IN FRATERNAM MEAM

IN FRATERNAM MEAM

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

JOURNAL OF WWII SURVIROR
-------------------------------------
(taken from the personal journals of my father
and his private collections and compilations
by: Donald Knox)

"i was incarcerated at Capas, Tarlac and we were treated inhumanely by the japanese captors. members of the phil. scout are most treated badly by the japanese because we were branded as traitor and collaborator with the Americans in the war and agression against imperial japan. we were not given enough food, medicine and clean water.

one time one of my soldier friend was screaming like anything. because the americans are prone to have hairs in their body, the ticks and fleas have infested the chest hair and armpit and pubic area and head of my american friend (for privacy, i was advised by my dad not to mention names) to prevent from spreading to all americans with hairy body, they have to shave their complete body. to prevent the habitation and infestation of fleas and ticks. we dont have any shaving tools or implements, so we have to contend ourselves in shaving our hairy parts of our body with a broken glass from coke bottles. after the shaving, when a soldier has been clean shaven, one can see the traces of the blood sucking parasites wounds inflicted on the skin of these american comrades of ours. whose body are practically skin and bones. all of us are all malnourished.

there were lots of sicknesses inside the camp. one of the most devastating illness after malaria is BERIBERI. a persons stomach will become big and ballooned to a point that the person looks like a pregnant woman. one time one of the ill soldier who has this BERIBERI, vomited near my area where we were prepairing the dead for burial. big worms came out of his mouth and the smell and the blood that went with it was unbearable. there is no medicine, one has to cope with what meager things you have in the camp.

it was already high noon when we have just buried more than 100 corpses on the ground. it was very hot and humid. some of the corpses that was left under the son bloated. when we started carrying them, one of the corpse blew up and the stench and the smell engulfed all of us in the group. there is no water, and majority of the dead are of AMEABIC DYSENTERY. all the feces and the filth are all over our body and hands. there is no water to wash it nor disinfectant to remove the germs. flies are all over the place and dogs waiting to have their chance in eating some of the decomposed corpses. i was lucky i only have MALARIA. some of my friends have DENGE FEVER and they are howling and crying at nite.

new batches of prisoners comes almost everyday. and before they enter the enclave, they have to be searched. if any soldier has anything japanese, like japanese coins, japanese money or anything japanese as souvenir, they are automatically shot on the spot. the japanese said the reason they have these items in their posessions because they killed and rob a dead japanese.'

2nd Lt. KERMIT LAY, I Philippine Corps:

"there was a big tin warehouse or granary somewhere along the march that they (japanese) packed us into one night. you could sit or lay down but there is no water and it was very hot. and it stinks. the next morning across the road the Japs had dug a hole and had some Filipino soldiers burying some dead men.except not everyone was dead. one poor soul kept trying to crawl his way out of the hole. the jap guards really started giving these filipinos a hard time, tryin to get them cover this man up faster. finally a jap came over, took the shouvel and beat this guy in the head with it. then he ordered the filipinos to cover him up."

Pfc. BLAIR ROBINETT, company C, 803rd Engineer

" there was something i could'nt figure out. looking down, i saw one footprint in the dust. it was dark and it was perfect footprint shape. only one though. now, i could'nt imagine how a one legged man could be walking. finally i saw a man infront of me limping badly and his leg had blood running odwn it. then i figured out how i could see one print. it was being left by the blood. a mile or so later his limp was so bad that he dropped out of the line and he was beheaded instantly ny the japanese soldier."

Sgt. FORREST KNOX

" the filipinos were dying like flies. carried in a tent-half buttoned up to form a tube. their bodies went by in an endless column. it never ended. day and night the bodies were carried to the cemetery. i was kind of stunned by their death rate."

Sgt. CHARLES COOK

i was too sick and weak to go out on a detail. i remember one day, though, trying to carry a sick soldier to the hospital. thee were four of us and we were using one of the barracks doors as a stretcher. we went as far as we could before we told this guy he could die right there or he could walk, but that we could'nt go no more further carrying him. he got off and made it close enough to the infirmary so that we could carry him the rest of the way. he had malaria and he died."

Pfc. DANIEL STOUDT

we were given this wormy Lugaw in the mornings. tried to eat it in the dark, if you could, so you would'nt see the worms. if you are onec you could taste it. picked them out, if you wanted to look. other than that, you shut your eyes and ate, because you had to eat. i knew one guy, and ther were a lot of them, who would'nt eat. he always wanted to have a white shirt and suit on. he died gradually because he gave up eating."<

Cpl. HUBERT GATER

" a japanese soldier closely examineda the possessions of each of us. three were told to step forward. a captain and Arapaho Inidian still had japanese coins on them. my commanding officer, capt. Schultz had jap fan. they were charged by robbing dead jap soldiers after the battle, of course this was a lie. the morning of the surrender at Cabcaben Airfield in Bataan, a jap soldier stopped capt schultz and demanded for cigarettes. in return, the jap gave him a holding fan. it proved to be capt schultz death sentence, him the rest of the guys with souvenirs in their bodies were summarily executed and killed on the spot."

I HAVE RECEIVED AN EMAIL ASKING ME TO DOWNLOAD SOME OF THESE MEMOIRS IN MY BLOG. SO I DID. I CANNOT DOWNLOAD ALL OF IT, CUZ MY DADS MEMOIRS ALONE HAS HUNDREDS OF ENTRIES, NOT TO MENTION HIS PERSONAL COMPILATIONS THAT HE GATHERED FROM SOME WRITERS AND RESEARCHERS.

posted by infraternam meam @ 11:52 PM

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