Destination:
Fort McDowel, Angel Island, CA 8 Feb 1941 to be shipped to Corregidor, P.I.

Embarkation:
San Francisco, CA to Manila, P.I. via USS Republic 31 Mar 41

Arrival:
Manila, P.I. 22 Apr 41

Final Destination:
Fort Mills, Corregidor, P.I. Was assigned to Battery "G", 60th CA (AA) Jul 1941.

These are the dates I recorded, and some of the memories I have of my Service.

Prior to Pearl Harbor Bombing:
During the first week of Dec 1941, our battery was moved from Middleside Barracks via boat from Corregidor to a Bataan Peninsula on a small mountain near the town of Cabcaban.   We dug in our 3 inch Anti-Aircraft guns and were prepared to fire at enemy planes if necessary.   We had been told for several months that there was a possibility of Japanese declaring war and we should be alert if it did happen.

'WAR DECLARED'
The next day it happened and we were ordered by our Battalion Commander to move our position immediately to the top of the mountain and to get our guns ready to fire ASAP.   We could see Corregidor, Fort Mills and Fort Drum as well as the Navy stationed below us using P.T. Boats.   We were shooting down Japanese Bombers the next day.

On 8 Apr 1941 we moved back to Corregidor and set up our AA Guns on a golf course at topside.  Every day we were easy targets for the Japanese Heavy Bombers.   Fighter planes and artillery fire from Bataan was constantly landing on our topside position.   We could hear them firing from Bataan.   There were so many guns firing in sequence, it almost sounded like machine guns.   After a few seconds they exploded all around us.   They were using 75mm, 105mm and 240mm shells and the guns were almost next to each other, - hundreds of them.

Our Golf Course looked like a plowed farm from the unexploded shells that were duds.   The exploded shells damaged our guns and destroyed our wiring to the director and height finder equipment that controlled our Anti-Aircraft guns.

The Japanese guns were actually trying to destroy Battery Geary that was just downhill from us about 150 ft.   When Geary's 12 in mortar fired at them it sounded like a freight train running over us.   Their shells weighed 670 lbs.

The Japanese Artillery finally put a shell in Battery Geary's Powder Magazine that had over 90,000 lbs of powder in metal containers.   I was in a small slit trench on the golf course when it blew up and the concussion inside of my slit trench was vibrating me back and forth and I had no idea of what had happened.   I was dazed after the dirt, dust and particles finally cleared.   I saw that one of the 4 Battery Geary Mortars and lots of concrete was now on our Golf Course.   We had casualties and some of our men were injured.   A Mortar weighs 13 tons.   One huge piece of concrete 13 ft thick was also near the Mortar.   Fortunately, most of the blast went over us and as far as to the end of Corregidor - 3 ½ miles away.

'SURRENDER'
Our Captain, A.A. Abston, called us together, and told us that Headquarters has ordered him to tell us to surrender to the Japanese and also to destroy or damage all of our rifles, AA guns, Director and Height Finders.

I helped destroy what I could and then went down the hill about 300 ft to the 4th Marines in a Hillside tunnel asking the Marine Lieutenant if I could join them because I had heard how the Japanese killed prisoners and wanted at least to die fighting.   He said I could join them.

The next morning 9 May 42, on a road above us, a heavy bearded Japanese waving what looked like one of our 45 cal guns, motioned us to move down the road.   The marine lieutenant told us to drop all of our weapons, grenades, and knives, and to line up two abreast and march down the road to Malinta Tunnel.   On the way we were checked for weapons.   They took our watches, jewelry, and Philippine money.   They didn't want American money.

9 May 1942  Fort Mills, Corregidor, P.I. Holding Area at 92nd Motor Pool Garage -   I was ordered to work on a thousand - man work detail loading food supplies from Malinta Tunnel to a ship loading dock.   I passed by many of our dead unburied soldiers as well as many dead Japanese soldiers.   The sight of these bodies bloated and mutilated was horrifying, as was the stench.

27 May 1942 Barged to Manila "Camp Bilibid"

30 May 1942 Trucked to "Camp Clark AFB - I worked cutting grass on the Airfield that the Japanese were using for their planes - moved 55 gal gasoline drums "full" (our gasoline that had not been destroyed) - dug rock and cleaned up barracks for Japanese Officers.

The first few weeks our diet consisted of rice, dried fish with live maggots and biscuits with bugs and worms. Some men couldn't or wouldn't eat any or all they received, and started trading their food for cigarettes.   Those men died.

I was strong enough to work on details and would steal food from the Japanese when I had the opportunity.   Even so, I got Pellagra and Beri-Beri - two types, wet and dry.

On one of my work details, I went to a Japanese officers Kitchen.   The cooks showed us the size wood lengths they wanted cut for burning under a giant steel wok.   In chopping the wood with the axe, I hit it too hard and it broke in half, and the other half hit my left eye.   Besides hurting, it dilated my pupil.   It has remained that way.

Alfred Sorensen, my best friend, arrived here from Cabanatuan in 1943.   We grew up together, next door neighbors in Omaha.   We went to school together and came to the Philippines together.   On arrival at Corregidor we were sent to different Batteries and after the surrender, he went to Cabanatuan and I went to Clark AFB.

