Evening star., 1945-09-22
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

NEW YORK, Sept. 22.-Many
hardships, physical suffering and a
lot of worries fell to the lot of Brig
Gen. Clinton A. Pierce, while pris-
oner of the Japanese in the Philip
pines and Manchuria. But, with all
that he endured, his two generals
stars gave him the greatest con-
Germ throughout his captivity.
THE Nips always wanted to grab
a generals stars above almost any
thing" Gen. Pierce said in an in
terview at the New York hotel
where he is staying But they didn't
want my brigadier's stars as much
as I wanted them"
So the general was at constant
pains to keep them out of sight and
those pains involved all sorts of
expedients, as, for instance, con-
cealing them in his armpits. between
his toes, up his nose and elsewhere
Stars Real Treasures.
"Why all this concern? Listen:
"One night, it was in January
1912, I was awakened in my quar-
ters in the Philippines by mes
senger. He presented Gen. iona
than WainWright's compliments
with the order that I report at once
to headquarters At the time, I was
a colonel of the 26th Cavalry. When
I got to the generals quarters, he
had evidently fallen asleep. Any
way, he came out rubbing his eyes
Colonel he said, when was
promoted to be brigadier general
the information was given me by
Gen. Malin Craig. He not only gave
me the information but he reached
up and detached two stars from the
stars he wore on his shoulder. now
wish to inform you that you are
from this moment brigadier gen.
eral.' Here he opened his right
hand which had been clenched. He
held out two stars. These he said
are the stars that Malin Craig gave
me. I want you to have them and
wear them always-no matter how
many more stars you get. Also,
want you TO proceed to the west
coast and kick hell out of the Nips
who have landed there
Well" Gen. Pierce continued
That is just what we did, we
meaning the 45th and Saith Infan.
try outfits of Philippine Scouts. Be.
tween January "a and February l3
1912, we punched the rats into the
sea. I saw 1900 of them buried
Others didn't need burying because
they were shot like fish in the wa
ter. So the west coast was cleared
But on the east coast, the Jap!
came down inland, broke through
and won the islands. Obeying or
ders from Gen. E. P. King, jr.
through Gen. A M. Jones. I pre-.
pared for surrender I didn't have
much to give up, just skeleton
regiment of Philippine constabu'
larry, because I had sent most of my
troops to help in the eastern de.
fenSe"
Developed Self Control.
The generals long term of cap
tivity. beginning in the Sian Rive
Valley and continuing at San Fer
nando, Tarlac, Formosa. Tamazato
Shirakawa, Kyushu and, finally
Manchuria, lives in his memory no
only because of constant necessit
/ in hiding his brigadier's stars
Craig, to Wainwright to Pierce" h
put it-but in developing self-con
troll.
In three and a half years" h
said, Il learned to control mysel
as I never thought I could. 9Th
general is a slender, whippy, ath
letic, nervously geared man wit
fiery coal black eyes, Every tim
a Nip slapped me in the face
we'll. what would you do if a littl
yellow fellow slapped you on tn
mouth? I got it almost every day
It depended on what kind of
sentry you had You would get
kindly one occasionally. But mos
of the time you got bad ones, ant
their idea of a delightful thing Il
do was to slap a general on th'
kisser. No. no officer ever strucl
me. Nip officers never saw any o
the brutalities and insults The.
were always looking the other way