Evening star., 1943-06-26
CHAPTER XVII.


be remembered that 1t is extremely
difflcult for non-Japanese to tell
the age of a Japanese. There were
also reports of women among the
Japanese. There is no doubt that
there were some girls with the
Japanese forces and that on oc-
casion they were seen carrying rifles
and machine guns, possibly to give
the men a rest or possibly to pre-
serve the weapons of soldiers who
had been killed. In China, as l had
personally seen on many occasions,
women camp followers travelled with
the japanese forces. A certain num-
ber OF women were assigned to each
company.
I talked to one American, for
merly member of tank crew, who
told me that he had seen many
women soldiers in the Lingayen Gulf
area. He said that one afternoon,
when he was in one of six tanks de-
Tending a bridge, large forces of
japanese charged down the road
and at the tanks. The road was
quickly heaped with bodies, and still
the enemy kept coming. When he
was changing ammunition in his
machine guns. a large group sue
ceeded in approaching close to the
tank. They suddenly threw down
their rifles and tore open their
biouses. ! discovered that they were
women. I was so horrified at the
thought that we had been Slaught-
ering women that 1 passed out there
in the tank
The JapS were we'll drilled in the
tricks of jungle fighting. One OF
their favorite stunts was to toss fire.
crackers into the trees some yards
from one OF their machine gun
nests. The exploding firecrackers
resembled the crack of Jap rifles.
When our soldiers went over to in
veStigate, the hidden machine gun
would cut them down. The Japs
also threw tirecrackers in night at
tacks to confuse our troops and
create the illusion of strong forces
Some OF the Japs wore pads on their
hands and knees to enable them to
creep stealthily through the under
brush.
In charging our positions the Japs
would shrek what they imagined to
be blood-curdling yells, interspersed
with such English words as "As-
Sault!" and Attack" They lnfil-
trated our lines wherever possible
and then split up into groups OF two
yyh eli
sniped at our officers, Or attempted
to approach our behind the line
camps, where they threw grenades
and tried to create confusion. They
took the uniforms from our dead
soldiers, especially the Filipinos, and
tried to pass our Sentries at night.
They were very clever at lying
quietly in the brsh until they learned
our password and then initiating it.
This trick worked until our officers
discovered that the japanese could
not pronounce the letter l.. After
that our passwords were liquid with
L's-wordS such as Hula hula"
The Japs Invariably pronounced
that "Hura -hura" 1t was a dead
give-away.
In fighting at close quarters the
Japs would quickly learn the names
OF some of our officers and also
attempt to initiate the voices of
those they heard most frequently.
They tried this on Comdr. Frank
Bridget during the fighting at
Lsngoscawayan Point. He was COM
ing down a path alone and he
called out to Col. Fry, commander of
the 57th Filipino Scouts, who was
somewhere up ahead, Where are
you, colonel?" Down here, Frank
Come down here!" Bridget had just
seen the colonel going in the oppo-
site direction, so he refused to be
fooled The Jap who shouted was
killed a few minutes later by the
Scouts.
The JapS were vicious and cruel
when they had the upper hand. l
saw the body of one American off,
GER. He had been suspended from
tree limb and bayoneted repeat
edly in the back and buttocks. Then
his arms and legs had been hacked
off. One group of 35 Filipino Scouts
war found lying face down In a
stream. Their hands were tied be-
hind them and then they had been
bsyoneted in the back and left to
drown. Other Scouts were hung
from trees while still alive and
then bsyoneted.
When they were captured the
r1naaLr I0nila
seemed small and Intellectual with
out their rifles and sometimes with
out their clothes, which they had
removed in the hope of swimming
10 the safety OF their own lines.
Talking to the prisoners, I became
more than ever convinced that the
Jsps are not supermen. The pris-
oners admitted they were glad to
be alive and did not regret their
failure to die as heroes. They ad-
mitted that they had been terribly
frightened when they first came
under artillery fire-so frightened
that at Langoscawayan many OF
them jumped off a cliff to their
deaths rather than stand up under
the fire of Corregidor's 12-inch NOR
tars. They told us that when a
japanese units was cut off, the off,
GERS would almost always commit
suicide. They wanted to die quickly
rather than fire their last bullet at
their enemies and then await the
suspense of being killed.
In action and under fire the
discipline of the japanese Army is
generally good. But when Japanese
troops are not fighting they are hard
to control especially if they have
been drinking. They drink badly
and after one or two glasses of beer
they frequently become surly and
unmanageable.
Once, at party given by Japanese
Army officers for foreign CORE
Spondents. l saw jor draw his
sword and swing wickedly at the
head of British newspaperman
The reporter saved himself by grab
bin9 chair and thrusting it in
front of him. The sword cut cleanly