text:
Zweber, PFC Roland G.
194th - HQ Co., 194th Tank Battalion, Cabanatuan, Camp O'Donnell, Hell Ships, Nagoya #6, Noto Maru, Prison Camp, Provisional Tank Group, Transports, U.S.S. Tryon
PFC Roland George Zweber was born on September 13, 1919, in New Market, Minnesota, to Peter V. Zweber and Julia K. Radermarcher-Zweber, and had two sisters. He was known as "Rocky" to his family and friends. The family resided at 95 West Jessamine Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota. He left high school after two years and went to work as a telegraph messenger. When the Selective Service Act took effect on October 16, 1940, he registered for the draft and named his father as his contact person. He was inducted into the U.S. Army on April 14, 1941, in Minneapolis and sent to Fort Lewis, Washington, for basic training, and was assigned to the 194th Tank Battalion.
Basic training for men from Selective Service was condensed down to six weeks, or less, under the direction of sergeants from the HQ Company. The sergeants lived with them and dealt with all their problems or directed them to someone who could help them. They supervised the selectees' calisthenics and drill, besides holding classes in all the different subjects they needed to be trained as tank battalion members. They lived with HQ Company until they joined their assigned company. The first group of draftees completed their training in May. Many of the men were sent to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, for special training at the tank school there.
The battalion, in July, still had only the eight M2 tanks that came with the companies to Ft. Lewis. It received some single turret tanks in late July that had been built in 1937, and a few beeps (later known as "jeeps"). It was the only unit at the base with them. On August 1st, the battalion was told it was losing B Company. The company was detached from the battalion and issued orders to Alaska. The rest of the battalion took part in what was called the Pacific maneuvers. During the maneuvers, the battalion was ordered back to Ft. Lewis, where they learned they were being sent overseas. The battalion's new tanks were sent west from Ft. Knox, Kentucky, where they had been requisitioned by an officer of the 192nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Lt. William Gentry, for the battalion. Gentry was given written orders from the War Department giving him authority to take tanks from any unit so the 194th had its full complement of tanks. In some cases, the tanks he took had just arrived at the fort on flatcars and were about to be unloaded when he and his detachment arrived and took the tanks from soldiers waiting to unload them. From Ft. Knox, the tanks were sent west by train and were waiting for the battalion at Ft. Mason.
The story that Col. Ernest Miller, in his book Bataan Uncensored, told was that the decision to send the battalion overseas was made on August 15, 1941, and was the result of an event that took place in the summer of 1941. In the story, a squadron of American fighters was flying over Lingayen Gulf, in the Philippines, when one of the pilots, who was flying at a lower altitude, noticed something odd. He took his plane down and identified a flagged buoy in the water and saw another in the distance. He came upon more buoys that lined up, in a straight line for 30 miles to the northwest, in the direction of Taiwan which had a large radio transmitter used by the Japanese military. The squadron continued its flight plan south to Mariveles and returned to Clark Field. When the planes landed, it was too late to do anything that day.
The next day, when another squadron was sent to the area, the buoys had been picked up by a fishing boat – with a tarp on its deck – that was seen making its way to shore. Since communication between the Air Corps and Navy was difficult, the boat escaped. It was at that time the decision was made to build up the American military presence in the Philippines. On August 18, Miller stopped in Brainerd, Minnesota, to see his family after receiving orders at Ft. Knox. When asked, he informed the Brainerd Daily Dispatch that the battalion was being sent overseas, but he did not disclose where they were being sent. He later flew to Minneapolis and then flew to Ft. Lewis.
The fact was that the battalion was part of the First Tank Group which was headquartered at Ft. Knox and operational by June 1941. Available information suggests that the tank group had been selected to be sent to the Philippines early in 1941. Besides the 194th at Ft. Lewis, the group was made up of the 70th and 191st Tank Battalions – the 191st was a National Guard medium tank battalion while the 70th was regular army – at Ft. Meade, Maryland, the 193rd at Ft. Benning, Georgia, and the 192nd at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. The 192nd, 193rd, and 194th had been National Guard light tank battalions. It is known that the military presence in the Philippines was being built up at the time, so in all likelihood, the entire tank group had been scheduled to be sent to the Philippines. The reality was there were only three places the tank battalion could be sent; they were Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
On August 13, 1941, Congress voted to extend federalized National Guard units' time in the regular Army by 18 months. Two days later, on August 15, the 194th received its orders to go overseas. The buoys being spotted by the pilot may have sped up the transfer of the tank battalions to the Philippines with only the 192nd and 194th reaching the islands, but it was not the reason for the battalions going to the Philippines. It is also known that the 193rd Tank Battalion had sailed for Hawaii – on its way to the Philippines – when Pearl Harbor was attacked. After it arrived in Hawaii, the battalion was held there. The 70th and 191st never received orders for the Philippines because of the war. It is known at least one heavy tank battalion had been scheduled to be sent, but it appears one had not been selected. Some military documents from the time show the name of the Provisional Tank Group in the Philippines as the First Provisional Tank Group.
On September 4, 1941, the remaining companies of the 194th were sent to Ft. Mason, north of San Francisco, by train and arrived at 7:30 A.M. on the 5th. From there, they were ferried, on the U.S.A.T. General Frank M. Coxe to Ft. MacDowell on Angel Island where they were inoculated and given medical examinations by the battalion's medical detachment. Men with medical conditions were replaced with men who had been sent there for that purpose. The battalion's new tanks had their turrets removed to fit them in the ship's hold. So that the turrets would be put back on the same tanks, the tanks' serial numbers were painted on the turrets.
The soldiers hiked from their barracks to a ferry and rode it to San Francisco, From the pier, they rode busses to another pier and boarded the U.S.A.T. President Calvin Coolidge. The ship sailed at 9:00 P.M. for the Philippine Islands on September 8. At first, most of the soldiers were seasick. Once they had recovered, they attended classes, performed KP, did maintenance on the tanks, and painted the ship. The ship arrived at 7:00 A.M. on September 13 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the soldiers were given four-hour passes ashore. One of the members of the company had friends stationed at Pearl Harbor, so many of the men went on a tour of Pearl Harbor months before the Japanese attack.
After leaving Hawaii, the ship took a southerly route away from the main shipping lanes. During this part of the trip, the ship was joined by the heavy cruiser the U.S.S. Astoria, the fleet replenishment oiler the U.S.S. Guadalupe, and an unknown destroyer. During rough weather, the destroyer approached the Coolidge. The soldiers recalled that the destroyer bobbed up and down and from side to side in the water with waves breaking over its deck. When it became apparent that a boat would be crushed if it attempted to transfer someone from one ship to another, a bosun's chair was rigged and the man was sent from the Coolidge to the destroyer. A few of the tanks in the hold broke loose from their moorings and rolled back and forth slamming into the ship's hull. They did this until the tankers secured them.
The ships crossed the International Dateline on Tuesday, September 16, and the date became Thursday, September 18. On several occasions, smoke was seen on the horizon, and the Astoria took off in the direction of the smoke. Each time it was found that the smoke was from a ship belonging to a friendly country. At one point, the ships in total blackout passed islands during the night. The ships entered Manila Bay at about 7:00 in the morning of Friday, September 26. The soldiers remained on board and disembarked at 3:00 P.M. and were taken by bus to Fort Stotsenburg. The battalion's maintenance section, remained behind at the pier, with 17th Ordnance, to unload the tanks and reattach the tanks' turrets which had been removed so the tanks would fit in the ship's hold.
Upon arriving at the fort, they were greeted by General Edward P. King Jr. who apologized that they had to live in tents and receive their meals from food trucks until their barracks were completed on November 15. He informed the battalion he had learned of their arrival just days before they arrived. After he was satisfied that they were settled in, he left them. The officers were put in two men tents while the enlisted men were assigned to six men tents. Each man had a cot, cotton pads, white sheets, a wool blanket, and a footlocker for personnel belongings.
After spending three weeks in tents, they moved into their barracks on October 18, the barracks were described as being on stilts with walls that from the floor were five feet of a weaved matting called sawali This allowed the men to dress. Above five feet the walls were open and allowed for breezes to blow through the barracks making them more comfortable than the tents. There were no doors or windows. The wood that was used for the support beams was the best mahogany available. For personal hygiene, a man was lucky if he was near a faucet with running water.
The days were described as hot and humid, but if a man was able to find shade it was always cooler in the shade. The Filipino winter had started when they arrived, and although it was warm when they went to sleep by morning the soldiers needed a blanket. They turned in all their wool uniforms and were issued cotton shirts and trousers which were the regular uniform in the Philippines. They were also scheduled to receive sun helmets.
The battalion made one trip to the Lingayen Gulf. Things went well until they turned on a narrow gravel road in the barrio of Lingayen that had a lot of traffic. A bus driver parked his bus in the middle of the road and did not move it even after the tanks turned on their sirens and blew whistles. As they passed the bus, the tanks tore off all of one side of it. The tankers bivouacked about a half-mile from the barrio on a hard sandy beach with beautiful palm trees. The tankers had a swim and got in line for chow at the food trucks. It was then that the battalion's two doctors told them that they needed to wear earplugs when they swam because the warm water contained bacteria and they could get ear infections that were hard to cure. No one came down with an ear infection. The soldiers went to sleep on the beach in their sleeping bags when they began to hear humming and scratching. When they turned on a flashlight they found their sleeping bags were covered with beetles and other bugs. They quickly moved to an uninfested area.
It is known that they were paid at least once after arriving which was confusing since they were paid in pesos and centavos. Many men at first had to learn how much things cost in a new currency. At the end of the workday, the men had free time. The fort had a bowling alley and movie theaters. The men also played softball, horseshoes, and badminton. Men would also throw footballs around. On Wednesday afternoons, the men went swimming. Once a month, men put their names for the chance to go into Manila. The number of men allowed on these trips was limited. Other men were allowed to go to Aarayat National Park where there was a swimming pool that was filled with mountain water. Other men went canoeing at the Pagsanjan Falls and stated the scenery was beautiful.
The 192nd Tank Battalion arrived in the Philippines on November 20 with four tank companies. The process was begun to transfer D Company from the 192nd to the 194th giving each battalion three tank companies. The 192nd also arrived with a large amount of radio equipment to set up a radio school to train the Philippine Army and had a large number of ham radio operators. Shortly after arriving at Ft. Stotsenburg, they set up a communications tent that was in contact with the United States within hours. The communications monitoring station in Manila went crazy attempting to figure out where all these new radio messages were coming from. When they were informed it was the 192nd, they gave them frequencies to use. Men were able to send messages home to their families that they had arrived safely.
Ten days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, a squadron of American planes on routine patrol spotted Japanese transports milling about – in a large circle – in the South China Sea. On December 1, the two tank battalions were put on full alert and ordered to their positions at Clark Field. Their job was to protect the northern half of the airfield from paratroopers. The 194th guarded the north half of the airfield and the 192nd guarded the southern half. Two crewmen remained with the tanks at all times and received their meals from food trucks. The airfield two runways were shaped like a "V" and the Army Air Corps' hangers and headquarters were at the point of the "V". The tankers slept in sleeping bags on the ground under their tanks or palm trees. On December 7, the tanks were issued ammunition and the tankers spent the day loading ammunition belts and 37-millimeter shells into their tanks. They also were given sidearms.
It was the men manning the radios in the 192nd's communications tent who were the first to learn of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 8. Major Ted Wickord, the 192nd's commanding officer, Gen. James Weaver, commanding officer of the tank group, and Major Ernest Miller, read the messages of the attack. Miller left the tent and informed his officers of the attack. He also ordered his officers to have the half-tracks join the tanks at Clark Field. Their job was to engage Japanese paratroopers. All the members of the tank and half-track crews were ordered to the north end of Clark Field. HQ Company remained behind in their bivouac.
Around 8:00 A.M., the planes of the Army Air Corps took off and filled the sky. At noon the planes landed and were lined up in a straight line to be refueled near the pilots' mess hall. While the planes were being worked on, the pilots went to lunch. At 12:45 in the afternoon on December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he lived through the Japanese attack on Clark Field. The tankers were eating lunch when planes approached the airfield from the north. At first, they thought the planes were American and counted 54 planes in formation. They then saw what looked like raindrops falling from the planes. It was only when bombs began exploding on the runways that the tankers knew the planes were Japanese. The first wave of bombers was followed by a second wave of bombers and a third wave of bombers. The bombers were followed by Zeros that strafed the airfield. Each attack lasted about 15 to 20 minutes. The tankers watched as American pilots attempted to get their planes off the ground. As they roared down the runway, Japanese fighters strafed the planes causing them to swerve, crash, and burn. Those that did get airborne were barely off the ground when they were hit. The planes exploded and crashed to the ground tumbling down the runways.
When the Japanese were finished, there was not much left of the airfield. The soldiers watched as the dead, the dying, and the wounded were hauled to the hospital on bomb racks, trucks, and anything else, that could carry the wounded, was in use. When the hospital filled, they watched the medics place the wounded under the building. Many of these men had their arms and legs missing. That night, most men slept under their tanks since it was safer than sleeping in their barracks. They had no idea that they had slept their last night in a bed. One of the results of the attack was that the transfer of D Company, to the 194th, was never completed. The company fought with the 194th but retained its designation of being part of the 192nd.
The next day, those men not assigned to a tank or half-track walked around Clark Field to look at the damage. As they walked, they saw there were hundreds of dead. Some were pilots who had been caught asleep, because they had flown night missions, in their tents during the first attack while other pilots had been killed attempting to get to their planes. They saw bodies of men with half their heads blown off and others whose intestines were lying on the ground.
The battalion was sent to the barrio of San Joaquin on the Malolos Road and moved to an area just south of San Joaquin near the Calumpit Bridge on December 12. The move was made at night without lights and resulted in two tanks going off the road into ditches, but no major damage was done to either tank. The battalion received 15 Bren Gun carriers that were used to test the ground to see if it could support the weight of a tank. When they left Ft. Stotsenburg, the tankers left all the personal possessions at the fort. It was the last time they saw them. On December 22, they were ordered to the Agno River near Carmen. There, they engaged the Japanese who were attempting to cross the river in several places. The tankers fired on them with their machine guns killing as many as 500 enemy troops. The night of December 22, the battalions were operating north of the Agno River when they found that the bridge they were supposed to use had been bombed. On December 23 and 24, the battalion was in the area of Urdaneta and found the bridge they were going to use to cross the Agno River was destroyed. The tankers made an end run to get south of the river and ran into Japanese resistance early in the evening, but they successfully crossed at the river in the Bayambang Province. Later on the 24, the battalions formed a defensive line along the southern bank of the Agno River with the tanks of the 192nd holding the Agno River from Carmen to Tayug, and the 194th holding the line on the Carmen-Alcala-Bautista Road.
The 192nd received orders to withdraw, but the 194th did not receive the order for some unknown reason. The battalion finally was ordered to withdraw and 1st Lt. Harold Costigan informed the members of A Company, and D Company, 192nd, that they would have to fight their way out. The tanks fought their way through Carmen losing two tanks but saving the crews except for Capt. Edward Burke. He had been hit by enemy fire and presumed dead. The tankers were at Santo Tomas near Cabanatuan on December 27, and at San Isidro south of Cabanatuan on December 28 and 29.
On January 1, conflicting orders were received by the defenders who were attempting to stop the Japanese advance down Route 5. Doing this would allow the Southern Luzon Forces to withdraw toward Bataan. General Wainwright was unaware of the orders since they came from Gen. MacArthur's chief of staff. Because of the orders, there was confusion among the Filipinos and American forces defending the bridge, over the Pampanga River, about withdrawing from the bridge and half of the defenders withdrawing. Due to the efforts of the Self Propelled Mounts, the 71st Field Artillery, and a frenzied attack by the 192nd Tank Battalion the Japanese were halted.
From January 2nd to 4th, the 192nd held the road open from San Fernando to Dinalupihan so the southern forces could escape while the 194th held the bridge open. The tanks and Self Propelled Mounts were the only units that held the line against the Japanese at Guagua on January 5. It was also in January 1942, that the food ration was cut in half. It was not too long after this was done that malaria, dysentery, and dengue fever began hitting the soldiers. On the night of January 5, the tank battalion was holding a position near Lubao. At 2:30 A.M., the night of January 5th/6th, the battalions' outposts challenged approaching soldiers. The soldiers turned out to be Japanese. The Japanese sent up flares to show where the American tanks were located. They then charged toward the tanks, through an open field, and were mowed down. When the Japanese disengaged at 3:00 A.M., there were large numbers of Japanese dead and wounded in front of the tanks.
The Japanese attacked Remedios in force at 8:00 A.M. with an artillery barrage and used smoke as cover on the 7th. This attack was an attempt to destroy the tank battalions. At 6:30 P.M. the defensive line broke through the area held by the tanks. Lt. Col. Ernest Miller, 194th, ordered both tank battalions to form on the main road to the east. It was dusk, but the tank drivers somehow managed to get the tanks out of the area to Abucay-Hacienda line which was the new defensive line. The night of January 6th/7th the tanks withdrew into the Bataan peninsula with the 192nd holding its position so that the 194th could leapfrog past it, cross the bridge, and then cover the 192nd's withdrawal over the bridge. The 192nd was the last American unit to enter Bataan before the engineers blew up the bridge at 6:00 A.M.
On January 8, a composite tank company was formed under the command of Capt. Donald Hanes, B Co., 192nd. Its job was to protect the East Coast Road north of Hermosa open and to stop Japanese tanks attempting to use it to overrun the next defensive line that was forming. While in this position, the tanks were under constant enemy artillery fire. When word came that a bridge was going to be blown up, all the tanks were ordered out of the area, which included the composite company.
The tanks bivouacked south of the Pilar-Bagac Road and about two kilometers from the East Coast Road. It had almost been one month since the tank crews had a rest and the tanks had maintenance work done on them by 17th Ordnance. It was also on this day that the tank platoons were reduced to three tanks per tank platoon. The men rested and the tanks received the required maintenance. Most of the tank tracks had worn down to bare metal and the radial engines long past their 400-hour overhauls. It was at this time the tank battalions received these orders which came from Gen. Weaver, "Tanks will execute maximum delay, staying in position and firing at visible enemy until further delay will jeopardize withdrawal. If a tank is immobilized, it will be fought until the close approach of the enemy, then destroyed; the crew previously taking positions outside and continuing to fight with the salvaged and personal weapons. Considerations of personal safety and expediency will not interfere with accomplishing the greatest possible delay."
