March 25, 1942
Most of the trees were blown down, so we moved what was left of our supplies to the other side of Corregidor, seeking a little better bivouac which isn’t as conspicuous from the air.
March 27, 1942
Company Commander Captain Zebowski died in Malinta Hospital from shrapnel wounds, which he received March 24th.
March 28 to April 7, 1942
Bombing and shelling of Corregidor is getting heavier every day. Japs are only a short distance from Mariveles. Heavy gun fire and gun flashes can be heard and seen across the bay at night.
April 8, 1942
Bataan Fell! Men arrived here this morning who managed to get away by small boats and gave us the dope about what happened when the Japs succeeded in breaking the lines on Bataan!
The Bataan Death March
On April 8th, the Japanese closed on weakened American lines on the Bataan peninsula. By this point, most of the defenders were incapacitated by malaria, dysentery, fatigue, and starvation. Major General Edward P. King, Jr., commander of the ground forces on Bataan, received assurances that his men would be treated decently.[13] Glens Falls residents Robert B. Blakeslee and John Parsons were two of 78,000 taken prisoner on Bataan in the largest surrender by the United States Army in its history. Many men scrambled to make it across to Corregidor, where Joe was, but by this point for most it was too late.
During the Bataan Death March, American and Filipino prisoners were forced to march in blazing heat for sixty-plus miles. Many stragglers were clubbed, shot, stabbed, bayoneted or beheaded for sport and left where they lay; some Americans were even forced to bury alive their sick buddies who had fallen near the ditches on the side of the road. No accurate measure is possible, but perhaps 750 Americans and 5,000 Filipino prisoners died along the route. Barely able to stand near the end, the survivors were forced to double-time trot to the city of San Fernando, where they were crowded into boxcars for a five-hour rail journey. They were then forced to walk again for the last several miles to the notorious Camp O’Donnell, where over 16,000 more prisoners would die over the next two months.[14]
Route of Bataan Death March.
John Parsons’ account was published after the war in the local newspaper.
“Of the “Death March” Parsons says, ‘It just can’t be imagined.’ The march was a distance of about 75 miles [sic], which was covered in around six days. For healthy troops that would not be exceptional, but for the sick and weak, as nearly all were, it was a cruel ordeal. It was not a continuous march, parade fashion, but rather continued over a period of about a week with groups of 500 being sent out each day. Parsons says they were forbidden to help anyone in any manner, even if he fell. To do so was to invite a rifle butt in the back. He saw three men bayoneted in the back at a rest period when they walked a few feet from their group and knelt over a puddle splashing water on their faces.
The Japanese way of feeding the prisoners, on those days when they did, was to place a bag of about 150 pounds of cooked rice at the head of the column and let them scramble for it. Those at the rear usually got nothing. More food was always promised ‘tomorrow.’ ”[15]
In 2006, death march survivor Major Richard M. Gordon gave an interview.
Richard M. Gordon
Words cannot really describe those days or the thousands of individual horrors. Suffice it to say, I went nine days without food and with very little water. My training as an infantryman paid off. I conserved water in my canteen by taking a sip, swishing it around in my mouth and letting a little drip down my throat. I would do this until I reached the next potable water spot. Others, untrained and dying for water, would prostrate themselves along the side of the road and drink water from puddles. All this water was contaminated with flies and fly feces and brought on death from dysentery. Thousands of Filipinos and several hundred Americans died this way. The Japanese beat any who attempted to break ranks and obtain water, killing a number of them in the process. Japanese tanks, moving south to take up positions to attack Corregidor as we marched north, would deliberately drive over the dead and dying on the side of the road.
The Japanese were in a hurry to move in their reinforcements and artillery to pound Corregidor into submission before the final invasion. Before the march, Parsons and other prisoners were forced to excavate gun emplacements for the heavy weapons.
Joe Minder
Corregidor, April 9, 1942: 3:00 PM
The Japs have massed much artillery along the beaches facing Corregidor and are really giving us heck now. With only four miles of water between us and the mouth of their big guns, Corregidor is trembling as if there were an earthquake as these Jap shells tear into her sides, blowing up gun batteries, ammunition dumps and setting large fires!
