THE LIFE OF A P.O.W. UNDER THE JAPANESE In Caricature
AS SKETCHED BY
eolone! Malcolm VallgHn lortier P.O.w. From Apr. 9'42 to Aug. 20 '45
Copyrighted 1946 by COLONEL MALCOLM VAUGHN FORTIER
Published by C.
W.
HILL PRINTING Co.
w. 920 Riverside Ave. Spokane 8, Washington
Price: $3.50 per copy, postpaid
This Book is Dedicated 10
General Jonathan M. Wainwright Uur No.1 POW and to All other POW's, living and dead, who suffered the rigors of a Japanese Prison Camp
FOREWORD -----e----Passing away the time in Prison Camp before the Japanese forced us to work like Coolies in the fields was truly a problem,. We were forbidden to keep diaries so the thought came to me, at the camp in Tarlac, P.I., that if I could depict prison life by means of sketches, I would not only have an interesting and authentic pictorial record of that life but that I would at the same time have pleasantly passed away many, Qtherwise, long, weary and monotonous hours. . I had n ever taken a drawing lesson in my life and lay no claim to artistic ability; however, I had, while in High School and College, attempted, in a crude way to help illustrate the class annuals. Having decided to try my hand at caricaturing the incidents of prison life, the next problem was the materials with which to do the work. Pencils were easily obtainable but paper was another matter. Initially I started using ruled sheets from an old tablet and such of those cartoons as are being used in this book have had to be completely redone. Then Col. Ray O'Day, who in some manner and for some unknown reason had smuggled through a large amount of Philippine Army mimeographed instructions, came to my rescue and I made my sketches on the back of these mimeo sheets until at Shirakawa I was finally able to obtain some fairly good drawing paper. Very soon after starting on these sketches my fellow POW's began evincing an ever-increasing interest in what I was doing, at the same time encouraging me in my humble efforts. Soon there was a demand that I post the cartoons on the Bulletin Board and this led to an active interest on the part of the Japanese. I thought many times that my drawings would be confiscated and for that reason kept most of them hidden away . . One day at Cheng Chia Tun, Manchuria, the Camp Commander, one of the best we'd had, spotted my current cartoon on the library board. Considerably amused he sent for me throJgh the Interpreter (Giggling Gertie). He asked me many questions and wound up by requesting that I give him all my cartoons for a period of ten days. He did not wish to send them up to higher Headquarters or take them away. but he felt that they were very funny and he would like to have them long enough so he could enjoy them. Although I had made over 300 at the time I took a chance and only gave him 106. Every week thereafter, when he would come around on Inspection he would beg a little more time. At the end of 6 weeks I had given up hope of ever seeing those 106 cartoons again when one day Giggling Gertie came in with them with a note of appreciation from the Camp Commander. I had purposely kept the Japanese out of the .sketches as much as possible as it is hard to figure their angle on humor and I did not want to have them take the cartoons away or forbid me to make them. In response to an increasing demand that I reproduce the cartoons, if I ever got the~ back to the U.S., I ma~e a canvass at Shirakawa and found that 93% of the POW s were desirous of obtaining copies. In view of such interest I promised,
that in the event I came through alive with the cartoons, I would have them reproduced. I must confess I little realized at the time what I had let myself in for. Maybe I wasn't too optimistic about getting them out. Throughout my prison life I had kept an accurate ¡account of all prisoners with whom I had been associated. The total number approximated 2300. The first real problem in making up this book was the compiling of an alphabetical roster of all these POW's. This task occupied the major part of my time for nearly three months. The Emergency Addresses I had were those given me by the prisoners themselves, except that at Camp Hoten, I took the official records in the hand of Major Hankins, who had been senior American Officer in charge there since the camp started. I felt that a roster of all these POW's with their Emergency addresses should be included in this book. Having made arrangements with C. W. Hill Printing Co., of Spokane, Washington, to reproduce the drawings by an improved lithograph or offset method, I felt my worries were over, but circular compiled by that company, which included four of my drawings only added to my worries. This circular went into the mails to all POW's before I had seen or proofed it. When I did see it the reproduction was such a disappointment as to convince me that in order to obtain anything like the results I wanted, it woulc;l be necessary for me, not only to touch up every cartoon, but to go over them and retrace every line in heavy black pencil. To this enormous task I set myself down and it has taken up several more months of arduous effort.
a
In the meantime other troubles have arisen. Many of the circulars came back with "UNCLAIMED" stamped on the envelope. I have since tried through the Adjutant General of the Army and every other means I know of to get corrected addresses but many of the addresses are not up-to-date. Such a strong demand has been made for permanent binding that my original plans for temporary binding (loose leaf) as indicated in the circular have been changed and the book is being published, at considerable additional expense, in permanent book form. Throughout it has been my earnest desire to give to my fellow POW's as good a product as possible, with the material at hand. The many hours devoted by me in the preparation of this book have been a pleasure. I only hope the finished product gives to you a small degree of amusement and satisfaction. Dates and times portrayed are authentic, having been placed on the original cartoons at the time of inaking. At the suggestion of several of my civilian friends, I have included a caption under each cartoon, which I hope will be of some benefit to them in the translation. As previously stated the book is published primarily for the benefit and amusement of my fellow POW's; if it accomplishes that end I will feel that my efforts have been amply rewarded. Malcolm V . Fortier