The battalions were sent to cover the junctions of the Back Road and East Road with the Abucay-Hacienda Road on January 25. While holding the position, the 45th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, fought its way to the position at 3:00 A.M. One platoon was sent to the front of the column of trucks that were loading the troops. The tanks provided heavy fire so that the infantry could withdraw and inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese. Later on January 25, both the 192nd and 194th held a defensive line on the Balanga-Cardre-BaniBani Roads until the withdraw was completed at midnight. They held the position until the night of January 26/27, when they dropped back to a new defensive line roughly along the Pilar-Bagac Roads. When ordered to withdraw to the new line, the 192nd found that the bridge at Balanga, that they were supposed to use had been destroyed by enemy fire. To withdraw, they had to use secondary roads to get around the barrio and tanks were still straggling in at noon.
The tank battalions, on January 28, were given the job of protecting the beaches. The Japanese later admitted that the tanks guarding the beaches prevented them from attempting landings. The tank battalions, on their own, took up the job of protecting the airfields at Cabcaban, Bataan, and Mariveles, since Japanese paratroopers were known to be available.
Throughout the Battle of Bataan, men held the belief that aid would arrive. The tanks and half-tracks were well hidden in the jungle around the airfields and different plans were in place to be used against Japanese forces. The Japanese bombed the airfields during the day and at night the engineers would repair them. 50-gallon drums were placed around the airfields to mark the runways, and at night fires could be lit in them to outline the landing strip. The soldiers were hungry and began to eat everything they could get their hands on to eat. If it could be eaten, it soon became scarce on Bataan. The Carabao were tough but if they were cooked long enough they could be eaten. They also began to eat horse meat provided by the 26th U.S. Cavalry. During this time the soldiers ate monkeys, snakes, lizards, horses, and mules. The only animal that most men could not eat was the monkeys. The reason why was the monkeys' faces made them look too human.
On one occasion, the tankers were moving their tanks to a sugarcane field. They discovered that the field was filled with Japanese soldiers. The tankers opened fired and killed over 300 Japanese soldiers. The Japanese sent raiding parties into the Filipino and American lines at night. They would kill someone and then drop back. To prevent themselves from giving away their positions, the Americans had orders to use bayonets at night and not their guns.
On April 3, 1942, the Japanese launched an attack supported by artillery and aircraft. A large force of Japanese troops came over Mount Samat and descended down the south face of the volcano. This attack wiped out two divisions of defenders and left a large area of the defensive line open to the Japanese. C Company was attached to the 192nd and the company had only seven tanks left. A counter-attack was launched – on April 6 – by the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts which was supported by tanks. Its objective was to restore the line, but Japanese infiltrators prevented this from happening. Other tanks of C Company tanks were supporting the 2nd Battalion, 45th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, which was moving east on Trail 8 toward Limay. It was about 5:00 A.M. at the junction of Trails 8 and Trail 6 when the battalion was ambushed by a large number of Japanese. The 1st Platoon of Company C was acting as part of the point when the lead tank was knocked out by anti-tank fire and the following tank was forced off the trail.
It was at 10:00 P.M. that the decision was made to send a jeep – under a white flag – behind enemy lines to negotiate terms of surrender. The problem soon became that no white cloth could be found. A truck driver for A Company, 192nd, realized that he had bedding buried in the back of his truck and searched for it. The bedding became the "white flags" that were flown on the jeeps. At 11:40 P.M., the ammunition dumps were destroyed. At midnight Companies B and D, 192nd and A Company received the order from Gen. Weaver to stand down. At 2:oo A.M. April 9, Gen. King sent a jeep under a white flag carrying Colonel Everett C. Williams, Col. James V. Collier, and Major Marshall Hurt to meet with the Japanese commander about terms of surrender. (The driver was from the tank group.) Shortly after daylight Collier and Hunt returned with word of the appointment.
At 6:45 A.M., the order "CRASH" was sent out and the tank crews circled their tanks. Each tank fired an armor-piercing shell into the engine of the tank in front of it. They also opened the gasoline cocks inside the tank compartments and dropped hand grenades into the tanks. Most of the company waited in their bivouac for the Japanese to make contact, while others attempted to reach Corregidor which had not surrendered.
About 10:00 A.M. the jeeps reached Lamao where they were received by a Japanese Major General who informed King that he reported his coming to negotiate a surrender and that an officer from Japanese command would arrive to do the negotiations. The Japanese officer also told him that his troops would not attack for thirty minutes while King decided what he would do. After a half-hour, no Japanese officer had arrived from their headquarters and the Japanese attack had resumed. King sent Col Collier and Maj Hunt back to his command with instructions that any unit in line with the Japanese advance should fly white flags.
Shortly after this was done a Japanese colonel and interpreter arrived. King was told the officer was Homma's Chief of Staff and he had come to discuss King's surrender. King attempted to get insurances from the Japanese that his men would be treated as prisoners of war, but the Japanese officer – through his interpreter – accused him of declining to surrender unconditionally. At one point King stated he had enough trucks and gasoline to carry his troops out of Bataan. He was told that the Japanese would handle the movement of the prisoners. The two men talked back and forth until the colonel said through the interpreter, "The Imperial Japanese Army are not barbarians." King found no choice but to accept him at his word.
That night the soldiers went to sleep and were still sleeping when the Japanese entered their bivouac. They were awakened with kicks from hobnailed boots and jabs from bayonets that communicated the message to form two columns. They were now Prisoners of War. As they stood there, the Japanese soldiers took their watches, rings, money, and anything else they wanted. They took the glasses from the men wearing them and smashed the lenses. HQ Company was ordered the next day, to move to the headquarters of the Provisional Tank Group, which was at kilometer marker 168.2. The company destroyed all its vehicles and rode one half-track to the Tank Group Headquarters. Two of the soldier's clothes were soaked in gasoline so they could use the clothing to burn the half-track.
When they arrived at tank group headquarters they had just missed breakfast which was the best one any of the tankers had had in months. The cooks at the HQ were able to give the members of the company a can of food and a can of condensed milk. With a guard escorting them, the men were allowed to get water from a well that was down a hill. When the Japanese realized that they were not a threat, they allowed the prisoners to go to the well unescorted. The Japanese ordered them to remain where they were the rest of the day and they went to sleep along the side of a road. The next day they woke to the sound of Japanese artillery firing at Corregidor. The island had not surrendered. From the battalion's officers, an older Japanese general attempted to find out where the water line to Corregidor was located. The water line did not exist, but the Japanese believed that it did and that they could get the island to surrender by cutting off its water.
The POWs were ordered out to a road where the Japanese who had no interpreters beat and clubbed the Prisoners of War until they formed ranks. As they stood on the road, a shell from Corregidor hit the barn where they had spent the night. At 7:00 P.M. on the 10th, the POWs formed detachments of 100 men and made to march the north-south road where they were searched again. It was at this time that the company began what they called "the march" or "the hike." As soon as they began marching, they saw and smelled the dead along the sides of the road.
The POWs marched for three or four kilometers and then were turned around and marched back to where they started. They were ordered to fall out and left sitting in the sun with few trees for shade. They were ordered to fall in and marched 12 kilometers to Cabcaben where they joined other POWs who had already been marched there. It was nearly dusk and more and more detachments of POWs kept arriving. The POWs were put on the airfield and given enough space to lie down for the night.
At 3:00 A.M., they were given an hour break before being ordered to move again at 4:00 A.M. The column reached Lamao at 8:00 A.M., where the POWs were allowed to forage for food before marching again at 9:00. When the POWs reached Limay, officers with ranks of major or higher were separated from the enlisted men and the lower-ranking officers. The higher-ranking officers were put on trucks and driven to Balanga from where they marched north to Orani. The lower-ranking officers and enlisted men reached the barrio later in the day having marched through Abucay and Samal.
As they made their way north toward the Lamao area of Bataan. They were joined by other POWs coming from side roads and trails. There were many more Filipino POWs than Americans and the two groups mixed together. The road was hard to walk on because of the holes from the shelling and bombings. The POWs were moved to the side of the road whenever a Japanese convoy came by heading south. The Japanese soldiers tried to hit the POWs in their heads with their rifle butts as they passed them.
The POWs made their way to Balanga where they were searched again. North of the barrio they were herded into a field. The POWs were forced to sleep on top of each other. The next morning the POWs were ordered to assemble and those who had died continued to lie on the ground. The large crows circled the field. The POWs finally received their first meal. It was also at this time that the Filipinos were separated from the Americans.
When they were north of Hermosa, the POWs reached pavement which made the march easier. At 2:00 A.M., they received an hour break, but any POW who attempted to lay down was jabbed with a bayonet. After the break, they were marched through Layac and Lubao. It was at this time that a heavy shower took place and many of the men opened their mouths in an attempt to get water. At Lubao, they were put into a bullpen the size of a football field.
The next morning, the POWs marched 13 kilometers to San Fernando. Once there, they were herded into a bullpen, surrounded by barbed wire, and put into groups of 200 men. One POW from each group went to the cooking area which was next to the latrine and received a box of rice that was divided among the men. Water was given out in a similar manner with each group receiving a pottery jar of water to share. At 4:00 A.M., the Japanese woke the men up and organized them into detachments of 100 men. From the compound, they were marched to the train station, where they were packed into small wooden boxcars known as "forty or eights." Each boxcar could hold forty men or eight horses, but the Japanese packed 100 men into each car and closed the doors. The POWs were packed in so tightly that the dead could not fall to the floor. At Capas, as the living left the cars and those who had died – during the trip – fell to the floors of the cars. As they left the cars, the Filipino civilians threw sugarcane and gave the POWs water.
From Capas the POWs walked 8 kilometers, to Camp O'Donnell, arriving in the camp on April 14, 1942. The camp was an unfinished Filipino military base that the Japanese put into use as a POW camp on April 1, 1942. The Japanese estimated that the camp could hold from 15,000 to 20,000 POWs.
Once in the camp, they were taken into a large field where they were counted and searched and all extra clothing that they had was taken from them and not returned. Blankets, knives, and matches were taken from them. If a man was found to have Japanese money on them, they were taken to the guardhouse. Finally, the camp commandant came out, stood on the back of a flatbed truck, and told them that they were enemies of Japan and would always be Japan's enemies. He also told them that they were captives and not prisoners of war and would be treated accordingly. After the speech, the prisoners were allowed to go to their barracks. Over the next several days, gunshots were heard to the southeast of the camp as the POWs who had Japanese items on them were executed for looting.
There was only one water faucet in the camp, and the prisoners stood in line from two to eight hours waiting for a drink. The Japanese guards at the faucet would turn it off for no reason and the next man in line would stand as long as four hours waiting for it to be turned on again. This situation improved when a second faucet was added by the POWs who came up with the pipe, dug the trench, and ran the waterline. Just like the first faucet, the Japanese turned off the water when they wanted water to bathe, but unlike the first water line, the POWs had the ability to turn on the water again without the Japanese knowing it.
The camp hospital had no soap, water, or disinfectant. When the ranking American doctor at the camp wrote a letter to the camp commandant, Capt. Yohio Tsuneyoshi, asking for medical supplies, he was told never to write another letter. The Archbishop of Manila sent a truckload of medical supplies to the camp, the Japanese commandant refused to allow the truck into the camp. When the Philippine Red Cross sent medical supplies to the camp the Japanese took 95% of the supplies for their own use. When a second truck was sent to the camp by the Red Cross, it was turned away.
The POWs in the camp hospital lay on the floor elbow to elbow and only one medic – out of the six medics assigned to care for 50 sick POWs – was healthy enough to care for them. When a representative of the Philippine Red Cross stated they could supply a 150-bed hospital for the camp, he was slapped in the face by a Japanese lieutenant.
Each morning, the bodies of the dead were found all over the camp and were carried to the hospital and placed underneath it. The bodies lay there for two or three days before they were buried in the camp cemetery by other POWs who were suffering from dysentery and/or malaria. To clean the ground under the hospital, the bodies were moved to one side, the ground was scraped and lime was spread over it. The bodies were placed in the cleaned area, and the area they had lain was scraped and lime was spread over it. At one point, 80 bodies lay under the hospital.
Work details were sent out on a daily basis. Each day, the American doctors gave a list of names to the Japanese of the POWs who were healthier enough to work. If the quota of POWs needed to work could not be met, the Japanese put those POWs who were sick but could walk, to work. When these men returned to the camp many died. The death rate among the POWs reached 50 men dying a day. The Japanese finally acknowledged that they had to do something, so they opened a new camp at Cabanatuan.
In May, his parents received a letter from the War Department.
"Dear Mr. P. Zweber:
"According to War Department records, you have been designated as the emergency addressee of Private First Class Roland G. Zweber, 37,026,109, who, according to the latest information available, was serving in the Philippine Islands at the time of the final surrender.
Cabanatuan was actually three camps. Cabanatuan #1 was where most of the men who captured on Bataan and took part in the death march were held. Cabanatuan #2 did not have an adequate water supply and was closed. It later reopened and housed Naval POWs. Cabanatuan #3 was where most of those men captured when Corregidor surrendered were taken. Once in Cabanatuan #1, the POWs were allowed to run the camp. The Japanese only entered if they had an issue they wanted to deal with. To prevent escapes, the POWs set up a detail that patrolled the fence of the camp. The reason this was done was that those who did escape and were caught were tortured before being executed, while the other POWs were made to watch. It is believed that no POW successfully escaped from the camp.
In the camp, the Japanese instituted the "Blood Brother" rule. If one man escaped the other nine men in his group would be executed. POWs caught trying to escape were beaten. Those who did escape and were caught were tortured before being executed. It is not known if any POW successfully escaped from the camp. The barracks in the camp were built to house 50 POWs, but most had between 60 to 120 POWs in them. The POWs slept on bamboo slats, without mattresses, bedding, or mosquito netting. Many quickly became ill. The POWs were assigned to barracks which meant that the members of their group lived together, went out on work details together, and would be executed together since they were Blood Brothers.
The POWs were sent out on work details to cut wood for the POW kitchens. Other POWs worked in rice paddies. Each morning, as the POWs stood at attention and roll call was taken, the Japanese guards hit them across their heads. While working in the fields, the favorite punishment given to the men in the rice paddies was to have their faces pushed into the mud and stepped on by a guard to drive their faces deeper into the mud. Another detail was sent out to work at Cabanatuan Airfield which had been the home of a Philippine Army Air Corps unit and known as Maniquis Airfield. The Japanese had the POWs build runways and revetments. Other POWs worked in rice paddies. While working in the fields, the favorite punishment given to the men in the rice paddies was to have their faces pushed into the mud and stepped on by a guard to drive their faces deeper into the mud. Returning from a detail the POWs bought or were given, medicine, food, and tobacco, which they somehow managed to get into the camp even though they were searched when they returned.
During June, the first cases of diphtheria appeared in the camp. By July, it had spread throughout the camp. The Japanese finally gave the American medical staff anti-toxin to treat the POWs, but before it took effect, 130 POWs had died from the disease by August. On June 26, 1942, six POWs were executed by the Japanese after they had left the camp to buy food and were caught returning to camp. The POWs were tied to posts in a manner that they could not stand up or sit down. No one was allowed to give them food or water and they were not permitted to give them hats to protect them from the sun. The men were left tied to the posts for 48 hours when their ropes were cut. Four of the POWs were executed on the duty side of the camp and the other two were executed on the hospital side of the camp.
The POWs had the job of burying the dead. To do this, they worked in teams of four men. Each team carried a litter of four to six dead men to the cemetery where they were buried in graves containing 15 to 20 bodies. It was not uncommon for someone on this detail to see the body of a friend.
His family received a second message from the War Department in July 1942. This is an excerpt from it.
"The last report of casualties received by the War Department from the Philippines arrived early in the morning of May 6. Through this date, Private First Class Roland G. Zweber had not been reported as a casualty. The War Department will consider the persons serving in the Philippine Islands as "missing in action" from the date of the surrender of Corregidor, May 7, until definite information to the contrary is received.
It is not known if he was in the original POW detachment sent to Clark Field or if he arrived as a replacement. Many of the POWs sent there believed it was the best work detail in the Philippines. When they arrived, they were put into barracks that had been constructed for the Philippine Scouts. In the barracks, each POW had a bunk. The POWs were divided into 8 to 10 men squads to work, but they did not start working for three days. During this time they cleaned up the junk around the airfield that had been left from the fighting. While they were cleaning the grounds, they found mattresses and blankets that they were allowed to put on their bunks. Every POW had a mattress and blanket. There were also washrooms with toilets and sinks and running cold water.
When they finally started working, the workday started at 6:00 A.M. with breakfast which was mostly rice. This was followed by roll call before the POWs went to work. The original guards were combat veterans and soon realized that this was an easy detail and wanted to stretch it out as long as possible. As the POWs worked they did not force them to work at a fast pace. At first, they made repairs to the runways that had been damaged during the fighting by filling in craters. When this was done, they built revetments and a runway. The Japanese realized that the work was progressing slower than expected, so they changed the guards. When the guards were changed, the climate changed and the POWs found themselves working faster harder pace. A base was needed for the runway, so the POWs went to a quart and mined rock with picks and shovels. When the quarry ran out of rock, the POWs began digging rocks out of the ground and screened the rock to get rid of the dirt. If the POW squad met its quota for the day, they were allowed to return to their barracks early. If they did not meet their quota by the end of the workday, they worked until it was met. When rock became hard to find, the Japanese decided to use sand as the base. The result was that the first time a Japanese bomber landed on the runway it flipped over onto its back when its landing gear sank into the concrete supported by the sand. The POWs who witnessed this happen wanted to cheer but remained silent. The POW workday ended at 6:00 P.M. roll call was taken, and they had dinner which again was mostly rice.
