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

and acted as if nothing

had ever happened. One of the hardest details was

the house moving detail. A Jap non com was in charge

of this detail which consisted of moving small houses

over the camp. He would take about 20 men when he

could have easily used 50 to move the house. This

guard would carry a golf club with him and when

the Americans would slow up he would beat them with

this golf club and throw rocks at them. I remember

he hit one American on the spine and permanently

crippled him. This Jap was the meanest one 1 saw

during my three years of imprisonment. He delighted

in coming around in the afternoon when everyone returned from work and making us get out and clean

the grounds. He would tell us the Americans were

dirty. The Jap kitchens were filthy and I can readily

understand why they have so much sickness, but of

course we could do nothing about our filth as we had

no means of sanitation.

 

Emperor Owns All Army Property

 

The Japs all look on their Emperor as their God,

You must be careful not to say anything around a

guard that he might take it as insult against the

Emperor. Even when you break one of their tools

they get very angry, as they say it belongs to the

Emperor. For example, I remember once when I was

in charge of the wood detail at one of the mess halls

here (we cooked our own rice in the camp), one of the

boys cutting wood broke an axe handle, and put the

axe in a fire in order to burn the remaining wood out

of the axe. Of course, this was very foolish, as it took

the temper out of the axe. Well, we went to the Jap

supply to get another axe, and we both received a

severe boating from the Jap non com in charge. He

told us that this axe belonged to the Emperor and

he, the one in charge, must account to the Emperor

for this axe. He told us that, his army was different

from ours, as in the American Army they would give

you another axe and that would be all but his army

did not have too much equipment, and all this belonged

to the Emperor. He beat us with an axe handle about

the head and face. One of their favorite types of beatings is throwing you down with a lot of ju jitsu,

which they excel in, and then kicked you in the groin

and stomach. Many of us were sick for days as a

result of such beatings. The Japs were always trying

to humiliate the Americans. Another favorite way of

punishing the Americans was to line the men up facing

each other and make them slap each other. For example, on one particular detail I have in mind, there

were 16 men and one of the men was not working

according to the guard in charge. He, the guard, lined

us up facing each other. He told us that we should

slap each other, so I just barely touched my man who

was a little smaller than I was. The Jap came running

over to me screaming that he would show me how he

wanted me to hit the man. The only trouble was that

he demonstrated on me. He hit me with his fist across

the mouth and nose and I bled profusely. Well, of

course, I had to hit the fellow American just like this

or I would be hit again. So I hit him as hard as I

thought I could get away with, and it knocked him

to the ground. When we came in that evening, this

fellow wanted to fight because he said that I hit him

too hard, but after he cooled down everything was all

right again. The Japs always thought up such punishment in an attempt to lower our morale, but they were

never able to do this, as the Americans would not have

their spirits and moi’ale beaten.

 

Smuggling Activities at Cabanattfan

 

After I left in October they began a beautiful smuggling racket at Cabanatuan. You must remember

that our camp was located five miles east of the town

of Cabanatuan. Each evening the guards would take

the Americans with the carabao carts to the barrio to

get the rice to bring into camp. These Americans

made contacts with the Filipinos at Cabanatuan as

these Filipinos were loading the carts with the rice.

They passed notes between themselves and they would

see each other daily. One of the favorite places of

exchanging notes was between the camp and Cabanatuan. There was a water hole where the carts would

stop is order to water the carabaos. The Americans

would leave the notes there and the Filipinos would

pick the notes up and leave their messages there also.

The man that handled all of this was a civilian from

Manila who worked in the pump house on the Japanese side, as there was a fence between the Japs and

the Americans, of course. This civilian handled all of

these transactions and charged a person 10 per cent

for handling his money. For example, if I wished to

get a note to someone in Manila I would see this

civilian, whose name I will not divulge, but I understand that he was a gambler and owner of a gambling

house before the war in Manila. I would give him the

note and if I requested 100 pesos he would charge me

10 per cent when the money arrived. We found out

Inter that much more money was sent sometimes, but

he would charge you 10 per cent of your request and

keep all over the amount you requested since you would

never know the difference. It is said that this individual made thousands and thousands of dollars because

what he did was lend this money out for American

money. If you had plenty of money, that is, Filipino

money, and, later, even Japanese money, you could

get a few items of food. Of course, this practice all

stopped about six months before the Americans invaded the island. At this time the money had no value

at all. But when the money was good this person

loaned out these pesos, one peso for a dollar, and,

friends, that is making plenty. He would take checks

or notes. But he was particular in that he would only

take checks from officers who were in the regular

Army. It is estimated that he had approximately

$80,000 in checks and notes, and I have heard men

who know him say that if he ever gets out of this war

you can depend on it that he will collect that money.

