After three days, the men were returned to the warehouse. It was stated they spent a total of 15 to 18 days at the warehouse. They received food and water and then were loaded onto an old ship that looked like it hauled ore. They were taken to Manila, disembarked, and marched ten miles to Bilibid Prison. Anyone who fell out was left behind. During the march, the Americans saw Filipinos flash the “V” for victory. Other Filipinos left tubs of water with cups so they could drink. The Filipinos tried to give them coconuts, cigarettes, and other items, but those who were caught were beaten by the Japanese.
Around 4:00 one afternoon, they were lined up and put on a work detail. The POWs were put on small boats and taken to an area near Manila. The next day the men were taken to the Wawa Dam over the Marikina River. The POWs worked in the area of the dam repairing roads, moving large rocks, and repairing a dock. As they worked, the Japanese guarding them drank from buckets of water but for three days and nights made no effort to give any water to the POWs. When a new Japanese officer took over, he treated the POWs better. They did this work until the work ended on May 18th.
The men were returned to the warehouse. It was said that the total number of days they were held at the warehouse was 15 to 18 days. They received food and water and then were loaded onto an old ship used for hauling coal or ore. They were taken to Manila, but the ship did not dock. They had to jump into waist-deep water and make their way to shore. They then formed detachments of 100 men and marched down Dewey Boulevard ten miles to Bilibid Prison. The Filipinos put tubs of water with cups in the street so that the Americans could get drinks. Anyone who fell out was left behind. During the march, the Americans saw Filipinos flash the “V” for victory. Other Filipinos tried to give them cigarettes, coconuts, or other items but were stopped by Japanese soldiers on horses. Those who were caught were beaten by the Japanese.
Recalling the march to Manila, he said, “On our way to the Bilibd Prison hospital in Manila, Filipino people had put tubs of water with 10 cups on each tub along the road. Sometimes they would throw us some cigarettes, but when the Jap guards saw them, they were beaten very badly.”
After the surrender of Corregidor, his parents received a letter from the War Department in May 1942.
Dear Mrs. L. Wilson:
According to War Department records, you have been designated as the emergency addressee of Staff Sergeant Maurice E. Wilson, 20,523,425, who, according to the latest information available, was serving in the Philippine Islands at the time of the final surrender.
I deeply regret that it is impossible for me to give you more information than is contained in this letter. In the last days before the surrender of Bataan, there were casualties which were not reported to the War Department. Conceivably the same is true of the surrender of Corregidor and possibly other islands of the Philippines. The Japanese Government has indicated its intention of conforming to the terms of the Geneva Convention with respect to the interchange of information regarding prisoners of war. At some future date, this Government will receive through Geneva a list of persons who have been taken prisoners of war. Until that time the War Department cannot give you positive information.
The War Department will consider the persons serving in the Philippine Islands as “missing in action” from the date of surrender of Corregidor, May 7, 1942, until definite information to the contrary is received. It is to be hoped that the Japanese Government will communicate a list of prisoners of war at an early date. At that time you will be notified by this office in the event that his name is contained in the list of prisoners of war. In the case of persons known to have been present in the Philippines and who are not reported to be prisoners of war by the Japanese Government, the War Department will continue to carry them as “missing in action” in the absence of information to the contrary, until twelve months have expired. At the expiration of twelve months and in the absence of other information the War Department is authorized to make a final determination.
Recent legislation makes provision to continue the pay and allowances of persons carried in a “missing” status for a period not to exceed twelve months; to continue, for the duration of the war, the pay and allowances of persons known to have been captured by the enemy; to continue allotments made by missing personnel for a period of twelve months and allotments or increase allotments made by persons by the enemy during the time they are so held; to make new allotments or increase allotments to certain dependents defined in Public Law 490, 77th Congress. The latter dependents generally include the legal wife, dependent children under twenty-one years of age, and dependent mother, or such dependents as having been designated in official records. Eligible dependents who can establish a need for financial assistance and are eligible to receive this assistance the amount allotted will be deducted from pay which would otherwise accrue to the credit of the missing individual.
Very Truly Yours
(signed)
J. A. Julio
Major General
The Adjutant General
Each day from the 26th to the 29th, the POWs were formed into 2,000 men detachments and marched to the train station. There, they were put into boxcars and rode trains to the barrio of Cabanatuan. Wilson recalled the train ride. “Once, they moved us by train, in these little boxcars, and there would be maybe 100 guys in every car. No room to sit or stretch, and it was so hot inside that you thought you would burn up.”
Once at the barrio of Cabanatuan, they formed 100 men detachments and were told that if they fell they would be shot. They marched from the barrio past Cabanatuan #1 where most of the POWs captured on Bataan would be held. They passed Cabanatuan #2 which was 2 miles from Camp 1. Camp 2 was closed because of a lack of water, but reopened to house Naval personnel. They marched to Cabanatuan #3 which was six miles from Cabanatuan 1 and had been opened for them.
After all the POWs arrived, there was a total of 6,000 POWs in the camp. When they arrived the camp was not finished and there was no fence on the north side of the camp. Their first meal in the camp was an onion soup that had no onion or rice in it. After that, meals regularly consisted of squash, mongo beans, tops of native sweet potatoes for soup, and rice. They also received Carabo meat once a week.
