The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-09

CHAPTER ~

CHAPTER ~
THIS rs MY sToRY
BY GENERAL JONATHAN M.
WAINWRIGHT
Copyright, 1915, King Features
Syndicate, Inc. Reproduction in
whole or In part strictly
prohibited.)
On June S, 1913, % Of the senior
officers and Allied civilian COVER
nors and orderlies were separated
from the others in the Tamazato
camp on Formosa. The remaining
80 officers and men were ordered
to pack up. They left us to rattle
around in Tamazato, after our
farewells and expressions of hope
that they would find better treat.
ment wherever they were going
and this turned out to be another
fruitless hope.
1t was lonesome without them at
Tamazato. We had all been
through so much together that we
had come to depend heavily upon
our numbers for comfort and the
imperative desire to 60 on living.
But on June % those of us who
were left at Tamazato were told
to round up our belongings. We
were to be sent to a special camp
prepared for us near Muksau, al.
so on Formosa.
We went by train in three or
four hours to Karenko, where we
transferred to dirty little coastal
ship and were damned into the
small hold for the night.
1t was the same old story. as
bad as that of our last night of
Jap boat travel. Our group of %
spent that night in a space about
IS feet long by nine feet wide, and
the shelf on which we were told to
sleep was so small that to keep
from breathing in one another S
faces we alternated positions -
one head against the wall and one
pair of feet, one head and one
feet, and so on down the line.
None of us slept much that night.
Every time I dozed off the feet of
a Dutch general would come
humping down on my chest or
face.
We had carefully boarded the
last of our South African Red
Cross packages, and it was just as
well we did. For we were fed moth
ing else that day and night.
FAT DUCK =.
At 9 am. on June "a, 1943, our
boat locked at Keeling, the port
town Of Taihoku, which is the
capital of Formosa. We were
marched through the town of Kee-
lung, to the railroad station - and
curious band of former officers
and men we were, what with our
burdens, our ennaciated conditions
the rags of what had been uni
forms and, anonymously, a fat pet
duck which Sgt. Hubert Carroll
and another enlisted man had pick.
ed up at Tamazato. 1t was the
only healthy living thing in the
line OF march.
We were taken by train to Tai
hoku, which lies about 20 miles in
land, ordered out of the train and
all of us, including Donald (our
inevitable name for the duck)
were loaded into one truck and
moved the remaining six miles to
our new camp, which lay near the
village Of Muksaq.
The new camps buildings were
made of rough pine board a n d
were placed on a hill above a
valley of rice fields. The hill had
originally been an orange grove,
but most Of its trees were gone
by the. time we reached there. We
were assigned to long, low one
story building with straight hall
down the center and eight small
rooms off, each side of the hall.
They were tiny 8-1-2 feet by
10, as I measured them but
each room had an easy chair, a
bamboo cot and table for our
meals and writing. We were even
given number of books, seized
from the British Consul at Taihoku
by the japanese Alien Property
Custodian.
AS further test Of OUR credulity,