The Lord is my light; then why should I fear?

By day and by night his presence is near.

—James Nicholson, “The Lord Is My Light”

Among prisoners, escape was the most controversial topic. They rarely talked about it much, although every prisoner probably thought about it a lot. To deter escape attempts, the Japanese grouped the prisoners in “shooting squads” of ten men.[1] If any member of a group escaped or attempted to escape, the remaining nine men were to be executed. This directive was a violation of the Geneva Convention, but the Japanese had not ratified that convention and considered the squads an effective deterrent.

This directive was applicable to all camps but was not consistently applied or enforced. For example, while Hamblin was on a work detail from Camp O’Donnell, a soldier escaped with the aid of the local guerrilla forces. When the Japanese determined that the POW had escaped, they identified the five prisoners who had slept next to him the night before and summarily shot them in full view of the other POWs.[2] In contrast, Clarence Bramley, a Latter-day Saint POW from Long Beach, California, who had been at Cabanatuan, had also been on a work detail when a POW escaped. The other POWs were told that ten of them would be executed as punishment, but in that instance the executions were never actually carried out.[3] In any event, since any escape attempt would create risks well beyond the individuals involved, American administrators generally prohibited escapes and organized prisoners to prevent, not help, escape attempts by other prisoners.[4]

Apart from the execution squads, there were other practical impediments to any escape from a POW camp in the Philippines.[5] Outside the camp, the American prisoners’ light skin brightly advertised their escaped POW status and prevented them from hiding among the masses of Filipino civilians. The prisoners also understood that in their weakened physical conditions, they likely would not survive in the jungle outside the camp. The Japanese view was that adequate feeding or caring for prisoners’ health and medical needs might result in them growing strong enough to escape or challenge their guards. That was part of the reason for the poor care and treatment of the prisoners.[6]

Geography was also a problem. The Japanese POW camps were generally not too distant from major Japanese infantry units and nowhere near any Allied or neutral countries. Australia, the nearest Allied country, was some three thousand miles of ocean away. For those at Dapecol, the surrounding twenty miles of impassable swamp presented another unavoidable barrier. Those practical considerations largely deterred escape attempts.

Nonetheless, on April 4, 1943, ten prisoners escaped from Davao. The story of their miraculous escape, rescue, and eventual return to the United States is a fascinating one, well told in Escape from Davao, by John D. Lukacs. Those escapees were well aware of the risks to themselves and to other prisoners who remained, but in their view they were all dying a slow death anyway. They believed the only hope was to get back to the States and tell their stories to draw the world’s attention to Japan’s horrific treatment of these POWs.[7]

For the prisoners at Dapecol, the days following the escape were ones of great uncertainty and peril. It had never been clear whether the “shooting squad” rule would be applied at Dapecol and, if so, to whom? The Japanese had never formally announced the shooting squads, and the escapees had so carefully and secretly planned and executed the escape that others in the camp were completely and innocently unaware of it.

In response to the escape, the Japanese cut the entire camp’s rations and about 560 prisoners—about a quarter of the camp—were moved to a special compound where they were imprisoned in wood and wire mesh cages. Those included the twenty prisoners who had slept on either side of the escapees, the barracks leaders, the entire American camp leadership, and any men the Japanese believed had ever eaten with, conversed with, or even associated with the escaped POWs. Those in this special compound, confined like caged animals in a zoo, recognized that the Japanese would not let such a mass escape go unpunished and simply hoped the Japanese would shoot them as quickly as possible, without the torture.

A week later Major Maeda, the Japanese commander, addressed this group in the special compound. He first announced that this entire group was sentenced to confinement for a month. Then, in a very dramatic moment, he read off a list of names, consisting of the American camp commander, his assistants, and those who had slept next to the escapees; he ordered all to step forward twenty paces. Their sentences were then read. There is little doubt what those prisoners feared and expected to hear, but what they heard was not what they had expected. In an order that had likely come from Manila headquarters, those prisoners were simply “directed to reflect their faults, . . . to spend the number of days indicated in meditation of the past incident and [observe] modest and moral conduct at all times.” There would be no summary executions.[8]

Life for the remaining American POWs at Davao, nevertheless, changed. The Japanese officer in charge of the American POWs, Lieutenant Youke, who had been somewhat friendly to the POWs, was removed and replaced. Guards became more hostile and quicker to beat the POWs for the slightest infractions. The hours working in the rice fields were increased, and the workload was made heavier. With important ramifications for the POWs’ health, American details to the fruit orchards and vegetable gardens ceased, reducing the opportunities to steal much-needed food. Searches by guards for contraband food increased, as well as the severity of the beatings for those caught. And to complement those changes, there were cuts in rice and vegetable rations. There were also other changes with implications for the Latter-day Saint POWs and the Davao branch: religious services and Sunday evening entertainment were abolished. Davao had suddenly reverted to a cruel slave labor camp.[9]

Notes

[1] Shively, Profiles in Survival, 227–28; Lukacs, Escape from Davao, 105, 196; McCracken, Very Soon Now, 19; Christensen, “My Life Story,” 14.

[2] Hamblin, “My Experiences,” 12. In addition, as Hamblin was leaving Cabanatuan for Dapecol, he saw just outside the camp three POWs tied to posts along the road, stripped of all clothes except shorts. Anyone on the road was required to beat them before they would be allowed to pass. They had been caught trying to escape a few days earlier and by then had nearly been beaten to death. A few days later they were shot or beheaded. Hamblin, “My Experiences,” 14.

[3] Garner, Unwavering Valor, 85.

[4] Lukacs, Escape from Davao, 106.

[5] Lukacs, Escape from Davao, 149–59.

[6] McCracken, Very Soon Now, 48.

[7] Dyess, Dyess Story, 111.

[8] Lukacs, Escape from Davao, 222–4; McCracken, Very Soon Now, 76–81; Bolitho, “A Japanese POW Story,” part 4 (November 7, 2009), 3.

[9] Lawton, Some Survived, 74; Bolitho, “A Japanese POW Story,” part 4, 3, and part 5 (November 21, 2009), 1.