Chapter 13: Limbo
198 “a minor epic in”: Hanson W. Baldwin, “Bataan’s Epic of Valor,” New York Times, April 10, 1942.
198 “gallant effort”: Frank Kluckhohn, “Foe Says Wainwright Agrees to Full Philippine Surrender,” New York Times, May 8, 1942.
199 “To comply”: “No Information on Kin,” New York Times, May 8, 1942.
199 By then the idea: David M. Kennedy, “On the Home Front: What Is Patriotism Without Sacrifice?” New York Times, February 16, 2003, sec. 4, p. 3.
200 H. Ford Wilkins’s: New York Times, December 9, 1941, p. 1.
200 Twenty-four-year-old John Hersey: Hersey’s pieces on Bataan were beautifully crafted, but they relied so heavily on the reporting of Melville and Annalee Jacoby and “the early cables of Carl and Shelley Mydans” that he dedicated his first book, Men on Bataan, to the four reporters, “partly so they won’t charge me with grand larceny.” He then arranged for Time to pay the Jacobys $450 for the unauthorized use of their work. See Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998), pp. 109-11. According to Fadiman, the daughter of Annalee Jacoby, the Jacoby’s dispatches became “the nearly verbatim basis for about half of Hersey’s best-selling Men on Bataan.”
200 In fact, one could: See “Japanese Report Manila Air Blows,” New York Times, December 12, 1941.
201 Even then it was: See “Philippine Epic,” Life 12, no. 15 (April 13, 1942).
201 Two days after: Romulo, I Saw, p. 81.
201 Carl and Shelley Mydans: Mydans, More Than Meets, p. 71.
201 Royal and Pontifical University: Hartendorp, Japanese Occupation, p. 1:8.
201 H. Ford Wilkins: ibid., p. 1:xiv.
201 When Clark Lee: Lee, Pacific, p. 246. The rumor was false. Beliel was interned in Santo Tomás Internment Camp, where he became circulation manager of STIC’s newsletter, Internews. He made his first broadcast after the liberation of Santo Tomás to the United States on February 7, 1945, for the Mutual Broadcasting System.
201 Carlos Romulo: Romulo, I Saw, pp. 272, 305.
202 Private Everett D. Reamer: Everett D. Reamer, author interview, July 1, 2003; see also Everett D. Reamer, Sanity Gone Amuck: World War II: Pacific 1941-1945 (privately printed, 1998), pp. 42-43.
202 Wainwright was on: General Jonathan M. Wainwright deposition, in U.S.A. vs. Masaharu Homma, RG 153, Vol. 16, Box 3, pp. 2291-92, NARA. See also testimony of Colonel John R. Pugh in U.S.A. vs. Masaharu Homma, RG 153, Vol. 18, Box 4, p. 2400, NARA.
202 The transmission was: Schultz, Hero of Bataan, p. 313.
202 In Santo Tomás: Hartendorp, Japanese Occupation, p. 1:106.
202 Wainwright and his staff: Deposition of General Jonathan M. Wainwright in U.S.A. vs. Masaharu Homma, RG 153, Vol. 16, Box 3, pp. 2293-94, NARA.
202 “How many airplanes are”: Braly, Hard Way Home, pp. 6-7.
202 Corpses were piled: Ferdinand V. Berley, interview by Jan K. Herman, p. 19; James L. Kent, interview by Ronald E. Marcello, May 11, 1972, p. 28, #127, UNTOHC.
203 One American work detail: Halbrook interview, March 21, 1972, pp. 110-12; Melvyn McCoy and S. M. Mellnik, “Death Was Part of Our Life,” Life, February 7, 1944, p. 21.
203 “to clean up the battlefield”: Bartlett, Casus Belli, pp. 64-65.
203 The next day a long line: Belote and Belote, Corregidor, pp. 178-79.
203 The Japanese set: John M. Wright, Captured on Corregidor: Diary of an American POW in World War II ( Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1988), p. 7.
