Ship of Ghosts (75 page)

“
The prisoners worked in a rather foolish fashion
…”: Charles D. Smith, “USS
Houston
(CA-30) and Experiences,” 19.
Planes over Thanbyuzayat
: Varley, diary entry for March 1, 1943.

“
We’d get in there, and you’d hit one
…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 102. “
An elephant’s a smart bugger
…”: Ibid., 113.
Spider rigs
: Pryor, UNT#3, 41,
and
death of Japanese engineers
: Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 114 and Donald Brain, UNT interview, 165. “
It seemed impossible, but it worked
…”: Prunty, 115.

“
As we would go into a new working camp
…”
and
“
We kept our structure. We had our officers
…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “
If a passing fly chose to step into your rice ration
…”
and
“
There were times when most of us felt
…”: Searle,
To the Kwai—and Back
, 122–123. “
They would either die from the jolting about
…”: Varley, diary entry for April 10, 1943. “
Major General Sasa has visited camp
…”: Varley, diary entry for April 14.
Higuchi
“
knew nothing of medicine
…”: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 52.
Pryor as
“
nothing but the skin stretched over the bones
”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 107–110. “
It looked like an Army field hospital
…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 68–69.
Red Cross inspection of Thanbyuzayat
: Varley, diary entry for April 26, 28–30, 1943; Gee, 69; and Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 61. “
Bless ’Em all
”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author, and Rivett,
Behind Bamboo
, 192.
Deaths at 80 Kilo Camp
: of Lawrence F. Kondzela, March 13, 1943; James H. White, April 13, 1943; and Sgt. Joe Martin True Lusk, April 28, 1943. “
I’m glad I’m sick because I’m not going to work
…”: Benjamin Dunn, UNT interview, 151–152. “
Then he became depressed again
”: Fisher, 150. “
He had tried to be tough with the guards at work
…”: Ibid.
USMC Service Records for H. H. Dupler:
NARA II.
Dupler’s burial
: Varley, diary entry for May 15, 1943. “
They were some of the biggest, strongest guys
…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 90–91.

“
It is as if the Wet were a baying animal
…”: Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 87. “
The J. will carry out schedule and do not mind
…”: Varley, diary entry for May 18, 1943. “
I don’t remember any storms; I just remember rain
…”: Howard Brooks, interview with the author. “
Within the first day and then with ever-mounting zeal
…”: Rivett,
Behind Bamboo
, 195. “
It’s awesome to hear a huge tree
…”: Ilo B. Hard, UNT interview, 163. “
I remember on one occasion that a bridge had washed out
…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 170. “
Finally they gave up on this truck thing
…”: Donald Brain, UNT interview, 181. “
You would work whatever they decided you would work
…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “
There seemed to be no bottom to the mud
…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 20, 1973, 6. “
That word ‘Speedo’
…”: Howard Brooks, interviewed in video, “Secrets of the Dead.”
80 Kilo established as a “hospital”
: Hamlin, “Statement,” 5; Pryor, 7; and Smith, “USS
Houston
and Experiences,” 20. “
The least sick of the stretcher cases
…”: Smith, 20. “
I looked in that hut, and I couldn’t believe
…”
and
“
You know he’s not going to live very long
…”: Dunn, 170; see also Luther Prunty, UNT
interview, 141.
A jungle clearing,
“
the worst I have ever traveled on
”: Varley, diary entry for June 4, 1943. “
These poor devils do not appear to receive any treatment
…”: Ibid. “
My fears expressed so often during the past three months
…”: Varley diary, entry for June 4, 1943. “
It got cold about five o’clock each morning
…”: Clyde Fillmore,
Prisoner of War
, 78. “
Everybody died there. That was my station
”: Red Huffman, interview with the author.

“
Any way you could slow the Japanese down
…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 144. “
I know we Marines had a code among us
…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 107. “
The idea was that we’d crawl under there
…”: Ibid., 108. “
We agreed not to place the burden of secrecy on anyone
…”: Charles,
Last Man Out
, 135. “
I don’t know how many it hurt or mangled
…”: Charles, UNT interview, 108; and
Last Man Out
, 134–136.

Americans join H Force
: Reminick,
Death’s Railway
, 84; Crayton Gordon, UNT interview, 100. “
What we lost on that railroad
…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 63.
The embankment at Kinsayok
: Rod Beattie, quoted in “Secrets of the Dead: The Bridge on the River Kwai” (video). “
The road had petered out as the undergrowth changed
…”: Searle,
To the Kwai—and Back
, 105–106. “
This period of movement must mean something big
…”: Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 107. “
The head of the man holding the drill
…”: Parkin, 121, 123. “
Occasionally we caught glimpses
…”: Searle, 108. “
The daily blasting along this section is terrific
…”: Parkin, 167.

“
The radios were dismantled and smuggled
…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 166–167. “
I lived day by day
…”: Roy M. Offerle, UNT interview, 126. “
Jane, you’ve got a funny-looking thing here
”: Jane Harris, interview with the author. “
You come home from the station or airport
…”: quoted in Yellen,
Our Mother’s War
, 13–14. “
Such a statement is either a deliberate evasion or
…”: Hodge, “Exchange of Information Sheet for Relatives of Personnel Attached to the U.S.S.
Houston
, Lost in Sundra Straits [sic], February 28, 1942,” undated, revised to V-J Day, 1946. “
It is impossible to estimate the value of Mr. Hodge’s work
…”: Smith, “Where Is the Crew of the Ghost Cruiser Houston?”
The Oregonian
.
Lieutenant Hodge’s fate
: Statement of Leon W. Rogers, in dispatch from United States Naval Liaison Office, Calcutta, India, Enclosure a(2). “
One thing that has always discouraged me
…”: Edith Rooks to Hart, April 16, 1943, 8. “
Probably I should not have passed to you that rumor
…”: Hart to Edith Rooks, May 5, 1943. “
I must say more and more I feel the promise
…”: Edith Rooks to Hart, May 21, 1943, 2.

