Chapter 38
You hook up the telephone set once more for contact
with Captain MacDonald. You hear his voice at the other
end of the wire. You say, "We are moving out
again, still about 25 yards from the left bank
of the stream.". . ."How's the terrain?". . ."It's pretty rugged, but
the vegetation isn't quite as dense as it was before.
We're going up a slight incline and the ground seems
to be a little more firm.". . ."What do you see?". . .
"There are a couple of trees directly ahead that have
had their tops sliced off, and splinters are all over
the place. I believe we're entering the area that the
Navy must have shelled before the initial landings were made."
You move along and are briefly exposed to sunlight, casting
a shadow from which you draw back in momentary fear.
Well, it makes good sense to be afraid right now,
and you're glad that your reflexes are lean and hard
and functional, with no fat to them. It's a big
poker game, and you're playing your cards close to your
chest and watching the dealer carefully and betting your strength.
Other men have walked like this. Other Americans have driven
their bodies through long black minutes that shrouded
mmmtheir minds
and dropped in deep folds over their hearts. And theirs
was a shadow they could not escape but which bobbed
crookedly in the relentless gray dust of a scorched road.
Out of Bataan they marched, to San Fernando in
mmmPampanga province,
with their grinning captors beating them with sticks and herding
them through blistering heat without rest or food or water.
Occasionally they were forced to go very fast, with the
Japs pacing them on bicycles, and at other times they
were held down to a slow agonized shuffle. Some threw
themselves moaning beside the highway, but the strong were not
Permitted to help the weak and had to turn away
and wait for the shots that they knew would come.
At night they were placed in a cramped bullpen and
given a messkit of badly cooked rice, while during their
hours of slumber the Jap guards amused themselves
mmmby charging
into the enclosure from time to time with bayonets fixed.
From San Fernando they were freighted to Capiz Tarlac in small
boxcars with the doors locked. Many of the prisoners were
suffering from diarrhea and dysentery and could not control
mmmthemselves
so that the horrible stench became alloyed with the heat
and hung from their bodies like a mass of chains.
For months they were retained at Camp O'Donnell, where they
lived among filth and maggots and stood in line for
ten hours to get a drink of water and couldn't
summon strength enough to dig graves for their departed
mmmbuddies.
American flags were habitually and designedly used as rags in
the Jap kitchens, and rations included rice, with an intermittent
bit of potato and a few mango beans over a
period of several weeks and a spoonful of coconut lard.
Later they were moved to Cabanatuan Concentration Camp
mmmin Luzon,
and when several tried to escape from this new hell,
they were cruelly flogged about the feet and legs
until they could no longer stand up on them but
had to fall, and then were kicked and jumped upon.
Next they were stripped of their ragged clothing and tied
with ropes and propped up to endure the ravaging blaze
of the sun for two full days, after which they
were taken down and ceremoniously beheaded before their
mmmassembled comrades.
Do unto Japs as Japs do unto you -- but first.
* * *
