description: The fight for the Philipines was over. Prisoners sat beneath the burning April sun in the fields of Mariveles. Bub Merrill looked out to sea to see an outline of Corregidor three miles away, but orders had come down not to try the swim. There was no food on Corregidor and most were too weak to make it. Rations had been cut to one eighth. At the time of surrender, hunger, exhaustion and disease was rampant among POW's. The Japanese gave them neither food nor water, but forced them to sit in the baking sun. Bub dug his hands into the sand and came up with two baseball-sized rutabagas. They allowed him to survive the march to Camp O'Donnell, a march that many others did not. From there other marches began. At the point of a bayonet, US POW's carried sacks of rice, dried fish and ammunition bandoliers, acting as a mule train for the Japanese army's move across the Philippines.With the Philippines secured, the Japanese shipped prisoners to other slave labor camps throughout the far east. Bub was forced to work in several factories in Manchuria. Three years later he found his way home to Algonac, Michigan. This is his story.
language: English
title: Silence of a Soldier
titlecomplete: Silence of a Soldier
ratings_count: 4
publisher: Elderberry Press (OR)