Tears in the Darkness (68 page)

48
. Simmons,
Hell Revisited,
19–20.

49
. Gordon,
Horyo,
96; Gordon, interview, 1999.

50
. We interviewed more than 100 men who made the death march. More than 70 said they got something—rice, tea, salt, hard biscuits, water—at Balanga or Orani.

51
. FitzPatrick,
Hike into the Sun, 66.

52
. Locke,
Kobe House P.O.W.,
32.

53
. Miller,
Bataan Uncensored,
223.

54
. Sneddon,
Zero Ward,
28.

55
. Poweleit,
USAFFE,
54.

56
. FitzPatrick,
Hike into the Sun,
67; Hunt,
Behind Japanese Lines,
31.

57
. Tenney
My Hitch in Hell,
56.

58
. Gordon,
Horyo,
96.

59
. Dyess,
Dyess Story,
85–86.

60
. Bank,
Back from the Living Dead,
20; Levering,
Horror Trek,
73; FitzPatrick,
Hike into the Sun,
71; Sneddon,
Zero Ward,
27; Tenney,
My Hitch in Hell,
57.

61
. Sneddon,
Zero Ward,
24.

62
. Ibid., 26.

63
. Miller,
Bataan Uncensored,
233, 220; Tenney,
My Hitch in Hell,
47, 56–57; Levering,
Horror Trek,
69; Connor,
Japanese Extermination Camps,
40.

64
. What follows is drawn from interviews with Guillermo Almario, Natividad Almario, Lorenzo Capistrano, Juanita Caraguy, Milagros Cortez, Juana Diaz, Jaluria Galina, Candido Gallardo, Bartolome Gana, Amado Guevarra, Ismael Guzon, Migel Layug, Ciriaco Manahan, Faustino Perez, Edilberto Sadural, and Marcelo Tuazon, 2000.

65
. In Philippine society, no shame was greater than to be known as
walang-habag,
someone “without pity.”

66
. FitzPatrick,
Hike into the Sun,
68–72.

67
. Richard Gordon's story is drawn from an extensive interview with the authors and his memoir,
Horyo.

68
. Zoeth Skinner's story is drawn from interviews and correspondence, 1999–2005.

69
. Poweleit,
USAFFE,
56.

70
. Felix, “Massacre of the 91st Division”; Ramirez, interview with Felix;
USA v. Homma,
1010–57; Ongpauco,
They Refused to Die,
90–102.

71
. Nagai, interview, 2000.

72
. There is no confirmed figure on the number of men who were executed at the Pantingan River on April 12 and 13. The incident is mentioned in passing in the proceedings of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals, but no one was ever prosecuted for it. The incident seems to have been considered just another part of the death march.

73
. Isamu Murakami, interview, 2000.

74
. Takesada Shigeta, interview and correspondence, 2000–2004.

CHAPTER EIGHT

1
. Collier, Notebooks, 52–53.

2
. Olson,
O'Donnell,
44. In late April 1942, John Olson was named camp adjutant, and he kept an official diary, as well as filling out the daily strength reports. No other individual is likely to have such an overview. We used his monograph liberally throughout this chapter, vetting, where possible, his facts and figures.

3
. Ibid., 41–46.

4
. King delivered such remarks often in O'Donnell whenever a group of men gathered around him. In their memoirs, journals, and diaries, scores of men quoted and paraphrased him. Each account is slightly different. We have tried to verify the most oft-repeated phrases and have ordered them for coherence.

5
. King, Affidavit/Statement, 1–2.

