Oh, god, where are you?

.OH,G()D, WHERE ARE YOU?

OH, GOD, WHERE ARE YOU? fibie fibraham

VANTAGE PRESS

New York

#'?J~4

FIRST EDITION All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

CopyrightŠ 1997 by Abie Abraham Published by Vantage Press, Inc. 516 West34th Street, New York, New York 10001 Manufactured in the United States of America ISBN: 0-533-11987-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 96-90313 0987654321

To my wife and daughters, who waited, and to those who gave their lives in the defense and liberation of the Philippines, and to those living who rose to glory

When Bataan fell on April 9, 1942, an order was issued to the effect that ...

"Every troop which fought in Bataan against our army on Bataan should be wiped out thoroughly whether he surrendered or not, and any American captives who are unable to continue marching all the way to the concentration camp should be put to death in the area 200 meters off the highway."

-Colonel Nubuhiko, Japanese Army

Dawn of the Philippines

Acknouledgments This book is a memorial, although an incomplete one. It is based on my memory and notes of the suffering endured by so many for such a long time.

There are very many names mentioned throughout this book to show that these tragedies occurred to real people, although it obviously cannot include every person who experienced this tragic event in America's history.

There is much detail given on the day-to-day living and activity, both on The March and in the camps, to emphasize that this was not just something that happened, but something suffered and endured. I hope that this was accomplished.

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Preface: The Beginning of Japanese Hostility The Japanese Army began occupation of Manchuria on September 18, 1931. In 1932, fighting broke out between] apanese and Chinese troops in Shanghai, China.

The Fifteenth U.S. Infantry Regiment stationed at Tients in, China, was placed on alert status.

To save American lives and property, the War Department ordered the Thirty-first Infantry Regiment stationed in Manila to Shanghai.

At4:10 AM., February 2,1932, the Thirty-firstlnfantry sailed on the navy transport Chaumont, arriving in Shanghai in the midstof the] apaneseChinese struggle for the ciW. After five months of strenuous service, the reg iment returned to Manila on] uly 5,1932, and remained in Manila up to the time the] apanese attacked the is lands.

The officers and men of the Thirty-first Infantry were awarded the Y angtz e Service Medal for the service in Shanghai from February 5 to] uly 2,1932.

On December 12,1937, the Japanese deliberately bombed and sank the American naval gunboat, USS Panay, in the Yangtze River. Three sailors were killed and eleven were wounded when] apanese planes strafed the survivors. ] apan apologized to the United States and paid damage claims.

The sinking of the Panay alerted the Fifteenth Infantry at Tientsin.

"This is not a drill," the regiment commander said. "I repeat, this is the real thing."

Ammunition and hand grenades were issued to the men, who took up their battle positions.

What could a regiment of a little over 1,600 American soldiers do against hundreds of thousands of] apanese troops in China? Our bluffing days were over, and the] apanese weren't bluffing.

The Fifteenth Infantry Regiment was ordered outofChina by the brass in Washington so no incident with the ] apanese would be provoked.

The regiment departed China in December 1937, arriving in Seattle, Washington in January 1938, and resumed regular garrison duty at Fort Lewis, Washington. xi

Despite the aggression of the Japanese, American officials paid little attention to this. America kept selling scrap iron to Japan. This scrap iron was made into bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor and finished the Philippine defenders on Bataan and Corregidor.

We pray that this nation will never neglect the strength of its defense in its significance as a lesson that almost lost this land that we love.

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Introduction Plans for the taking of the Philippines had been drawn up by the Imperial General Staff, and in mid-November, Homma, together with other commanders, both naval and military, had a series of meetings pres ided over by the prime minister, Tojo. It was explained to them how the strike on Pearl Harbor would remove the American Pacific Fleet.

This plan was well carried out. Our fleet in Pearl Harbor was badly damaged and some boats were sunk.

For years the Japanese espionage system had been amassing details of the positions and sizes of the American bases in the Philippines. Since the middle thirties, they ca11\e in thousands through the port of Davao as businessmen, fishermen, and salesmen, and traveled through town and hamlet. They helped their Imperial High Command build up a picture of the situation in the Islands and be informed about Philippine life down to the smallest local detail.