On the 30th, four POWs escaped and were captured down the road from the camp. The fours had tried to talk Jack into going with them. They were captured down the road from the camp and brought back. Near the main gate, they were tied to posts. Of the event, he said, “I had a touch of malaria and dengue fever, and said no. Next day, the Japanese caught the boys and brought them back. They tied them up, took their heats off, and strapped a two-by-four behind their knees so they had to squat, and it cut into their legs. They left the boys there for two or three days. Then they shot them. some of the prisoners wouldn’t stay to watch, but I said, ‘I’m staying; I could have been one of them.”
Before they were executed, the four men dug their graves and each man was given a cigarette and blindfold. Three of the men took blindfolds but one man refused one and spat at the Japanese before they shot him. After they were shot, the men fell backward into the graves. When one man who had survived the execution attempted to crawl out of the grave, a Japanese officer shot him with his pistol. He next shot each man in his grave to make sure they were dead.
Meals at first consisted of an onion soup without any onions in it. Later, the meals consisted of 16 ounces of rice for each man each day, and 4 ounces of top greens (similar to spinach) were issued. Once a week, one ounce of carabao meat was issued. Two ounces of coconut were issued and this was used with cornstarch and sugar to make a pudding. Also, once per week for one month, one small banana was issued and this was also used for pudding. It appears that during the first month in the camp, the POWs also received 15 limes.
It is known that since the POWs were in better shape than the men captured on Bataan they began being sent out on details within days of arriving at the camp. It is not known if Joe left the camp and if he did when he left the camp. It is known that on June 21st the Japanese initiated the “Blood Brother” rule. The POWs were placed in groups of ten men. The men worked together, lived in the same barracks, and slept together. If one man of the group escaped from the camp, the other nine would be executed. To improve morale among the POWs, the officers organized activities for the men. Softball teams, basketball teams, volleyball teams, and ping-pong teams were formed.
Immediately after they arrived in the camp the Japanese began sending POWs out on work details. One reason was the POWs were in better shape compared to the men who had surrendered on Bataan. During this time, the camp population slowly shrunk. It was on July 9th that Jack was one of 150 POWs selected to go to Nichols Field to build runways. He had attempted to hide so that he would not be selected but was spotted by a guard as he went behind a building. The guard called him and made him get in the formation. The POWs were sent to Camp 1. There, he was briefly reunited with other men from D Company. The next day, the POWs boarded trucks and rode to Las Pinas.
In January 1943, he was among the first POWs from Cabanatuan sent to the Las Pinas Detail. (Some sources state that the POWs left Cabanatuan on Dec. 12, 1942.) The original POWs had been sent to Las Pinas in July 1942 from the Cavite Ship Yard, Manila, and from various forts and started the initial work. On August 31st, 500 POWs arrived and had their heads shaven and were in fairly good shape when they arrived at Las Pinas. The detail was called the Las Pinas Detail or the Pasay School Detail. The total POW population of the detail was 800 POWs on December 6, 1942. The detail was brutal and replacements were sent to the detail regularly.
The Japanese Naval Party ran the detail - the Japanese equivalent of the Marines - who wore white uniforms with black cords on their shoulders. The Japanese were taller and larger than the average Japanese soldier. The first commanding officer of the work detail, Capt. Kenji Iwataka, of the Naval Construction Department, ran the detail at the school and airfield from July 1, 1942, unit August 6, 1943. He was responsible for the POWs not only when they were at Nichols Field but at the Pasay School. The POW camp at Pasay School was under the command of a Japanese Lt. Imoto from August 1942 until October 1942. While at Nichols Field building the landing strip, the POWs were under the command of Lt. “Mabe” Matsumura. Both men took their orders from Iwataka. The second overall commanding officer of the detail was Capt. Inokichi Matsumoto. A Lt. JG. Hideo Suzuki ran the camp at the school and a civilian, Matsumura Norigana, who was known as “the Wolf,” was in charge of the POWs at the airfield. He was a civilian but wore a Japanese Naval Uniform. Each morning, he would come to the POW barracks and select those POWs who looked the sickest and had them line up. The men were made to put one leg on each side of a trench and then do 50 push-ups. If a man’s arms gave out and he touched the ground, he was beaten with pick handles.
The POWs on the detail were housed at the Pasay School, a one story wooden building of eighteen rooms about 15 feet by 25 feet in size, with thirty POWs assigned to each room. The hospital at the camp was also in the building and was poorly equipped. At the center of the building was a small courtyard. There was no furniture in the rooms. Some of the rooms served as hospital wards while others were used as housing. There were only two latrines for 500 men and cans were put in the rooms for the POWs to use as toilets. Eleven showers were shared by the POWs with 300 POWs sharing seven showers while the remaining 500 POWs shared four showers. POWs waited for over an hour to take a shower.