6
. Determining the number of Americans and Filipinos living and dead on Bataan, then later in O'Donnell and the other prisoner venues, is at best to make an estimate. Records either were not kept or were lost or reconstructed long after the war. The figures we used are from Ned King's 1946 “Report of Operations,” which he compiled in prison camp and assembled from the recollections of his senior staff; Collier's Notebooks (written in 1943 in prison camp); Jonathan Wainwright's Diaries and
General Wainwright's Story;
Colonel Nicoll Galbraith's “Diaries” (also written
in prison camp); and material from the judge advocate general's office. In January 1942 at the start of the battle, there were approximately 12,000 Americans on Bataan. At surrender on April 9, there were approximately 9,700 Americans; 2,300 had been killed or were wounded and missing. The overall strength of the American-Filipino force on Bataan on April 2 was 78,100; at the tip of the peninsula, 26,000 Filipino civilians were in refugee camps. Sometime before surrender, roughly 2,000 men (300 Americans, the rest Filipinos) and a handful of American nurses found their way across the bay to Corregidor. That left some 76,000 military personnel on Bataan—the number at surrender and the number that, in theory, started the death march. Approximately 500 Americans and perhaps as many as 2,500 Filipinos were killed or died on the death march or in the boxcars from San Fernando. In the end, O'Donnell held 9,270 Americans and either 45,000 (King, Affidavit/Statement, 7) or 47,000 Filipinos (IMTFE, “JAG Report No. 75,” 12,597). No one can say for sure what happened to the 15,000 to 17,000 Filipinos who were on Bataan but not in O'Donnell. Some were killed on the field of battle, some deserted during the fighting, and a large number are believed to have slipped into the bush at surrender and passed themselves off as civilians.

7
. Poweleit,
USAFFE,
63–66.

8
. Collier, Notebooks, 47.

9
. Stewart,
Give Us This Day,
63.

10
. Scott, interview, 2000.

11
. Poweleit,
USAFFE,
65–68.

12
. John Aldrich, interview, 1999.

13
. Browe, “O'Donnell,” 53.

14
. Poweleit,
USAFFE,
67–70.

15
. Brain,
Soldier of Bataan,
35–36.

16
. Gene Jacobsen, interview, 2000.

17
. Skinner, interview, 1999.

18
. Des Pres,
Survivor,
6–9; Darwin,
Descent of Man,
619.

19
. Gordon, interview, 1999.

20
. “No ideas but in things” is borrowed from William Carlos Williams, “A Sort of Song,”
The Collected Poems,
vol. 2, 55. Williams, of course, was talking about metaphor rather than staying in the moment.

21
. Poweleit,
USAFFE,
69–70.

22
. Morton,
Fall of the Philippines,
546.

23
. Wainwright,
General Wainwright's Story,
122–23.

24
. MacArthur,
Reminiscences,
146.

25
. Cooper, “Army Medicine Department Activities,” 108.

26
. Musselman, Affidavit/Statement, 3–4.

27
. O'Leary, interview, 1999.

28
. Olson,
O'Donnell,
186–87.

29
. Here we expand and amplify the notions that Terrence Des Pres puts forward in
The Survivor,
5–16, namely, that “in ordinary times, to protect the living, aid the sick
and bury the dead” are the most “elementary . . . of human” activities. And survival, Des Pres discovered, “depends on staying human.”

30
. Stewart,
Give Us This Day,
62–64.

31
. Scott, interview, 2000.

32
. Aldrich, interview, 1999.

‘A FINAL DETERMINATION'

1
. “April was . . .” is a nod to the beginning of T. S. Eliot's “The Waste Land”; All headlines taken from the
Billings Gazette,
April 4–11, 1942.

CHAPTER NINE

1
. Louis Kolger, interview, 2000.

2
. Conrad, “Heart of Darkness,” in
The Complete Short Fiction of Joseph Conrad,
vol. 3, 12.

3
. Preston Hubbard, interview, 2000. See Hubbard,
Apocalypse Undone,
for additional details.

4
. Ken Calvit, interview, 1999.

5
. Scott, interviews, 1999–2001.

6
. All quotations from Ashton here and following in this section come from his account of his experiences at Tayabas Road in
Bataan Diary,
215–221. His hand-drawn map on page 221 is remarkably accurate. Using that crude chart, we were able to eliminate one river after another along the old Route 1G until we finally found the site, later confirmed by former Filipino guerrillas still living near the Basiad.

7
. Steve Kramerich, interview, 1999.

8
. Ashton,
Bataan Diary,
219. Parts of his account of giving lethal injections—the only parts we used—were supported by at least two men who were among the final group of 108 prisoners leaving Tayabas Road on July 28, 1942.

9
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book I, 42.

10
. Shearer, “Shearer's Journal,” 22.

CHAPTER TEN

1
. Sartin, “Report of Activities,” 22.

2
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book I, 5.

3
. Patton, “Account of Captivity,” 99–101.

4
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book I, 42.

5
. Smith,
Prisoner of the Emperor,
61.

6
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book I, 45–46.

7
. Ibid., book II, 38.

8
. Kramerich, interview, 1999.

