Through Fire and Through Water.

CHAPTER VI
IN A NEW CAMP

Santo Tomas was getting more and more crowded with internees, since those from the southern islands were transported to Manila. First they came from Cebu, then from Bacolod, Iloilo, and lastly from Davao on the Island of Mindanao. Those from Davao arrived about the first of January, 1944, and we were much interested in their tales of hardships. They had been treated much worse than we, and most of them were half starved. A missionary of that group who began work with me in the kitchen washing pots told us how that in their camp they had been so hungry that the pot washers would scrape every speck of mush out of the pots and eat it before washing them. We little thought that before the year was up we would be doing the same thing. By the beginning of 1944 we were far from getting enough to eat, and our doctors protested to the Japanese authorities that our food was deficient in calories as well as other necessary properties.

In the latter part of 1943 the long awaited invasion of Europe began. Up to that time we had been receiving daily copies of the Manila English and Spanish papers, but with the landing in Italy and its surrender to the Allies these papers were no longer allowed to enter camp. There was also immediate tightening up on the amount of supplies entering camp and all private communication with the outside was terminated. At this same time the Japanese printed Philippino money kept depreciating in value, making it increasingly more difficult for our buyers to obtain food for the camp. The military was asked for more funds, but in vain. We began to grow fond of our rice diet and to even eat the crust that stuck to the bottoms of the pots after cooking. Beans had become so scarce that bean soup was now a delicacy.

In January, 1944, the Japanese announced that a new control was to be placed over our camp. Thereafter we would no longer be run by civilians but would be directly under the control of the military with the same status as prisoners of war. They said that this would be to our advantage, for it would give us a sure supply of food delivered to the camp, and that they would give us all that we needed. With the first of February the new order began. Our old commandant was gone, and the soldiers were now in charge. Roll call was thereafter every morning at eight and every evening at six, and sometimes it took more than an hour, as we stood in long lines waiting to be counted.

Soon after this large quantity of corn was brought into camp along with some vegetables and considerable fish. The corn was made into mush for breakfast and into hominy for dinner, but since many of the kernels of corn were occupied by large beetles the flavor was not of the best. The fish were all of a very small variety, and the best we could do was to grind them up scales and all and make fish cakes. Sometimes because of the lack of oil these fish were boiled, and then they were even less appetizing.

In March, 1944, the announcement was made that five hundred more internees would be moved to Los Banos, and I immediately applied for Jackie, Sally and me to go so that we could be together with Jimmy again. The day of our transfer was April 7th, and we were all moved by truck. There were many families with women and children in this group, for they were told that families would be able to live together there as a group. This they had not been able to do in Santo Tomas, where the buildings had only large class rooms, and these buildings were divided into sections for men and boys, while the mothers with little children were in another building in the back. This trip we were taking to Los Banos was for most of us, including myself, the first time to ever leave the confines of Santo Tomas from the day we entered there in January, 1942.

At Los Banos we certainly had a much more beautiful location. The grounds of the camp at that time included the athletic field, gymnasium, hospital and several dormitories of the former University of Philippines Agricultural College. There were also twenty-eight long barracks buildings, most of which were still in the process of construction. We were scattered about in barracks or dormitories. The barracks that I was assigned to was divided into cubicles for two people each. Families of four or six were permitted to join their rooms together into a small apartment. They could also build porches as they wished over the outside entrances to their rooms, though these had to be of standard and durable construction. All of these barracks buildings were made with barn-like timber frames and roofed with shingles made from the nipa palm leaves. The outside walls were covered with a stiff, mat-like material called "sawali" by the Philippinos, which consisted of woven strips pealed from the outside of bamboo. At this camp Jackie and Jimmy now had a room together. I had a half Philippino boy for a room mate, and Sally was in another barracks for single women.

There was considerable land in garden at this new camp, and I immediately started to work there. We raised okra, egg plant, tomatoes, peppers and onions and a plant called New Zealand spinich. Our best supply of greens, however, was from the leaves of a native sweet potato called "camote." These vines grew very fast and could be picked quite often. But this garden fell far short of supplying the camp with its needed vegetables. Other supplies came in through the gate, being received by our men from Philippinos, who brought them on orders of the Japanese. There the Japanese guards were always on watch, searching carefully through everything brought in, yet almost daily notes were smuggled in from friendly natives with the latest transcriptions of broadcasts from Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

Up to this time several hundred allied nationals remained outside of internment in the Manila area. These were missionaries, some of them Protestant, but most were Catholic priests and nuns. In May, 1944, these all were suddenly brought into our camp and placed in a section of newly completed barracks around which a high, mat covered wall had been hastily erected in order that they might not communicate with us. Our camp remained divided like this till near September, With the advent of these new internees our commandant was also changed, and food supplies were greatly reduced. Our kitchen stopped cooking three meals a day and gave us what there was in two meals. We were now feeling very pinched for food, yet there was a goodly amount, moreover we could buy a number of things at our camp canteen.

In July, 1944, it was announced that a crew of men were needed in cutting wood to supply the camp kitchen with fuel. Till then this wood had been bought from the natives. It was difficult to get men for this work, for it was hard, and few had the strength for such work, so for added incentive an extra plateful of food was promised these men at noon. After a time I volunteered for this work. I found it very hard at first, because I was not toughened in. About this same time the Japanese moved us all out of our barracks building to new buildings farther back in the camp. I was made to give up the nice room I had been living in with its floors and two person cubicle and move to another barracks without floors and only stalls off the center aisle, in each of which six men were required to live and sleep. It was difficult to move while at the same time working on the wood cutting crew, and for several days I had to go as fast as I could from daylight till dark. Besides moving my bed and suitcases I had to take down and rebuild the little lean-to porch I had made for myself with its table and chairs as a place for some daytime privacy and study. There was also a tiny cook shack I had built of bamboo and thatched with palm leaves to protect from the rain, where I could cook the extra greens I might find or what I might buy at the canteen. However the hardest work was moving the little private garden of okra, egg plant, etc., that I had just started and which was doing so well. At the new barracks there was nothing but grass almost three feet high, which had to be cut, the ground then cleaned and spaded up and all the plants set out again. None of the plants did well there though I worked hard at it. I was losing weight fast, for food rations were now not nearly enough to satisfy.

Sally also had to move to a new barracks for the single women, one much like ours, and I helped her to move. She was also hungry, so I divided the extra plate of food that I got at noon with her, and we would add to it any little extra of greens or such that we might find. Jackie and Jimmy had jobs connected with carrying the pots of food from the kitchen to the barracks, and for this they were able to get a little extra food, that is, they were permitted to scrape what little they could out of the pots after they were emptied.

About this time we began to see American planes pass overhead. The first was in August, 1944, when we heard a great rumble of exploding bombs far to the north and as we gazed in that direction we saw the sky fill with the puffs of smoke from bursting anti-aircraft shells. The Japanese quickly ordered all of us inside the buildings, and we were kept on alert for many hours. Afterward there was a black-out every night. Though we were hungry we were much encouraged as hopes for deliverance rose high. Days and days followed without any planes, then they came again, long convoys of bombers sailing through the clouds while escort fighters zigzaged above and below them.

When fall came we were all growing more and more thin and hungry. There were no more sports because we were cut off from the athletic field, moreover no one now had the energy for such. Children were still sent to school, but their teachers were getting too weak to teach. I quit teaching Chinese, for I had not the energy to walk to the barracks where classes were held.