The pharmacist mates built a learn-to shed from scrap lumber they found on the grounds. Inside were large caldrons in which the POWs' lugao was boiled three times a day. Lugao was made when there wasn't enough rice to prepare it properly. More water was added and it was called lugao. It was said that a POW could eat a great deal of it and never feel as if he had eaten anything. Each POW's ration was stated to be three ounces of uncooked rice a day. The main meal was 240 grams of boiled rice which was from sweepings of a warehouse floor and had nails, worms, dust, glass, and bottle caps were found in the rice. This was later cut to 120 grams of rice. The POWs picked through the rice to eat it. The POWs grew squash, gourds, green beans, eggplant, and sweet potatoes but these were taken by the Japanese. What they received was scraps from the Japanese mess which did not meet their nutritional needs. If they received fish, it was a fish that was bony and used as fertilizer by the Japanese. Meat was stated to be issued once every six weeks. Each week they received 250 pounds of potatoes – which the Japanese allowed to rot before issuing it to the POWs – for 500 men. They also were issued 80 pounds of flour a week and 20 pounds of meat a week for 800 POWs. Although fruit grew at the airfield, the POWs were not allowed to eat it and were beaten if they did. When Red Cross packages were given to POWs the Japanese cut the food rations by one-fourth for 15 days.
The cooks woke up at 4:30 a.m. and began breakfast. At 6:00 the POWs were up and cleaned the rooms until 6:30 the POWs formed 100 detachments and muster or bongo was taken followed by ten minutes of exercise. Each morning and day ended with the POWs lined up facing the Japanese flag and the enlisted POWs had to bow to the flag whole the officers saluted. Breakfast was at 7:00 which was a fish soup with rice. After breakfast at 7:30, there was a second count of all POWs, which included both healthy and sick, before the POWs marched about four miles to the airfield. After arriving at the airfield, the POWs were counted again. They went to a tool shed and received their tools; once again they were counted and worked started at 8. The POWs worked until, had lunch which was followed by a rest period, and went back to work at 1:30 p.m. The work day ended at 4:30 and the men who had worked at the school took showers and washed their clothes. The other POWs at the airfield did the same when they returned to the school. Dinner was served at 6 followed by evening muster at 7 p.m. At 8:00 p.m., the POWs returned to their rooms and all washing stopped. All the POWs had to be in bed at 9:00. Any man who needed to use the latrine at night had to get permission. The POWs were allowed to smoke at 7:00 a.m. until they formed ranks, during their lunch break, and after they returned to the school until 7:00 p.m. No games or music was allowed at the school unless permission was given by the Japanese command.
The plans for this expansion came from the American Army which had drawn them up before the war. The Japanese wanted a runway 500 yards wide and a mile long going through hills and a swamp. Unlike the Americans, the Japanese had no plans to use construction equipment. Instead, they intended the POWs to do the work with picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. The POWs were divided into two detachments. The first detachment drained rice paddies and laid the groundwork for the runway, while the second detachment built the runway. The weather did not change the work schedule for the POWs working at the airfield, but those too ill to work had to remain inside their rooms when it rained.
After arriving at the airfield, the POWs were counted again. They went to a tool shed and received their tools; once again they were counted. At the end of the workday, the POWs were counted again. When they arrived back at the school, they were counted one final time. Then, they would rush to the showers, since there were only six showers and toilets for over 500 POWs. They were fed dinner, another meal of fish and rice, and then counted one final time before the lights were turned out at 9:00 P.M.
The work was easy until the extension reached the hills some of which were 80 feet high. The POWs flattened the hills by hand. The Japanese replaced the wheelbarrows with mining cars that two POWs pushed to the swamp and dumped as land-fill. As the work became harder and the POWs weaker, less work got done. At the end of the workday, the POWs were counted again, and when they arrived back at the school the Japanese counted them again. Then, they would rush to the showers, since there were only six showers and toilets for over 500 POWs. They were fed dinner, they were counted one final time. Lights were turned off at 9:00 P.M.
The brutality shown to the POWs was severe. The first Japanese commander of the camp, Lt. Moto, was called the "White Angel" because he wore a spotless naval uniform. He was the commander of the camp for slightly over thirteen months. One day a POW collapsed while working on the runway. Moto was told about the man and came out and ordered him to get up. When he couldn't four other Americans were made to carry the man back to the Pasay School.
At the school, the Japanese guards showered the man and straightened his clothes as much as possible. The other Americans were ordered to the school. As they stood there, the White Angel ordered an American captain to follow him behind the school. The POW was marched behind the school and the other Americans heard two shots. The American officer told the men that the POW had said, “Tell them I went down smiling.” There, the White Angel shot the POW as the man smiled at him. As the man lay on the ground, he shot him a second time. The American captain told the other Americans what had happened. The White Angel told them that this was going to happen to anyone who would not work for the Japanese Empire.
On another occasion, a POW collapsed on the runway. The Wolf had the man taken back to the barracks. When the Wolf came to the barracks that evening and the man was still unconscious, he banged the man’s head into the concrete floor and kicked him in the head. He then took the man to the shower and drowned him in the basin. A third POW who had tried to walk away from the detail told the guards to shoot him. The guards took him back to the Pasay School, strung him up by his thumbs outside the doorway, and placed a bottle of beer and sandwich in front of him. He was dead by evening.
POWs watched as a POW was beaten by Miseroson, Pick Handle Pete, Okiduson, and five other guards. The man had been too weak to work that morning and they tied him to a post and beat him to the ground. The beating lasted about a half hour. They filled his stomach with water until it was full and left there to die. It was also reported that ten POWs were executed because one POW had broken a rule.
The beatings also took place at the school. It was stated that one POW stole 50 pounds of sugar that had come from the Red Cross for the POWs. The Japanese found it in their room at the school and beat all 28 POWs who shared the room. The POWs reported they were beaten with blackjacks, fists, and kicked. They also received what they called "the rail treatment" and were denied their dinner that evening.
