Evening star., 1944-02-12
Col. Melinik:

For the first three months, Ca.
banatuan prison camp was com.
manded by japanese noncom!
After it had been somewhat or.
ganized we heard that the command
was to be transferred to a commits.
stoned officer. We had great hopes
that this change of command would
result in less severe discipline, bet
ter food, and particularly in better
hospital care for the many prisoners
who were i'll or dying. Then came
the day of the new commanders
arrival. He was lieutenant col
onel, a little on the stout side, and
with bristling black mustache.
Holy cow" said an enlisted man
who was peering through the fence
near where I was standing. Look
at old Mori."
used to run a bicycle shop in
Manila. Butter wouldn't melt in
his mouth-he couldn't be nice
enough to us guys in uniform"
Apparently, 1t. Col. Mori had a
very convenient memory, for as far
as I was able to learn he did not
seem to recall any of his former
clients from his bicycle shop days.
And the change in our treatment.
If any, was not discernible-it would
have required nothing short OF
genius on the part of a new COM
mander to make matters worse.
Known Dead Total 5000.
At the time 1 left Cabanatuan IN
October for another camp. approx
mately 5000 persons had died there.
Twenty-Five hundred had died ear
lier at ODonnell, not counting the
unknown number who died on the
death march from Bataan. This
makes a known total of more than
5000 American dead by october,
1912. Up until the end Of 1943 the
japanese had released the names
of only 1900.
Most of the people who died at
Cabanatuan were men who had been
captured on Bataan. For instance,
one National Guard colonel told me
that in his regiment of 1000, Is had
been killed and IS were missing at
the fall of Bataan, but that 453 ad-
ditional men had died since.
One of the heroes of the prison
land there were many was a Ma
tional Guard officer from New Mex
leo, 1t. Col Cane of the 200th Coast
Artillery Col. Cane made every ef-
fort to ease the lot of the sick and
the hungry, and often mterceded
with prison officials. On one occa-
sion, he was struck brutally by
Niimura. the interpreter. and lay
on the floor unconscious for nearly
an hour.
Col Cane managed to get tin OF
sardines from the tiny stock in the
prison store, and I accompanied
him as he took this great delicacy
to patient in the hospital. was
appalled, by the conditions there,
with no medicines, and with the
doctors and hospital corpsmen as
sick as their patients. The place
was a stinkhole, with fecal matter
on the floors, and with flies as
plentiful as in our own camp.
Fugitives Return.
About once a week our chaplains
arranged amateur theatricals or
skits. The japanese guards were
usually the most appreciative spec
tators at these events, but all of us
looked forward to them, despite
what must be sadly admitted as
very low entertainment value. On
an afternoon in late August, rumor
quickly ran through the prison that
the entertainment for that night
had been Cancelled.
"Why?" asked.
"Our three escapes are back" I
was informed The japanese are
making them put on show"
We did not know what turn this
SHOW" would take, and we looked
forward to it with foreboding. In
this instance, however, our fears
were worse than the facts.
These three Naval Reserve en-
signs, as I have said, simply walked
away on our first night in the camp
before the stockades had been put
up. AS we later learned, the three
had hidden in the jungle for three
months. Food was plentiful, easily
obtainable, and they could have
stayed there indefinitely. However,
they wanted to get out of the
Philippines, so they made their
way to the more thickly populated
coast of Luzon. The japanese were
in force on the coast, and the pen
atty for a Filipino harborlng all
American was death. In fact, even
a suspicion was enough to cause
Filipino to be executed. The three
ensigns decided that without help