I received your letter of January 19, and am very glad to hear from you. Sport was a friend of mine; we lived together during the war and were later in prison camp together, being shipped to Japan on the same boat.
I first met your husband in Cebu in January, 1942, when He was drilling an oil well with Tex Howel and some other fellows for the Philippine Government. Later, when I went down to Mindanao, Sport was asked to come on down to General Sharp’s Headquarters, and was given a commission. He served in Mindanao (Malaybalay and Cagayan) until the surrender on May 10, 1942.
He did many fine things while he was with the Army, notably repairing an inter-island steamer, sabotaged by the Japs, and running it for about a month, hauling rice to Mindanao from other islands. Needless to say – that was a perilous undertaking. The native crewmen would not stay on a boat unless an American was aboard to encourage them. Another time, Sport was repairing a bridge across a river in Mindanao during flood stage, and it kept rising and rising. His Filipino helper was scared to a panic, but he finally calmed him down to where he could get him through the flood and onto the river bank. A few minutes after they got off the bridge, it was swept away down the river.
After the Japs invaded Mindanao (Cagayan beach) on April 25, Sport was ordered to scuttle his ship and report back to Sharp’s headquarters for duty. He was with Headquarters on May 10, and we went to Prison Camp at Malaybalay on May 11, 1942 (Casisang Camp).
In P.O.W. Camp, Jordan had charge of installing the camp water works; that is, installing pumps and building about two miles of pipeline into camp. There were five of us living in one shack – Roy Gray, J. E. McNair, “Pappy” Knowles, Sport, and myself. In those days we did very well as we were all working on different detail jobs in Camp. My job was to butcher native cattle for the camp’s meat supply. There were 6,000 natives and 1,200 American prisoners of war to feed. At this time there were great numbers of Brahma cattle still on the island, so we were not lacking for beef while at Casisang.
After Sport finished his water engineering projects, he started going with me to butcher cattle. This was about June 1st. He was most pleasant company to me as to everyone else.
The Japanese abandoned this camp in October, 1942, freeing the Filipinos and shipping us Americans to the Davao Penal Colony in southeastern Mindanao. Sport and McNair drove two tractors with trailers loaded with camp supplies from the camp at Casisang about seventy-five miles down to the boat at Cagayan. From what they told me later when I got down there with the rest of the camp, it was surely a rough trip.
We spent the next eighteen months – October 23, 1942 to June 6, 1944, - at the Davao Penal Colony (Jap P.O.W. Camp #2). Sport worked in the machine shop with McNair, Boland, and others for about six months. Then he worked at the sawmill, and then at the rice field (Mactan). During this time his health remained reasonably good, and we were not too bad off. It wasn’t good, of course, but we took things as they came, had our friends; card games on our off days. We were always very optimistic. Including the 1,200 Americans when were shipped down to Davao, there were 2,200 prisoners. We had our camp shows (when the Japs weren’t too mad at us, which wasn’t unusual).
Sport was known and liked by everyone in camp. I doubt if anyone ever said anything but complimentary things about him. He was surely a great guy. He used to sit around my bunk in the evenings and sing old songs. I know one he liked especially was “Sweet Rosie O’Grady”, and another was “Sidewalks Waltz”. He had a very nice voice.
While at Davao, we all received Red Cross supplies consisting of two food boxes of eleven pounds each; fourteen twelve-ounce cans of food; about eight pounds of sugar, and miscellaneous articles of clothing – all in January, 1943. In the following year, more American Red Cross supplies arrived from the Manila Headquarters, consisting of four eleven pound boxes per prisoner. Also we got about five extra packs of cigarettes. These were issued to us, two in February, one more in April, and the last one June 8 on board ship in Davao harbor enroute to Cabanatuan, Prison Camp #1 north of Manila.
Sport, McNair, and I did very well on the boat, as we managed to get a place to stay up on deck instead of down in the hold. That is, as far as Cebu – then we changed ships and no one was allowed above deck until we arrived in Manila Harbor on June 27.
Our rations were very short on this ship and we arrived at Bilibid Prison, Manila, in a very weak condition, very much in need of a bath. However, there were several water faucets available in the prison yard, and we finally got ourselves clean again. We thought the ship rations were bad, but after our first day’s ration in Bilibid, we marveled at how the old timers there had managed to stay alive. We were glad to leave there on the 28th of June by train for Cabanatuan. Our Davao group was kept intact and separate from the others at Cabanatuan where we ran our own Mess and work details. Sport was still doing okay. He was cutting wood for the kitchen, drawing a little heavier ration thereby.
This didn’t last long, for we were moved over to the main camp on July 15, and all of the Davao group was used to work the farm – weeding, planting, harvesting, etc. Sport had several attacks of Malaria in Cabanatuan and so stayed in camp most of the time.
It was in Cabanatuan that I sort of lost track of Sport, for we were divided up by rank and he and McNair were placed in different barracks from me. I was gone from camp from dawn to dark and was too tired to get around in the short period before lights out.
However, I’m sure your husband got several letters from you, and he seemed concerned about you and the kids. He told me about you many times – what a great girl you were to him, and also many things that indicated how much he loved his family. He was sure sweating out his son’s coming to liberate us all!
We did get a view of the first big American aerial attack September 21, 1944, when some 800 bombers and fighters flew over our camp enroute to plaster Jap airfields and shipping. On their way back, an American fighter plane downed a Jap bomber right over the camp.
Within thirty days the Japs had most of us out of Cabanatuan, back at Bilibid, waiting for a ship to carry us to Japan. Sport and McNair were in the same group I was in – the Medical group – but we were all held in the same building. There were 1,620 of us.
Lt. Jordan’s health was about average. None of us were too strong, for rations had been short now for over a year. However, the American Navy dive bombers came over Manila every week, and we were quite sure the Japanese could never get a ship into Manila bay large enough to move us out.
It was to be, though, for in a big storm at Leyte and Samar, the Nips managed to slip a few freighters into Manila while the bad weather had grounded American planes for 14 days. We were loaded onto the Oryoku Maru December 13, 1944, 1,620 of us, and we headed out late that night through Manila bay and up the west coast of Luzon.
Just at daylight, the Yank Navy dive bombers found our convoy and plastered it all day long. However, it wasn’t till the next morning about seven o’clock and we were grounded off Olongapo, Luzon, that the Navy got a direct hit on the after hold.
We were told to abandon ship and swim ashore – about a half a mile. We did and found the shore swarming with Jap Marines. I found McNair, Sport, Pappy Knowles, all uninjured and relatively happy to have come through it. We lost about 250 Americans on the ship.
We arrived in Techow, Formosa, about the sixth of January ,1945, and there on the ninth of January, our ship (the Enoura Maru) was bombed. This bomb fell on the hold and killed 300 American prisoners. It was here that your husband and Major J. H. “Pappy” Knowles were killed.
I do not feel fully capable of expressing my sympathy for your loss, but I do know each one of us who were close to Sport felt his loss keenly. In fact, I value my association with men like your husband among my fondest memories. He was loved and honored by all who knew him. He was buried at Techow, Formosa, with his friends who fell with him.
As far as I know, Sport had only one article of value with him at the time. It was a fancy silver belt buckle which a Lt. Scott had, and Scott said he was going to return it to you. However, the last time I saw Scott was in the theater building at Mejii, Japan, on January 30, 1945, and I haven’t seen or heard of him since.
I hope this little information I have given you is of some comfort. It seems as though there is so little that can help after a good friend is gone. . .
If there is any information you need and I have, please feel free to write me at any time.
Sincerely,
O.W. Orson
Major, V. C., A. U. S.
Kurt Jordan's Email
Jordan Website