Jack stated, “I saw several men die and saw several men killed. The Japanese would shoot them. Sometimes they would want to go to the toilet and they wouldn’t let them so they’d step off the runway to keep from using we was working at. Soon they would step off to pull their pants down to go to the toilet why the Japanese would pull up a gun and shoot him.”
The remains of the POWs who had died on the detail were brought to Bilibid Prison in wooden boxes. The Japanese had death certificates, with the causes of death signed by an American doctor, sent with the boxes. The Americans from the detail, who accompanied the boxes, would not tell the POWs at Bilibid what had happened. It was only when the sick, from the detail, began to arrive at Bilibid did they learn what the detail was like. These men were sent to Bilibid to die since it would look better when it was reported to the International Red Cross.
In Jack’s case, he got dust in his eye. The Japanese continued to make him work until the Japanese took him to Bilibid Prison on March 18, 1943. The doctors could do little for him since they had no medicine to treat his eye with. On July 1, 1943, Jack was sent to Cabanatuan #1.
During his time there, he worked on the camp farm. “They had a farm there that they were raising corn on and they had some of these Braham bulls (carabao) on it with big humps on the back. And they had maybe fifteen acres of ground broke up ready to put corn in it. They didn’t have no tractors no plows. All they had was picks and shovels. They was then 150 men out there and line them up in a straight line and tell you to go digging. They had big ant hills on there looks like hay shocks back here, maybe three or four feet tall and I would say three or feet through. We have to dig those down and those big red ants would come out of there about ¾” long. And if they caught any two bus standing talking, they would tie them and put them right in them aunt hills where those ants was crawling and they would really suck the blood out of you.”
Jack was sent to the port area where he loaded and unloaded ships. At some point while on the detail, Jack fell and was paralyzed. He was sent to Bilibid where he was put in the Naval Hospital, but it is not known how long he was there.
In September 1943, Jack was selected for shipment to Japan and sent to Bilibid. From there, he was taken to Pier 7 and boarded the Coral Maru – actually the Kohu Maru – sailed for Japan on September 20, 1943. The ship arrived at Formosa on the 23rd. While it was there, it came under attack by American planes. During the attack, the Japanese closed the hold’s cover trapping the POWs below deck. The ship sailed for Japan, on September 26th and arrived on October 5th, at Moji. On the ship with Jack were Kenneth Hourigan, Lyle Harlow, Richard Leake, and Charles Reed. After the POWs unloaded, they rode a train for seven or eight hours to Niigata, Japan. There, Jack was taken to Niigata 5-B which was also known as Tokyo 5-B.
In Japan, he was held at Niigata #5-B, which opened on August 30, 1943, and was known as Tokyo #5-B. The POWs in this camp worked for Niigata Kairiku Unso, Nippon Tsu-un, and Niigata Tekko. The first 300 POWs in the camp were Dutch from Java, British POWs, and Canadians from Hong Kong, with the Americans, from the Philippines arriving on October 7th.
The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and an electrified fence. Well-armed guards also patrolled the perimeter of the camp. Inside the fence were two, two-story barracks for the POWs. The two floors were divided into rooms that slept eight POWs each. The rats were so bad in the barracks that the POWs tucked their covers in tightly to prevent them from biting, but they felt them running across the blankets at night.
The commandant had the men strip their clothes off the first morning in the camp. The prisoners then stood in the cold for an hour and a half. Once they began to turn blue, the commandant addressed them. He said, "I want you people to know that you are prisoners of war, and you will be treated like prisoners of war and not like guests of Japan."
The POWs lived in a dormitory owned by Niigata Kairiku Unso but were moved, on December 25, 1943, when another 350 POWs arrived at the camp. The new wooden barracks, that were built for the POWs, were of flimsy construction and soon became infested with lice, fleas, and rats, which also spread rapidly among the POWs. Each man had a 3-foot by 6-foot area to sleep in on a straw mat. One building collapsed during a storm on January 1, 1944, and killed eight POWs.
According to the POWs, the barracks were similar to chicken coops and 100 men lived in each structure. The walls were lined with platforms that the POWs slept on without any mattresses. Each POW received five blankets during the winter which was reduced to two blankets in the summer. The blankets were not made from cotton or wool but from plant fiber. A dirt aisle ran down the center of the barracks.
The food ration for the POWs was determined by the jobs they performed. The POWs working in the factories received 600 grams a day, while those assigned to the docks received 700 grams. A typical meal consisted of rice or soybeans and the tops of daikon which were Japanese radishes. The POWs would receive a watery soup once in a while. To supplement their meals, the POWs would smuggle food into the camp. It is known that Red Cross packages sent to the camp, for the POWs, were misappropriated by the Japanese and sold on the Black Market. The food from the packages was given to the guards, his family, and his friends.
Since it was a two-mile walk to the docks, the POWs were most likely awakened sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 A.M. Their breakfast was usually a potato with what they called “greens.” They also had a soup once in a while that was made from seaweed which tasted pretty good. They also received grasshoppers cooked in soybean sauce once in a while. Their workday started in the dark at 5:00. At noon they received lunch which was a cold potato or soup made from radishes. Once in a great while, they received fish.
