" Prisoners, who feared a "hell ship"
cruise to Japan, bartered for a "hot specimen" from a known amoebic to
present to the laboratory for examination hoping against hope, that it
would be "positive."
Japan Detail: Before our Japan Detail departed for Manila, I asked
Major Stephen Sitter, the camp psychiatrist, "Why is it that very few
of the 12,000 prisoners spending time in the Cabanatuan camp ever made
any attempt to take their own lives when they were starving, suffering
from many diseases and were frequently in unpleasant and uncomfortable
situations?"
He answered, "They were all too busy figuring out ways to survive;
they didn't have time to think about suicide."
Between October 21 and 27, about 1600 prisoners, the Japan
Detail, were loaded on trucks to be delivered to the old Spanish
prison in Manila-Bilibid. Before leaving, several of us prisoners
buried diaries, notes, sketches, etc., near the buildings in which we
lived, hoping to retrieve them after the war. My 110 sketches were
placed in a Mason jar and buried near Bldg. #12. On our way to Manila,
our truck had to stop frequently under big trees-to hide from the
numerous U.
Pages:
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127