Evening star., 1945-11-08
Gen. Woinwrieht's Own Story:
General Is Moved to Tomozoto Camp and MoiI
And q Few Red Cross Supplies Reach Prisoners
Thirty-third OF a Series.
BY GEN. JONATHAN M.
- WAINWRIGHT.

o'clock had gone only SO miles. We
carried along our lunch of cup
of rice and ate on the train.
We were put off at Jap military
camp near the village of Tamazato
which lies south of Karenko. The
military establishment was set in
q. rather beautiful piece of land at
the foot of a steep and verdant
mountain. There was a stream rum
ming along the camp.
We carried our gear to the one
story barracks in a reservation SINH
lar to the one at Karenko, then were
ordered to march back to the train
and unload a car of tables, chairs,
benches and other furniture for the
barracks. This was piled on our
backs and we carried it to the camp
Some of the goats we were raising
at Karenko also were led to the new
camp.
Eight of us, including myself, were
given four small rooms and my new
roommate was 1t. Gen. Helm ter
Porrten, commander of the Neither
lands Indies forces. Those who did
not draw single rooms were badly
crowded into large squad rooms un-
der conditions about as bad as those
at Karenko.
Beatings Stop.
The beatings stopped now, giving
us all a chance to lick our wounds
But the food remained the same:
Rice and hot water with few vege-
table tops for every meal.
But on April II, in answer to our
prayers, part of the South African
Red Cross stores was sent to us from
Karenko. We had just abandoned
/ hope that we would ever see them
again. But, without warning, here
they were at Tamazato-food and
shoes that had been snatched from
us at Kraneko and which we
thought we would never see again.
We waited two unending days and
nights for the Japs to distribute the
supplies, and I guess all of us
/; prayed we would not be tricked
Z again.
On April IA the Japs began to
parcel out the remains of the pack
ages. They had unquestionably
. opened arsd stolen much of the Red
Gross stores, but with the food and
shoes in sight we were beyond any
feeling of regret over what was not
= to come to us.
Gains Seven Pounds.
Mo YNitnhnd h11t
were so run down and the normal
food was so alien to our stomachs
that many of us contracted diar-
rhea. That did not matter greatly
The good the food did US overcame
the rigors of that malady. BY
April %, 1943. one week after the
food arrived, my weight had jumped
7 pounds to little over 1872.
The heavy British army shoes
which came with the food were a
tremendous relief We happily dis
pensed with our Jap clogs with the
feryent hope that we would never
sea thena, again.
4 When the joy of our little windfall
became more memory than fact, we
received visit from the Jap repre-
sentative of the international Red
Cross. The senior officers in the
prison camp were assembled before
Him and we told him, in-effect, that
we were well and were being cared
for decently.
We told him this because we had
been briefed the previous day by
the new camps commander and had
been told exactly what We could
and could not say. 1t was case,
mostly, of what we could not say.
The Jap Red Cross representatives
visit, therefore, went for nothing.
He chose not to look at us, standing
there in front of him like slightly
mobile skeletons, but just accepted
our optimistic sounding reports and
left.
Forced to Read Reports.
He was followed in time by other
Jap agents of the International Red
Cross and on those occasions the
Japs,, taking no chances, forced us
to read our reports from carefully
edited written declarations. We
could say nothing about the food,
which was as terrible as at Karenko,
nor could we mention Our living
and sanitary conditions.
We were permitted, however, to
appeal to these men to assist in
delivering mail to us. I knew my
wife must be writing to me, care
of the International Red Cross Il
found out later that during my cap
tivity Mrs. wainwright wrote me
more than 300 letters, of which I
eventually @received six, and the
others who joined in the appeal felt
the same way.
Our new Jap masters naturally
refused to permit us to say any
thing to the Red Cross men about
the monstrous treatment at Karen
ko. We thought of blurting out the
truth to these men, in the forlorn
hope that the truth would touch
even Jap's heart. But there was
no hope of this. Our meetings were
held while we were f1anked by
armed and ready Jap sentries If we
haj departed so much as word
from the prepared script, I'm cer-
tain that our treatment thereafter
would have been considerably worse.
Food Is Unmentionable.
BY careful wording we could oc-
casionally convey the truth of our
conditions in such letters as we were
permitted to write-letters which
were duly collected and burned in
apparently many cases by Jap CEN
sors. My reference to my weight, as
of my graduation from West Point,
actually got through, however. SO
did letter written by one of our
officers telling his wife:
81 cannot mention my treatment.
cannot mention very much about
conditions, cannot mention the
sanitary arrangements in the camp.
The food also is umentionable.
The stupid Jap who inspected this
letter noted contentedly that it con-
tanned, in more or less the same
language, the instructions all of us
had. He passed it and it got through
to America.
AS for my own mail, I was first
permitted TO write to my wife in Oc-