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Tells of HisDays as aJap Prisoner(Continued from page 3)17th of October. We went to the old Bilibid prison in Manila. It was the Japanese intention to put us on ships immediately and ship us to Japan, but American planes wrecked that program. There had been several large groups of prisoners sent out ahead of us until .about 1,700 remained. We stayed in Bilibid until the 13th of December and one afternoon were suddenly marched down the dock and packed aboard a ship which was loaded down with Japanese women and children. During the time in Bilibid we were given two scanty meals of rice and soup made of sweet potato tops. I weighed about 155 pounds when we left—20 pounds underweight. On this ship, the Oroku Maru, as many as 800 were packed into one hold. We had about 150 deaths from suffocation. I forgot to say that 1,619 prisoners left Bilibid in this detail. On the 14th we were sighted by American planes and heavily bombed. Although no man casualties were suffered, the night of the 14th was one of horror. We had no waterFORD TRUCKS»W!TY NEEDEDMOTOR CO.MAYWOOD 281)N LAKE ST.”our complimentsXyVVyXvkand Jammed in this hold in a steel ship in the tropics, the heat wasterrific. Many went crazy andmany died. I shall never forget that night as long as I live. The ship had been disabled and had put into Olongapo harbor. The American planes returned to the attack and got a direct hit on the after hold which was packed with Americans. The Japanese guards started firing into the hold to keep the prisoners from leaving the ship. Finally the wor*' came to abandon ship and over the side we went; wounded (as many as possible) were assisted into the water and helped onto life rafts and bits of wreckage.*-We had not been provided with life preservers. The ship was about a half mile off shore in a sinking condition. At this time another flight of planes came over preparatory to bombing again. Fortunately however, the planes recognized from the large number of people in the water, that they had hit a prisoner of war ship, and didn’t drop their bombs. During most of the morning prisoners kept drifting ashore. The Japanese turned machine guns on some who were caught by the tide and were drifting out to sea. I got ashore wearing a pair of drawers and a pair of socks. I had nothing else; practically all of the others were in the same fix. We were kept in Ologapo for three or four days. Our food consisted of three or four teaspoonsful of raw rice per day. We had no clothing and the nights were cold. Deaths were a common occurrence. We were then taken by various stages to the northern end of Luzon and on the day after Christmas reembarked on another ship. We carried our wounded along with us. The Japanese made no efforts to provide medical attention and many died. Our second ship proceeded to Formosa, and on January 10 we were again bombed by American planes, suffering a large number of casualties. Deaths were now 10 to 20 a day. We were put on a third ship, still no clothing and jammed into one hold. As we approached Japan the weather got very cold and the death rate mounted. We were given half a cup of brakish water a day and about % of a canteen cup full of rice. We huddled together day and night to keep warm. We survivors arrived in Japan January31, I weighed 125 pounds but wasstill able to walk and was oneof the healthiest ones. Japan in the dead of winter and in thatVigils End as TcAre Among the(Continued from page 3) for the past three years. Two of Carl’s brothers are also in service, M/Sgt. Rocco, 25, en route home from Okinawa and M/Sgt. Michael, 27, in Germany.Soon Capt. Frank Grady and his wife, Virginia, will be reunited after three and a half long years of imprisonment. Capt. Gady, brother of Mrs. Robert McDunn, 324 Mannheim road, Bellwood, was released from a prison camp near Tokyo last month and expects to sail for the states this week.His wife, Virginia, who is now at Oakland, Calif., served as a civilian engineer with the army in the Philippines and was interned in Los Banos prison until the liberation of the islands last spring. The couple was married in the Philippines where they met.Capt. Grady, a cryptographer at Corregidor, was taken prisoner at the fall of the island fortress and transported a short time later to the Japanese mainland, where he was interned near Takyo. The last direct word Mrs. McDunn received from her brother was a shortwave broadcast in May, 1944.Graduated from Proviso high school in 1931, Capt. Grady en-t€a]1lt;Vr«wtlslt;IV+1La-clLP4:condition is and was not fun. Many more died as a result of their hardships and the fact that the Japanese provided no proper medical attention, food, or quarters. We left Japan and arrived here in Korea on the 27th of April. Conditions were somewhat better in this camp although the food was woefully insufficient. Then came news of the surrender—what a day! There are, however, so far as we can figure, only 350 survivors of the original 1,619 who left the Philippines. There are 138 Americans and 30 British in this camp.^ ;“These are only highlights that I have given you, but it will give you some idea of what we have gone through. ^“I have pcked up now to the point where I weigh 150 pounds. Only 25 pounds underweight, but I am gaining steadily. I am out of the w'ood and going strong.” Col. Beecher is the son of Bryant L. Beecher, a long time resident of Maywood, now residing at5502 Thomas street, Chicago.Ib.irINaeih.slt;Cs1isAtlt;irsiu:Pc;PiiSslt;wFFa4:nddntonvvE1lt;EaI
Newspaper Details
Bellwood Proviso Township Herald
Bellwood, Illinois, US
Thu, Oct 04, 1945
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 04 May 2022
Other Publications Near Bellwood, Illinois
Bellwood Proviso Township Herald
Bellwood Star Sentinel
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