The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-11-30
Has Thrilling
Experience
In War

WV - ~6AA %
ESCAPED WHEN PRISON
SHIP WAS TORPEDOED
Two years in japanese prison
camp and later escape from a tor.
pedoed Jap ship were experiences
that came to Harvey Person, form
er Libby man. An account of Per
sons thrilling adventures was pub
h8hed in the. November Gath issue
Of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Il
follows:
By Anne Stewart
I'D like the drumStick, Nom"
One day is no different from an
other in q Japanese prison camp
and Sgt Ralph Harvey Person
couldn't even distinguish the past
two Thanksgiving Days from the
hundreds Of other days he'd spent
behind barbed wire, barefooted
taking the occasional smart of q
Jap gun butt and longing for mail
from home
There were $50 of US in my out
fit and only one~man got any mail
in all that time =
But, matter of fact by nature, and
accustomed now to the incredible,
Sergeant Person smiled. He was
home. And he was home because
a turn Of war which cost the lives
OF numbers Of his buddies had
freed him.
I keep thinking Of them-the
ones who We're on that ship and
the ones still back in the camps.
But | try to forget
The ship torpedoing early this
fall from which Sergeant Person
and 81 other Americans escaped he
recalls as the worst time since lie
turned his gun over to the jap
anese on May 10, 1912
The Japs told us they were TAX
ing us to Manila, but when we saw
an American plane 60 over we
knew we were going beyond, to
Formosa or Japan Twas several
days later we boarded the freighter
that the American submarine tor
pedoed the ship. We were all down
in the hold. /. heard the explosion
and felt the water come in. The
next thing I knew, | was on the
deck and the Japs were machine
cunning me and all the rest. ! did
not know how I'd gotten there, but
I knew I'd better dive overheard.
Sometime during it got piece Of
shrapnel in my leg. | don't know
when it happened either
Swan Ashore Alone
Sergeant Person swan alone to
ward shore. After 800 yards he
turned in the water to see the Jap
ship sink. About mile off shore
he joined other Americans helping
to push a raft of wounded to safety.
we didn't even know where we
were. but we took chance going
up the beach and we found Fill
Pine guerillas who took us in 1t
wasn't SO bad The Japs control the
island ports but they're afraid to go
into the jungle"
Several weeks later SO Ameri-
cans were evacuated to New
Guinea.
Sergeant Persons MON and dad,
Mr.. and Mrs. Louis P. Person OF
5605 30th Ave. N. W., and his best
girl, Edith Clarke, and the sisters
and nieces and nepheWs who saw
him last in August, 1941, put the
turkey in the oven and sat down to
listen yesterday as he told about
it all
$50 much has changed" said
Sergeant Person. ITS been like go
ing into a room and closing the
door for nearly three years"
When he went to Del Monte,
Mindanao, in October, 1941, he was
to serve as a clerk with the army
air corps. Instead he was detailed
to man antiaircraft guns. There was
never any time for clerking
Bataan Had Fallen
Bataan had fallen long before he
left Del Monte for Malaybalay and
out of there on patrol. On May 10,
his outfit sent a runner to the pa
troll with the message that the is
lands had surrendered. 1t was not
SulPllSG W CCIkCdIlL TeTSOH.
Weeks before he had watched Gen
eral Macarthur leave the Philip
pines and hear him promise, Il
will be back"
I'VE walked into Maramog and
turned in our guns. Then we were
taken by truck to Malaybalay and
put in Philippine training camp
where / was kept until October,
1942. 1t was not bad at this camp.
| had yellow jaundice, and missed
the work details, but the others
built up the entire camp. The food
was pretty good. We even had meat
once in while.
Transferred south to Philippine
Prison Camp No. 2, he at first
worked out on a hemp plantation
and in processing plant Return
ing to the camp in January, 1943,
he found the Japs really clamp
ing down.
After that it got steadily worse.
Every time the Japs would lose
battle they'd take it out on us.
"Often they'd hit us with the
butts of their guns, sometimes Just
a scolding blow and sometimes a