The Wilmington morning star., 1945-11-13

new Jap captors when the latter
promised them that they would re-
ceive such food as they raised. AS
result, lists were made OF the
officers who refused to work and
their food was cut Immediately.
But our men had one great com
fort at Sheng Tai Tun. They had
devised means of getting news OF
the outside world. An enlisted man
got the program under way. He
became friendly with a Jap SEN
try who could speak a little Eng
lish and made bargain whereby
he would give the sentry his wrist
watch in exchange for three Jap
newspapers. He knew that Coils.
Hoffman and Wood were expert
translators.
Those newspapers were perhaps
among the most expensive in the
history of publishing. The sentry
dangerously stole them from the
camp commanders office and they
had to be returned to the com
mander's desk at certain time
each night. All concerned took the
risk, and expense-a high tribute
to the value of a newspaper, even
a Jap paper.
The Jap soldier who stole the
papers sent word to our men that
thew must never discuss news
within earshot of any other Jap,
for if suspicion fell upon him the
Americans would most surely be
severely punished and he himself
would be executed.
The papers continued to be de-
1ive~ed to our men under cover
Of darkness, and their wristwatch-
es and later their fountain pens
and automatic pencils disappeared
one by one. They learned with
mounting excitement that the war
in Europe was going well, and
that japan proper was being
bombed by BIOS. They could not
ina CINE what a BIG looked like,
but the bombing was enough. They
learned. too, from these papers OF
MacArthur's landings in the Phil
ipp'nes and later of the death of
President Roosevelt, and they
spread these tremendous words
from mouth to mouth.
On May 20, t945, the Jap COM
nander of the camp angrily told
them that. since they refused to
work he was sending them to Muk-
den, where they would find stern
er treatment.
To New Camp
They were shipped to new
prison camp which the Japs had
erected near Mukden as per-
manent home for Allied captives.
Apparently it was built on the
presumption that Japan not only
would win the war but would keep
many prisoners at work for years
to come. For the men were told
when they reported that if they
obeyed all rules, Sin the next ten
or twenty years to come their
relatives from America would be
permitted to visit them! Still, they
refused to work.
The new camp lay close to a
large factory, designed to turn out
machine tools. More than thous-
and American soldiers and sailors
with mechanical training had been
sent there and put to work in the
summer of 1912, and 200 died Of
privation during their first winter.
In time the men saw here host
of opportunities to square the
score with their Jap masters by
sabotage and by stealing Just
about everything they could lift.
In one case a crew of American
enlisted men, with the help of
soma British and Dutch, were set
to work digging pits and pourine
cement for the foundations OF SO
new and expensive lathes. When
the pits were dug they hooked a
very large lathe TO an electric
hoist, dropped the lathe into the
hole and then neatly covered it
with cement before the Jap over
seer could make his rounds. Then
they set up the 80 lathes, but the
Iars discovered that SO of them
would not work. Vital parts of the
machines had been removed by
the Allied enlisted men and buried
in the cement which covered the
"',ried lathe.
Tokyo sent war production
oecialist to the factory and for a
time it appeared that things would
60 very hard for U. S. Navy
technician named Savioe, foreman
the crew concerned. But Savoie
blandly mis-answered all questions
flung at him.
This is the worst piece of sabo-
tage l have ever seen in Japan!"
the expert shouted as he stomped
off. 1t was tribute to Savoie and
his brave men.
Our soldiers at the factory, TAX
ing everything that was not rivet
ed securely, stole electric motors,
expensive parts and metals. When
Jap guards were not looking they
would toss this materiel over the
factory wall at prearranged
spot; the stuff would be picked UP
by waiting Chinese, then taken tc
the Mukden Black Market and
sold. Our men and the Chinese who
worked with them split the profit:
50-5n and with fhic ,,onraaxn OIL,