30 May 42  to  19 Aug 44 Red Cross Boxes: I received 2 ½ small boxes of food and cigarettes

Mail: None from home

19Aug1944 Trucked to "Camp Bilibid"

'NOTO MARU' ---- (HELL SHIP)
25 Aug 44  -  My buddy and I were marched onto the ship Noto Maru.   We stood shoulder to shoulder in rows and were told to sit down.   That left an open area of about 8x8 ft under the ladder for small wooden soy tubs used for toilet purposes.

Conditions were horrible.   The only way we could sleep was by crossing each others bodies.   Probably 10 to 20% of the 1250 men in our cargo hold had diarrhea or dysentery and quite often didn't make it to the soy tubs that were at times full and had to be handed up the ladder, and sometimes slopped out.

Food consisted of ½ canteen cup of water a day and a small amount of rice with a piece of seaweed on top.

We were hit by Dud torpedo near Formosa from one of our own submarines.   All engines stopped and we sat still for about one hour, sweating out and waiting for the next one.   Fortunately we were not hit again.

30 Aug 44 Ship docked at Formosa (remained on ship)

6 Sept 44 Arrived Mogee, Japan - Unloaded from Noto Maru to holding area

8 Sept 44 Arrived Tokyo via Electric Train and trucked to "Camp Osaka Zozen" (Steel Mill)
My roll call number was 122.   It was on my Japanese cap.   I pulled Red Hot 40 pound flat steel plates from the furnace door with 2½ foot tongs and ran to a Japanese worker who machine rolled it thinner.

Red Cross Boxes: None - Mail from Home: 7 letters

In Feb 44, I was caught stealing a wooden box of fish from the steel mill warehouse.   I was beaten with a bamboo stick and taken to the Japanese Interpreter.   I was asked why I stole the box of light switches from the warehouse.  I told him it smelled like fish and looked like a symbol on the box of a fish and I was hungry.   He told me that what I did was sabotage and that I could be executed.   The thought of my head being chopped off terrified me.

My punishment started with holding a 3 ft bamboo stick at arms length, shoulder high, with two buckets partially filled with water suspended from the stick.   When my arms went down, my hands or wrists were hit with a bamboo stick.   The punishment lasted for hours.   I was then put in the Japanese Guard House for one week.   I had to stand at attention during daylight hours and my food rations were cut in half.   On the 7th day, I tried to prepare myself for the execution and not look scared.

Two guards helped me crawl out of my cell door.   The cell door was about 2½ ft square.   This was to humiliate us to make us crawl through it.   They then helped me out of the Guardhouse as I was too weak to stand up and walk.   Then two of my POW buddies helped me to our Barracks and told me that the Japanese Interpreter said that my punishment was over and I wouldn't be executed for Sabotage.   This was my LUCKY DAY.

My buddy, Alfred Sorensen, was badly injured while placing heavy steel ingots on pallets.   The overhead crane driver accidently pushed the ingots over crushing his ankle and foot.   He was taken to another POW camp that had an American POW Doctor.   He fixed what he could without the equipment and medication he needed.   After he returned to the USA, Al was in and out of VA Hospitals for the rest of his life.  He passed away 23 Sept 95 in Prescott, AZ, VA Hospital.

4 Jun 1945   Arrived at Copper Ore Mine, Ashio, Japan - Here I pushed hand cars of waste rock material on a rail car to a lift that dumped it into a ravine.

4 Sept 1945 - WAR OVER
Left Ashio via train to Tokyo - Arrived Tokyo and received Honor Guards outside of the Depot.   While we were waiting, I talked to Bill Billotte, a news reporter from Omaha World Herald, and he told me that my buddy, Al Sorensen, was doing good and on the Hospital Ship Benevolence.   We went by truck to a military base for showers and new GI uniforms.   We were debriefed and questioned about Japanese crimes, food, punishments etc.

In October 1945, I returned to Omaha, NE.   I married Hazel - 5 Apr 46.   My Best Man was ExPOW Donald Kincaid RA17030600 - 3lst Inf.   Would appreciate any information on Kincaid.

Hazel and I have five children, five grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.   Our first son, Cory, was named for Corregidor because a Doctor told me I may not be able to have children because of the illnesses I had in POW Camps.

24 Mar 46 Enlisted in Air Force

17 Aug 49 Discharged from AF as Staff Sgt AF1707246
(5 Years Army, 3 Years AF)

Both sons, Cory and Jon, served in the Vietnam War.   We do not know the Hells they survived.

I worked 32 years as Leadman and Supervisor in Traffic and Shipping & Crating Dept at Douglas Aircraft Co., Tulsa, Ok.   Retired at age 60.

In recent years, I have been going to Group Therapy at the Tulsa VA Clinic.   My thanks and appreciation go to Janet Gearin R.N., M.S.,  Dr. Haggard and others who have supported me.  I hope in time my family will forgive me (and to a great extent, I know they have) for treating them for years as I had been treated in POW camps.   I can not understand or forgive myself.

Hazel and I have a motor home (RV) and we have traveled the country visiting friends and relatives and seeing the wonderful U.S.A.   We are members of a Good Sam Camping Club and enjoy camping with our friends.


Would like to hear from you.
I am - Don Spaulding
Please do write or e-mail:
HazelDonSp@aol.com