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

me that in

the early days of the war some men, five in number,

were captured in the northern part of Luzon. These

five men were put in a room and each morning a Jap

would enter the room where the men were. They were

required to bow and say “good morning.” They would

do this and when they bowed they would say “Good

morning, you yellow bellied son of a bitch.” Whereas

the Jap would bow and say something in Japanese.

Fortunately he did not understand English. This went

on for several weeks, until one day a new Jap entered

the room. These five men went through the same

procedure, greeting him as they had the previous Jap.

After greeting him with these words, the Jap went

to each man and slapped him, saying “California, ‘37.”

He had finished the University of California and of

course spoke English just as well as the men in the

room.

 

PART VI American Prisoners Do Slave Labor In

Rice Paddies of Davao Prison Colony As Disease

And Malnutrition Kill Many

 

The next morning we were to learn what slave labor

means. We were to learn what working in the rice

fields for the Japs means. Major Mahiti, the Japanese

commander, had a meeting of all the prisoners and told

us that we had come down there to work. He was

very angry because so many sick men had been sent

down from Cabanatuan. We then realized that the

commander had sent all the sick from Cabanatuan so

that he would have nothing but the strong men left.

The Jap major here at Davao told us through his

interpreter that we would all work and, as the interpreter said, “You did not come here to be lazy.” And

we later found out what he meant by this statement.

When he finished the speech we were sent back to our

barracks. We looked out of the windows and saw mil-lions of bananas and coconuts, and avocados. We

hoped that the Japs would give us this fruit, but we

soon learned that they were not going to give us any

at all. We would have to steal what little we got. When

we arrived at this Davao penal colony we found 600

other Americans who had been captured in the southern islands and brought to Davao a month before we

arrived.

 

Davao Penal Colony on Mindanao

 

The penal colony was a pretty place, and they had

many Filipino prisoners still here when we arrived.

They lived in a compound across from ours, but we

would work with them on detail. They had a school

there in the compound for the children of the overseers

in the colony. I will never forget the teacher at this

school. She was a tall pretty Filipino and she would

always help the Americans when she could. When we

passed her going to and from work she would very

surreptitiously drop tobacco on the ground for the

Americans. She cried when she saw us go out to work

being driven as slaves. She used to tell us when she

had the opportunity not to give up, but to have faith

in God and the Americans would come back some day.

All the families were like this. They were wonderful

to us all and if it had not been for them I think we

would have lost more men. They gave us food from

their own kitchen and food was not very plentiful

with them. When the Japs saw one of them talking to

ns, they would beat both the Americans and the

Filipinos. The Filipinos would take dangerous chances

to give us food and medicine. When we would go out

in the jungle to work they would slip through the

woods and get our canteens and fill them with coffee

and sugar. They would also leave hot fried bananas

which were very good. The Japs did not know this

was going on and when they discovered any associa-tion they would exert more effort to keep us separated.

Usually these Filipinos worked in the bodaga, ware-houses where we had our rice weighed. When they

could they gave us more rice than was our ration.

Several times they were caught and beaten severely,

but they would continue to do this despite the danger

involved.

 

Filipinos Aid Americans at Great Risk

 

We pleaded with the Filipinos not to take such

chances to help us but our pleas did no good as they

continued to assist us when they could. 1 remember

on a detail one day, I had a severe case of scurvy,

which was common to us all. I showed it to a Filipino

and when he saw how my lips were blistered and my

skin peeling off of my body, he cried and went to his

house and brought some sort of salve to put on it.

It did no good, but I hold him later that it had helped

lots. What we needed was lemons which were plentiful, but the Japs would not give them to us. We were

all starving and needed fruit, and we could look out

of the window into the jungle at these papuyas,

bananas, coconuts, and many other tropical fruits, but

the Japs refused to give it to us.

 

The Davao penal colony was a large space cut out

of the middle of the jungle and had been in operation

for years. The Filipino in charge, whose name I forget, was pro-Japanese, according to many of the

Filipinos in the colony. This Filipino had been in

charge of the camp before the war and he never

showed any signs of friendship to us during the time

we were there. I am of the opinion that he was a little

pro-Jap, but on the other hand he may have been

afraid for his family. He bowed to the Japs and any-time he could do something for them, he would do it.

