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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
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