The Wilmington morning star., 1945-11-04
This Is Ny Story
Gen. Wainwright Tells
Of Trip To Jap Prison


to 20 back to the cabin. Johnny
Pugh, Tom Dooley and Sgt. Car
roll all managed to get up to our
space for short periods, to I'LL me
in on what was happening.
On August IA, 1912, at the end
of a two-day voyage, We arrived
outside the breakwater of the al
most completely land-locked har-
Dor at Takao, on the west coast
of Formosa. The hills along the
shoreline had been cut through
a canal and apparently what was
now the harbor had been low-lying
ground or a swamp area which
had been dredged. There were no
! docks in the harbor, which was,
indeed, a striking one.
Our ship came in through the
canal and anchored just off the
stern of the old President Harri-
son, of the President Lines. The
Japs had seized this fine Ameri
can liner in the early days OF the
war after it went aground, while
trying to escape, on one Of the
small islands below Formosa.
We stayed aboard our ship until
afternoon, when we were all lined
up and submitted to a distressing
physical examination to guard
against our carrying any COM
municable diseases into their fair
land. Much of the examination
centered about the rectum.
But it was done at last, and we
were put in small boats and trans
ferred to small coastwise steam
er anchored nearby.
Herded Below Decks
My cabin-traveling ended there,
and so did Kings. We were herd
ed below decks into the forward
hold with 80 others. The $50 others
in our party we're similarly
jammed into another hold. The
matches were Immediately bat
tened down and the temperature
in the holds rose to far over 100
degrees. At dusk we were ordered
to close the portfolios and draw
the blackout curtains, which made
our black holes that much more
suffocating.
Our hold was alive with. bed
bugs. There seemed to be millions
of them crawling over us the rest
of that miserable night, and there
was so little air in the place that
many of us feared death by suf-
location. It was o'clock the next
morning before We were permitted
to open the portfolios to suck in
some air and to gain enough light
to see and pick the vermin from
our bodies.
The next morning I was led out
on the ships deck and, over my
protests, made to pose for Jap
artist. He was doing painting
of my surrender to Homma. 1t
was an ambitious affair, for at
Manila / had been forced to seat
myself at a table - formerly the
University Clubs main dining ia
BILE - and arrange Beebe, Pugh,
Dooley and Carroll about me, as
we had been on the day we met
Homma. Many photographs of US
had been taken that day at Ma
Mia, to help the artist now max
ing sketches Of my face. He was
pretty overwhelmed by the fact
that the painting, when finished,
would be presented to Hirohito. !
remember saying to myself, as ]
sat there posing on the little
steamer going to Karenk %,
douglas will get that painting
one of these fine days"
We reached Karenko at noon,
and the remaining hope the Jap
general had given me just about
dissolved when I looked at the hot,
barren and dirty little harbor.
We waited two steaming hours
before being allowed to leave that
evil little steamer, then were
roughly ordered off the boat,
checked and counted.
| We picked up our luggage, were
formed into column and
marched through the city. 1t was
a depressing experience. T h e
streets were lined with thousands
of silent Japs and Chinese, staring
at us as if we were freaks.
At 3 pm. we arrived at our new
prison camp, beautiful Karenko.
1t was large square of about $50
yards formed by barbed wire.
Within the boundaries were about
a dozen buildings, the largest of
which was a two-story barracks,
probably built originally for bat
talon of Jap troops. 1t was a
rather good-looking building with
a coating of gray cement and a
black tile roof, as is the custom
in Formosa.
Behind it lay the toilets. On the
barracks back porch were troughs
and water spigots for washing. In
front of the barracks lay a grassy
parade ground, and across it,
about 100 yards from the bar.
racks, were kitchens and a bath
house which consisted of a tank
about II feet in diameter and
waist-deep. Steps led up a small
rise at the rear of the parade
grounds to two administration
buildings.
Early Signs
We walked into the prison en-.
closure gingerly, waiting for some