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

it was certainly wonderful.

 

We were all so hungry that the stronger ones would

pick out someone whom he thought might die and stay

close to this individual so he could get his food when

he died. Many times I have seen and done the same

thing. I have seen men die and an American nearby

grab his rice and eat near the body of the deceased.

Everyone was on the alert, watching to see who was

the sickest so that they could get their rice for them

and hoping that he would be too sick to eat it.

 

Ten Killed for One Escapee

 

The Japanese pulled many of the Americans out

after arriving there and sent them on various details.

One detail was sent under the supervision of a captain

down the road to build a bridge. While on this detail

one of the Americans escaped one night with some

guerrillas. The local Jap officer in charge of the detail

did not want to punish anyone for this escape, but

a general arrived from Manila and ordered 10 men

to be shot for one American escaping. Ten men were

required to be selected by the captain in charge and

they were shot before everyone else. One soldier

watched his brother shot. These men all died like true

heroes, and one of the men just before the last shot

was fired screamed “God bless America.” The Japs

issued an order that for every man who escaped, 10

other men would be shot. We found that they meant

what they said, but you cannot anticipate the Japs

because they don’t follow any certain procedure.

 

Prisoners Divided Into “Shooting Squads”

 

We had our own organization in camp and we

selected American officers to lead the barracks. We

had about 200 men to a barracks, and all were required

to sleep on the floor which was nothing but the ground.

One morning one of the men had attempted to escape

during a cerebral malarial attack. He was caught

going out the gate, or rather the fence, and brought

back into camp with his hands tied behind him and

severely beaten about the head. The Japs called me

over since I was his barracks leader. They asked me

if he was from my barracks and 1 replied in the

affirmative. They informed me that they were going

to shoot the escapee and were going to shoot me because I was his barracks leader. I gave them my name

and they told me that they would take the man with

them and would come back after me later. I immediately went back to the members of my shooting squad,

as we were all divided into squads of 10, known to us

as “shooting squads,” and told the fellows that I was

going to attempt to escape that night because the Japs

had just told me that they were going to shoot me for

one of my men trying to escape. I told the boys that

if they wanted to go with me they could. I would just

as soon take ray chance going out the fence since I

was going to be shot anyway. Well, they all began

worrying because, if I escaped, they would be shot.

They begged me not to go and said they felt sure

that the Japs were not going to shoot me. They watched

me for two days and every move I made one of the

members of my squad was right with me to see that

I did not attempt to escape.

 

Author Has Charmed Life

 

The third day passed and I told the fellows that I

was going that night. They pleaded with me and

finally convinced me that I should remain one more

day. I asked them in the event the Japs called me

would one of them volunteer to go and be shot in my

place, and when no one volunteered I told them that

I was definitely going that night. Well, they watched

me 24 hours a day and I never did attempt to escape,

but the Japs did not call me, and I never did know

why. I guess that I just had a charm over head.

 

The morning we left O’Donnell I saw this same

soldier who had attempted to escape and I told him

that I was certainly glad to see him and glad that

they did not shoot him. He told me that he had just

escaped from the Jap guardhouse that they had him

confined in and was getting ready to escape from the

main compound. I certainly did not want this case

brought up again, but I went to the American Headquarters and reported the conversation I had just had.

 

The American CO told me that this man no doubt had

been freed, that he could not have escaped. In a few

minutes some guards came in looking for this man

as he had actually escaped from the guard house and

he was then apprehended by the guards and taken

away and shot.

 

Pro-American Filipinos Tied to Trees and Beaten

 

The Japanese frequently brought in Filipinos and

tied them to the poles and trees for days and beat them

unmercifully. This was evidently punishment for

pro-American activities. Many of the Americans were

interrogated by intelligence officers of the Jap Army

while here at O’Donnell. 1 was interrogated by an

officer and he was probably the most intelligent man

1 saw in their army. He asked me a few questions

regarding Bataan, but he was very cordial and polite

and spoke perfect English. He told me that he had

never been to the United States, but that he was a

Christian and had been baptized when he was fifteen

years of age. His family disowned him when he became

a Christian. Of course, we thought at times that these

officers told us such things thinking that they would

thereby get more information from us. But I assure

you that if they used the information that they ascertained from the Americans I can readily understand

why they were so decisively defeated.

 

What we termed wet beri beri took a great toll at

O’Donnell. We had dry beri beri and wet beri beri.

