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About the later part of April it was time to go
back up the �Yama� mountain. The snow was mostly gone. The rock quarry
had been closed all winter on account of snow. This quarry and our camp
was located on a swift mountain stream of water. It was not deep but
about 150 to 200 ft. wide. They had sort of a pit we dumped this dirt
and rock into. The swift current washed the dirt out and the rock came
out the conveyor belt all washed clean; then the Japs hauled it to the
smeltering furnaces. About the middle of May of �45, I had a return of
the jaundice. My eyeballs turned yellow and my urine got thick and
brown. I told Doc and he gave me a few days off. I forgot the
treatment, not much! But somehow I pulled through again. After we were
in this camp at least six months, we heard an occasional bit of news
from a Limey we would be working with. They would never tell us where
it came from. These Limeys didn�t trust an American at all, they were
very cautious. Two months later the minister came through each
barracks. He had a couple of Limeys looking for Jap guards. He told us
some war news, informed us to never discuss it where there were Japs
around. If we did talk about it among ourselves, mention �the birdie
says,� never say the word �radio.�
This minister was a radio man and had somehow
smuggled this radio from Singapore, not in one piece. It had been
completely dismantled. It was carried by about 10 or twelve men in that
many pieces. He had wrapped the aerial around his body under his
clothing. After that every Sunday night he gave us a little news, �The
Birdie said.�
About the 15th of August I woke up one
morning, had such a pain in my testicles that it was almost paralyzing.
Someone went and told Doc, he came over, took temperature, etc. With some
help I made it to the M.I. Room; it wasn�t very far. Before the day was
over my right testicle started swelling and hurting. I was mighty
sick. It got larger than my fist and hurt, it did! I could not get my
legs together to stand up. All I could do was lay there with my legs
spread out. I couldn�t figure out what was going on. I�m sure Doc
didn�t either, but there it was. Well, I lay there over 2 weeks, if I
would lay perfectly still the pain would let up. If I moved I could
hardly stand it. By this time the Birdie kept talking more often but
nothing definite.
On September 6, if my mind
serves me right, the Japs brought all work details back to the Camp at
noon. Some of the men said the Jap guards told them we would be
free men, but nothing much was done. No food change.
Everything was quiet and tense. However, there were lots of guard
changes. I think this was done because some guards knew we didn�t
like them. Also after the afternoon of the 6th,
we noticed the Japs guards on the barracks roofs, didn�t know what they
were doing. Well, that night our minister made the rounds and told us
the Japs were in the process of surrendering; also about the �A� bomb,
also that they were painting the letters P.W. on the roofs.
The next morning at about 11:00 AM, here came
three
American fighter planes down from the top of the mountain. These were
the first ones we had seen for over forty months. But sometime that
afternoon a bomber tried to drop food to us. We were part way up the
mountain and had this swift wide stream along side of us. They finally
dropped it on the beach about two miles from us. The guards took some
Americans or British to get it. By the time they got there the Jap kids
(at least they got the blame) had taken all the food but left the
medical supplies. Doc didn�t lose much time. That night he had five
corpsmen carry me into his office. He filled up a syringe; each
corpsman led a leg, arm and head. I think this shot was called a
�local.� He told me to start counting when he gave me the shot. Well,
I got to six, I think. When I woke up I was back in my �Bay� as it was
called. Tried to figure out what was going on. I felt OK; then got to
feeling around and found that I had two wicks sticking out of the right
side of my sack and all the way into the right testicle. If I lay
really still, I had no pain but if I moved, it was terrible. That
afternoon, September 8, we again heard a bomber circling. This time the
drop came in the fast stream, so some men waded out and got it. It was
about 50 % destroyed by water; however, canned goods, etc. were
salvaged. They took it to the kitchen. So along with our rice ration,
it was the best meal we had eaten for over forty months.
The next afternoon, September 9, the same thing. This
time it was dropped on the mountain. Some of it was brought down part
way by Japs and given to our �rescue squad� but a small percent.
That night it seemed as though we got a phone call
from Tokyo. I didn�t know they had telephones. Some commander
called our Limey Camp Commander, told him that all Americans were to
move out or be at a railroad station about 3 miles from there before
dark the next day. Well, anyway, this testicle swelling had not gone
down and these two wicks didn�t help. I could not walk. They carried
me out of camp. The Japs did have some vehicles waiting for the sick,
so I rode to the rail station. Most of the men walked. We got there
about 5:00 PM, got all loaded and waited until about 7:30 for an engine.
Well, we left AOMI. We heard we were
seventy miles from
Tokyo. We traveled all night, sometimes forward, sometimes backwards.
The telephone lines were all bombed out, so they had no communications.
If we met another train, one of us to back up to a switch. I remember
in one long tunnel, we had got just about through it, it was pitch dark
and we met another train. We were the ones to back up, so we went
through it three times. When daylight came we could see that the
bombing had been much more severe than any we had seen in Japan. We got
into Tokyo about 12:00 noon. There we were met by the First Cavalry and
U.S. Army trucks. There we got off the train and or the army trucks and
ambulances. I was in an ambulance. It took about an hour to get to
Yokohama. There we unloaded. We had had little, if anything to eat for
24 hours or so, but as long as we were going home, that made no
difference.
When we unloaded they set my stretcher down about 20 ft from where the
Red Cross was serving coffee and donuts. Also we were on the dock where
the Hospital Ship Benovia
[ There is no US Hospital Ship by that name - probably AH-13 Benevolence
- Ed]
was docked. The men on foot were really having a ball eating
donuts and drinking coffee. We hadn�t had coffee since our C
rations ran out on Corregidor. It was longer since we had had
donuts. I don�t remember seeing any Red Cross since leaving the
U.S. 52 months ago. There were other stretcher cases beside me.
The Red Cross were really busy with the men on foot. They didn�t
seem to pay much attention to us stretcher cases so I decided to get up.
I did, straddle legged and stood there until I drank 8 cups of coffee
and ate 13 donuts. Then I lay down as they were counting heads,
etc. Out of the 104 of us in this last camp, 83 survived after 16
months. |
