Evening star., 1949-08-18

Guide
By Moi. Thomas M. Mol

L
By Moi. Thomas M. Mol
Congress has passed q special
law providing special payments to
FORMER prisoners Of war (and to
other Americans, too). You may
remember the horror stories which
glared from front pages of Amer
lean newspapers as camp after
camp Of POWs was freed in 1945.
Maybe you were one of those
POWs yourself.
But for the record read these
bits of testimony which Ameri-
cans from private to general gave
the House Committee on Inter-
state and Foreign Commerce, the
committee which wrote the War
Claims Act.
Maj. James McMinn of Carls-
bad, N. Mex. was POW at Bilibid
prison camp in the Philippines.
This is his description of the first
few hours locked in the hold of
the Oryoka Maru, the ship which
took him and 1,640 others POWS
to Japan.
After the last man was in
the hold the Jap guards closed the
hatch. Only a space of about 4
by feet were left open to fur
nish air for us. We were given
a small quantity of rice, but due
to the crowded conditions and
extreme heat only about 200 men
received anything to eat.
within an hour several men
had become insane from the ex-
treme heat. Within two hours
several men died. We estimated
that from 5000 men died during
that first night from suffocation."
Col. Alfred c. Oliver was the
senior chaplain at Camp ODon-
mel, another Philippine camp to
which the Bataan Death March
survivors were taken. He and an
other colonel, not yet wise in the
ways of Jap prison camp COM
manders, wrote a formal letter to
the camp commandant listing
grievances which they asked to be
corrected under the terms of the
Geneva convention of 1929.
Specifically, they asked for the
privilege of holding religious
services, of having proper medi-
cine and food and care Of the
sick"
cat that time" Col. Oliver told
the committee, "the men didn't
have enough water to drink.
Those who could would have to
stand in line for SO hours before
they could get canteen full.
1--WE had food that was full of
maggots and full Of stones"
From O'Donnel, Col. Oliver was
sent to Cabanatuan, another Phil
ippine POW camp.
Gentlemen" he told the House
Committee, "the cats and dogs
would run across from the nearby
village, and we trapped them.
Outside of an occasional carabao
that constituted our meat. All
Of us had beri beri.
They came one day to our
camp and brought up photograph
ers from Manila. They took our
cooks. who mostly were going
round in G-strings, and dressed
them in white. They brought in
five scrawny chickens and took
pictures of them preparing meal.
They did not show that the five
chickens were to be the only meat
for 5000 starving American SOL
diers."
A former Army sergeant, Joseph |
Bandoni, told the committee about |
a friend Of his who tried to escape
from Cabanatuan.
"He was taken, beaten, hung up
by his thumbs out in the field
and was brought in and tied to a
pole for three days in front of us.
During that time they gave him
one rice ball a day to eat and
very little water"
Former POWs, especially the
higher-ranking ones, agree that
the reason they didn't get food
was not the lack of it. but rather
a deliberate policy laid down in
Tokyo.
Lack Of food is the only
criterion under the War Claims
Act for compensating former
POWs. For each prison camp day
the food was not up to the stand
ard set by the Geneva Conven-
ton the POW gets 81. Probably
every POW held by the Japs will
get that 81 for each day in prison
camp.
(You may aDrtte Maj. Nal in
care of this newspaper in con-
71ectio1l tDith your o,Dn serpice-
connected problem. Inclose a
self-addressed, stamped en-
Delope.J
! (From Associated Press NewsfeatuYes.)
g. u. Graduate School
Adds Two to Faculty
! ~ DR.. IJlrich Alters snecialist