The Japanese did not give the POW medical personnel any medicine. Like so much in the camp, the POW scrounged up medicine while they were cleaning up the debris. The Japanese did not make POWs who had malaria work, and they allowed the injured to rest too. But, they regularly checked the POWs to sure that they were sick or injured and could not work.
At first, if a POW escaped, they made the remaining POWs stand at attention for hours. On one occasion, the POWs stood at attention until 4:00 A.M. when they were dismissed. Shortly after this, reveille was held and they went to work. To stop escapes, the Japanese instituted the "blood brother" rule since several POWs escaped from the detail. If one man escaped, the other nine men in the group would be executed. Men were often thrown into a small metal shack made from corrugated steel that had no windows and had only enough room for the man to squat. Anyone put into it had his rations cut and received very little water. The POWs witnessed the execution of two Filipinos who were caught stealing corrugated sheet metal. They were tied to poles and used for bayonet practice by the Japanese. In addition, there were also the daily punishments like being hit over the head with a saber by one Japanese lieutenant. Other men were beaten with a golf club.
While the POWs were working at Clark Field, two Filipinos were caught stealing corrugated metal from the airfield. The Japanese tied them to posts and used them for bayonet practice while the POWs were forced to watch. If a POW broke a rule, he was put into a sheet metal shack that the Japanese built as punishment. There were no openings and it was out in the sun so it became extremely hot. The POWs who were put in it were not fed or given water, and it was low enough where they could not stand in it so they squatted or curled up. When one POW escaped, the remaining men had to stand in the sun at formation.
On March 7, 1943, his name appeared on a list released by the War Department of men known to be Japanese Prisoners of War. His family had learned he was a POW weeks earlier.
MRS J ZWEBER
95 JESSAMINE AVE
ST PAUL MN
"REPORT JUST RECEIVED THROUGH INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS STATES THAT YOUR SON PRIVATE FIRST CLASS ROLAND G ZWEBER IS A PRISONER OF WAR OF THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT IN PHILIPPINE ISLANDS LETTER OF INFORMATION FOLLOWS FROM THE PROVOST MARSHALL GENERAL=
A few days later she received another message from the War Department.
"PFC Roland G. Zweber, U.S. Army
During their time in the camp, a couple of POWs escaped. The POWs stood at assembly into the night while the Japanese attempted to get information from them. When they realized the POWs knew nothing, they let them go. This was repeated several times but in all cases, nothing happened to the other POWs. The detail finally came to an end in July 1944, as the Americans got closer to the Philippines. The POWs boarded trucks and were taken to Bilibid Prison which served as a clearinghouse for the POWs being sent to other parts of the Japanese Empire.
In August 1944, POWs were selected to be sent to Japan. 25 to 30 trucks arrived at Cabanatuan on the 17th. The POWs boarded them and they left for Bilibid Prison at 8:00 P.M. arriving there at 2:00 in the morning. The POWs left the prison and went to Pier 7. According to some POWs, they were taken by barges to the Noto Maru. The POWs boarded the ship and they were sent down into one of its holds which was extremely hot. Another company of POWs arrived by barge and were also put into the ship's hold. The last two companies also entered the hold. According to men who were on the ship they boarded and disembarked the ship two more times. The last time they boarded the ship was on August 25th. Some men believed this happened because American submarines had been seen in the area. After they were in the hold, the Japanese removed the ladder. The ship finally sailed on August 27th, but it spent the night in Subic Bay.
Since all the POWs were in one hold, there was no place for anyone to lie down to sleep. The POWs either stood or squatted. The POWs lost their tempers with each other at times, but it appeared they understood they were all in the same situation and there were no major fights.
A large barrow cut half length-wise was below the hatch was supposed to serve as the latrine but it was almost impossible to get to it. To get to it the POWs had to crawl over other men. When the man was finished, he found someone else had taken his place. Many men simply could not make it to the tub, so the floor of the hold was soon covered with human waste. When the half barrow was hoisted out of the hold, human feces fell on the men below in the hold. The smell coming out of the hold was so bad that the Japanese covered the hatch which made the hold get hotter and made the smell worse.
The ship remained in the bay until three other ships were ready to sail. The ship finally sailed as part of a convoy on August 28th. Once at sea the convoy was hunted by American submarines. The POWs chanted for the subs to sink the ship. At least two torpedos were fired at the ship, but since they ran deep, the torpedos went under the ship. It is known that several other ships in the convoy were sunk. One POW said, "That is an eerie feeling. Here, it's an American sub firing at you. You're below the waterline."
The POWs were fed boiled barley once a day and given water once or twice a day. A POW was lucky if he received a tablespoon of water. As the ship made its way to Japan men died of sickness and starvation. With each death, there was more room in the ship's hold. The dead were hoisted from the hold by rope and thrown into the sea. The suction of the ship's propellers pulled the bodies into them and resulted in the bodies being cut up.
The ship arrived at Takao on August 30. While it was docked, the smell from the hold was so bad that the POWs who could walk were brought up on deck, taken ashore, and hosed down with saltwater. The Japanese also washed down the hold to clean out the waste on the floor. After the POWs went back into the hold, the temperature dried the water off them but left a layer of salt on their skin.
It arrived in Moji, Japan on September 4, and the POWs were given a piece of colored wood as they left the ship. The color of the piece of wood determined what camp the POWs were going to be sent to. When the POWs left the ship, the Japanese civilians held their noses to show them how bad they smelled.
The POWs were put on a ferry to cross the Bay of Kobe. They then were boarded onto a silver steamliner. As they boarded, they noticed that there was a large number of Japanese civilians who appeared to be maimed. The men then were boarded onto a silver streamliner. It was nice inside, but there was no air conditioning. They were ordered not to touch the curtains and to leave them down. The POWs peaked out the windows and learned why. The Japanese city had suffered a great amount of damage from American bombers. On the trip, the prisoners received the best meal that they had received in years. When the train arrived in Takaoka, a small coastal city on the edge of Honshu facing the Sea of Japan, they disembarked. From there, the POWs were marched to Tokyo POW Camp 21-D which was later known as Nogoya #6 and was also known as Nomachi.
The camp was built for 300 POWs and located near the Nomachi Smelting Plant which violated the Geneva Convention since it was in a war materials manufacturing area. When the Americans got to the camp, it appeared that the barracks had been built in a hurry. Each man received four to six blankets and four coal-burning stoves, two in each half of the barracks, provided what little heat they had. The one barrack building in the camp was divided between American and British POWs. This was done to keep order and to prevent problems with camp records. In the barracks were two tiers of platforms. The POWs climbed ladders to reach the upper tier. Six POWs slept on a platform that was 7 feet long by 18 feet wide with each prisoner having a sleeping area of three feet and a straw mattress for each POW to sleep on. There were 24 toilet spaces, cold water showers, and a large bathing tub filled with heated water. Clothing for the POWs consisted of what they already had when they arrived at the camp, Japanese army uniforms, and some clothing from the Red Cross.
When the Americans got to the camp, it appeared that the barracks had been built in a hurry. There was a small building in the camp for the prisoners who were really disabled and another building, near the main gate, for the guards. In front of the prisoners' barracks, there was an area for calisthenics. There was also a zigzag trench that was supposedly an air raid shelter. Within the barracks, each prisoner had a sleeping area of four feet covered with a firm matting material. The entire compound was surrounded by an eight-foot wooden fence. The camp was located on the property of the Nomachi Smelting Company.
The camp had a small wooden building with six beds that served as a hospital and no more than six POWs were allowed to be sick at a time. Capt. Max Bernstein, who had been a member of 17th Ordnance of the Provisional Tank Group, was the camp doctor. He was assisted by three medics, and once a week, a Japanese doctor came to the camp to provide assistance. The Japanese Army provided no medical supplies for the POWs, but the two companies did, and additional medical supplies were received from the Red Cross. Most of the POWs who died in the camp died from pneumonia.
When the Americans arrived, the Japanese commanding officer addressed the prisoners. He had only one arm having lost one fighting the Chinese. He spoke decent English and informed them that the harder they worked, the better they would get along. He also informed them that those who could not work would receive reduced rations. The prisoner rations were better at this camp than at the other camps. Although it was mostly rice, there was also barley and soybean when it was in season. They also received daikons which were overgrown white radishes. The prisoners sliced it and boiled it into a thin soup. The only meat they received was from three or four cobras that they had discovered inside a giant anthill. Once they even had real Irish potatoes. The 150 British prisoners who joined the Americans in the camp in early 1945 had been captured in Hong Kong. The biggest problem the two groups of prisoners had with each other was language. As for behavior and discipline, the British were no better or worse than the Americans.
The British did not tolerate stealing within their ranks. If a British soldier was caught stealing, the punishment was harsh. Those who were victimized formed a ring around the thief. They were allowed to hit the man until he could not stand or his face was a bloody mess. The thief was then carried on a stretcher to the camp hospital. When an American was caught stealing, the ranking American officer, 1st. Lt. George Sense knocked him down on his rear. The only stealing that was tolerated was stealing from the Japanese. Two British prisoners were caught stealing soybeans so the Japanese searched all the prisoners' barracks for soybeans. When they found some in a barracks, the entire barracks was punished by going without firewood for two days.
The POWs worked 12 hours workdays with most of the POWs working during the day shift and a small detachment working at night. Those working at the Nomachi Smelting Company walked about 400 yards to the camp, while those working at Hokkai Dneka Smelter marched for five minutes before boarding a boat for a five-minute ride. The POWs, in most cases, were used as laborers at the smelters and mixed iron, coke, and lime before throwing them into a furnace. In addition, the POWs stirred the mixture so that it would melt faster and puddle it when it was ready. Other POWs worked in the machine shop, operated cranes, or loaded the mixture into carts and pushed it to furnaces before throwing it into the furnaces. No protective clothing was provided to the POWs so blisters and burns were common.
The prisoners knew that the war was not going well for Japan. When they were working in the plant, they watched how tightly the food was rationed to the civilians. The foreman gave each worker the same amount of rice. The workers made sure that the kernels that fell on the floor were picked up and put in their baskets. The rats and mice also felt the food shortage. The rats had started to kill the mice for food. One of the benefits of working in the plant was that there was always enough hot and cold water. The hot water was the result of the furnaces. The prisoners at the plant introduced the Japanese to taking showers. A couple of POWs who worked in the machine shop got permission to make a showerhead. The Japanese liked it so much that they had one made for them. While working in the plant, the Americans and the British were not allowed to be mixed in the work details. The POWs worked in the same areas but never together. Every two weeks the prisoners would change shifts. When this happened there was an eighteen-hour-long swing shift. Since the ore was heavy and the heat tremendous, the POWs worked thirty minutes on and thirty minutes off. A third detail of POWs worked at a quarry where 20% of the POWs assigned to the job died due to accidents. Officers were not required to work.
The attitude of the Japanese civilians at the plant varied. Some of the civilians were very friendly while others were hostile. Those who abused the POWs often had the men stand in front of the blast furnace, at attention, which resulted in the men developing blisters. As they stood at attention, they were hit in their heads. They were frequently slapped, punched, and hit with 2 foot long by 2 inch wide sticks the civilian guards carried. The son of the owner of the manganese works liked associating with the POWs because he could speak English. Being that the Japanese had a quota of POWs they needed to work on the details each day, those suffering from diarrhea or dysentery were not considered sick. The sick were beaten with shovels to get them to do work that they were too sick to do. They also had their meal rations reduced. Sometimes at night, the plant would be blacked out and the POWs were returned to their barracks. Occasionally, they had an air raid drill where the POWs went into the zigzag trench. After the war, the POWs learned about the Palawan Massacre and what had been done to the POWs after they had been put in an air raid trench.
By November 1944, snow was everywhere and the Japanese put markers about five feet tall on the buildings and on posts along the roads. One morning the POWs went to work in a foot of snow. It snowed every few days until there was about four feet of snow on the ground. They had no boots and their shoes were three years old. What amazed the POWs was that in the spring there was no flooding. The ground had soaked up all the water. When Christmas 1944 approached, the POWs hoped that they would have the day off. They also hoped that the Japanese would allow them to have decorations inside their barracks. A few days before Christmas, the Japanese brought ornaments into every barracks. The ornaments looked just like the ones back home. As it turned out they were the same. These ornaments were supposed to have been shipped to the United States when the war started. There also was a rumor that they would receive Red Cross parcels for Christmas. On Christmas, both the Americans and British POWs sang carols together. They also learned that the Japanese had received the Red Cross parcels months earlier, but had held them back to have something to give the prisoners on Christmas. As it turned out, parcels were delivered and each was shared by two men. The prisoners needed the food inside the parcels, but what they needed, even more, was what the packages represented. To them, the parcels meant that they had not been forgotten back home.
Four POWs died in the camp. Men would wear out from being overworked and underfed. Then pneumonia took over and the men died in a couple of days. Their bodies would be put in a four by four-foot by two-foot box. It had handles that allowed it to be carried. A Buddhist priest from the village walked ahead of the procession in his white and gold robes. When the remains were returned to the camp, they were in a four-inch by four-inch by twelve-inch box. The man's name and serial number were on the box. The box was kept by the camp commandant in his office. Being that the Japanese had a quota of POWs they needed to work on the details each day, those suffering from diarrhea or dysentery were not considered sick. The sick were beaten with shovels to get them to do work that they were too sick to do. They also had their meal rations reduced.
Collective punishment was practiced in the camp and all the POWs were punished when one man broke a rule. On one occasion, for 7 days, the POWs were denied coal, in the middle of winter, because someone had broken a rule. 15 POWs were accused of stealing rice from sacks that they were unloading from a ship. Once they returned to the camp, they were forced to kneel from 1 to 5 hours to get them to confess. Six of the fifteen men confessed and the others were fed and sent to their barracks.
When the camp commandant left the camp at 8:30 that evening, all the POWs were called from the barracks by the second in command and ordered to stand at attention. They were then beaten with pickax handles, rope, that was about 3 inches thick and five feet long, clubs, and farrison belts across the buttocks, face, and legs. When the POWs passed out, they were either thrown into a large tub of water, with their hands and feet bound, or they had water poured on them until they revived. They once again had to stand at attention as the beating continued for a total of 3 hours. One POW counted that he received 150 blows to his face and 20 on his buttocks.
The Japanese denied the POWs food, clothing, shoes, and other items sent to the camp by the Red Cross. Instead of giving these things to the POWs, the Japanese pilfered the items for their own use. The guards were seen wearing shoes sent by the Red Cross for the POWs. Phil and the other POWs knew of the air raids. The Japanese workers would bring newspapers to the mill. The POWs would sneak the papers into camp and figure out what was happening. As they marched to the mill, the POWs saw teenage boys being trained by army officers. They knew that it was for the expected invasion of Japan. The boys used sticks for rifle practice.
At night, the POWs also began to hear American bombers going over the camp which was a beautiful sound to them. One night they could hear the sound of bombs exploding in the distance. The guards entered the barracks and told the POWs to stay away from the windows. Despite this warning, the prisoners peaked out. In the distance, they could see flames that had been started by incendiary bombs. The first fires would light up the target, then wave after wave of bombers bombed the area. The interior of the POWs' barracks was red from the light of the fire burning in the southeastern sky. The sound of one squadron of planes would fade when the sound of another could be heard approaching. In secret, the POWs wanted the City of Takaoka bombed. This included the manganese mill where they worked. As they went to work, they now saw Japanese civilians pushing carts down the roads to escape the city. The civilians were moving into the caves in the hills for protection against the bombers.
One change that took place was that of the attitude of the guards toward the prisoners. A POW, Jimmy Lujan, hit a supervisor at the mill. Instead of being punished, he was transferred to another job. The POWs believed this was a sign that the civilians knew that the end of the war was near. One morning the POWs went to work as usual but were given new jobs. They were told that the blast furnaces were going to be dismantled. They also saw the Japanese women in the mill talking and weeping. All the POWs knew was something serious had happened. A few days later, a Japanese officer came to the camp and spoke with the ranking American officer. The Japanese officer told him that the war was over and that the POWs would not be going to work. He also said that the POWs would remain in the camp until the Americans came for them. One immediate change was that the POWs received more food. The guards were still at the gate, but now their role was to protect the prisoners. They also saluted the Americans.
One night, a U. S. Navy pilot appeared in the camp. He contacted the ranking officers and informed them of how and when they would leave the camp. He also told them about the atomic bomb and that none of the prisoners should leave the camp alone. The former prisoners did leave the camp to go to a nearby river where they swam and lay in the grass as free men.
Food was dropped into the camp by B-29s in 55-gallon drums. The former POWs wanted to go home but were nervous about the future. One morning the Red Cross showed up at the camp gate and inspected the camp. All the men knew that they were fortunate to be alive. They also received the order that they would be leaving Takaoka by train on September 1, 1945. The POWs arrived at the train depot and a train took them to Yokohama. There they disembarked the train near the docks and saw GIs who looked healthy and strong. The former POWs were processed and cleaned up on the U.S.S. Rescue, on September 7, and taken to Manila by a destroyer. The former POWs could not believe how young the sailors looked on the ship.
When they arrived in Manila, they were taken to a tent city and processing center. The Americans had a yellow color to their skin. The reason for this is that they were taking atabrine to prevent Malaria. It was at this processing center that the former POWs received new shoes and uniforms. During his time in the Philippines, he was promoted to sergeant.
He returned to the United States on the U.S.S. Tryon which arrived in San Francisco on October 24, 1945, and was taken to Letterman General Hospital. From there, he was sent to Schick General Hospital in Clinton, Iowa, for additional medical treatment. He was finally discharged on March 30, 1946. He married Doris May Stehholm and they became the parents of two daughters and a son. He supported his family by working as an accountant for the U.S. Post Office.
Roland G. Zweber passed away on August 8, 2004, in Minneapolis, and was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in Section 12, Site 1650.
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Created on April 6, 2019
Related tags: Cabanatuan, Calumpit Bridge, Camp O'Donnell, Camp Pangatian, Hell Ship, Luzon, Moji Hospital, Takao, USAT Gen. Frank M. Coxe