The dry beri beri is when you have shooting pains

in the joints and the wet is when you swell over the

entire body. We had men who weighed 160 pounds and

when they died from wet beri beri they weighed 300

pounds. It was necessary to handle them with great

care because if you didn’t, they would burst. I saw

many of them burst when they were dropped on the

ground just a little too hard.

 

Prisoners Forced to Salute All Jap Soldiers

 

We were forced to bow and salute to all Japs that

we saw. The regulation was that if we had a cap on

we were supposed to salute, but if we had no cap on,

we were compelled to bow. We were required to do

this to all Jap soldiers whether he be a private or

officer. At O’Donnell we did not have an opportunity

to learn much about the guards. We first started working with them at Davao, which I will cover later in

the story.

 

After May 7, 1942, when Corregidor surrendered

they moved all the generals and full colonels to

Formosa, and we heard later they had been moved to

Manchuria. While at O’Donnell we could see the

bombers from Clarke field each day going to bomb

Corregidor. After May 7th when we did not see any

more planes, we assumed that Corregidor had fallen.

Then later the Japs gave us a Manila paper which

confirmed our opinion that the “Rock” was now in

the hands of the Japs.

 

Wild Rumors Help to Build Camp Morale

 

When we would go out to work in the morning the

Filipinos would tell us all sorts of stories to try and

raise our morale. One day a man from my barracks

brought in a note which said that Berlin was afire

and that the Germans had surrendered. This was in

June of 1942. I think such rumors helped our morale.

We would immediately spread these stories and they

really helped many who had given up but, of course,

after so long a time it was hard getting any one to

believe them. We would make up rumors ourselves in

an attempt to get the fellows in a fairly good mental

mood. Here we were all wondering who would die

the next day. We knew that approximately 60 men

would die each day and we all wondered who would

be next. You would inquire where John Doe was one

day and someone would tell you that he died from a

cerebral malarial attack that morning, when you had

seen him just a few moments prior to that. They vere

dying so fast from these different diseases that we

could not keep up with our friends. You mention a

friend’s name and find out that he had been dead for

three weeks or longer.

 

PART IV U. S. Prisoners Ate Dogs And Cats To

Prevent Starving, Even Lizards At Foul Cabanatuan Prison Comp

 

On the morning of June 4, 1942, we were taken by

trucks to Cabanatuan which is approximately 90 miles

northeast of Manila. At Cabanatuan we saw many of

our friends from Corregidor who had been brought

to Cabanatuan when Corregidor fell. These men

thought that they had been in bad shape until they

saw us, who had made the March of Death when

Bataan fell. I had many of the men from Corregidor

tell me that they would never complain after seeing

our group and how we looked. I now weighed 130

pounds, having dropped from 185 and was to lose

more weight before very long. In 1943 I weighed 102

pounds and was blind, all from malnutrition. At

Cabanatuan we saw many more Americans die. The

average here was 48 deaths a day. We still had no

medical supplies. We remained here until October 26,

1942, when they moved 2,000 Americans to Mindanao

to work in the rice fields as slave laborers.

 

Cabanatuan Also Disease Infested

 

The conditions at Cabanatuan were the same as that

of O’Donnell with no medicine and no sanitation facilities. Everyone continued to have dysentery, diarrhea,

yellow jaundice, scurvy, dengue fever, and beri beri.

 

I had my first chill and fever. Before I was to be free

I had malaria 20 times. I had 105’ fever and a terrific

chill but no quinine and no medicine. I could only pray

that I would get over it. I say that I had malaria 20

times, but fortunately since I have been back in the

States I have not had one attack.

 

Our commanding officer here at Cabanatuan was a

Lieutenant Colonel Mori who many thought was the

owner of a bicycle shop in Manila. Lieutenant Jones,

who had been in Manila before the war told me that

this was not the same Mori that owned the bicycle

shop. But there is still some confusion among the

Americans as to whether or not this is the same Mori.

Our diet here was lugao for breakfast. Lugao is

the rice cooked with water, and when it is finished it

is very wet, similar to oatmeal or cream of wheat. For

noon we had a small portion of rice, and at night we

had a small portion of rice with some commottoe vine

soup. The Japs would give us the vines from the

commottoe, which is a very inferior potato and full

of worms. Sometimes they would give us a few commotoes if they had too many worms in them. We would

take them and eat them very enthusiastically. We ate

dogs and cats and many of