Evening star., 1944-01-28

he punched me severely to show his
feeling at the idea OF prisoner still
having 4 watch"
Rice remained the principal diet
at Cabanatuan. On one occasion
the japanese gave the American
prisoners 8 chickens for 500 men
and on another occasion so eggs for
500 men. As result, their propa-
ganda later told the world that
American prisoners IN the Philip
pines were being fed on chickens
and eggs.
Onicers were not forced to work
at Cabanatuan, but could volunteer
to take out work details. Col.
Dyess so volunteered.
"The Japs frequently rnistreated
Americans working for them" his
statement reads. "Once when a
frail American private was not dig
ging a ditch to suit his guard, the
guard grabbed the shovel from him
and beat him across the back with
it. The boy had to be sent to the
hospital. One Jap carried a golf
club and beat the men working for
him the way one wouldn't beat a
horse. When two Americans were
caught getting food from Filipino
they were beaten numerically on
the face and body. After a doctor
dressed their wounds, the Japs took
sticks and beat them again"
Men were literally worked to death.
It was not unusual for 20 per cent of
a work detail to be worked to death.
In one instance rs per cent were
killed that way.
Comdr. Mccoy reported that two
American Army officers and a Navy
officers attempted to escape from Ca
banatuan. which was thickly ringed
with barbed wire and had machine
gun emplacements and towers out
side the wire. The officers were
caught moving down drain ditch
to get under the wire.
Their Japanese captors beat them
about the feet and legs until they
could no longer stand, then kicked
the officers and jumped on them.
The next morning the three Amer
leans, stripped to their shorts, were
taken out on the road in full view
of the camp, their hands were tied
behind them and they were pulled
up by ropes from an overhead pur-
chase, so that they had to remain
standing, but bent forward to ease
the pressure on their arms.
They were kept in this position
in the blazing sun for two full days.
Periodically the Japanese beat them
with a 2-by-4 and any Filipino un-
lucky enough to pass that way was
compelled to beat them, too. II he
failed to beat them hard enough
the japanese beat him. After two
days of this one Of the officers was
beheaded and the other two were
shot.
The Japanese made every effort
to humiliate their prisoners of war.
They would force them to stand and
cali them vile names. When one
older American colonel turned away
from E. Japanese reviling him he
was knocked unconscious with a
blackjack. American flags wee
habitually and designedly used as
rags in the Japanese kitchens.
Thirty Die Each Day.
The death rate at Cabanatuan
for June and July, 1912, was 80
Americans day. according to the
sworn statements of the three Of
ficers. The rate for August, 1912,
was more than 20 a day. The rate
for September, Is a day, because
by that time most Of the weaker
men were already dead. During
October, 1912, the rate ranged up
ward from is a day to 10 day and
was increasing when Col. Dyess,
Col. Mellnik and Comdr. Mccoy left
on October 26. 1942.
BY that date, 5000 OF the 12,200
Army, Navy and Marine Corps pris-
oners at Cabanatuan had died
There were $500 in the hospitals
and the American doctors doubted
that any Of them would live.
The chief cause of death was
starvation. This was definitely es-
tablished by autopsies performed by
both American and Japanese doc
tors. After it was determined that
the men were starving to death the
Japanese answer was that there was
no food available. There was
(See TEXT Page A-120