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There are seven sacraments:
Penance/Reconciliation
Sacraments fall into three categories: the sacraments of initiation (into the Church, the body of Christ), consisting of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist; the sacraments of healing, consisting of reconciliation and anointing of the sick; and the sacraments of service: holy orders and matrimony. At St. Robert, we prepare for the sacraments through:
Religious education is available for Parish children in 4K through 8th Grade. Religious Education classes began on September 8, 2019. More details can be found here.
Becoming Catholic – Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults/Rite of Christian Initiation for Children
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) is the Church's way of guiding adults who have begun their journey of faith to complete initiation in the Catholic Church. The Rite of Christian Initiation for Children is for children preparing to receive the sacraments they have missed since Baptism, or preparing to join the Catholic Church through Baptism. More details can be found here.
In Baptism the Church welcomes with joy a new member of the Body of Christ. Since its first days, the Church has been entrusted with baptizing "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" and teaching what the Lord Jesus had taught his disciples (Matthew 28:19-20).
At St. Robert, the baptism of infants and young children includes this important preparation: the sincere desire to raise the child in the Catholic Christian faith; parish membership (or letter of delegation from pastor of current parish) scheduling the baptism and the pre-baptismal orientation sessions; and selection of sponsor(s)/godparent(s) or Christian witness. More details can be found here.
At St. Robert, the preparation for First Eucharist is done in an all-parish program involving families whose children attend parochial school and those whose children attend public school. It is a family-centered program in which parents play a very important role in their child's formation. Details on the program are here.
Confirmation celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a Christian in order to strengthen him or her for the Christian life. At St. Robert, confirmation occurs in the context of the High School Religious Education Program. Learn more here. Confirmation for adults occurs within the context of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. Learn more here.
"The whole Church, as a priestly people, acts in different ways in the work of reconciliation that has been entrusted to it by the Lord."
–Rites of the Catholic Church
Reconciliation is held every Saturday, at 3:30 p.m. First Reconciliation is typically held in early December. Learn more about Fire Reconciliation here.
Anointing of the sick is administered to bring spiritual and even physical strength during an illness, especially near the time of death. Requests for anointing can be made at any time through a call to the Parish Office, (414) 332-1164. Anointing is also conducted several times a year at regular Masses (announced at prior Masses).
The marriage preparation process follows the guidelines set forth in The Pastoral Guidelines for Marriage Preparation by the Wisconsin Catholic Bishops Conference, and those set forth in the canons governing marriage that are contained in the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church. Learn more about marriage preparation here.
St. Robert hosts the John Paul II House of Discernment, a mission of the Vocation Office of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The House provides young adult men a formative experience of intentional Christian community. The JPII House hopes to foster their encounter with Jesus Christ, potentially leading to a priestly vocation.
4019 N. Farwell Ave.,
Shorewood, WI 53211
St. Robert Menu
• Ministries & Service
• Faith Formation
• Sacramental Prepartion
• Stewardship
Parish Office Hours:
Mondays-Thursdays: 8:30am-3:30pm
Closed Noon-1:00pm
Fridays: 8:30am-Noon
Connect with St. Robert
© St. Robert Catholic Parish. All Rights Reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As I write this reflection, the people of Georgia and of the entire human nation wait and watch as the Supreme Court works to rule on the execution of Troy Davis. That we live in a society, which maintains that justice is achieved by killing a human being, is deeply troubling. The rule of law fights in our hearts with the rule of compassion.
That is not to say that the rule of compassion is clear-cut or easy to discern. Two mothers must be feeling great anguish tonight – the mother of Troy Davis, convicted of murder and condemned to die, and the mother of Mark MacPhail, the victim who clearly led an honorable life of service, first in the military and then in law enforcement.
Earlier this week, I sat in a meeting with my diocesan bishops, one of whom made the following statement, paraphrased here: "As Christians and priests, we live in a world where either the law of judgment prevails or the law of grace prevails. I always err on the side of grace." He made this comment in the context of a conversation about baptism – which pales in comparison to the undeniably problematic death penalty. But, to err on the side of grace, I think, is a good "rule" to follow. Especially when no physical evidence has been provided and so many witnesses have recanted or changed their stories.
This entry was posted in Diocese of Florida, Episcopal church, St. Clare of Assisi and tagged death penalty, mercy, Troy Davis. Bookmark the permalink.