The Japanese High Command in Tokyo, Japan, had been alarmed by the buildup of air strength in the Philippines. They had been informed that the United States had many planes, and the arrival of B-17 and P-40 fighter planes had Japan worried. They didn't have much time and had to make a quick decision.

A Japanese photo reconnaissance plane, flying at great height, which was not detected, really won the Philippine campaign for Japan in late November 1941 before a shot was fired.

The Japanese destroyed our planes in the Philippines on December 8, hours after the Pearl Harbor attack.

This bank of know ledge was to be of great use to the Japanese later; more immediately, it enabled the air force strategists to draw plans for the defeat of the Far East air force-a step regarded as vital both to success in the Philippines and to that of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Knowledge of what espionage could do had, however, made them heavily security-conscious themselves.

The Japanese knew where to strike-strength, location, and routes of the American main groupings were accurate.

This was the message General Homma sent to General Jonathan Wainwright, which read in part: xiii

Your Excellency, we have the honor to address you in accordance with the humanitarian principles of Bushido-the code of the Japanese warrior. ...

Since our arrival in the Philippines, already three months have elapsed during which, despite the defeat of your allies, British and the Netherlands East Indies, and in the face of innumerable difficulties, the American and Filipino forces under your command have fought with much gallantry. We are, however, ina position to state that with men and supplies which surpass both numerically and quantitatively those under your leadership, we are entirely free to either attack and put to rout your forces or await the inevitable starvation of your troops within the narrow confines of the Bataanpeninsula.

Your Excellency, you have already fought to the best of your ability.

What dishonor is there in following the example of Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Netherlands East Indies in acceptance of honorable defeat?

Your Excellency, your duty has been performed. Accept our advice and save the lives of these officers and men under your command. International Law would be strictly adhered to by the Imperial] apanese . ... If a reply to this advisory note is not received from Your Excellency through a special messenger by noon, March 22,1942, we should consider ourselves at liberty to take any action whatsoever.

General Wainwright ignored the ultimatum. The Bataan forces fought on and on until the fateful day of April 9, 1942.

The ] apanese plotted on their maps for more than a year before their invasion. ] apan made extensive aerial surveys of northern Luzon, selecting the areas of strategic importance and the points they could attack. Their object was the prompt annihilation of the defenqing force so as to clear the way without delay to the rice fields that lay to the south.

On December 8, the] apanese landed and captured the little island of Batan in the Bashi Channel north of Luzon. On December 10,1941, twelve transports with naval escorts landed at Appari in the north and Viganon the west coast. On December 12, the] apanese landed in the south at Lagaspi under naval escort.

In the deceptive quiet of the gray dawn on December 22, the great enemy blow fell at last. A huge invasion force entered Lingayen Gulf in three transport echelons; the firs t was composed of twenty -seven transports, the second of twenty-eight, and the third from Kee Lung consisted of twenty-six transports, which were supported by many cruisers, destroyers, and other auxiliary crafts. The troops convoyed were the Fourteenth] apanese Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, comprising the xiv

Fourth, Fifth, Sixteenth, Forty-eighth, and Sixty-fifth Divisions, a total strength of 80,000.

Two days after the mass landing at Lingayen Gulf, another large Japanese force landed at Atomonon on Lamon Bay on the east coast of southern Luzon.

Five submarines of the U.S. Navy were ordered to break up the landings. By the time the submarines arrived in the gulf, they were too late.

The Japanese transports were already in shoal water, where the submarines couldn't venture.

Submarine S-38 managed to sink a minesweeper on December 22, and on the next day the submarine Seal put an end to a small freighter; shore batteries made two hits on a seaplane tender. These were the only ships that were sunk at Ungayen Gulf.

Once in Bataan, our forces fought on and on, keeping General Homma from an early victory. This irritated Tokyo, who put pressure on General Homma to end the Bataan campaign. It was more than three months after the Japanese landing and exactly three months after the big landings at La Union and Tayabas.

It took the Japanese only days to conquer the much-vaunted British fortress of Singapore, British Malaya, the strongly defended Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), and other Southeast Asian countries.