It was raining the first day the POWs went to work on the docks and they shivered since their clothing was meant for the tropics. Many of the POWs were assigned to work the docks unloading coal for the Rinko Coal Company and it is known they also unloaded foodstuffs scrap metal, machinery, and war supplies in violation of the Geneva Convention. The Japanese supervisor had the nickname “Whiskers” and was brutal to the POWs. Under Whiskers were former Japanese soldiers who had been wounded in China and were no longer able to fight. These “Honchos” actually treated the POWs fairly well because they viewed them as combat veterans like themselves. Those Honchos who had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder often would scream at the POWs and beat men up for no reason. Other POWs from the camp worked in a foundry, at a clothing mill operating sewing machines, in a brick factory, at carpenter shops, and doing other jobs. The POWs on average worked 14 to 16 hours a day, but it was common for them to work 20 days.
To unload the coal, the POWs worked on high trestles to unload the coal from the ships into coal cars. The POWs would push coal cars – that could hold half of a ton of coal – along rails on a trestle that was 30 feet above the ground. At different places, they dumped it on the dock. Since there weren’t enough cars, many POWs had to carry the coal on their shoulders in baskets attached to poles. The guards would often help the POWs push the coal cars and it wasn’t unusual for the guards who mistreated the POWs to have accidents. Sometimes while pushing the cars the handle was pushed and the coal fell onto the guards. The guards also accidentally slipped and fell off the trestle, but so did some of the POWs at times. When the POWs got back to their barracks after working, they were wet and could not dry themselves. They also were covered in coal dust and the only way for them to clean themselves was at the hand pump in the courtyard.
The POWs stated that at some point, every POW was beaten for breaking a rule. They quickly learned that if they fell to the ground, the Japanese seemed to go crazy and beat them beyond recognition. In another incident, a guard took the boots away from the POWs during the winter and made them work barefooted on the trestle in cold and wet weather. He also knocked the POWs down and kicked them. The result was that their feet were bruised and cut up from the coal.
About a month before he arrived in camp, the Japanese had begun a routine of taking every fifth POW from morning roll call and making the men bow to the guards. As the men bowed, the guard kicked the men in their faces or they were hit on the back of the neck with a club while they were bent over. They continued doing this to the POWs until March 31, 1944.
The International Red Cross visited the Niigata Camp twice. To prevent the representatives from hearing about the conditions the POWs were living in and the treatment they were receiving, the Japanese would not let the representatives speak to the prisoners.
The fact was that the Japanese used what was in the Red Cross packages for themselves including medical supplies, bandages, and medicines sent to the POWs. Only after having taken canned milk, canned meat, and chocolate from the packages, would they be given to the POWs. The Japanese also used the clothing and shoes sent for the POW to use, and all the Japanese in the camp slept with Red Cross blankets on their beds that had been sent for the POWs.
The sick in the camp were forced to work since the Japanese needed a certain number of POWs to unload the coal at the docks. To get them to work, the POWs were punched, hit with sticks, hit with clubs, hit with rifle butts, and hit with iron bars.
The camp had a British doctor, Major William Stewart, who attempted to keep the POWs alive without medical supplies. What served as a hospital was a room with cracks in its walls that wind and snow blew through in the winter. The room soon took on the name of the "Death Room" since many of the POWs who were sent there died. One reason was there was little to no medicine or medical supplies to treat the sick with. A Japanese medical corporal at the camp sent POWs too sick to work which resulted in some of them dying. When the POWs reported for sick call, they were beaten, hit, punched, and kicked in the face or stomach. Most of the deaths that took place in the camp were the result of men too ill to work and being forced to work. Since the men were not working, their daily rations were reduced to half of what a working POW received. If the Japanese felt a man was not sick enough he was made to work to improve the camp's efficiency rating. Most of the POWs who died in the camp died because they did not have adequate clothing for the climate.
One guard jumped on or kicked the POWs suffering from beriberi and malnutrition. He ordered them to stand at attention and to bow. He was also known for appropriating the Red Cross packages sent to the camp for the POWs. Any POW who did get put on sick call had his food rations cut in half. The Japanese medical personnel sent sick and weak POWs to work. They also misappropriated medical supplies sent by the Red Cross for use by the Japanese personnel in the camp. In October 1943, he had those POWs suffering from dysentery brought to him. When they arrived, he poked them in their stomachs with a stick. He also hit them on the head and body with his hands, fists, and a stick to get them to go to work since so many POWs were needed each day.
Punishment in the camp was extreme with POWs being beaten senseless and revived with cold water so they could be beaten again. Usually, the beatings took place because the POW had been caught stealing food while unloading a ship. After the POW was beaten to the Japanese satisfaction, he was thrown into the guardhouse. When he was released he went back to work. POWs caught stealing food a second time were put in the “extreme guardhouse,” after being severely beaten, without a blanket (regardless of season) without shoes, socks, or overcoat. The man’s food ration was also caught in half. When he was released the beatings continued. When two POWs were caught stealing Red Cross packages, they were beaten repeatedly over several days and tied up outside only in their underwear. They later died of exposure.
It was also at this time that the Japanese announced the POWs would be receiving Red Cross Boxes, but there was a catch, The POWs had to allow Red Cross Boxes to be given to the camp staff. The POWs already knew that the Japanese were misappropriating the boxes because the guards were seen eating Red Cross sugar and cocoa. They also slept with Red Cross blankets on their beds and were seen wearing Red Cross clothing and Red Cross shoes sent to the camp for the POWs. They also withheld the medical supplies sent by the Red Cross. They used canned food from the boxes as rewards so the POWs would work harder.