I would like the takeoff and landing the joystick is firmer.
Which setting should I change to make the joystick firmer ?
On some aircraft the trim indicator does not work properly, what should I check ??
Edit: Bingo is the sensor that is H.S.
Under P3DV4 the joystick is still on, I do not think it's good, long term.
By modifying your software, would it be possible, through FS-FORCES, to disconnect the FFB2 ??
I am very satisfied with your software.
I have browsed the forum, and I think the problem comes from "accussim.dll".
I use A2A. What solutions do we have ??


text:
Posts Tagged ' anne ishii '
Adding My Brother's Husband to Your Library or Classroom
By Patricia Mastricolo
Gengoroh Tagame's award-winning manga series My Brother's Husband (Japanese: Otōto no Otto) has been hailed by critics and creators all over the world as a fascinating look at family, homophobia, cultural differences, and grief. Serialized in Japan from 2014 to 2017, the series was published in the U.S., translated by the acclaimed and talented Anne Ishii, in two omnibuses…
Anne Ishii, Bara Manga Renaissance Woman, Appointed Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative
Asian Arts Initiative announced recently that Anne Ishii will be joining the organization as their new Executive Director. Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) is dedicated to creating community through the power of art. Founded in 1993 in response to the growing racial tension between African-American and Asian-American communities, AAI advances understanding through art and performance, and…
CBLDF Podcast Episode 23: ANNE ISHII of Massive Goods
By Alex Cox
In this episode, we speak with editor, publisher, writer, and translator Anne Ishii about her current venture Massive Goods and the world of gay manga. We discuss cultural differences with regards to erotica, gender politics, and pornography; examine niche subcultures; and take a diversion into our mutual love of the greatest death metal manga ever made. Topics…


