Back From The Living Dead - Bert Bank (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

class="calibre2">before the Jap doctor would excuse them. The men

were swapping stools among themselves. For instance,

if “A” had dysentery but did not show a positive stool,

as many of them do not, then he would get a stool from

“B” who did have a positive, and as a result “A”

would not be sent to Japan. Anything to put one over

on the Japs.

 

Food at Cabanatuan Remained the Same

 

The only thing that had not changed in the past two

years was the menu. Conditions were horrible and we

were continuing to starve. I used to drink two canteens

of water at each meal, or, rather, at each sitting. That

is six canteens of water a day. We were getting a few

weeds now and then and would make weed soup, but

rice was still the diet. Even though all these years

the men had had no tobacco, many were practically

insane for tobacco, and continued to smoke papuya

and squash leaves. The Japs had told the men at

Cabanatuan that if they planted a garden that they

could have the produce for it. The men all worked very

hard and beautiful produce grew, but the Japs came

and took the produce and left the leaves for the

Americans. These leaves were smoked and eaten by us

all.

 

The Japs were now moving groups of 500 men out

three and four times a week to Japan. The Jap doctor

was examing everyone and sending all men that he

thought were in condition to go, and he was especially

desirous to send officers. I had cheated death twice

during these three years, and I was to do so again.

The Jap doctor came by late one evening to inspect

the men. He marked me with an “X” which meant that

I was to leave the next morning for Japan, on the ship

that was carrying 1,800 prisoners. I was ready to move

out the next morning, when the American doctor told

me that he had been to our headquarters and screwed

up the records some way to show that I was not supposed to go, and for me to stay behind. Well, I did that

and if it had not been for this brave American doctor,

who did not believe that I was in condition to go even

though the Jap doctor did, I would be at the bottom

of the Pacific today, for the ship I was to sail on was

torpedoed and there were only five survivors. This

doctor had changed the records some way, and today,

as far as the Jap records show, I am in a Jap prison

camp somewhere in Japan.

 

American Navy Dive Bombers Raid Cabanatuan

 

The principal work now at Cabanatuan was working on the farm, and the Americans had built a beautiful farm. Near the compound, the Americans had

also built an airport for the Japs, which was later to

give us much amusement and satisfaction. On September 21, 1944, we saw hundreds of planes on the

horizon, but did not know whose planes they were.

This was at approximately 9 A.M. Everyone thought

that the Japs were really flying that day, but few had

the idea that it might be American planes. At approximately 11 A.M. the planes came over our compound very low and caught three Jap planes taking

off the field nearby. They were American Naval dive

bombers and they immediately went to work on the

Jap planes and shot them down right outside our

fence. All the Americans ran around very excitedly.

 

It was the most beautiful sight that we had seen in

three years, and we now felt sure that America had

not forgotten us. The Japs issued an order that all

Americans would remain inside their barracks when

planes came over the compound or they would shoot

inside. When we were working on the farm during any

air activity, the guards would not let us look up a! the

planes, but required us to continue working. Every

day after September 21st we saw American planes,

but we felt that when we saw land based planes that

the Americans would really be close by. I believe it

was in late October that we saw our first land based

planes, and everyone actually cried with joy over the

thought that soon we might be free again. By this

time there were only 51 1 prisoners left as the rest had

been moved to Japan. When the P-38s and P-61s and

the other new types of planes flew over our compound

and buzzed the camp many of us were ignorant as to

the type of planes. The planes would come very low

and we were all so excited that many thought our

liberation might come any day now. Incidentally, we

had a radio in camp from the time General Mac Arthur

landed on Leyte. It was kept hidden, for if the Japs

had known it they would never have allowed us to have

it. An officer, who was a radio engineer, had built

the radio out of a canteen, demonstrating again the

ingenuity of Americans when it becomes necessary. It

was built in a canteen with a hole cut in it, and n

sock was held over the canteen which looked like an

ordinary canteen. This canteen had one tube. “B”

batteries made of plastic shaving soap container. “A”

battery 6 V storage used in emergency operating light,

the station most generally listened to was KGEX,

with 495 MC. After the landing on Leyte was made,

we had a news sheet each morning which was taken

around to the barracks and read to the men. This was

the greatest morale building factor that we had and

we followed the landing on Luzon with this radio. This

station was for the information of the Filipinos and

used for propaganda purposes, but we received the

news which was principally about the Pacific theatre.