The POWs worked in more than one location. Some POWs worked at the Shentetsu Steel Mill which was a two and half mile walk from the camp. There, the POWs fired furnaces and cleaned them. They also lifted heavy pieces of steel much too heavy for them and stacked them in piles. Other POWs worked on the docks loading and unloading ships.
The POWs were most likely awakened sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 A.M. Their breakfast was usually a potato with what they called “greens.” They also had a soup once in a while that was made from seaweed which tasted pretty good. They also received grasshoppers cooked in soybean sauce once in a while. Their workday started in the dark at 5:00. At noon they received lunch which was a cold potato or soup made from radishes. Once in a great while, they received fish. The food rations for the POWs were determined by the jobs they performed. The POWs working in the factories received 600 grams a day, while those assigned to the docks received 700 grams. A typical meal consisted of rice or soybeans and the tops of daikon which were Japanese radishes. The POWs would receive a watery soup once in a while. Meals for the prisoners often consisted of rice. In the rice were small pebbles that damaged the POWs' teeth. To supplement their meals, the POWs would smuggle food into the camp. The sick in the camp were forced to work since the Japanese needed a certain number of POWs to unload the coal at the docks. It is known that Red Cross packages sent to the camp, for the POWs, were misappropriated by the Japanese and sold on the Black Market.
It was raining the first day the POWs went to work on the docks and they shivered since their clothing was meant for the tropics. Many of the POWs were assigned to work the docks unloading coal for the Rinko Coal Company and it is known they also unloaded foodstuffs. The Japanese supervisor had the nickname “Whiskers” and was brutal to the POWs. Under Whiskers were former Japanese soldiers who had been wounded in China and were no longer able to fight. These “Honchos” actually treated the POWs fairly well because they viewed them as combat veterans like themselves. Those Honchos who had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder often would scream at the POWs and beat men up for no reason. To get them to work, the POWs were punched and hit with sticks, clubs, rifle butts, and iron bars.
The POWs would push coal cars – that could hold half of a ton of coal – along rails on a trestle that was 30 feet above the ground. At different places, they dumped it on the dock. Since there weren’t enough cars, many POWs had to carry the coal on their shoulders in baskets attached to poles. At one point, a guard took the boots away from the POWs during the winter and made them work barefooted on the trestle in cold and wet weather. He also knocked the POWs down and kicked them. The result was that their feet were bruised and cut up from the coal. The guards would often help the POWs push the coal cars and it wasn’t unusual for the guards who mistreated the POWs to have accidents. Sometimes while pushing the cars the handle was pushed and the coal fell onto the guards. The guards also accidentally slipped and fell off the trestle, but so did some of the POWs at times. When the POWs got back to their barracks after working, they were wet and could not dry themselves. They also were covered in coal dust and the only way for them to clean themselves was at the hand pump in the courtyard.
The Japanese decided the camp was a mistake and on April 1st and the POWs were transferred to Tokyo 15-D which later became 15-B, where the POWs again were working in a steel mill. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and an electrified fence. Well-armed guards also patrolled the perimeter of the camp. Inside the fence were two, two-story barracks for the POWs. The two floors were divided into rooms that slept eight POWs each. The rats were so bad in the barracks that the POWs tucked their covers in tightly to prevent them from biting, but they felt them running across the blankets at night.
The camp had a British doctor, Major William Stewart, who attempted to keep the POWs alive without medical supplies. What served as a hospital was a room with cracks in its walls that wind and snow blew through in the winter. A Japanese medical corporal at the camp sent POWs too sick to work which resulted in some of them dying. When the POWs reported for sick call, they were beaten, hit, punched, and kicked in the face or stomach. Most of the deaths that took place in the camp were the result of men too ill to work being forced to work. From September 3, 1943, to December 31st, a guard jumped on or kicked the POWs suffering from beriberi and malnutrition. He ordered them to stand at attention and to bow.
The commandant denied Red Cross packages to the POWs which would have supplied them with food, clothing, and shoes. Nakamura and the camp guards were seen wearing the Red Cross shoes meant for the POWs. He also wore shoes that were sent by the Red Cross for the POWs and handled them out to the guards. It was noted that in the snow blood was seen where the POWs had stood for roll call since many of the POWs did not have shoes.
The POWs reported that he used the Red Cross parcels for his own use and gave the food to the guards for their mess. He was known to have raided the parcels for the food, and on occasion, had the American POW cook it for him to eat. When flour and macaroni were sent from the main camp for the POWs, the commandant gave the food to the guards to eat.
The POWs received a small potato for breakfast and a cup of green tea. Lunch was a small bowl of rice covered with potato tops and they received the same meal for supper. The Japanese had the POWs raise rabbits, but when the rabbits became large enough to eat, the Japanese did not allow them to slaughter them. Instead, the rabbits were allowed to starve to death. When the prisoners received meat, each POW received a piece the size of a thumbnail. Three times a year the POWs received fish three times in 1945. In place of vegetables, the POWs were given flour made from tree roots which were impossible to eat, so most of the POWs wouldn’t even take it. The daily meal averaged 700 calories.