203 Then roughly 12,000: Cooper, “Medical Department,” p. 84.
203 Some 800 cases: Belote and Belote, Corregidor, p. 178.
204 Men were so cramped: Braly, Hard Way Home, p. 8.
204 there was no shelter: Beecher, “Experiences,” pp. 34-35.
204 Water was stored: Andrew Miller, letter to author, July 7, 2004.
204 Officers and enlisted men: Cooper, “Medical Department,” pp. 84-85.
204 “This was the example”: Alton C. Halbrook, interview by Ronald E. Marcello, March 21 and April 18, 1972, pp. 98-101, #122, UNTOHC.
204 He begged Private John R. Brown: Braly, Hard Way Home, p. 9.
204 The Japanese took: M. L. Daman, interview by Ronald E. Marcello, September 29 and October 6, 1973, p. 34, UNTOHC.
205 All of the captives: McCoy, Mellnik, and Kelley, Ten Escape, p. 18.
205 “queer for boots.”: Halbrook interview, p. 124.
205 Compared to the conduct: Noel Barber, A Sinister Twilight: The Fall of Singapore (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968), pp. 241-43.
205 “They dreaded coming onto”: Loren H. Brantley, interview by Ronald E. Marcello, November 19, 1971, p. 24, UNTOHC.
205 “almost jovial”: McCoy, Mellnik, and Kelley, Ten Escape, p. 18.
205 On one detail: Haney, Caged Dragons, p. 79.
205 The newly captured: Hoeffer, “Hard Way Back,” pp. 10-11.
206 The Americans bathed: Braly, Hard Way Home, p. 10.
206 A system was devised: Beecher, “Experiences,” pp. 34-35.
208 With a little medicine: Cooper, “Medical Department,” p. 85.
208 “It was like plunging”: Beecher, “Experiences,” pp. 36-37.
209 By then nearly 12,000: Braly, Hard Way Home, p. 15.
209 “in the most suffocating”: McCoy, Mellnik, and Kelley, Ten Escape, p. 22.
209 On the morning of: Braly, Hard Way Home, p. 16.
209 But the barges stopped: Beecher, “Experiences,” p. 38.
209 Garden hoses were: Sergeant Thomas H. Bogie, testimony, U.S.A. vs. Masaharu Homma, RG 153, Vol. 12, Box 3, pp. 1655-56, NARA.
210 “From twelve o’clock”: May Harries, Philippine Postscripts, December 1945, quoted in Braly, Hard Way Home, p. 17.
210 “31st May 1942”: Ferguson, Diary, p. 40.
211 Provoo had once: Sayer and Botting, “America’s Secret Army.”
211 Thompson told the corpsman: This account is based on Berley and Halbrook’s recollections. Sayer and Botting claim the reason was that Provoo had “relayed their orders that all sick and wounded Americans should be moved out at once so that Japanese wounded could be hospitalized there. When he heard this order Captain Thompson of the Medical Service Corps told Provoo: ‘Tell them to go to hell, the men are too sick to be moved.’ ” In fact, many of the wounded had already been moved to the 92nd Garage Area, and the hospital at Topside was considered far preferable to what remained of the one in Malinta Tunnel. Otis H. King tells yet another version of this story, in which “the Captain asked for supplies, Provoo refused and Captain Thompson threatened him with a court martial.” King, Alamo of the Pacific, p. 186.
211 The next morning: Robert S. LaForte, Ronald E. Marcello, and Richard L. Himmel, eds., With Only the Will to Live: Accounts of Americans in Japanese Prison Camps, 1941-1945 (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1994), p. 68; Halbrook, interview by Marcello, pp. 116,122; Halbrook, author interview, March 27, 2003.
211 The old Fort Mills: Cooper, “Medical Department,” p. 87.
211 Life at Topside: Ferguson, Diary, p. 42.
212 “a large iced cake”: Norman, Band of Angels, p. 139.
