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SURVIVOR OF JAPTPRISONiTells of Being Freed byco-cingParatroopers in Raid ' »nnlt; Behind Lines cou«comcamsonsa Her seventeen years of government service on foreign soil—more c°m than three years of this time as a 5“ai prisoner of the Japs in the Philip- be 1 pines—a former Steger resident j arrived back home last week after \ Mbeing liberated by American para- as lt;troopers who dropped behind the lines last February 23 to take the Jap prison guards by surprise.He is Wilbur Nokes, who joined the army in 1924 and has been in government service ever since, sometimes as a soldier and at other times in a civilian capacity. He | G considers Chicago Heights his home wer because a sister, Mrs. Edward Potts, resides at 1412 Fifth ave- j Arvnue.mitlof 1on Gor to 1 the in tDoclynStrsThe one thing all of us said when we got to San Francisco was that there is nothing like being arbar. Spe 1 DorRicMoBUIderIdercartoAleersnoiMrpresistIon Ch; Jar Me Hij “leian American, he said. *Tm still in a daze. It doesn't seem real that you can sleep on a soft bedand get plenty to eat—but I’ve Egained forty pounds on it.” j GorSees Jap Bombing j GreAfter spending eleven years in Manchuria and China, Nokes arrived in Manila December 2, 1941, as an employe of the Quartermaster Corps, United States Army, j He was at work in the port area dercm December 9, 1941, when thefirst Jap bombing planes came over. He counted fifty-four ofthem in the first wave.After that he helped evacuate tril supplies until the Japs entered the bee city on January 2. During all this period Manila had been under aerial attack bombardment despite welt; the fact that General MacArthur cloi had declared it an open city. j j “About five o'clock in the after-noon%the Japs rounded us up and told us to go upstairs and stay there, Nokes related. “The next morning they marched us to SantoTomas university, where about 4,000 of us were interned. We slept cm the cement floor in our clothes —there were no beds or bedding.For days we had nothing to eat. Finally the Red Cross began to get us some supplies, but after ten j days about all we had was coffee, j It was a year before we got our first mail.Moved Out of Manila In May, 1943, he was transferred with some of the other prisoners to Los Benos, about forty-five miles south of Manila. Conditions there were a little better.They fed'us rice, local vegetables, and meat once in a while, but, ^ we were alw'ay* hungry, he re- /lated. “Then came the first Amer- , ican bombing, September 23, 1944. After that the meat stopped and I ft we were cut to 100 grams of un-hulled rice a day — about three and one-half ounces. The last | month was worse. Deaths began to increase, and at the end an average of two internees were dying every day out of our 2,100.“The first hint that we were about to be freed came about this way: We noticed some Americanbombers flying unusually low, around seven o'clock in the morning. and suddenly the parachutes began to furl out. The first para-i trooper I saw' came striding intothe barracks with a tommygun un- , der his arm. He was the biggest | mah I ever saw and the toughest.“I told him to take cover from the guards, who w'ere scatteredaround the pillboxes. Instead he stood up straight and walked to- 1ward one of the pillboxes. It took thehim just thirty seconds to wipe cai it out.272 Japs KilledIn the daring operation, ten mileserttheMaJ. ] La Ma amUI4Ithenonitcoiinj I ne:weCafoisioFllt;eriDifirbehind American lines, the para- j ofltroopers lost two men while killing 272 Japs. Several Filipinos who assisted the liberators were also killed. After being attendedin temporary quarters for two weeks, the former prisoners were flown to Leyte. There they boarded a transport, and on April 8 they arrived in San Francisco.Nokes said that he personally had not been beSiten or tortured by his Japanese captors, although he had seen instances of brutality toward other prisoners, especially Filipinos.Fllt;roiDitoanaupuileyopolieanacItCl I
Newspaper Details
Homewood Flossmoor Star
Homewood, Illinois, US
Tue, Apr 24, 1945
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Mid-Continent L.
MO, USA 06 Dec 2018
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