LEFT: The USS Henderson, the vessel that carried Estel to Shanghai, and then to the Philippines. (Courtesy of the National Archives) RIGHT: The USS Bountiful—formerly the USS Henderson. The vessel was transformed into a naval hospital ship on which Ken Myers, Estel’s brother, served. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
Map of the Cavite Naval Yard. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
LEFT: An aerial view of the Canacao Naval Hospital compound before it was bombed by the Japanese. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery) RIGHT: Just across the bay from the Cavite Naval Yard, Canacao Naval Hospital was the largest Navy medical facility west of Pearl Harbor when the Japanese closed it down and imprisoned its staff in January 1942. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
LEFT: Sangley Point after the Japanese attack of December 1941. Note the half-sunken ships in the harbor. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery) RIGHT: The Jai Alai Club was a nightclub that was converted into a hospital after the initial Japanese bombing of Manila. (Courtesy of the Admiral Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War)
The aftermath of the Japanese bombing of Manila, December 31, 1941. (Courtesy of the National Archives)
LEFT: American troops surrendering by waving the white flag on Corregidor outside the Malinta Tunnel, May 8, 1942. (Courtesy of the National Archives) RIGHT: A captured Japanese photo of surrendering American troops, May 1942. (Courtesy of the National Archives)
Pier Seven, where POWs boarded the infamous hell ships such as Oryoku Maru, Tattori Maru, and Arisan Maru, was bombed extensively by the Allies in their efforts to retake the Philippines. (Courtesy of the Admiral Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War)
A captured Japanese photo of the Bataan death march—POWs carry the injured on makeshift gurneys of blankets and bamboo poles. (Courtesy of the National Archives)
The Oryoku Maru. (Courtesy of Arch Ford)
The entrance to Bilibid Prison. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
The Navy staff of Bilibid Prison, 1942. The medical personnel came from Canacao Naval Hospital in Cavite. Photo was taken by the Japanese. Myers is in the right-hand side of the third row, wearing a white shirt and looking between two officers’ shoulders. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
LEFT: Lt. George T. Ferguson, MC, USN (deceased), sketched Bilibid Prison’s layout in a diary he kept while interned there. Lt. Ferguson later perished on one of the hell ships, a victim of friendly fire. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery) RIGHT: POWs photographed in the gloomy hospital in Bilibid Prison. The Japanese refused to issue medicine or laboratory facilities to the doctors and Navy pharmacist’s mates caring for the suffering; as a result, the death toll was staggering. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
Rules laid out by the Japanese for the POWs in the Pasay School Concentration Camp. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
A crematorium at Moji, Kyushu, Japan, near one of the POW camps, where prisoners’ remains were cremated. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
LEFT: A POW holds in his hands three jars—one with rice, one with corn, and the third with soybeans. The contents, which barely cover the bottom of the jars, represent more than one day’s rations awarded to the prisoners. Soybeans were added to the POWs’ diet only days before the first advancing forces of the U.S. Army reached Manila. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery) RIGHT: Thinned to the point of emaciation by malnutrition and illness, POWs pose for photographers at Bilibid Prison. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
LEFT: U.S. troops retaking Manila, street by street. (Courtesy of the Admiral Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War) RIGHT: “Forgive them, Father….” All that remains of a bombed church in Manila. (Courtesy of the National Archives)
LEFT: A study of contrasts at a POW camp in Japan. While Japanese civilians watch stoically, prisoners rejoice at seeing Navy planes fly over their compound to drop food and medical supplies on August 27, 1945. The “PW” was placed on the ground by the prisoners to notify Allied planes of their presence in the compound. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery) RIGHT: Dropping provisions to POWs after the surrender. (Courtesy of the Admiral Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War)
Prisoners cheer wildly, waving flags of the United States, Great Britain, and Holland, as Allied rescuers arrive with clothes, food, and medical supplies. Taken near Yokahama, August 29, 1945. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
LEFT: A newly liberated POW suffering from severe malnutrition. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery) RIGHT: A stretcher case aboard a harbor craft in Japan, August 30, 1945. The POW is too emaciated and weak to walk and will be transferred to a Navy hospital ship waiting in Tokyo Bay. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
A Navy nurse inspects the Bilibid Prison graveyard shortly after the war’s end. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
LEFT: Going home—POWs boarding a ship bound for the States. (Courtesy of the National Archives) RIGHT: Returning POWs, Aeia Hospital, Hawaii, in the fall of 1945. Their haggard, drawn expressions only hint at their horrific experiences. (Courtesy of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery)
Estel Myers receives the Bronze Star from Capt. John H. Lewis, January 18, 1947. (Courtesy of the Myers family)
Acknowledgments
Constructing Belly of the Beast was very much like assembling a complex jigsaw puzzle. Locating the pieces and finding their exact position in the story would never have been possible without the help of many individuals who graciously gave me their time and assistance. These brief acknowledgments are only a token of my heartfelt gratitude.