 

I say he may have been afraid they would punish his

family, as they did this on many occasions.

 

The children of the Filipinos who worked in the

colony were all very kind to us. They would slip

through the jungle where we were working and hide

fried bananas for us. They would make cassava cakes

and throw them to us. Occasionally we would find a

guard who would let them give us food, but this was

very unusual. They were afraid of their officers and

they would not take any chances. In the main, they

were all delighted to beat the Americans and do what

they could to subject them to more cruelty.

 

One Jap Guard Was Kind to Prisoners

 

I did find one guard who was more considerate than

anyone else. When we would go out on detail he would

put an American on both sides of the field to watch

for his officers coming around to inspect. He would

then send out two Americans to get coconuts for all

the Americans. He would not eat any until he saw that

all the Americans had eaten. He was 18 years of age

and from Kobe. He worked in the bureau of statistics

there and was very intelligent for a Japanese. Most of

the guards we had were very ignorant, and this is

characteristic of the majority of the Japanese soldiers.

 

Incidentally, while on this point, I had a Jap officer,

the one that I spoke about earlier, tell me that when

they go to the farms and get these soldiers they tell

the soldier he will not see his parents ever again and

all he will be required to do is to fight for Japan. This

officer is the intelligence officer that interrogated me

at O’Donnell. He said that their soldiers were very

ignorant and were taught only to die for their country.

I found out later that he was right about their

ignorance.

 

Wants to Visit Tuscaloosa After War

 

This particular Jap guard from Kobe who was so

good to the Americans was never known to have hit

an American. He told me that he liked the Americans,

hut that Roosevelt should be killed, then the war would

be over. He had been given the same propaganda about

Roosevelt that we have been given about Hitler. This

guard used to come in and wake me at 10 o’clock at

night while making his rounds to give me cigarettes.

I did not smoke but would give the tobacco to those

who did smoke. He realized that the Japanese were

much inferior to the Americans. On the details away

from the camp we would take our rice with us and not

come back for lunch. On these occasions the guard

would eat with us. On one particular detail. T noticed

Hirota, the 18-year-old guard, did not eat. He said

that he was not hungry. After all the Americans finished eating he came up to me and asked me if I would

lend him my spoon. He was selfconscious about eating

with his chop sticks. I loaned him my spoon and he

ate his dinner, and the next day he ate with us. having

acquired a spoon somewhere and discarded his chop

sticks. Another time he asked me where I was from,

and telling him that I was from Tuscaloosa, Alabama,

he came to me the next day and told me that he was

coming to visit me when the war was over and 1 could

come back to Kobe with him. I told him that was a

good idea, and reached for another cigarette to give

some of my friends. This guard called me Captain and

was always very kind. But he was the only one I found

like this.

 

Dangerous to Fraternize with Guard

 

I might mentioned here that many of the boys tried

to get friendly with the guards, but you could never

anticipate what their reaction would be on different

occasions. I remember once a lieutenant had been very

friendly to a guard for several months. One day the

guard came into the barracks to see the lieutenant and

they were talking and the lieutenant told the guard

that someday the Americana would be on the outside

looking in, and the Japs would be on the inside of the

fence. The guard immediately jumped to his feet and

threw a bullet into his chamber and asked the lieutenant to come outside that he was going to shoot him

for insulting the Emperor. The guard had taken such

a statement as an insult to the Emperor. Fortunately,

the guard was talked out of it, but this shows that

even though you may think that you are good friends

with these guards, you cannot get too familiar with

them.

 

Japanese Recognized No Rank Among Prisoners

 

I might say at this time the Japs recognized no rank.

All officers and enlisted men worked and lived together. The Japs made no distinction in rank at all.

We had lots of trouble with some of the enlisted men

who cursed the officers and refused to show any

respect towards them at all. There were many fights

among the men and the Japs did not care. They told

us to take care of our own problems. Many of the

enlisted men retained the respect towards the officers

but, on the other hand, many did not. Many called the

officers by their first name, and acted like anything

but American soldiers. But I say there were lots who

did realize that they were still soldiers and showed

the respect that they had shown before they became

prisoners.

 

We worked with the enlisted men in the fields and

they would curse the officers and talk about others

in front of all of us. I must admit that during times

like this when everyone is thinking of self