212 One Japanese doctor: Thomas Hirst Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, book I, July 1942, p. 41, BUMED.
212 One week later: Kentner, Journal, p. 30.
212 They were responsible: Stamp, Journey, p. 37.
212 On July 2: Michno, Hellships, p. 39.
212 Fred enlisted a: Clarence Shearer, Journal, 29 May 1942-8 July 1943, Companion Document to Sartin, Bilibid Letter Book, 1942, p. 15, RG 389, Box 2178, NARA.
212 In the morning: Kentner, Journal, p. 30.
213 It was early afternoon: Ferguson, Diary, p. 42.
213 “a nice Jap”: Norman, Band of Angels, p. 140.
213 The nonambulatory patients: Hartendorp, Japanese Occupation, p.1:186.
213 women were separated: Barrett, Casus Belli, p. 38.
213 At 1500 t
hey arrived: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, book I, July 1942, pp. 2-3.
213 “a dirty filthy mess”: Ferguson, Diary, p. 42.
Chapter 14: Horyo
214 “shades of the prison-house”: William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,” v. 67, in Wordsworth: Poetical Works, ed. Thomas Hutchinson and Ernest de Selincourt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 460.
214 Bilibid looked like: A.E.W. Salt and H.O.S. Heistand, “The Street Names of Manila and Their Origins,” Historical Bulletin 15 (1971), p. 266; Mauro Garcia and C. O. Resurreccion, eds., Focus on Old Manila (Manila: Philippine Historical Association, 1971).
214 Aguinaldo had been: Bumgarner, Parade, p. 82.
214 “I sincerely believe”: Ramón Victorio, “Prison System in the Philippine Islands,” lecture to the American Prison Congress, Salt Lake City, August 15-22, 1924, p. 2, in Philippine Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, Catalogue of Products of the Industrial Division of Bilibid Prison and General Information Relative to the Bureau of Prisons (Manila: Bureau of Printings, 1927).
214 Like the spokes: Paul Ashton, Bataan Diary (privately published, 1984), pp. 240-41.
215 Before headquarters of: Rockwell, Narrative, p. 6.
215 Since their capture: Davis, Diary, p. 5.
215 Bilibid was enclosed: Ashton, Somebody Gives, p. 304.
215 Davis and his staff: Davis, Diary, p. 5.
215 After the Japanese robbed Davis: ibid., p. 23.
215 One evening the: ibid., p. 26.
215 When some 300: ibid., p. 27.
215 One week later: Philippine Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons, Catalogue, p. 19.
216 Wainwright would soon: Schulz, Hero of Bataan, p. 318.
216 “Anything,” said Davis: Davis, Diary, p. 28.
216 Prison conditions: Gillespie, “Recollections,” p. 33.
216 Plumbing and electrical: Shearer, Journal, p. 1.
216 “accommodating place”: Barrett, Casus Belli, pp. 52-55.
216 They constructed a: Handbook of the Hospital Corps, U.S. Navy 1939, pp. 540-41.
216 “coolator”: Shearer, Journal, p. 9.
216 With materials from: ibid., pp. 2-3.
217 Officers had quarters: Kentner, Journal, p. 27.
217 Bilibid’s patient census: Barrett, Casus Belli, p. 37.
217 The army medical officers: Shearer, Journal, p. 8.
217 But some of the: ibid., p. 15.
217 “Here are piled”: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, 1:5.
218 Bilibid became the: Davis, Diary, p. 28.
218 There were a total: Waterford, Prisoners , pp. 250-65, 187-211.
218 Officially, it was: Barrett, Casus Belli, p. 56.
218 That was Sartin: ibid., p. 101.
218 Nogi was ultimately: “Channels of PW Camp,” RG 331, Box 1576, NARA.
218 His colleague: Naraji Nogi, testimony to Investigating Officer Jerome Richard, War Crimes Investigating Detachment, October 23, 1945, RG 331, Box 1908, NARA.