Apparently, there was then a halt to bombing in the area and the POWs did not see a B-29 for over a month. The B-29s returned on May 25th and bombed the area. The next day the planes returned and bombed again. The POWs were sent into the hills to escape the bombing. On June 20, the bombing lasted from 12:30 until 2:30 in the morning. In July the bombings appeared to be a nightly event. It was recalled that one B-29 was hit, broke in two, and fell to the ground in flames. The POWs stated it was a glorious experience to see the planes and what they were doing, but at the same time, they were filled with dred since they could be the victims of the attacks. They also knew that inside the planes were free Americans. An air raid that took place on July 13 targeted the Shibarua Electrical Works. The raid lasted 4½ hours and inflicted a great deal of damage. Twenty-eight POWs from the camp - mostly Australian and Dutch were killed and another 20 POWs were wounded.
The POWs worked at a Shentetsu Steel Mill that was two and a half miles from the camp. There, the POWs fired furnaces and cleaned them. They also lifted heavy pieces of steel much too heavy for them and stacked them in piles.
About one month before the surrender, there was a noticeable change in the attitude of the guards. The POWs had no idea that the war had ended until a week after the official surrender took place. Before the surrender, the guards at the camp were replaced with guards who spoke more English and appeared to be trying to “soft-soap” the POWs.
The camp commandant on August 15, 1945, had the POWs assemble and he came out of his office followed by the guards. He and the guards stood at the entrance of the camp and listened to the radio. On it was the emperor telling his subjects that Japan was surrendering and that they were expected to "abide and endure." The guards fled the camp on the 19th and it was stated that the camp commandant went into his office and shot himself. The next day American Navy planes flew low over the camp and the pilots waved to the POWs and gave them the thumbs up. The POWs wondered how they knew where the camp was located. One plane dropped a note attached to a wrench. It said, “War over. Happy days are here again. Paint the roofs of your buildings with large POW letterings. Wait for supplies to arrive by B-29s. God bless every one of you.” Two days later B-29s with their bomb bays open dropped 55-gallon drums attached to parachutes. Two of the drums went crashing through the roofs of the barracks but no one was hurt. A couple of parachutes got tangled in the trees and the civilians attempted to take them but were driven off by the POWs. The planes kept dropping food to the POWs and they left the food behind when they left the camp.
The POWs remained in the camp for about a week when an American officer and Marines entered the camp. The Marines began to cry when they saw the POWs. The officer came forward and said in a strong voice, “Men, the war is over. Welcome to freedom. The first thing we have to do is to fatten you up with good food and vitamins. You will be traveling by train in a few days to Yokohama and from there … home, back to your loved ones. The sick will be the first priority to move out of here. Now, I strongly urge each one of you not to stray too far from the camp as there are still hostile Japs out there who do not believe in defeat and surrender. Anow, men, God bless you all and WELCOME TO FREEDOM AND LIBERTY.” The POWs crowded around the Americans before they left the camp and hugged them. Tears were everywhere.
The Americans were the first to leave the camp on August 26th followed by the British, and the Canadians the next day. Each group rode the train to Yokohama. On their way to their repatriation location, the train carrying the Americans was stopped because of a train accident. The Japanese train personnel feared they would get in trouble because the POWs did not get to the location on time. Instead of getting upset, the POWs left their train and provided aid to those Japanese civilians injured in the accident.
On one occasion while Jack was attempting to go to a washroom, another POW did not see him and pushed a cart into him. Jack, who was too weak to get out of the way, fell off the trestle to the ground thirty-five feet below and was paralyzed for three months. He did not know it, but he had shattered a vertebra in his back. Two other POWs made a stretcher and carried Jack three miles back to their POW camp.
The hospital in the camp had no beds, so the POWs lay on the ground, and the British doctor had no medicine to treat the sick. Jack recalled that men around him died every night. Each morning the Japanese would enter the hospital and kick him to get up. He finally had another POW tie his belt to a rafter.
Recalling this, he said, “Every night someone would die in sickbay. I figured that they’d let me die also if I didn’t do something. I looped a web belt around a rafter and lifted myself every day to get the use of my legs back. I finally got so that I could walk, but I walked like I was drunk.” He did this every day for two or three weeks. One day, he told the other POWs he was going back to his barracks to sleep.
When he was back in his barracks he worked as a janitor around the camp and cleaned the grounds of the camp. To do this, he had to make a broom from long slivers of wood. The Japanese guards gave him a nickname, “They called me Paddle Feet.” They called him this because they thought he walked like a duck.
It was a few days before Christmas when the POWs were moved to a new camp that was worse than the old one. The kitchen that cooked the POWs’ food was two miles from where the POWs were housed, so the POWs seldom had a hot meal. There was also no water supply and water had to be brought to the camp in drums. It was also at this time that the Japanese announced the POWs would be receiving Red Cross Boxes, but there was a catch, The POWs had to allow Red Cross Boxes to be given to the camp staff. The POWs already knew that the Japanese were misappropriating the boxes because the guards were seen eating Red Cross sugar and cocoa. The Japanese also used canned food from the boxes as rewards so the POWs would work harder.
Jack described the barrack as a large barn with large doors at both ends. The POWs slept along both walls, and each man’s sleeping space was three feet wide. The POWs had cut a fifty-gallon drum in half – down its length – to heat the barracks, but the Japanese would not provide coal. The POWs resorted to stealing coal by hiding it in their coats. If the Japanese did a search and a POW was caught with coal, he was severely beaten.