Bataan had to be taken at all cost-that was the order from Tokyo.

Bataan and Corregidor were upsetting Japan's timetable for the establishmentof Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." Millions of people were shocked when they heard of the Bataan Death March. "Did this really happen? Were the Japanese that cruel?" they asked.

Many historians, news media, radio stations, and Washington officials received their information from some escaped officers.

As the only one who knew what happened on the Death March, you'll find in this story the spellbinding activities and violence that took place in the Philippines. The Death March and its atrocities are revealed for the first time. This story is the realistic account of the disastrous events that took place from December 7, 1941 until I returned back to the United States in

1947.

When General MacArthur heard of the Death March, he was saddened.

He wanted to give the story to the press; however, the powers in Washington forbade the release of any detail. They feared American public opinion xv

would demand greater reaction against the ] apanese. Washington wanted Europe out of the way first.

While on a sentimental journey to the Philippines in April 1967, the Sunday Chronicle, Manila, Philippines, April 9, 1967, stated that the press dispatches from Tokyo quoted a ] apanese imperial general and a poet as saying that there was no such thing as a Death March .

Another ranking officer, Tatusuo Terashita, had come out with a statementstating that the Death March was a total lie, that there was nothing to it. The story, he claimed, was designated to whip up anti-] apanese feeling.

He quoted General Wachi, Homma's chief of staff: "Y ou couldn't call it a Death March, as nothing happened. The Filipino and American troops were treated kindly." Naturally the Japanese wanted to erase the ignominy that was Bataan.

The heartbreak of it all was that many of the mothers became Gold Star mothers from this ordeal. These wonderful Gold Star mothers joined the pilgrimage to trace the path of agony suffered by their sons.

The Filipinos begged me to write my story. I knew that if I did, I would have to go through my thousands of notes, and yet I still wasn't sure that I could ever write my story . I knew it would be a horrible experience for me.

The scene was sad at the American cemetery. We saw the Gold Star mothers glancing at the long row of crosses; some sobbed and others wiped a tear. A Gold Star mother knelt in prayer at her son's grave; others were composed, serious, and dignified as they walked among the thousands of graves of the unknown Americans, knowing that one of them was their son.

While walking at the graves, I came to a Gold Star mother sobbing at the grave of her son. She looked at me and said "Abie, my dear boy, I owe it all to you."

I saw the name on the cross and knew him to be one of those disinterred in Bataan.

This reminded me of the words of President Marcos of the Philippines, who addressed the pilgrim group at Mount Samat. He pointed out that the Philippines were not commemorating the fall of Bataan, which, he said, marked the "bitter fate of Bataan; we are here to enshrine the triumph of the human spirit."

He recounted the valor of the Filipino and American forces who fought s ide by s ide in this province, which, he said, had sealed the "heroic traditions of the two peoples ."

He sounded the special partnership of Filipinos and Americans, which j

xvi

he said had been enshrined in Bataan. "But it also was the eternal forge of two peoples-Filipino and American-with a common commitment to freedom."

Touching on the local agitation for a reexamination of the relations between the two peoples, Marcos stressed that "no misunderstanding can take this away from us. We are irrevocably bonded to each other by the blood that was shed in these fields. Who can distinguish Filipino from American among the sands that burned with the blood of both?"

Continuing to stroll among the graves, I came to another Gold Star mother who was kneeling and praying at the grave of her son. After praying for ten minutes, she rose, looked at me, and said, "Abie, are you going to write your story? You know they killed my son; you know they are denying itnow. If you don'ttell what happened, no one will ever know the true story, and you will be letting Japan get away with it" I saw the tears in her eyes. I walked over, wiped her tears, and said, "I'll write my story." .

She kissed me and said, "Thank you, my son."

My friends, upon hearing that! was going to write my story, said, "The Japanese will deny it, and no one will want to publish your story, as it will be a hot item and you would be stepping on some toes."

"Yes," I said, "they will be afraid to publish my story. However, I am going to tell my story despite what Japan or anyone else thinks. The thousands of bodies I helped disinter were not what you would call a mental image."

xvii

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