219 “All right, you”: Barrett, Casus Belli, p. 52.
219 Horyo Jōhōkyoku: Daws, Prisoners, p. 52.
219 For the approximately 324,000: Waterford, Prisoners of the Japanese, p. 146.
219 The Horyo Jōhōkyoku was in charge: Arthur L. Lerch, “Japanese Handling of American Prisoners of War,” reprinted in Tokyo Trial Materials: Documents of POW Information Bureau (Gendai Shiryo Shuppan, 1999), pp. 304-5.
219 The Geneva Convention: Reprinted in Kerr, Surrender and Survival, pp. 329-34.
219 The International Committee of the Red Cross: Lerch, “Japanese Handling,” p. 316.
219 Japan had its own: Falk, Bataan, p. 208.
219 This was to: Tanaka, Hidden Horrors, p. 72.
219 Article 2: Falk, Bataan, p. 208.
220 The rules were revised: Lerch, “Japanese Handling,” p. 310.
220 By and large Japan’s: Tanaka, Hidden Horrors, p. 72.
220 Japan Red Cross Society: Sumio Adachi, “A Process to Reaffirmation of International Humanitarian Law: A Japanese View,” Law and Order 5 (September 25, 1983), p. 22.
220 This stood in marked contrast: David Haward Bain, Sitting in Darkness: Americans in the Philippines (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), pp. 84-87.
220 Boer refugees: Thomas Packenham, The Boer War (New York: Avon Books, 1979), pp. 531-32, 549, 581.
220 “to conform to the discipline”: Falk, Bataan, p. 10.
220 Article 6 stipulated: ibid., p. 209.
220 The Japanese prescribed: Lerch, “Japanese Handling,” p. 313.
220 There was no due process: Bix, Hirohito, pp. 27-28.
220 This marked a: Kita Yoshito, “The Japanese Military’s Attitude Toward International Laws and the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” Nihon University, part 2.
221 Japan was a party: Bix, Hirohito, p. 361.
221 1929 Geneva Convention: Sumio Adachi, “Unprepared Regrettable Events: A Brief History of Japanese Practices on Treatment of Allied War Victims during the Second World War,” Studies of Cultural and Social Science, No. 45 (Hashirimizu, Yokosuka, Japan: The National Defense Academy, 1982), p. 283.
221 Whether this was: Adachi, “Process to Reaffirmation,” p. 31.
221 But disdain for: Bix, Hirohito, pp. 360-65.
221 On February 4: Quoted in Brackman, Other Nuremberg, p. 250.
221 Less than a month: Yoshito, “Japanese Military’s Attitude,” part 2.
221 420 grams of: L. De Jong, The Collapse of a Colonial Society: The Dutch in Indonesia During the Second World War (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002), p. 291.
221 Army Minister Tōjō Hideki: Lord Russell of Liverpool, The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes (London: Cassell, 1958), p. 141.
222 “all prisoners of war to engage”: Brackman, Other Nuremberg, p. 264.
222 Instructions to this: ibid., p. 290.
222 In early August 1942: ibid., p. 291.
222 But in some cases: ibid.
222 A first lieutenant: Kentner, Journal, p. 96.
222 “as interpreted by”: Sartin, “Report of Activities,” p. 63.
223 “The best possible care”: Barrett, Casus Belli, pp. 58-59.
223 “The Army doctors condone”: Simpson, Prisoners, p. 22. See also Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, p. 1:3, and Daws, Prisoners, p. 109.
223 “We will never forget”: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, p. 1:3.
223 He arrived at Bilibid: ibid., p. 12.
223 Like Pavlov’s dogs: Barrett, Casus Belli, pp. 116-17.
224 “To sweat and boil”: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, p. 1:36.
