JAPANESE
PROPAGANDA LEAFLETS |
|
A notable disregard for sanitary
precautions, combined with the natural unhealthfulness of the battle
position, added greatly to the spread of malaria, as well as other
diseases. Lack of training in the elementals of military hygiene was
universal in the Philippine Army. Many of the Filipinos drank unboiled
water from streams and pools and failed to sterilize their mess gear.
Latrines were neither well constructed nor properly used. Kitchens were
dirty and garbage buried near the surface. Huge flies, attracted by
these malodorous dumps, swarmed everywhere. "The fly menace," wrote a
medical officer, "spread beyond comprehension."64
"Sanitation," remarked another officer, on duty with Filipino troops,
"was ghastly. Straddle trenches-when built-adjoined kitchens. . . . The
calls of nature were responded to when and where heard."65
Even in the hospitals sanitation was far
from ideal. There were no screens and the supply of lysol was limited.
The hospital waste was emptied into latrine pits and the stench at times
was so offensive that men relieved themselves elsewhere. Despite the
desperate efforts of the nurses to keep the hospital areas sanitary,
there were, one doctor thought, "undoubtedly many cross infections."66
Under these circumstances it is not
surprising that common diarrhea and various forms of dysentery appeared
soon after the troops fell back to fixed positions. While never as
serious as malnutrition or malaria, the incidence of both ailments was
high and their treatment limited by the shortage of drugs. Filipino
troops, often barefoot, frequently developed hookworm also. Carbon
tetrachloride for treatment was available only in limited quantities,
the medical depot reporting fifty-one bottles on hand at the end of
March.67
As the men on Bataan grew more gaunt and
disease-ridden it became increasingly difficult to isolate the specific
causes which rendered men ineffective for combat. One surgeon believed
that the high malarial rate was "covering up" the prevailing "mental and
physical exhaustion" caused by a protracted starvation diet.68
It was Colonel Cooper's judgment that "the basic cause of all the
trouble was the lack of food, of proper food."