs used to compare them to the American Indian

because they cut off the heads as the Indians were

known to scalp the while men.

 

On or about June of 1943 the Japs moved all the

Filipinos away from the compound, evidently because

they were of the opinion that they were helping the

Americans escape. But many of the Filipinos hated

to leave because they had no place to go. Several told

me that they had no homes as they had been taken

away from them when the Japs invaded Mindanao.

They would go to Davao and try to get a little food to

survive, and I remember the morning they were taken

out on trucks, they passed on the road and waved with

tears in their eyes, because they had seen Americans

who had been so friendly to them before the war, and

with whom they had lived and worked for such a long

number of years, being treated as slaves and driven

like sheep at the point of a bayonet and a gun to do

work for the Japs, to try and further the co-prosperity

sphere that the Japs spoke of so much.

 

Guards Beat Men Who Falter With Rifle Butt

 

The Americans were still weak from the rice fields

and the hard work in the sun each day. The guards

would beat you if you were unable to do the work and

did not take any excuses. I remember one detail in

which we were weeding the commotes, which required

good eyesight. Many of us had difficulty doing this.

During this weeding I was pulling the commote vines

instead of the weeds and the guard beat me over the

body and the head with the butt of his rifle. He kicked

me, and when I returned to camp I was in bad shape,

and after that was not sent out to work anymore.

This happened every day. Many men would ask the

guards not to hit the men on the detail, but the guards

would only beat the ones making such requests. We

could never explain to the interpreter that the men

were weak and just could not endure this work without falling out. They always answered that we were

prisoners of war and it was our misfortune.

 

We were made happy for a few days again in January, 1944, when the Japs gave us the remainder of

a Red Cross box which they had pilfered. We had one

more box to be given to us when we were getting on

the boat in June. Prior to this time, that is, between

January and June, when we were sick and weak, we

asked the Japs for the other box that they told us

we had in camp. Their reply was that they had the box

and would give it to us when they chose to, and it

wasn’t any business of ours where, when or how the

boxes would be given to us. Our American Red Cross

boxes were none of our business. I think that they

kept it so that they could be sure and get what they

wanted instead of giving it to us right away. We saw

them smoking American cigarettes long before the

boxes arrived. They were all crazy about American

cigarettes and when they smoked all of their tobacco

they started dealing with us for cigarettes. They gave

ua very few packages of the cigarettes but what was

issued was quickly smoked up. The men used to take

one cigarette, line up as many as 15 men and ration

each man to two puffs in order to make the cigarettes

go farther. The tobacco situation was a little better

here than it was at Cabanatuan where the men smoked

squash and papuya leaves.

 

PART VIII U. S. Prisoners Stuffed Into Hold of Jap

Slave Ship On Foul Return To Cabanatuan Prison

And Liberation

 

In May the Japanese doctor began inspecting everyone and we knew that we were going to be moved. He

took all the enlisted men and gave them