Thanks first to military antique maven Larry Stewart, whose insistence on recognition for Estel Myers was the book’s foundation. And thanks, too, to Ken and Evelyn Myers, Estel’s brother and sister-in-law. I am grateful for the friendship that developed between us as we worked on this book as well as for their stories that helped me come to know Estel better.
The inspiration, as well a great deal of the material for Belly of the Beast, was gleaned from WWII veterans themselves, including brave survivors of Bataan and Corregidor. In addition to my thanks to them, we all owe them a great deal for their service and sacrifices: Malcom Amos, Ernie Bales, Art Beale, Chuck Charleston, Clyde Childress, Martin Christie, Ed Foster, Duke Fullerton, Pat Hitchcock, Ernie Irvin, Dave Johnson, Ben Lohman, Leo Padilla, Frank Sacton, Gap Silva, Les Tenny, and Hilda Osborn and Viola Wright, widows of veterans.
Recognition is also due to those who help keep history alive and who assisted me with my research: Jan Herman, historian of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, D.C.; Jeff Hunt, curator of the Admiral Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, Texas; and Rick Padilla, curator of the Bataan Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
I am equally indebted to those who share my love for writing and telling a good story: my agent, Peter Rubie, who was most patient as he guided me through the business of writing; my editor, Dan Slater, whose urging for me to write from the gut paid off; and my writers’ group for their support and painstaking copyediting during this project: Cindy Goyette, Wanda McLaughlin, Val Neiman, Gary Ponzo, and Rich Schooler.
And lastly, my deepest gratitude goes to my husband and sons, who allowed me to spend two years living in the 1940s. Their love and support gave me the strength and courage to tell this story.
Also by Judith L Pearson
The Wolves at the Door
The remarkable story of one of WWII’s greatest spies.
Virginia Hall left her comfortable Baltimore roots in 1931 to follow a dream of becoming a Foreign Service Officer.
After watching Hitler roll over Poland and France, she enlisted to work for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret espionag
e and sabotage organization. She was soon deployed to occupied France where, if captured, imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Gestapo was all but assured. Against such an ominous backdrop, Hall managed to locate drop zones for money and weapons, helped escaped POWs and downed Allied airmen flee to England, and secured safe houses for agents. And she did it all on one leg: Virginia Hall had lost her left leg before the war in a hunting accident.
Soon, wanted posters appeared throughout France, offering a reward for her capture. By winter of 1942, Hall had to flee France via the only route possible: a hike on foot through the frozen Pyrénées Mountains into neutral Spain. Upon her return to England, the American espionage organization, the Office of Special Services, recruited her and sent her back to France disguised as an old peasant woman. While there, she was responsible for killing 150 German soldiers and capturing 500 others. Sabotaging communications and transportation links and directing resistance activities, her work helped change the course of the war. This is the true story of Virginia Hall.
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