.
. . the air raid sirens began sounding steadily, and we assumed that there
actually were enemy aircraft in the area. In
fact, we soon heard word of enemy aircraft in route to the Manila area, which included our
location at Sangley Point. We
listened intently, and several minutes later we could hear the now all too
familiar roar of Japanese bombers. Moments later I saw the bombers
approaching our area and I realized that the radio towers that overshadowed
our tents were probably the bombers’ main target. Bombs
could easily bring these towers down, crushing any man that happened to be
under them. Once this realization hit me, I quickly ran as fast as I could
to get away from the area, but by that time the bombers were too close and I
couldn’t hope to get far enough away. I
hit a shallow spot in the ground and quickly buried my face into the turf
just as the lead bombers dropped their loads. With
a thunderous sound the bombs slammed into the radio towers as well as the
ground all around me.
After
the bombers had gone, I momentarily waited before raising my head to look at
the damage around me. Once I
did, I noticed a crater less than a foot away from where I was lying. The
tangled steel frameworks of several of the toppled radio towers were also
lying near me. Looking around I
could see that the entire area was pocked-marked with bomb craters, each 6
to 8 feet deep, including the one next to where I was lying. Every
one of our tents was flattened and burning, and the area was scattered with
debris. These tents contained
all of our gear, which was now destroyed, leaving us with only the clothes
on our backs.
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I
had never experienced dysentery before and it proved very rough to watch my
buddies bent over with the agonizing pain it caused. It
was a horrible sight to behold: men unwashed, unshaven, and in pain,
crawling towards the latrine but not having enough energy to even reach it. Once
afflicted the men lost their strength, appetite, weight, and even hope or
desire to live. They wouldn’t
even speak or listen to their buddies. I
tried to speak to some of the ones that had the more severe cases, but they
would not listen to me or even utter a word. It
appeared as if they were in another world, becoming nearly helpless in the
later stages of the sickness.
It
was hard seeing my buddies lying on the ground, reduced to skeletons. It
was even tougher seeing the bodies of the dead, covered with vermin,
excreta, and flies lying alongside the open ditches we had to use as
latrines. Tears flowed. I
never saw any medicine all the while I was at the camp at Cabanatuan
and
can only blame the Japs for all of this suffering. I
consider myself very fortunate; although having had a very severe case of
diarrhea, my condition wasn’t as serious as the victims of dysentery.
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The
guards at Nielsen Field proved to be about the most sadistic of any I
encountered throughout my days as a POW. It
seemed as if the more hatred these guards had for Americans the more
sadistic they tended to be. I
think many of them wanted to impress their fellow guards, and their way of
doing this was by beating on the prisoners.
I
believe I understood the Japs better than many of the other men did. . . . I
could tell their temperament by the actions and expressions on their faces,
and their temperament told me which ones I could trust and which ones I
could not. I found that you had
to use a certain amount of psychology with the Japanese guards to get along
as well as possible with them because each one had a different personality. Many
would not say a word to me all day long, while others quite often wanted to
talk. Still others would speak
only when necessary. A few
would slug you if you laughed at them or attempted to speak to them unless
they first asked you a question or told you to do a certain job. You could
tell the more sadistic guards by the dirty smiles they’d wear on their
faces. They would watch you
constantly, never smiling at anyone, never engaging in conversations, and
never tolerating any talking on the job. We
were all glad when a character like that was transferred to different
details.
As
I’ve mentioned, everyone, sooner or later during our captivity, would be
subjected to beatings with clubs or rifle butts. I
think this was especially true at Nielsen Field. Every
day while working on the airfield at least one man took a beating. It
hurt to see one’s buddies being punished for no apparent reason. I
know the guards would have liked to see one of us strike them back, but they
always had their bayonet-fixed rifles ready to back them up.
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. . . the guards would walk through the shacks at night and pick out a
certain man saying that he didn’t work hard enough that day and slug the
hell out of him with either their fists or rifle butts, or both. I
think this practice centered on several particularly mean, sadistic guards
who had some special reason for punishing Americans; possibly as a means of
exploiting their own superiority. During
the night, if a man was seen by a guard taking a few puffs on a cigarette
because he couldn’t sleep or even while he went to the benjo
[toilet], he would be escorted or dragged to the guard house where he’d be
tortured. Usually, this torture
took the form of having bamboo strips tied to the prisoner’s arms and
legs, and then leaving the prisoner tied this way in an awkward and
uncomfortable position for the next several hours.
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The men were losing weight at a rapid rate due to the unbalanced and
insufficient diet. Everyone walked around the camp looking like
skeletons. Damn near every man
had ulcers on his legs and abrasions on his skin that became ugly, festered
sores; there were no medicines to help. Some
of the men walked, or rather limped, with bent over bodies and unsteady
gaits. Still others would start
breathing heavily just from walking. Several
of the men, including me, experienced difficulty breathing from the pleurisy
that had developed in the
jungles of Palawan. This pleurisy
resurfaced
when working in the mud and water, even when working in the cookhouse; the
coughing never stopped. All of
these men, who were once physically able to endure almost any reasonable
treatment, were now pitiful specimens ready to collapse. They
were all, however, enduring the hard work and cruel treatment in an effort
just to stay alive.
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1220 Days