We kept getting reports on our little radio that MacArthur was winning
battles in many places, some of which we'd never heard of:
March, 1944 - Palau;
April - Hollandia;
June - Saipan.
In July, we heard that MacArthur met Roosevelt in Hawaii, and that he
was finally able to convince the President that it was necessary to
take the Philippines in order to have a base from which to attack
Japan.
In August it was reported that 30,000 Japs had been killed don't
know where. .
September 15, 1944: Two-hundred aircraft had bombed Cebu, Negros
and Panay.
U.S. Navy Dive-Bombers! On Sept. 21-suddenly-out of a clear blue
sky-some thousand planes flew over camp from the east-they had to be
carrier planes. They continued west to an hour. Then the planes
returned coming down low over camp.
We could make out U.S. Navy markings on them. The Jap guards were all
crouching down in foxholes.
"Don't lose your head now! Don't show any emotion! The Nips are all
trigger-happy, just waiting for an incident to happen
before shooting up the camp."
A big Jap bomber tried to sneak off the local airfield that we had
built with prisoner labor. It was flying low-barely over the treetops.
A Navy dive bomber saw it, dropped down right over it and strafed it
with incendiaries. In seconds there was a big explosion and tremendous
orange flames as the bomber plowed into the ground. This was followed
by billows of black smoke lasting several hours.
It was a great show! It was tough trying to repress our elation. There
was no food served that day - a typical Japanese reaction.
We all believed that freedom must be close that the Americans would be
making landings soon. That night morale was high; the camp literally
buzzed with rumors. A few Navy planes appeared almost daily.
October, 1944: MacArthur invaded Leyte producing 100,000 Japanese
casualties. The attitude of the Nip guards changed very markedly; they
lost the arrogance they had when they were winning the battles; some
became sadistic; some became friendly.
A big Jap "shakedown." Every prisoner had to display all his
possessions. Japs picked up all mosquito netting and tropical helmets,
saying, "You vill not need these in Japan! You vill be sent to Japan!"
The camp began to buzz with rumors again. U.S. Medical officers were
ordered to examine all prisoners to determine the ones well enough to
make a trip to Japan and the ones too disabled to travel. The Japanese
did not want any amoebic dysentery cases in Japan. Suddenly, there was
a new commodity "warm stools." Prisoners, who feared a "hell ship"
cruise to Japan, bartered for a "hot specimen" from a known amoebic to
present to the laboratory for examination hoping against hope, that it
would be "positive."
Japan Detail: Before our Japan Detail departed for Manila, I asked
Major Stephen Sitter, the camp psychiatrist, "Why is it that very few
of the 12,000 prisoners spending time in the Cabanatuan camp ever made
any attempt to take their own lives when they were starving, suffering
from many diseases and were frequently in unpleasant and uncomfortable
situations?"
He answered, "They were all too busy figuring out ways to survive;
they didn't have time to think about suicide."
Between October 21 and 27, about 1600 prisoners, the Japan
Detail, were loaded on trucks to be delivered to the old Spanish
prison in Manila-Bilibid. Before leaving, several of us prisoners
buried diaries, notes, sketches, etc., near the buildings in which we
lived, hoping to retrieve them after the war. My 110 sketches were
placed in a Mason jar and buried near Bldg. #12. On our way to Manila,
our truck had to stop frequently under big trees-to hide from the
numerous U.S. planes passing overhead.
Cabanatuan Rescue: After the exodus of the Japan Detail (the so-called
healthy prisoners) in late October, there were only 511 unhealthy
prisoners remaining in camp.
Things were rather quiet until about 2000 hours on January 30, 1945,
when sudden gunfire from outside the camp wiped out all of the
Japanese guards in the towers. It was MacArthur's 6th Ranger Battalion
under the command of Lt. Col. Henry Mucci - aided by guerrillas -
walking into camp. They quickly obtained carabao carts and sleds for
the bedridden prisoners.
That evening 511 internees were moved many miles down the road to the
west in the moonlight with hardly a shot fired. Early the next morning
they arrived at a transportation center, where prisoners were placed
aboard trucks and ambulances and taken to Lingayen Gulf; then they
were transferred to planes and flown to Manila. After suffering from
more than three years of intentional neglect by the Japanese Imperial
Army, they were finally "free men."
No prisoners were lost in the operation; there were two casualties
among the Rangers: Capt. James Fischer, the doctor, was killed by
mortar fire near the main gate of camp. Cpl. Sweezy died from wounds.