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

the boys had traps to catch

rata, and devoured them frequently. Lizards and frogs

were eaten constantly.

 

Black Market Traffics in Stolen Food and Money

 

A “Black Market” was operated by the Japs who

worked in the kitchen along with the American enlisted men who also worked in there. Many of the

Americans managed to bring in quite a pile of Filipino

money, and were able to get the Filipinos to smuggle

money into camp. This later turned out to be quite a

large smuggling racket. The Japs in the kitchen would

get canned fish and corned beef, and soups and any

other American products that they were able to pro-cure and give it to the Americans to sell in the camp

to the other prisoners. They would give the Americans

a certain portion of the profit and many of them made

thousands of pesos in camp and loaned it out to others

for gold, given either in notes or checks. They would

charge 10 pesos for a can of corned beef or fish and

it cost them maybe 80 centavos which, of course, is

40 cents. This racket was worked for a long time but

finally stopped. Later the money was no good at all

and all you could do with it was play poker or, if you

were fortunate enough to get any tobacco from the

Filipinos, you could us this paper to wrap the tobacco.

We had wells here dug by the Filipinos and while they

were working in the compound digging the wells we

could make contact with them and get them to bring

in money and what food and medical supplies they

were able to get. The Japs watched them very closely

and many were punished for talking to the Americans.

The Filipinos did much to help the Americans and

many in camp who had been civilians in the Philippines before the war made many good contacts with

the Filipinos. These would bring food and medical

supplies into camp from their friends in Manila. Many

of these men who did have connections were very

generous and shared their money and food with the

other Americans but, of course, you found a few who

did not share one penny with their fellow prisoners.

 

Red Cross Barred from Camp

 

Colonel Mori, the Japanese commander, was about

55 years old and in speeches would tell us how he was

praying for us and how he was doing everything to

help us. But he never mentioned the times when he

refused to let the Red Cross in Manila bring us food.

I know of two occasions when trucks loaded with food

and Red Cross supplies came to the gate and the Red

Cross tried to persuade the Japs to let them give

supplies to the Americans, but they were driven away

mid told that if they returned they would be shot.

 

Officers, Attempting Escape. Tortured and Shot

 

Two lieutenant colonels and an ensign attempted to

escape one night. They tried to crawl out of a drain-age ditch but were caught by an American who asked

them not to g”. One of the lieutenant colonels made so

much noise that he attracted the attention of the

guard who took the three to Colonel Mori and he had

them beaten severely and then tied to the telephone

pole on the main road leading to Cabanatuan which

ran by the compound. Every American and every

Filipino who passed by these three men had to beat

them with a 2x4. The Jap guard would show us how

they wanted them hit and if you did not hit them hard

enough they would beat you. They had them tied in

the sun for three days and after that took them down

the road where they put them in a truck with a group

of guards and a detail to dig a grave. They were carried away and executed. The Japs later told us that

two had been shot and one had his head cut off. These

men welcomed death, I am sure, because they had been

terribly tortured for three days at the hands of the

Japanese. On another occasion I remember that five

men had been going out each night to a nearby store

to get food. They would come back in the early morning by crawling through the fence. They were caught

and tied on the main road as the other three had been.

They were beaten by everyone who had to come by.

We would try to avoid going by these men, but we

had to when we went to work. I will never forget how

one of the fellows broke loose and ran into the camp

and into his barracks. The Japs came in and got him

and, getting the four others, they took them out and

shot each of them.

 

Jap Lieutenant Proves to Be Head Hunter

 

Late one evening approximately 60 guards went

out with a Lieutenant Hosume, whom we had been

told had royal blood. He hated the Americans and

we were later told in Mindanao, where he was sent

with us, that he had been on Bataan, but because of

neglect of duty there, he was sent to guard the prisoners. He was retaliating against the Americans by being

as cruel as possible. He had with him on this detail

this particular evening an interpreter, whom we called

 

“Pittsburgh,” as he had told us he had been in Pittsburgh. You must remember that we did not call the

men these names to their faces. We only called them

these names among Americans. Anyway, they went

out this evening with full field packs and ammunition.

We were told that they were going to suppress some

guerrilla activity. Early the next morning this group

returned carrying the head of a Filipino on the end of

a string, tied to a long stick. They hung the head on

the main road with a sign written in English, Japanese, and Filipino staling “The bad man of the woods.”

