Page 14

The Japanese military and civilian industrialists were responsible for over 10,000 American prisoners of war dying while under their jurisdiction. The camp quarters were very crude. Wooden slats were used for their beds. There was no heat. The bathing facilities were very crude and only available at certain times. Sanitary conditions in the camps were horrible. The prisoners of war were subjected to all kinds of vermin, including lice, bed bugs, roaches, and fleas. All were continually harassed by the Japanese military and civilian guards such as standing at attention for several hours in the cold or having your possessions thrown on the floor of the facility. Food was very scarce, causing each and every prisoner of war to lose at least anywhere from twenty to fifty pounds or more of weight. There were no medicines. Treatment for dysentery was ground up charcoal. Then there were the B-29 air raids which were continuous from January 1945 until the end of the war. The POWs had to work during the air raids while the Japanese workers evacuated the area because of their fear of being killed. The residual effects of prisoner of war life continues to haunt them all, both mentally and physically, even today.

This photo depicts the cruelty
of the Japanese military during
World War II. This incident
shown here, happened on
many occasions with POW's
under their control. There was
such an incident on the DEATH
MARCH and repeated many
times later to our pilots that
were shot down over Japan
and became prisoners of war
of the Japanese military. As
you see in the background of
this photo, Japanese troops
witnessed such executions.

Then there was th DEATH MARCH, Camp O'Donnell,
Cabanatuan, Bilibid, Palawan, the HELL SHIPS, the
many POW camps in Manchuria, Korea, and Japan
where POW's were forced into slave labor for the
industrial giants of Japan. Altogether, 5000 Japanese
were arrested for the calculated reprisal of state
and individual acts of brutality which had taken so
lives of Asiatics and Westerners. About 4000 of the
suspects of brutality were brought to trial. Of the
4000, some 800 were adquitted, some 2400 were
convicted for war crimes and sentenced to three or
more years of imprisonment, and 809 were executed.
Liberal clemency amd parole policies had reduced
the number serving sentences, and by the year 1958
all remaining criminals were released from prison.

THIS WEB SITE IS DEDICATED TO
THOSE COURAGEOUS AND
GALLANT DEFENDERS OF THE
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS FROM DECEMBER 8, 1941 TO
MAY 10, 1942
WHO WERE SACRIFICED BY THEIR
GOVERNMENT TO DISRUPT THE
TIME TABLE OF THE JAPANESE MILITARY IN CONQUERING ALL OF SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THEREBY GIVING THE UNITED STATES TIME TO ARM AUSTRALIA AND GO ON
AND WIN WORLD WAR II

THIS WEB SITE WAS PREPARED BY EDWARD JACKFERT
28TH BOMB SQUADRON
19TH BOMB GROUP
CLARK FIELD, P.I.
WHO
WAS A PRISONER OF WAR OF THE
JAPANESE MILITARY FROM
MAY 10, 1942 UNTIL AUGUST 14, 1945
AT MAYAYBALAY, P.I. AND
KAWASAKI, JAPAN WHERE HE
WAS FORCED IN TO SLAVE LABOR
FOR INDUSTRIALISTS IN JAPAN
DURING WORLD WAR II