Of the camp in general he said, “It looked like a place they had brought us where we could die off and nobody would notice. The snow was 8 feet deep, drifting as high as 30 feet in some places. we never would have made it through the winter if the war hadn’t ended.”
Food in Japan consisted of rice with scraps from the Japanese mess. When fish heads were served to the POWs, Jack recalled that the eyes rolled around in his mouth like kernels of corn. When grasshoppers were part of the meal, the burrs on the grasshopper’s legs scratched his throat. As if to show how bad the food situation was – during his time in the camp – Jack found a kitten. One day he noticed it was missing. When he found the kitten, two sailors were eating it as a meal. The only time the POWs ever got a good meal was when the Red Cross representative came to the camp. The next day, the meals were back to normal.
When a POW died in the camp, the Americans would nail together a coffin and put the body in it. The box was put on a cart. The POWs would take the cart and pile wood on it. The cart was taken to Niigata and the body was cremated at the Sumida Crematory. The ashes were put into a small box, with the man’s POW number on it, and returned to the camp and given to the camp commandant.
On why he survived he said, “I just kept telling myself that if my mother and father weren’t worrying, I could tough through it out. I always felt that I could hold out; I just didn’t know how long it would take.”
One of the new barracks collapsed from the weight of snow on its roof on January 1 killing eight POWs. The other POWs had to dig them out. The Japanese decided the camp was a mistake and moved the POWs to another location. The major improvement was that the barracks had stoves for heat and the POWs could bring coal from the docks to keep the fires going.
It was also in January that the POWs saw their first B-29s fly over the camp. From this time on, the planes came over in greater numbers each day. The POWs could see where the American planes had dropped mines into the water to sink Japanese ships. The POWs also knew, by the increasing frequency of the beatings they received, that the Japanese were losing the war. The Japanese also placed an anti-aircraft gun on a hill not too far from the camp. The POWs knew that if American planes attempted to bomb it, bombs would fall on the camp which explained why it was placed there.
Finally, the POWs learned that the war was over when they found that the guards were gone. The POWs painted Niigata #5-B on the roof of a building. American planes came over and, after seeing the name, returned to their carrier. Soon, B-29s appeared over the camp and dropped food, clothing, shoes, and medicine. The POWs learned that American troops were in Tokyo, so two POWs went there. They returned not having found the Americans. Another group of 300 POWs walked to the train station and rode a train there. This time they made contact with the troops. Not long after this, Capt. Harold Stassen U.S.N., who had been governor of Minnesota flew to a local airport and rode a bus to the camp. As he stood at the door of the bus, he said, “This is no place for Americans. There will be a train here tomorrow to transport you to Tokyo.” The train arrived the next day, September 25th, and the POWs rode it to Tokyo.
Once there, American nurses had them take off their new clothes and throw them away. The former POWs were sprayed with D.D.T. to kill the lice, took showers, and were issued new clothes, while the extremely sick men were taken to a hospital ship. From Tokyo, the former POWs were flown to Okinawa and then went to Manila. Ironically, the planes landed on a runway that Jack helped to build when he was a POW at Nichols Field.
He said of his POW experience, “I was a prisoner for three years and five months, and I never saw a biscut, an egg, or a glass of milk. I weighed 200 pounds when I was captured, and I was down to 105 when I got out.”
The POWs remained at the airfield for ten days. During that time, Americans came to the camp and asked the former POWs if they could give them the names of any Japanese who had beaten, abused, or killed POWs. Jack stated he had never bothered to learn the guards’ real names and could only give nicknames. Other men were able to give names and some of the former guards received prison sentences of 10 to 25 years, while others were sentenced to death.
Jack was sent to Manila and boarded the U.S.S. Hugh Rodman. It took the ship eight to ten days to reach the United States on October 3, 1945. When he returned to the United States, it was almost four years, to the day, since he had sailed for the Philippines. Jack was put on a train, with beds on both sides of each of the cars. Each car also had several nurses and a kitchen. He rode the train to Saint Louis, Missouri, where, he was put on another train for Louisville, Kentucky, and Nichols General Hospital. He was a patient there for eight or nine months before being sent to Percy Jones General Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. There, he was hospitalized for almost a year. It was at this time that he was promoted to technical sergeant.
On February 5, 1947, Jack was sent to Fort Custer, Michigan, and released from federal service with 100% disability. When he got home, he tried farming but found the work too difficult because of his physical condition. He said, “I’m the only one of the Harrodsburg Boys that made a hobby of working with the Veterans Administration doing service work.”
Jack married, Rosalyn Adkinson, and lived in Harrodsburg for the rest of their lives. One of the lasting effects of his time as a POW was that he would have to wear leg braces and a back brace for the rest of his life. Another effect of his time in the Army was Jack lost the vision in his one eye. He worked as a cashier at the Farmers National Bank and became the tank company’s official historian.
In 1984, he recalled, “There were 66 of us who went, and 29 died, either in prison camps or on prison ships. Thirty-seven of us came back, and 14 have died since then. There are 23 of us still alive.”
The photo at the top of the page was taken while Jack was a POW in Japan. Maurice E. Wilson passed away on May 2, 1985, and was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Harrodsburg.