I am sharing a fresh delicious chicken dish today with you, which quickly became family favorite.
THE 36TH AVENUE THEME BROUGHT TO YOU!
I am sure many of you have at least one new year resolution and its most likely is eating healthy and no dessert.
Lemon gives a fresh flavor for this dish and it will quickly become YOUR family favorite.
Place the flour in a shallow dish and coat chicken on all sides.
Heat the oil in large skillet over medium heat.
Add the chicken to the skillet and cook for 4 minutes on both sides.
Remove chicken and cover to keep it warm.
Reduce the heat to medium, add half cup of the broth to the pan and bring to boil.
Add lemon slices to pan along with rest of the broth and lemon juice.
Turn the heat to high and cook fro about 2 minutes until liquid is reduced to syrupy glaze.
Remove from heat stir in butter until melted.
Drizzle the sauce over the chicken and garnish with lemon and parsley.
Hi, your recipe directions mention lemon juice and butter – neither are listed on the ingredient list. Would you please clarify? Thank you!
Ashley, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I corrected the ingredients. I recently moved from blogger to WP and it may have caused missing parts of posts over the transfer.It's a wonderful recipe, hope you will love it as much as we do!


Mahogany Rush was a Canadian rock band led by guitarist Frank Marino. The original band was formed in Montreal, Quebec, but was actually more famous in the United States than their native Canada. In the U.S. they headlined for The Chambers Brothers, Graham Central Station, Ted Nugent, The Amboy Dukes to name a few.
The band is perhaps best known for Marino's soaring lead guitar which bears a strong resemblance to the playing of Jimi Hendrix.
After playing drums since he was 5 years old, somewhere around the age of 13, Marino started playing guitar. The myth is he was visited by an apparition of Jimi Hendrix after a bad experience on LSD; Marino has always denied this. He will say he was inspired by Hendrix, claiming to be the one who is "carrying Jimi's psychedelic torch".[Marino is notable for strong cover versions of Hendrix classics such as "Purple Haze", often being criticized by some as a Hendrix clone. Marino states that he never set out to imitate Hendrix's style at all. "The whole style just came naturally. I didn't choose it; it chose me."
Frank Marino Mahogany RushMahogany Rush was moderately popular in the 1970s. Their records charted in Billboard, and they toured extensively, playing such venues as California Jam II (1978). Toward the end of the 1970s, the band began to be billed as "Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush. Not much later, Mahogany Rush split up and in the early 1980s Marino released two solo albums on CBS. The band reformed and continued to perform throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1993, Marino retired from the music industry.
Marino returned in 2001, inspired in part by a fansite, www.mahoganyrush.com."I always knew we had fans, I just didn't know I'd find half a million of them on the Web," he said in an interview with Guitar Player in 2005. He released 'Eye of the Storm', and went on tour again, playing more improvisational shows. Frank is still active, recording and touring under his own name. He has also been involved in blues recordings with other artists, playing on tribute albums to Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Long term members of the band have included founding bassist Paul Harwood and drummer Jimmy Ayoub, and Frank's brother Vince on guitar; Frank Marino is the sole continuous member of the band. In 1980, the group toured as Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush, and after Ayoub left the group a couple of years later, it simply became Frank Marino, which is the name which remains to this day.
Frank Marino's music never reached the mainstream of popularity, but he still has a huge fan base and following, and can claim sobriety for over 35 years. A survivor of this business, Marino still records and produces his own material.