224 The Japanese were obsessed: Kentner, Journal, p. 33.
224 Fred and John: Daws, Prisoners, p. 102.
224 Men were dying: See Shearer, Journal, “List of Deaths.”
224 The rice itself: Shearer, Journal, pp. 10-11.
224 Once the Japanese: Smith, Prisoner of Emperor, p. 51.
224 “There is so much”: Shearer, Journal, p. 10.
225 “You are unfortunate”: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, p. 2:16.
225 Tayabas, wrote Paul Russell: Paul Russell, “Philippine Islands, Malaria: 1931 Annual Report, Narrative and Statistical,” by p. 13, RAC.
225 Those who survived: Ashton, Somebody Gives, p. 205; Ashton, Bataan Diary, pp. 215-21.
225 “covered with scabies”: Paul Reuter, author interview, October 30, 2001.
225 “This afternoon at”: Ferguson, Diary, p. 43.
226 Who, if he cried: See Rainer Maria Rilke, “The First Elegy,” The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, ed. and trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Random House, 1982), p. 151.
226 “He always got on”: Jeanne Gier Fisher, author interview, November 19, 2001.
226 Thirty to forty POWs: Sartin, “Report of Activities,” p. 8.
226 “At this rate”: Ferguson, Diary, pp. 44-45.
226 Most of the prisoners: Kerr, Surrender and Survival, p. 65.
226 before the 14th: Kerr, Surrender and Survival, p. 65.
226 Homma Masaharu hadn’t: Masaharu Homma, testimony, in U.S.A. vs. Masaharu Homma, RG 153, Vol. 27, Box 5, p. 3144, NARA. See also the deposition of Charles F. Lewis, Jr., Medical Corps, in U.S.A. vs. Masaharu Homma, RG 153, Vol. 11, Box 2, NARA, pp. 1456-57.
226 much less to: ibid., p. 3114.
226 excessive mortality rate: Around June 10, 1942, Homma received a report that over 16,000 POWs had died at Camp O’Donnell (see ibid., p. 3145). The actual number was much higher.
226 John escaped malaria: Patrick Manson, Tropical Diseases: A Manual of the Diseases of War Climates (Birmingham, Ala.: Classics of Medicine Library, 1984), pp. 175-76.
227 “down to skin and bones”: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, pp. 1:5, 19.
227 But the Japanese: ibid., p. 2:106.
227 Men clamored to: Beecher, “Experiences,” p. 40.
227 Soon two corpsmen: Smith, Prisoner of Emperor, pp. 51-52.
227 an American schoolteacher: ibid., pp. 52-53.
227 Lieutenant Walter H. Waterous: Barrett, Casus Belli, p. 148. See also U.S.A. vs. Masaharu Homma, R6 153, Entry 177, Vol .7, Box 2, pp. 775-76, NARA.
227 His associate, Maxima Villanueva: Waterous, “Statement of Experiences,” pp. 148-50.
227 she managed to smuggle: Ashton, Somebody Gives, p. 273.
227 Ralph Hibbs: Hibbs, Tell MacArthur, pp. 128-33.
227-28 Other POWs pilfered: Ashton, Somebody Gives, p. 276.
228 So the men began: Chunn, Of Rice and Men, p. 22.
228 “27th August Thursday”: Ferguson, Diary.
228 “the ravages of poor diet”: Kentner, Journal, p. 38.
228 The symptoms were: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, p. 2:106.
228 “scourge of the American”: Alan M. Kraut, Goldberger’s War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), pp. 4-5.
228 Xerophthalmia and optical: Barrett, Casus Belli, p. 62.
228 But of all the: Ralph E. Hibbs, “Beriberi in Japanese Prison Camp,” Annals of Internal Medicine 25, no. 2 (August 1946), p. 270.
Chapter 15: “The last thin tie”
230 The sole navy doctor: Hayes, Bilibid Notebook, p. 1:4.
Conduct Under Fire Page 72