 

American Progress Followed by Improvised Radio

 

We followed the progress of the American troops

down the West coast of Luzon and knew that they

had taken Clarke field and Tarlac, but the thing that

we could not understand was why they had not come

closer to the East coast and rescued us. We thought

that they would get to Manila before they came to

get us. We all discussed just how the Americans would

come and rescue us. We were of the opinion that

MacArthur would enter the camp with a large fleet

of motorcycles and that he would be riding in a staff

car with members of his staff. We thought it would

happen some day about noon. We were also afraid that

the Japs would move us out of the camp any day. We

had no idea that such a raid as actually took place

would be the way our liberation would come. The

Japs were very nervous and mean during all this air

activity and 1 am sure that had the Americans arrived

as we thought that they would, they would have found

either 511 dead Americans or an empty camp. Planes

were buzzing our camp daily. One day a cub used

for artillery observation dropped a note, but we did

not run for it as the Japs were watching us with a

machine gun. The Japs got the note, but we later found

out that it was nothing but a word of good cheer.

 

Jap Guards Leave, Say “You’re Free”

 

On January 7th the Japanese regular guard company

evacuated the camp, after coming into the compound

and telling us that from now on we were free Americans. We were free as long as we remained in the

camp, but if we went outside the fence we would be

shot by guards in the surrounding territory. We all

felt mighty good now, but still worried quite a bit

about the Japs moving us out of the camp since the

Americans were getting so close. These guards left in

a big hurry on January 7, 1944, and no doubt were

being called to Lingayan Gulf to await the landings

of the Americans on January 9th. The Japanese had

a house of prostitution in camp for the Japanese

personnel. The morning they evacuated the camp, the

major and his personal prostitute rode out atop a tank.

After these troops left we realized that we were in

a precarious position. We were alone and there were

many troops roaming around and looking for food.

They might come by our camp and there was no telling what they would do. For 24 hours we had no guards

at all. During this interim, we went over to the

Japanese side of the fence and went through their

bodagas and found sack after sack of rice, and

hundreds of cans of American milk. There were plenty

of carabao and hogs around the area, so we rounded

all of them up and brought them in the compound.

From January 7th until the time we were liberated

we had plenty of meat, rice and milk. On January 8th

a new group of guards came into camp, and fortunately

they did not bother us about food. They probably

thought that we had none. If we had not taken this

food we would have had no food at all during this time,

as this new group of guards never inquired w : hether

or not we had food. This group of guards were on duty

the night of the raid by the Rangers. Between the

time the Americans landed on Luzon and the night

of the liberation, the Japs brought many tanks in and

out of the camp, hiding them in the barracks from the

American planes. Fortunately, they had moved the

tanks out the morning of the day of the raid. Planes

buzzed the camp very low during the day of the raid.

Later we ascertained that they were looking for the

tanks. We had no idea why these planes were coming

so low. They were also covering for the Rangers who

were coming in that night.

 

Prisoners Affected with “Limber Neck”

 

About two weeks prior to the rescue, everyone in

camp was affected with what we called the “limber

neck.” It was no doubt due to a dietary deficiency,

because we all got over it. But no one could hold their

heads up, as their necks were very limber. We would

go around holding our necks up with our arms. We

were frightened at first, but we all got over it.

 

During the time that the American planes were

bombing and strafing the airport nearby, we were

afraid that someone would get hit by stray bullets

from the planes. When they came out of their dive

from bombing and strafing they came very low over

our camp. We had only one boy hit. He was hit with

a bullet from a 50 caliber when a plane came out of

a dive from bombing the field. This prisoner was hit

in the hip, but he is in Northington General Hospital

now and is getting along fine.

 

Three Years of Horror

 

I have tried to forget all of these three years of

horror, but now and then I have a horrible nightmare,

and wake up to realize that such a nightmare actually

existed. But there is one thing that I am sure I will

never forget, and that is the group of Rangers led by

Lieutenant Colonel Mucchi who freed 511 prisoners,

after being tortured for three years.