The RTV-CNC range of rotary table vertical grinding machines use a 'T' shaped bed with a rigid, fixed column which incorporates the vertical Z axis wheel head movement.
The X axis longitudinal table movement is directly mounted on the front of the bed with the integrated rotary chuck which includes C axis. These machines provide an excellent solution with maximum single spindle flexibility for large diameter, heavy components which require high precision internal, external and face grinding – for example motor casings, gears, bearings and turbines found in sectors such as power generation, aerospace and marine etc.
Using a RTV-CNC for heavier components has a distinct advantage over a horizontal grinder in that, rather than constantly fighting gravity, the weight of the component actually makes it easier to load and position it on the rotary table.
The machines are equipped with the latest generation FANUC 0i-TF control, motors and equipment.
The powerful user-friendly 15" touch screen control uses graphic-based software specially created by GER. The interactive software helps make it easier for less experienced operators to use.
• Intuitive programming allows difficult grinding and dressing programmes to be linked to create pre-defined simple cycles.
• The step-by-step programming philosophy makes it easier to programme complicated jobs.
• USB and Ethernet connections enable programme input and saving.
• A useful feature enables the operator to modify the process during automatic cycle without affecting the original programme.
• Software page application for grinding time calculations.
• On-screen messages help the operator to choose the most suitable grinding operation for the process.
• Data base screen which allows customers to create and save the characteristics of grinding wheels and diamond tooling.
• Wheel dressing is made easy with pre-defined graphic profiles.
• Powerful software allows on screen graphic visualization and direct input of complex non-standard profiles to be programmed using ISO code.
• Possibility of grinding different profiles using the profile following cycle.
• Measuring probe enables precise size control before, during and after each grinding operation.


