Tears in the Darkness (73 page)

Divina Paredes, a well-known Filipina journalist, and her bother, Joel Paredes, formerly director of communications for the Philippine government, also helped open the country to us. Divina and her associates, Wilma and Billy Lacaba, introduced us to Philippine culture and customs and also went into the field with us, serving as translators and facilitators. Through them we met Rhett Daza, son of the onetime guerrilla leader Johnny Daza. Rhett, once a history major at UP, gave us entrée to the Filipino veterans' community. He took us north and south into the rural provinces to find old guerrillas and veterans. He also scouted battle sites for us, helped verify the original route of the death march, and across one long twenty-hour day of travel through Camarines Norte Province helped locate the rock bar bivouac at Tayabas Road on the Basiad River, a key scene in the book.

Arvin Quintos of Bataan and his extended family made it possible for us to walk the sixty-six-mile route of the death march across five days. We could not have covered that ground without the Qunitos' logistical support and goodwill. Also on Bataan, Flor T. Caragay and Rafael Viray of the Philippine Information Agency helped us locate a number of Filipino witnesses to the death march. Flor accompanied us on many of those interviews and acted as a first-line translator.

We also thank Glenn Ang, Dan and Edna Binkowski, DeRenato Dilig, Donato Edralin, Lewis Gleeck, James Halsema, Bram Hartendorp, James Litton, former Quezon City mayor Ismael Mathay, Artemio G. Matibag Jr., Leslie Murray, Dennis O'Leary and Leonore O'Leary, Lee Paredes, Gary Whatley, and Chonette Zagala for assistance with the research.

We thank the staff at the following archives: American Historical Collection at Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines Library, Filipinas Heritage Library, and the Ayala Museum. Michael Anderson, formerly of the American embassy in Manila, went
beyond the call of duty for a consular official, providing us with invaluable contacts and letters of transit that carried us across six provinces on three visits to the country.

Finally, we thank the following Philippine Army veterans, Philippine Scouts, Filipino guerrillas, and civilians for their stories and memories: Nonoy Acosta, Guillermo Almario, Natividad Almario, Juan Arroyo, Miguel Banco, Manuel Banzon Jr., Pedro C. Bersola, Lorenzo Capistrano, Artemio Caragay, Juanita, Caraguy, Juanito Caraguy, Felipe Cataluna, Luis Conde, Milagros Cortez, Rosalina Almario Cruz, Emanuel de Ocampo, Bernade Rosas de Leon, Juana Diaz, Honorio Dizon, Monico Dominguez, Rafael Estrada, Jaluria Galina, Candido Gallardo, Bartolome Gana, Crescencia P. Garcia, Antonio Gonzales, Amado Guevarra, Ismael Guzon, Miguel Layug, Ciriaco Manahan, Elias Manlapas, Moises Montes, Armando N. Pabustan, Ireneo Pamilaran, Demitrio C. Paz, Faustino Perez, Rosario Quesada, Edilberto Sadural, Marcelo Tuazon, Gerry Valdecanas, and Basiad River veterans Luis G. VillaReal, Rafael G. Zagala, Ernesto Zulueta.

JAPAN

Kyoko Onoki, most recently of the London
Times,
became our colleague. Her tact, tenacity, and courage led to interviews with twenty-two former Imperial Army
hohei
and a prison guard. Working off long lists of questions sent to her in advance, she tracked down our sources at veterans' meetings and over the phone, then provided nearly flawless simultaneous translations during eighteen days with us of constant interviewing in cities and towns across the country. We say “flawless” because we had every page of those translations vetted by Wendy Matsumura, a doctoral candidate and instructor of Japanese at New York University, who worked with us for several years translating books and documents. Without the diligence and care of these two fine professionals, we could never have gotten the Japanese material that makes this book what it is.

We also owe a debt to NYU doctoral scholars Miho Suzuki and Mia Kobayaski. After Wendy had gone her way and Kyoko took on a new assignment, Miho and Mia acted as consultants on many matters Japanese, as did Yuko Friedman. On this score we also thank Edward Drea of the U.S. Department of Defense. A scholar of the Imperial Army and author of the fine
In the Service of the Emperor,
Ed Drea patiently fielded a number of our inquiries. Authors and scholars Thomas Conlan, Karl Friday, Frank Gibney, and Ikuhiko Hata also shared their time and research with us.

Most of all we are grateful to the veterans of the Imperial Army who fought on Bataan and sat down with us to be interviewed at length: Tatsuzo Arakawa, Jinzaburo Chaki, Junsuke Hitomi, Masahiko Homma (the general's son, who fought in Russia), Soichiro Inulkai, Minobu Kawaguchi, Kiyoshi Kinoshita, Yoshio Kunori, Toraichi Masuda, Isamu Murakami, Hirohisa Murata, Yoshiaki Nagai, Ryotaro Nishimura, Tadashi Ozaki, Tokutaro Sato, Hideo Sekihara, Takesada Shigeta, Isao Shinohara, Nobuyasu Sugiyama (civilian Omine-machi guard), Tozo Takeuchi, Moriya Wada, Kozo Watanabe, Tasuku Yamanari.