9
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book II, 39.

10
. Ibid., book I, 7.

11
. Richard Beck, interview, 1999.

12
. Fowler,
Recipes out of Bilibid,
23, 30, 44.

13
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book I, 14–15.

14
. Ibid., book II, 30.

15
. Des Pres,
Survivor,
186.

16
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book II, 24, 75, 67, 96.

17
. Ibid., book III, 61–62.

18
. Dostoevsky,
Memoirs from the House of the Dead,
200.

19
. Scott, interview, 2000.

20
. Kramerich, interview, 1999.

21
. The details of Robinson's life were supplied by Zoeth Skinner.

22
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book III, 20–24.

23
. American National Red Cross,
Prisoners of War Bulletin,
9.

24
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book II, 8.

25
. Ibid.

26
. Schloat's story is drawn from Schloat,
Freedom!,
and from a day-long 1999 interview at his home in California.

27
. Hayes, “Notebook,” book III, 100.

28
. Ibid., 106.

29
. John Dower's
War Without Mercy
details the raw enmity of the Pacific War; Hayes, “Notebook,” book II, 83, 101.

30
. IMTFE, “Line of Communication and Treatment of POWs,” 14,287; see Waterford,
Prisoners of the Japanese,
in general for figures on Allied POWs in the Pacific.

31
. IMTFE, “Instructions of War Minister Hideki Tojo,” 14,428–430.

32
. IMTFE, “Report on POW Labor Conditions,” 14,493–496.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

1
. The
Canadian Inventor
was part of a merchant fleet Canada built after World War I. At 8,100 dead weight tons, she was among the largest of that fleet, 400 feet long and 52 feet wide, with a depth of 28.5 feet and a top speed of 13 knots. Between the world wars, Canada realized it could not compete for business in the world shipping market and began to sell off many of its merchant vessels. Japan, meanwhile, had been acquiring merchant ships on the open market.

2
. Tsuji,
Japan's Greatest Victory,
246–49.

3
. For a concise explanation of Japanese losses, see Calvocoressi, Wint, and Pritchard,
Total War,
1092–93, 1150–57.

4
. The July 1944 voyage of the
Canadian Inventor
is drawn from interviews with John Crago, Dan Irwin, Gene Jacobsen, and Ben Steele. Also see Nordin,
We Were Next to Nothing;
Gautier,
I Came Back from Bataan;
Jacobsen,
Who Refused to Die;
Hoover, Affidavit/Statement, 1.

5
. Hata, “From Consideration to Contempt,” 266.

6
. Hellship figures vary widely among the many accounts of these voyages. There were no official postwar lists or totals. We cite Michno,
Death on the Hellships,
317. Also see Waterford,
Prisoners of the Japanese,
167–68. Waterford lists 56 transports carrying some 68,000 passengers. Michno's figures are likely much higher because, as his notes indicate, he built on the work of others, including Waterford. The two
authors agree roughly on the number of prisoners of war and captives lost at sea, some 22,000 men.

7
. Figures come from Keegan,
Times Atlas of the Second World War,
164–65, 194–95. Also see Morison,
Two-Ocean War,
504. Morison (511–12) also reports that during four years of war, American forces sank 2,117 Japanese merchant vessels (8 million tons). In July 1944 alone, the month the
Canadian Inventor
sailed from Manila, 40 were sunk.

8
. For the story of the
Arisan Maru,
we rely heavily on Graef, “We Prayed to Die.”

9
. Ibid., 178.

10
. The story of the
Oryoku Maru
is summarized in many books about World War II in the Pacific and in accounts from and about prisoners of war. The most dramatic and detailed is George Weller's “Horror of Jap Prison Ship Told,” an eighteen-part series syndicated by the
Chicago Daily News Foreign Press Service
and appearing in several American newspapers in 1945. It is the first full account and stands still as the most dramatic of the secondary sources. Among primary sources, the most clear-eyed and accurate are Curtis Beecher, “A Survivor's Account,” and Carey Smith, “Memoir.” The secondary sources are often in conflict on many points in the story. Even in the primary accounts, it is well nigh impossible to reconcile the disparities in numbers, names, and the sequence of events. We relied on Smith, a physician, and Colonel Beecher, the man who really led the detail. To help establish the sequence of events, we also used “Outline of Trip,” Roy Bodine's day-by-day record of the journeys.