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Q: Is there a way to save Android's Bitmap with ALPHA_8 config as a grayscale JPEG image? I have been trying to save a bitmap as grayscale. The configurations provided by android to store single channel color seems to be only ALPHA_8. When trying to save bitmap in ALPHA_8 as JPEG by calling Bitmap.compress function, I get blank image. What is the correct way of saving grayscale image in android?
Please note that my concern is about storage requirement. I just want to save a single channel(grayscale) JPEG. Making R==G==B in ARGB_888format does make it grayscale but the color information saved by Bitmap.compress still seems to be 3 channel.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Como actualizar en un solo post multiples instancias - Django rest framework Tengo un array de objetos:
[
    {
      order: 4,
      id: 1,
    },
    {
      order: 2,
      id: 2,
    }
]

Donde id es la llave primaria y el order es el valor a actualizar, estoy enviando al server por post con axios :
this.axios.post('route-dispatchs/order/', this.ordsend)
   .then((response) => {
     console.log('success');
});

Y mi Viewset:
@list_route(methods=['post'], url_path='order')
    def order_dispatch(self, request):
        for data in request.data:
            self.queryset.filter(id=data['id']).update(order=data['order'])
        page = self.paginate_queryset(self.queryset)
        if page is not None:
            serializer = self.get_serializer(page, many=True)
            return self.get_paginated_response(serializer.data)
        serializer = self.get_serializer(self.queryset, many=True)
        return Response(serializer.data)

En el cual filtro por el id y actualizo su respectivo order en un for.
Pero me esta arrojando el siguiente error:
AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'items'
Me esta faltando algo? ya que cuando mando solo uno this.ordsend[0] y le quito el for si llega actualizar el elemento.
Imagen del error:

A: OK luego de muchos intentos e investigación lo solucione de esta manera:
Primero desde axios lo envié desde un objeto:
this.axios.post('route-dispatchs/order/', {'sort': this.ordsend})

y en el server cambie el for por :
for data in request.data['sort']:

O sea ingrese al nombre del objeto y funciono :) espero le sirva a alguien.


At City Nissan, our workshop uses the latest diagnostic equipment and has been purpose built to get the best performance from your Nissan vehicle.
Additionally, our Service Menu is designed to save you time and money.
Save time by dropping your vehicle off from 7am on the way to work and take advantage of our courtesy shuttle to and from the CBD. Or enjoy our comfortable lounge, with a coffee or tea, television and free WiFi.
For further information please contact our friendly Service Team for assistance with any enquiry regarding your Nissan vehicle. The Nissan team wishes you safe and pleasant motoring.


Warhammer: Mark of Chaos Games Workshop Ltd 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, and all associated races, race insignia, marks, names, characters, illustrations and images from the Warhammer: Mark of Chaos game and the Warhammer world are either, and/or Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2006, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world, used under license by NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2006 NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. All rights reserved.
Warhammer: Battle March & Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March (c) Games Workshop Ltd 2006-2007. All Rights Reserved.
Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, Warhammer: Battle March, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March, and all associated races, race insignia, marks, names, characters, illustrations and images from the Warhammer: Mark of Chaos game, the Warhammer: Battle March game, the Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March game and the Warhammer world are either , and/or (c) Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2007, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world, used under license by NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Namco Bandai Games is a trademark of Namco Bandai Games Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


text:
Some Old Bullshit is a compilation album by the Beastie Boys released in 1994. It compiles several of their early EPs, recorded in the early 1980s. These recordings present a sound radically different from that of the hip-hop sound generally associated with the band. Instead, these songs represent the band's part in the early New York hardcore scene. The album also features taped segments originally heard on Noise the Show, a popular hardcore radio show on WNYU in New York that played early recordings from the Beastie Boys. These segments feature the hyperbolic introductions of Noise the Show's host, Tim Sommer, an early supporter of the band.
1."Egg Raid On Mojo (Demo Version)" 2. "Beastie Boys" 3. "Transit Cop" 4. "Jimi" 5. "Holy Snappers" 6. "Riot Fight" 7. "Ode to…" 8. "Michelle's Farm" 9. "Egg Raid on Mojo" 10. "Transit Cop (Demo Version" 11. "Cooky Puss" 12. "Bonus Batter" 13. "Beastie Revolution" 14. "Cooky Puss (Censored Version)"
Label: CAPITOL
Some Old Bullshit [RSD BF 2020]
Artist: Beastie Boys
1. Egg Raid on Mojo - (previously unreleased)
2. Beastie Boys
3. Transit Cop
4. Jimi
5. Holy Snappers
6. Riot Fight
7. Ode to...
8. Michelle's Farm
9. Egg Raid on Mojo
10. Transit Cop - (previously unreleased)
11. Cooky Puss
12. Bonus Batter
13. Beastie Revolution
14. Cooky Puss (Censored Version) - (censored version)


Choose your card colour, ribbon colour (if applicable) and font choice/colour from tabs above.
Mix and match to get the look you'd like.
Includes all personalised printing and a matching hammered envelope. Size is 15cm x 15cm square.