AMERICA

(Several of the men we are about to mention will be named again below in the list of veterans we interviewed. They are singled out here for special thanks because of their generosity and their significant contributions to this book.) We began our search for American veterans of the Philippines campaign (1941-1942) by contacting five veterans' organizations: the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC), the Battling Bastards of Bataan (BBB), the 4th Marines Organization (now a chapter of the ADBC), the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society (PSHS), the American Ex–Prisoners of War (AEPW).

From the ADBC, John “the Sweede” Emerick, John Crago, Joe Poster, Paul Reuter, Andy Miller, Ralph Levenberg, Don Schloat, and Joe Vater were our constants across nine years. They helped us understand the politics of their organization and they helped us find the kind of men we were looking for—men like themselves, who had put aside their hate and bitterness and could look on history and journalism as vehicles to the meaning of what had happened to them. In the end we found dozens of such men, but we would never have met them without our eight good and constant shepherds. They believed in our project, even though it embraced their former enemies, and they believed in us. We have Joe Vater to thank for meeting Ben Steele. As the editor of the ADBC newsletter
The Quan,
Joe had copies of almost all the memoirs, articles, and published works by and about the men in his organization, including a catalog of Ben Steele's artwork. “Here,” he said one day in his motel room at a regional meeting of the Atlantic Chapter of the ADBC, “you should look at this, and you should talk to this guy.” We called Ben Steele the next day.

From the BBB, Richard Gordon also led us to a number of sources. One of those was the indomitable Zoeth Skinner, who frequently sent us material from his extensive private library and was always happy to field yet another inquiry, double-check yet another fact.

Across the years a number of students and associates at New York University became involved in the book. Libby Estell and Bojana Stoparic served as research assistants, and Lisa Sandberg did field research. We spent many hours in NYU's libraries and got a lot of help from their fine staffs, including Paul Baker, Lucinda Covert-Vail, Michael Hannon, Gerald Heverly, Susan Jacobs, Dave McGuire, Radu Popa, and James Terry.

We drew material from the Atlanta History Center; Canada Science and Technology Museum; Carlisle Barracks; Cleveland Institute of Art; Columbia University Library; Cowboy Artists of America Museum; Douglas County Museum; Enid/Garfield Public Library; First Division Museum at Cantigny, Robert R. McCormick Research Center; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library; the George C. Marshall Research Foundation; Hoover Institution; Kentucky Historical Society; the MacArthur Memorial Library and Archives; Maryknoll Mission Archives; Mississippi State University Library; Montana Historical Society; National Archives and Records Administration; Princeton University Library; New York Public Library; New York University's Bobst Library and NYU Law Library; Rutgers University Library; Sioux City Public Museum; University of Wyoming American Heritage Center; United States Marine
Corps, Museum Division; United States Navy BUMED Archives; West Point Military Academy Library.

A nonfiction work of this scope would surely have failed without the guidance of skilled archivists. We were lucky to have found four of the best: Alan Aimone (USMA), Jan K. Herman (USN BUMED), James Zobel (MacArthur), and Kenneth Schlesinger (NARA). We could not have completed the manuscript without their assiduity and careful scholarship.

As with the Japanese and Filipinos, the core of the book rests on interviews with the men who fought. We interviewed, corresponded with, and received material from the following American veterans: Francis Agnes, John Aldrich, Joe Alexander, Charles Balaza, Ernie Bales, Arthur Beale, Richard Beck, Frank Bigelow, Ivan Birrer, Robert G. Bjoring, James T. Boyce, Philip Brain, John Browe, John Bumgarner, Crayton Burns, Kenneth Calvit, Wayne Carringer, Thomas Caswell, Norman Christ, John Crago, Brown Davidson, Q. P. Devore, Tom Dooley, Robert Dow, John Emerick, Dan Emery, William Evans, Harold Finer, Dick Francies, Dale Frantz, Glen Frazier, Duke Fullerton, Thomas Gage, William H. Gentry, Dominick Giantonio, Michael Gilewitch, Paul C. Gilmore, Murray Glusman, Samuel Goldblith, Richard Gordon, Weldon C. Hamilton, Neal Harrington, Thomas Harrison, William Hauser, Ralph Hibbs, W. Pat Hitchcock, Preston Hubbard, Don Ingle, George Idlett, Dan (Pinkston) Irwin, Edward Jackfert, Eugene Jacobsen, Warren G. Jorgenson, Clemens Kathman, Otis King, Louis Kolger, Stephen Kramerich, Bill Lambert, Walter Lamm, Merrill Lee, Urban Lembeck, Ralph Levenberg, Norman Matthews, Henry Merritt, Joseph Merritt, Glenn W. McKassan, Andy Miller, Sally Blaine Millett, Carmen Morelli, Sam Moody, Ben Morin, John J. Morrett, Helen Cassiani Nestor, Humphrey O'Leary John Olson, Cletis Overton, Jay Pardue, William Parks, Dominic Pellegrino, Robert Pelz, Robert Phillips, Glen Pilkington, Thomas Pollack, Joe Poster, Harry Rosenberry, Paul Reuter, Melvin Routt, Ben Saccone, Donald Schloat, Irvin C. Scott, Winston Shillito, Zoeth Skinner, Harry Stempin, Milton Strouse, Lester Tenney, Joe Vater, Harold Vick, Kenneth Vick, Sam Vlahon, John Walker, Joseph Ward, Edgar Whitcomb, George Wonneman, Milton Young.