 

“Mrs. V.” Handled Smuggling from Manila End

 

This smuggling racket lasted for about eight months

and it really did help a lot of people as it enabled them

to get money in and buy a little extra food. A lady

whose name I do not know, but called Mrs. “TJ,”

handled the transaction from the other end in Manila.

 

She really did a wonderful job and I personally think

she should be congratulated by our Army officials.

She took great chances and helped many by sending

this money and distributing the notes in Manila. The

Jap non com who worked in the pump house with the

civilian handling the transaction from our end was on

the civilian’s pay roll, also. He helped the Americans

by acting as go between. I am of the opinion that he

was either pro-American or just crazy for the money

that he was getting each month for his assistance. The

Japanese headquarters got wind of this racket and

one day one of the guards saw a can containing money

thrown over the fence. This was reported to their

headquarters but they did not say anything about it

at that time. They called in the Japanese MPs from

Manila who began working on the case. The MPs

worked both in Manila and in our camp without our

knowledge.

 

One day the men on their way back from Cabanatuan with the rice were unexpectedly “shaken down”

(the term we used to mean inspected). This was carried out by the MPs who had been called in from

Manila to handle the case. Many of the Americans had

notes on them and these notes contained names of some

of the Americans in camp whom the notes were marked

for. All men whose names were in the notes were taken

to the Jap headquarters and after much questioning

many were rounded up and put into solitary confine-ment by the Japs for five months. These men were

tortured and looked very bad. One of these men was

a lieutenant colonel who was 60 years of age, but he

took it beautifully. The surprising thing about the

discontinuance of this racket was that the civilian

who handled all of this was not punished nor was the

Jap non com, since their implication in the racket was

not discovered. The non com effected a transfer for

himself and later was moved. He was really happy

because he was worried about being found out.

 

It is really amazing what one can find in a prison

camp. The most amazing thing about this is that they

inspect us so frequently and so very closely, making

us take off our G string and get in the nude. They go

through our bedding and barracks, and still we have

hidden such things as a vacuum cleaner. The Japs held

these inspections frequently and in Mindanao they

worried quite a bit about the guerrillas smuggling in

things to us.

 

Dysentery Situation Very Acute at Cabanatuan

 

The dysentery situation at Cabunatuan was as horrible as at O’Donnell. Men were lying on the ground

around the barracks in the nude and in filth. There

was no medicine or medical supplies, as the Japs would

not allow the civilians to send in Red Cross supplies.

Men were nothing but skin and bones. We had many

men who were so skinny that they did not have a

buttocks at all, as the only thing that you could see

was an anaeus. It was the most horrible sight I have

ever witnessed in my life. At this time I weighed 130

pounds and the fellows would tell me how good I

looked. The average weight was 85 or 90 pounds. Wet

beri beri was very prevalent. I remember one captain

from Illinois with this disease, and he was swollen

terribly. He would always smile and laugh even though

he knew he was going to die. He could not walk

because his feet were so swollen, and his eyes were

closed. One morning he awakened and began talking

about all the hot dogs he was going to eat when he

returned to Illinois. He died that morning. We slept

on the floor and when one entered the barracks it

was necessary to walk very carefully on tip toes since

the least jar might cause someone with dysentery to

deficate on his clothes. We had no water to wash up

the human waste and many just slept in this filth.

We worried all the time for fear some sort of plague

might begin spreading among us. The good Lord was

certainly on our side in this respect because we did

not have any of a serious nature. I remember one

officer who had a very bad case of dysentery and each

morning when I got up the floor would be dirty on his

side. He felt very badly about it, but he could not help

it at all. It was nothing unusual for you to be eating

your rice and someone with dysentery would deficate

right next to you on