The Voyage of a Death Ship
Everywhere Around Us Were Bodies with Blackened Faces and Purple Lips
By GEORGE WELLER
The Oryoku Maru which was being continually bombed and strafed by American planes finally went aground off Olongapo Point. The prisoners who had spent more than 24 hours in the stinking, airless holds were not even allowed to have the hatch covers open.
The ship was aground about four hours but was finally freed during the evening and immediately began discharging the Japanese passengers at the American naval base at Olongapo.
The Japanese knowing the conditions in the holds by the number of dead stacked on the deck feared the prisoners would try to make a break and doubled the guard around the hatches. The prisoners were forced to spend another night of suffocation and stench and many more either died or went insane as the night dragged on.
In the last hours of darkness of the second night the Japanese sent down a new word to Commander Portz, the leader of the Americans, and the three Commanders of the different holds.
In the aft hold Bridget announced it: "Good news, boys! We’re going to he put ashore here. The Japanese civilians who are still alive have all been put ashore, and our turn is next."
What had happened was that the Oryoku Maru’s steering gear had been broken by the persistent strafing, and she had become unmanageable. But the Japanese did not forget to make a special stipulation before releasing the Americans from the ship where nearly a hundred had already died.
The prisoners might take their pants and shirts, but could not take their haversacks, except for mess kit and canteen. And they were to wear no shoes; the Japanese were sure that barefooted Americans could not go far if they attempted to escape. Mr. Wada, the Jap interpreter, stopped at the middle hold and told Commander Maurice Joses to instruct the men to leave the ship in 25 man groups.
Dead in the Water
Oarsmen Unharmed
She’s on Fire
The deck above the prisoners was perforated with many holes, light was plentiful now. But suddenly a yellowish haze began to appear in the bays, and a smell of smoke. "She’s on fire," yelled someone. "The coal dust down here has caught. Let us out of here! We’d rather be shot than suffocated!"
"I was standing right under the hatch," says Chief Boatswain Jesse E. Lee, ‘and I saw the plane go into its dive. I had been talking to an Army Lieutenant, and he was saying how thirsty he was. Then the bombs hit. I was hit by one of the hatch planks, but I got up. I remember the big yellow flash and the hot blast of the explosion. I looked for the Lieutenant. He was so full of holes that he looked like a pepper shaker."
In the aft hold under the hatch was always the most favored position, being the lightest and airiest, and some of the healthiest men had been gathered there. Captain Charles Brown of Deming, N.M., was one of the few who survived, and he was bleeding at the nose and mouth from the concussion. Seeing him, another member of the 200th Coast Artillery, Captain Ted Parker of Albuquerque, made a wild rush for the ladder, which was now sagging and splintered. A sentry shot him from above three times; twice through the body and once through the head.
Another 200th officer, Captain Gerald B. Greeman of Deming, who had been sitting at the foot of the ladder, was sought by his brother officers, Captain James McMinn (of Carlsbad) and Lieutenant Russell Hutchison (of Albuquerque).
Bodies, Bodies, Bodies
They could find no trace of him. In Hutchison’s words: "We looked up and saw that after they shot Captain Parker the Japanese sentries had gone away from the edge of the hatch. Everywhere around us were bodies, bodies with faces blackened and lips purple. The guns had stopped and there was a kind of terrible silence. We took hold of the shaky ladder and climbed up through the smoke. We found the deck covered with Japanese and American bodies. Our men were scooping up sugar from the luggage and eating what they could of it before they jumped over. We had a hard time finding life belts. Only when we got over the side, in that clean cool water, we felt better."
(Continued tomorrow)