We spoke with the veterans' families, whose tales, for the most part, were heartbreaking. This book does not begin to document the terrible aftereffects of war, what Dixon Wecter called the “warp in the wood.” We easily could have written a second volume, and we apologize to the families for not being able to include much of the material they lavished on us. We thank them nonetheless for their many diaries, memoirs, photographs, official records, and interviews. Among the many who helped us were Evonne Ashton, Frederico Baldassarre, Barry Beutell, Eleanor Crowder Bjoring, Rose Bridges, Shawnee Brittan, Spenser Coleman, Florence Crago, Lora Cummins, Barbara Davidson, Minter Dial, Theresa Emerick, Bobbie Emken, John Espy, Nicoll F. Galbraith Jr., Jannis Robb Garred, Damon Gause, Laurie Giantonio, Kathleen Hastings, Dwayne Heisinger, Betty Huxtable, Henrietta Jackfert, Georgia Jordan, Mark Kelso, Catherine Lancaster, Virginia Lee, Cathie Levenberg, John Littig, Daphne Parks Major, Allison Robb Marks, Jessie Mann Mastin, Donnie Russell Mathis, Lorna Murray, Wanda Newkirk, Dennis O'Leary, Leonora O'Leary, Geraldine O'Neil, John Patterson, Mary Jane Pelz, Audrey Phillips, Gregory Rodriguez, Nancy Rosenberry, Kate Sheets, Anne
Shubin, Bobbie Simmons, Joan Keech Spann, Ann Lancaster Stevens, Shirley C. Temple, Jeanne Greeley Thayer, Jan Thompson, Carolyn Armold Torrence, Helen Vater, Z. Taylor Vinson, Barbara Whittinghill, Irene Wonneman.

In our general research, we had the help of a number of unstinting supernumeraries—talented scholars and authors, experts in various fields, hardworking librarians and staff archivists, assorted professionals, part-time historians, and people from various walks of life who helped us collect and verify data or answered the hundreds of arcane questions that arose during a decade of research.

Deserving special mention are Thaddeus Holt, who supplied most of the material on Ned King; Stephen Craig, whose counsel allowed us to understand the dark side of human behavior (what some call “evil”); Sue Hart and Richard S. Wheeler, writers of the West who made sure we kept myth separated from reality; Cliff Roen, a twenty-first-century cowboy who works the old homestead at Hawk Creek and took us riding there; and Stanley Falk, whose seminal work on the death march stands still as the authoritative text.

Others who assisted in our inquiries are Kathy Aldrich, Dale Alger, Frances S. Anderson, Robert Bateman, Lois Bent, Gordon Berger, Alice Booher, Peter Brand, Karen Bratten, John and Betty Brookes, Charles Bryce, DeeDee Caidin, Clarence E. Campbell, Clarence Carnahan, Andrew Carroll, Eric Chase, Ken Cleerdin, Diana Cormer, Lou D'Andrea, Dorothy Riley Dempsey, Earl Dudley, Keith Edgerton, Eugene Eisenberg, Michael Engelberg, Ann Fadiman, Bob Fauth, John Fitzgerald, William Freeman, Joe Galloway, Dodds Giagonia, Eric Gillespie, Susan Hall, Ned Harrison, Sue Hart, Carl Hedin, Philip Heineman, Jean Hewlett, Will Howorth, Pat Hoy, Rick Huston, Jim Jeffries, Frank Jenista, Erin Johnson, Gordon Jones, Mervin R. Jones, Ruth Jones, Dave Karnos, Jerry D. Kelly, Jeanne Gingles, Thomas Leonard, Grace Linden, Brian Linn, Richard Long, Sarah Loria, Greg Michno, David and Linda and Andy Maraniss, Anne Matthews, Frank McGlothlin, Elizabeth McNamer, Scott Millikan, John Mitchell, Tom Murphy, Mike Murray, Charles Perle, Richard Pyle, Cliff Roen, Cristine Rom, Richard Rongstad, Richard Roper, Don Ross, Robert Ruby, Jeffrey L. Russell, Pam Ryder, Mary Sarnecky, Mattie Sink, W. C. Smith, David Scott Smith, Sheree Smith, Seth Solomonow, Richard Sommers, Roger J. Spiller, Kamiko Spodofora, Marion Squire, Kenneth Swan, Frank Tremaine, Leo Tuason, John Waggener, John Wallace, Michael Walsh, Steven Weingartner, Linda Wheeler, Thomas M. White, Richard Willstater, Garth Wilson, Fred Wolf, Laurel Wycoff. We also thank Ken Heller, who served with the occupation forces in Japan in 1945.

We appreciate the support of our colleagues at New York University. NYU has been good to our family. The university generously supported our research and provided an education for our two sons. It has been both our sponsor and our sanctuary. We offer special thanks to our students. We hope they see their lessons in these pages.