Through Fire and Through Water.

CHAPTER X
MORE PERILOUS DAYS

With the return of the Japanese our food rations were quickly reduced to a smaller portion than ever before, and we soon lost what strength we had gained during the six days of freedom. Deaths from starvation began to increase again. As many as three would die in a day, and extra crews of men were kept busy all day long digging the graves in the hard ground, a sort of adobe stone a few feet below the surface. Some very dear Christian friends went home to glory in those days. One day I heard that a friend, Bro. Blair, a former missionary in Korea, was sick in the hospital. I felt very weak and tired at the end of that day, and I determined to visit him on the morrow. But the morrow was too late. I found he had already departed this world. He was a true Christian and a humble servant of the Lord, whom I expect to see again some day when we see Jesus.

Now the Japanese would no longer permit us to leave the camp confines to get wood, and we could only cut down the trees inside. It was very difficult to get out of them enough wood to supply the kitchen, and it also cut off the opportunities for me to get the wild weeds and greens for food that I had previously gathered outside the camp. Most of the trees in camp were a variety of African acacia that produced long bean-like pods. People were now gathering these and eating the beans inside. I tried them and found them eatable and also nourishing after boiling. With the dry, ripe ones I made a hot drink by parching them until they popped open and turned brown, then boiling them in water. Since everyone was now gathering these beans we were seldom able to get many of them. I was no longer able to get weeds for greens, but Sally would hunt for "pig weed" as we called it, near the fence and along the edge of the camp garden where she worked. These areas were now out of bounds to all except the garden crew, and she would bring in a bucket of weed greens every day. However we were hungry, especially for any kind of protein foods. Twice I was able to get a fine fat rat to eat from a friend, who had a rat trap. When cleaned and boiled in rice soup it was tender and tasted like squirrel.

Several men had escaped from the camp at night through the double barbed wire fences, so now we were made to stand in line for roll call every morning at seven thirty and every evening at six. The barracks in which I lived had lost more men than any other, for we were in the back and right close to the fence, and almost all in it were young and single. Others of the men and boys would often slip out at night through some cleverly concealed holes in the fence to meet with Philippinos and carry back food supplies, either for themselves or to be sold to others at extremely high prices. Those who had money were now paying enormous prices for very little food. A coconut which in ordinary times cost no more than a few cents now sold in camp for five dollars American money. The Japanese printed money had now depreciated in value so much that no one wanted to handle it. Our camp canteen seldom had anything to sell except a little garlic, and the internees would stand in line to buy that.

One morning we heard a couple of quick shots near camp, and we later learned that a man had been shot and killed as he was trying to slip back into camp with a little sugar. His death was instantaneous, and his body was turned over to us for burial. In spite of such dangers a few others continued to slip out and bring in supplies, principally to obtain the high prices that they sold for. One night several young men were outside. Friends in the barracks by the hole they crawled through had agreed to sit up playing cards and by their conversation inform of any Japanese guards in the vicinity. Most of these young men came back together, and learning from the conversation of their friends that it was unsafe to enter they skirted the camp and slipped in another way. However the last of them came later alone, and not knowing the hole was watched he was shot by the Japanese guard as he crawled through. There he lay helpless until far into the day. No one was permitted to approach him or give him any aid. He rolled about in agony, but could not stand up or walk. Late in the day the commandant ordered him carried to a gully near by where he was killed by a bullet through the head, and we were warned that now if anyone escaped from camp The would be shot when caught, whether he returned voluntarily or not.

During the latter part of 1944 I had been troubled by infected sores on ankles and legs. My clothes by now had gradually worn out or gone to pieces, and all I had to wear at work was a pair of blue denim shorts. An old pair of army shoes that I bought at the beginning of internment had fallen to pieces in the mud of the previous summer, so I went with the other men to work out in the jungle bare headed, bare backed and bare footed, feet slipping and sliding in the mud and among the vines as we carried the large pieces of wood on our shoulders back into camp. With others in like condition I worked in the sun or the rain, falling, trimming and sawing up the trees for wood. Sometimes we would fall a tree that was a nest for large ants that immediately swarmed all over the ground. But we were compelled to cut it up anyway. We would rush in and chop or saw for a short time until the ants had covered our bare legs up to the knees, then we would run from the tree and try to scrape all the ants off with our hands. After that we would rush in and start chopping or sawing again. In this kind of work my ankles and legs were often bruised and skinned, and the ever present flies kept them infected. I would tie rags around my ankles to try to keep the flies away.

Medical supplies in the hospital clinic were now exhausted, and they could give me nothing for those sores. They had no disinfectant, not even alcohol. But they advised me to soak the sores with hot compresses. This I did every morning and evening, and it was effective in healing them, but they were continually scratched again and again infected. I had to keep at using the hot compresses for a very long time.

In the palm thatched lean-to I had built on the side of my barracks I had a small place of privacy where I could go in the early morning with my troubles to the Lord. He gave me the strength I needed for each day. Often I was near despair. I would plead with God to pity the dying all about, the starving, hungry children, and I begged Him to send rescue soon.