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Shortly after bombing Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded
the Philippines. Allied forces put up a stiff resistance but slowly retreated
to the Bataan Peninsula, where they had protection from the big guns on
Corregidor. Corregidor, also known as “the rock,” is a small,
rugged, island that was then serving as Allied headquarters and the seat
of the Philippine government. In February 1942, General MacArthur left
for Australia, leaving Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright in command.
The Bataan peninsula fell on April 9th, but Wainwright and 7,000 troops
made it to Corregidor, where they held out for another 27 days. Cut off,
outnumbered and starving, the Allies surrendered on this date in 1942.
They had successfully stopped a Japanese invasion of Australia, but the
price was high. Some 79,500 soldiers at Bataan laid down their arms; 72,000
were part of the infamous Bataan Death March, during which at least 650
Americans died of thirst, starvation, disease and/or military atrocities.
At Corregidor, 7,000 surrendered and also were imprisoned in what became
known as the “hell camps.” The 1929 Geneva Convention had drawn
up crucial guidelines for how POWs were to be treated by their captors,
but Japan and Russia didn’t sign. Japan had no word for surrender
– in fact, Japanese men who gave themselves up were shamed and dishonored.
Likewise, they disdained men who surrendered to them; to become their
prisoner was to indeed be in hell.
North Dakotans later learned eighty-two of its own were taken prisoner
by the Japanese, and many died in captivity. Among those who made it was
Colonel Harold “Johnnie” Johnson, from Grafton. You may remember
that, as a 4-star general, Johnson later became Army Chief of Staff under
President Lyndon Johnson.
Johnson was sent to Camp O’Donnell, which he called the “Andersonville
of the Pacific.” It was unfinished and completely inadequate for
housing its 90,000 prisoners. The men’s side by side sleeping quarters
consisted of 2 feet of space on bamboo racks. Almost everyone was sick
from tropical diseases, and rampant diarrhea polluted the air. There was
little shelter from the sun, and thousands depended on one poorly working
tap for drinking water. Food consisted of small intermittent servings
of rice – Johnson noted in his diary the first time it was salted.
Lieutenant Ted Spaulding of Sherwood was later transferred to a camp at
Fukuoka in Japan. In 1999, he and his wife published Itchy Feet, in which
he wrote, “In about the sixth week at Fukuoka the Japanese must have
believed that we prisoners needed a good cleaning plus a medical check-up...
We walked to the bath house where we were ordered to strip down (and)
wash ourselves off with a bucket of soapy water... It was there where
we realized how tough we looked. We saw one another standing there naked
which led to much joking and laughter, so hearty that we jokers had to
sit down on the floor to rest. We were allowed to weigh ourselves and
I was astounded to see that after six weeks off the boat... I weighed
in at all of ninety-seven pounds... My average weight before imprisonment
had been (183) pounds on my five foot eleven and a half-inch frame.”
Still, Spaulding considered Fukuoka a step up from other camps he’d
been in. “I recall that once...I made the remark, ‘Hell, this
isn’t bad. I spent the first nineteen years of my life in Sherwood
(ND) before I came here...’ A few of my friends became curious...and
I was forced to tell them some stories about my youth. They didn’t
believe me when I told them that I had pulled a sled around town, delivering
milk (probably frozen) when it was 48 below zero, even 54 below on rare
days. Then they heard all about the fistfights in the pool hall, pitching
hay in 110-degree weather and even more unbelievable stories than those.”
Sources: Lewis Sorley, Honorable Warrior: General Harold K. John and the
Ethics of Command, 1998; Ted & Ardes Spaulding, Itchy Feet, 1999
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