Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 November 1945 — Page 4

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They would remain in the prison yard to await the evening bowlful in order to husband their strength for the evening ascent of the single flight of stairs.

—— Against this lability of their

own weakness the column of prisoners had an asset: A dedicated group of doctors, both army and navy, poor in medicine but rich in spirit. » .

. IN ONE of the camps—Cabanatuan—there had existed a group of irresponsible men who lived in part by manufacturing spurious sulfathiozole tablets, sthmped with a mold made from a cartridge, and selling” them to the Japanese guards, But the Bilibid doctors were . From May 30, 1042, three weeks after the fall of Corregidor, to October, 1943, the naval medical unit at Bilibid had been under Comdr. IL. B, Sartin of Mississippi. He was then succeeded by Comdr, Thomas H. Hayes of Norfolk.

Jewetny 20 Express Deb Personalities

From the upper levels of Bili the Americans had watched the American ‘carrier planes divebombing the harbor. Their hopes rose that the American dive bombers would be able to keep the harbor clear of shipping long enough so that the Japanese would not attempt to evacuate them. For some reason, however, the American air attacks stopped suddenly on Nov. 28, giving the Japanese their chance to sneak their freighters into Manila, As with dragging feet the prisoners marched their last miles on American soil, they feared that for them MacArthur would come too late.

. ” . THE JAPANESE had divided them into three groups. Group one, which numbered about 500 superior officers, included ranks from navy commander and army or marine lieutenant colonel down through major an navy-senior-Heuteriant. Arras Group two had a few majors, all the rest of the junior officers, and some navy medical corpsmen attached to their respective doctors, and numbered about 600. Group three included all non commissioned officers and enlisted men, a few medical officers, about 50 American civilians and 37 British prisoners,

Weeks of Hell for. Yank Pr

ship of 9-10000 tons, built in Nagasaki in 1939." On hand to supervise the prisoners were several Japanese whom the prisoners knew, There was Gen. Koa, who was in charge of all prisoners in the Philippines, and also Lt. N. Nogi, director of the Bilibid hospital, a former Seattle physician who in general had been kind to Americans. ” ” » THE PRISONERS mounted by single file the gangplank to the ship. : The Japanese sentries all had narugis or clubs. showing signg of weakness and frequently had. to be touched up with a blow of the narugi. The Japanese elected to fill the afthold first, and to-put aboard the highest ranking officers before the others. It was this circumstance which was to make the deathroll the heaviest the first night among the top officers, men who had commanded - regiments and battalions in the hopeless struggle for Bataan and Corregidor. ss ® » THE AFTHOLD'S hatch was cut off from free circulation of air by bulkheads fore and aft of it. . A long slanting wooden stair~ case extended some 35 feet down through the hatch, down which the prisoners weakly crept. When the. first officers reached the bottom of the ladder they were met by a Sergeant Dau, well known at Davao, who wore a sword and had several privates under him armed with brooms.

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