Lieutenant Weiler’s ring
: Mintzer, “The Long Journey Home: Fran Weiler’s Ring Returns to Annapolis,” 10. “
There has got to be another way out
…”:
Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 101.
Flora and fauna of the railway
: Parkin, 72, 92–93, 111. “
The thing eats faster than a cancer
…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 1973, 3. “
Had we known…that they’d wind up in a damn slop-hole grave
…”: Crayton Gordon, UNT interview, 141. “
At first we made individual graves
…”: John Wisecup, UNT interview, 83. “
I never will forget this
…”
and
Wisecup’s breakdown
: Ibid., 84–85.

“
Nippon tearing Asia up into strips
…”: Dunlop,
War Diaries
, 221.
Jim Gee’s hallucination
: Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 58. “
This dream gave to me the strength
…”: Ibid. “
Thank you for asking me to sponsor the USS
Rooks
…”: Edith Rooks to Frank Knox, Dec. 7, 1943.

Bombing of Thanbyuzayat
: Varley, diary entry for June 12, 1943; Rivett,
Behind Bamboo
, 199–200.
Varley injured
: Varley, diary entry for June 15.
Life in the monsoon
: Benjamin Dunn, UNT interview, 143; Charles D. Smith, “Experiences,” 20. “
No medical officer or orderlies ever had to contend
…”: Lionel de Rosario,
Nippon Slaves
,
www.ean.co.uk/Bygones/History/Article/WW2/Death_Railway/html/songkurai.htm
(last viewed by the author on March 10, 2005). “
Nagatomo was astonished
…”: Varley, diary entry for July 1, 1943.
55 Kilo as “one of the worst, if not the worst camp
…”: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 8.
Aircraft of “a type not seen before
”: Varley, diary entry for July 9–12, 1943. “
He was as regular as clockwork
…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 52. The Tenth Air Force’s 80th Fighter Group flew P-38s over Burma starting in December 1942;
www.talkingproud.us/HistoryBansheesE.html
(March 16, 2005). “
I guess they’re going to wait for the rains
…”: Gee, UNT interview, 52.

“
Fu
-ji-ta. Where is this
Fu
-ji-ta
?”: Frank Fujita Jr., UNT interview, 82; Fujita,
Foo
, 155–156. “
They got mad as hell when I laughed
…”: Fujita, diary entry for June 6, 1943. “
I figured my best bet is to keep my head
…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 84. “
Look what we have here
…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 86; Fujita, diary, June 4, 1943. “
I was bound and determined those sons of bitches
…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 90.
Japanese infantrymen, “small, illiterate, absurd
…”
and
“
They thanked us with bows
…”: Fillmore,
Prisoner of War
, 85.
Prunty and Worthington “had a testament each
”: Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 129.
Charley Pryor at 80 Kilo Camp
: Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 20, 1973, 16–18. “
They’d tell you, ‘I’m finished
…’”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 81. “
It was Wisecup, I guess, who would stand back there
…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 163. “
Look, Charlie, your mind is like the muscle in your arm
…”: Jim Gee as quoted in Charles,
Last Man Out
, 132.
“I don’t have a friend”:
Dan Buzzo, UNT interview, 176. “
Don’t kid me. There are no eggs within a hundred miles
”: Ibid., 171–172. “
Probably no single factor
…”:
Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 87. “
A figure of six foot three inches emerges
…”: Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 105–106. “
As small a thing as hiding, from yourself
…”: Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 133. “
It’s people you’ve known, gone to school with
…”: Prunty, UNT interview, 135.
Aborted escape by Forsman, Stensland, and Lattimore
: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 189–191.

Lumpkin “had the weight of the whole camp on his shoulders
…”: William V. Bell letter to Mrs. Samuel H. Lumpkin, 4. “
It was hard to find anyone with such disregard for his self
…”: C. J. Vidler, letter “to whom it may concern,” April 21, 1947. “
Once the dysentery took a hold of him
…”: Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 135. “
It was almost like a death blow to all of us
…”: Dan Buzzo, UNT interview, 175. “
He didn’t have it left in him
…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 186. “
It was like a ghost town
…”: George Detre, UNT interview, 172.
“You could smell that camp for miles
”: Eddie Fung, UNT interview, 124. “
Suffer
is a dangerous word here
…”: Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 93. “
I find beauty in everything, even in death
…”: Frank Fujita, UNT interview, 53. “
There is a lot to grumble about
…”: Ray Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 134. “
It has become quite an institution
…”
and
“
They’ll be droppin’ thousand-pounders when they come
…”: Ibid., 215.

Joining of the line at Three Pagodas Pass
: Allen, “The 18th Division Royal Engineers,”
Royal Engineers Journal
.
80 Kilo Camp abandoned
: Smith, “USS
Houston
(CA-30) and Experiences,” 21; Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 20, 1973, 16.
Burials at 80 and 100 Kilo Camps
: Smith, 21. “
They had the bugle going all of the time
…”: Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 120. “
It was more or less like a Toonerville trolley
…”: Melfred L. Forsman, quoted in La Forte and Marcello,
Building the Death Railway
, 256. “
I think we all came to the conclusion
…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 79. “
We were lucky
”: Ibid., 62–63. “
In my opinion it is a virtue since ancient times
…”
and
“
We have exploited untrodden jungles
…”: Nagatomo quoted in Sharp, “Japanese Documentary,” 22–23; see also Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 46. “
Do you have anything to eat
…?” Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 165–166.