The Japs were afraid of the guerrillas and we were

to learn more about this when we arrived in Davao.

 

Japs Label Escapees with “Do Not Escape” Signs

 

We started a large farm at Cabanatuan for the Japs

which was finished after T left. Several men escaped

but were later apprehended. Colonel Mori would hold

meetings of all prisoners and lecture to them on the

futility of trying to escape and tell us that the Americans would never be back and that we would be turned

in by the Filipinos. Each of the men who had attempted

to escape had signs on them saying. “Do not escape,

etc.” Three ensigns who had successfully escaped very

early in our imprisonment gave themselves up after

reaching the southern islands. They had acquired a

severe case of malaria and also were afraid that the

Filipinos were going to turn them in. They returned

voluntarily. They were required to make speeches to

us periodically about futility of attempting to escape.

 

It is my opinion, after seeing the attitude of these

Japanese commanders, that they themselves are punished by higher authorities when someone escapes.

Sometimes they would promise more food and other

things if no one tried to escape, but, of course, they

never carried out any of these promises. They believe

in mass punishment and this is what we were always

fearing. If one man violated a regulation on detail they

would punish him as well as the rest of the detail and

you never knew what type of punishment they were

going to think of. You could always expect someone

to violate a regulation with 10,000 Americans in camp,

and we were living in fear of who would be the next

one to be shot as a punishment.

 

Guards Swindled Through Yankee Ingenuity

 

The Jap guards were all interested in getting American clothing, and after they had taken all they could

away from us, they began trying to trade for anything

we had left. They liked American socks, underwear

or anything on that order. They would give you cigarettes for these articles. I remember once the Jap

commander, evidently suspecting his guards of trading with the Americans, had a surprise inspection. It

was amazing how much American goods was found

on the Americans on that detail. We had tooth brushes,

clothing, and many other supplies. Much of this had

been brought in by the Filipinos. After this the guards

were reluctant to trade with the Americans, because

they had been punished along with the Americans for

trading. Approximately 95 per cent of the Jap guards

have venereal diseases and on detail they were very

anxious to trade for sulfathiazole tablets. But they

were only interested in getting tablets with a “W”

on the back, a tablet made by the Winthrop people.

The Japanese are very stupid about such things. For

example, they were only interested in a Parker pen.

You could show them a $10 Sheaffer and a 25c Parker

and they would take the Parker. Anyway, they would

offer us cigarettes for the tablets, but they did not

care for any tablets except ones with a “W” on the

back. They had issued us some Japanese tooth powder

which was no good. The first time that we used it

it took all of the enamel off of our teeth, and we used

it for washing mess kits only.

 

Some of the boys began using their American

ingenuity and thought of this idea: We took this

Japanese tooth powder and, using a cartridge to make

a form, began manufacturing tablets with a “W” on

the back, just as they asked for them. The Japs would

take these tablets on detail without any water at all,

and I have seen them take as many as 10 at a time.

They would give us cigarettes, but after a while they

discovered that these were fakes and this did not

work anymore. The Americans built an airport for

the Japanese about half a mile from our camp and,

although there were many complaints during the construction by the Americans, it was probably worth

the time and sweat for we saw the American planes

bomb and shoot down planes taking off from this field

later.

 

General Orders “More Exercise” for Famished P.W.‘s

 

After each escape at Cabanatuan, or, rather after

each attempt to escape, we had no idea whether or not

they were going to shoot anyone or not. After one man

attempted to escape they punished everyone by making us close the windows in the barracks, and allowing

no one to go to the latrine without two others. It was

terrible stuffy and hot, but these conditions existed

for a week. Everyone had kidney trouble and visited

the latrine as many as 30 to 40 times a night. I

remember that I went for three weeks without a bowel

movement, but it did not bother me. This was common

among all of us, as we were not getting enough food.

 

A general came out from Manila to inspect the camp,

and we were required to put on our best rags for the

inspection. The American CO showed him the small

amount of rice we were getting for dinner, and asked

him if he could not increase the ration. The general

said that it was enough for Americans and that what

we needed was more exercise. Even though 48 men

were dying a day, we needed more exercise and no

more food. The Jap doctor here was very ignorant

concerning medical knowledge. He would look the

patients over and that was all he knew to do.

 

Cyclone Destroys Camp Barracks

 

We were living in bamboo barracks, and in October

of 1942 a cyclone hit the camp and destroyed most of

these. We built a few back