Evening star., 1945-11-04

Il MhSs VIEW. Ell w AtD r. n 2N1s
--AP Photo.
With Gen. Wainwright
led up small rise at the rear OF
the parade grounds to two admins
tration buildings.
Toilet Articles Seized.
We walked into the prison in
closure gingerly, waiting for some
sign to show us how good or bad
it was going to be. We did not
have to wait long. :
They lined us up in front of the
barracks and some one shouted at
us to surrender all of our hand
| luggage. When the soldier came to
me I tried to keep my toilet articles,
but he pulled them away.
I looked around with a sinking
sensation. This was definitely going
to be worse. A Jap officer strobe
up to one Of my men, ripped open
his luggage, and with a look of tri-
umph, extracted a roll of toilet
paper. He had the manner of a
man who has discovered secret
papers.
Slowly he began to unwrap the
roll. peering first at one side of
each sheet and then at the other.
He continued to unroll the paper,
holding it up to the light OCCASION
ally, until yards and yards of 1t
were scattered around his feet.
Then in disgust he threw the rest
of it away and walked to the next
officer.
Eventually he unearthed a first
aid packet. The packet was of the
type which must be kept her
metically sealed to protect its con-
tents. The officer looked 1t over
carefully and then insisted by
gestures that it be opened.
The American explained through
an interpreter that the package had
been sealed at the factory, con-
tanned nothing of military nature
and would be ruined if opened.
We had so few medical supplies, and
so little hope of getting any from
the Japs, that the little packet was
an important part of our equip
ment
But the box had to be opened.
When the Jap saw its contents he
threw the precious stuff away.
Stand Like Scarecrows.
When every item of baggage had
been taken away from us we were
moved out to the center of the
parade grounds. There we we're
forced to strip down to our shorts,
If we had shorts. We stood there
like human scarecrows while Jap
inspectors slowly went through
each bundle OF clothing, searching
pockets, seams and Innings.
In time our clothes were given
back to- us, but our shoes were kept.
We were given wooden Jap clogs,
none of them a proper fit, and told
to put them on. We put on our
clothes and hobbled and clacked
back to the barracks. When some
OF US started inside, on orders, we
were stopped angrily and told we
must not wear the clogs indoors.
The Karenko barracks lower floor
consisted of two big squadrooms
and a number of smaller rooms ap-
parently designed originally as
offices and storerooms. The upper
floor held six squadrooms. Jap
hunks, too short for any American
OF average height, were placed side
by side along the walls of most of
the upstairs rooms. They were
made of metal Stats, criss-crossed
which were covered with a short.
hard mattress of rice straw. The
pillows were 12-inch by 6-inch sacks
of rice.
On our arrival inside the barracks
we were divided into squads and
each squad was given certain area
OF the floor space upstairs and down.
Ali general officers were assigned
to the first squad of 81 on the first
floor at the end nearest the guard
house. Gen. King and I were given
a small room at the end of the
building and the rest of our prouu
were put in two small adjacent
squadrooms.
Made to Use Chopsticks.
The first duty of each squad was
to organize several members to 90
to the kitchen, about 100 yards away.
and bring back our dinner. While
my group was gone I discovered, as
did the others, that we would be
required to eat with chopsticks out
OF Jap Army mess bowls. Our own
mess kits, knives, forks and spoons
would not be returned until our
baggage had been more thoroughly
inspected.
The mess bowls were mainly of
white china, marked with the blue
stars that are standard on all jap
Army equipment. There were four
bowls for each man-the largest
being soup bowl, slightly smaller
and f1atter one rarely use0 called
a vegetable bowl, still smaller one
for rice and very small one for tea,
Our carriers returned about 7
pm. with "a bucket of rice and q
bucket of watery vegetable soup and,
famished as we were, we set to work
on ff1e rice will, mr. chof,Stickc r