4:00 PM
Several boats were sunk trying to move around to the other side of Corregidor. “How long can this last, and why doesn’t Corregidor fire back and quiet some of those Jap guns?” is the question in everyone’s mind here.
April 10, 1942: 8:00 AM
Japs started their heavy bombardment early again this morning. Just found out that there are several hundred Americans concentrated in the vicinity of those Jap guns. That is the reason why Corregidor isn't firing back.
April 11, 1942
Corregidor is finally firing some of her guns in an attempt to cut down some the intense Jap fire.
4:00 PM
What an explosion! Japs just blew up several tons of black powder and TNT on Cavalry Point where we were bivouacked two weeks ago! Buildings, trees and everything within a 500 yard radius were leveled to the ground!
April 12, 1942
Almost got it this morning, when I awakened to find shells dropping all around me. One of our trucks was blown up a few yards from where I slept!
April 13, 1942
Several more large buildings burned this morning by Jap shells. Our guns, which are firing at Japs, don’t seem to be doing any good. For every shell which we send at them, about a hundred bounce back, cutting off telephones, roads and all our communications here on Corregidor.
April 14 to April 30, 1942
In the past 16 days of constant shelling and bombing, the Japs have succeeded in burning about 3/4ths of the buildings and have blown up about half the gun batteries here. Dead tired! Haven’t gotten hardly any sleep these past 16 days—night shelling and bombings getting worse each night. We no sooner get asleep when we have to dive for a foxhole or a bomb-proof shelter! How much longer can we stand up under this terrific bombardment? Sent letter home by submarine the other day.
Soon the American gun batteries on small neighboring islands were also targeted, and responded.
Corregidor and island forts.
May 1, 1942
Japs have lightened their fire on Corregidor a little and have started pounding Fort Hughes with heavy shelling and bombings. Fort Drum has started firing her 14-inch guns in a desperate attempt to blow up some of those hundreds of guns. Dirt and smoke rise many feet into the air as those huge shells from Fort Drum explode among the Jap guns! Corregidor is located between the Japs and Fort Drum and Fort Hughes, so we can get a bird’s-eye view of the exchange of fire by the Japs and the other two forts.
May 2, 1942: 5:00 PM
Fort Hughes is taking a terrible pounding, in the vicinity of her large mortars, by Jap artillery. God! What explosions on both sides of us! Fort Drum is loping her 14-inch shells over Corregidor to Bataan, the Japs are sending all types of artillery shells over our heads to Fort Drum and Fort Hughes is sending her large shells over our heads, also, to repay back some of the steel that the Japs are so generously sending them. Some of those shells sound like freight trains passing over head! With all these large shells passing directly over us, it makes our blood run cold, wondering if some of them might hit a tree, or fall short of their mark. Some of them sound close enough to touch as they go roaring over our head!
May 3, 1942
Worked late l
ast night repairing roads, between the numerous shelling. Two more 803rd Engineer men killed by shells today.
Japanese Invasion of Corregidor, May 1942.
Drafted by Susan Winchell-Sweeney.
May 4, 1942: 5:00 PM
Just saw the last two interisland boats sink, as the Japs scored several bomb hits by dive bombers, sinking them between here and Fort Hughes.
7:00 PM
Just finished helping putting out fires started by Jap shelling. My clothes were blown up by a Jap shell!
Joseph Minder was turning 25 years old.
May 5, 1942
Plenty of fireworks to celebrate my birthday today! The Japs have been shelling and bombing continually since early this morning. All communications have been cut off from the other end of Corregidor!
5:00 PM
The Jap seems to be pounding this end of the island heavier than ever before. Marines were forced to leave the beach from their foxholes by Jap artillery.
The 4th Marine Regiment would shortly return to their positions to fight valiantly to try to turn back the invasion, claiming many Japanese lives, but at this point the enemy now had 75 big guns firing away at what amounted to point-blank range. [16]
11:00 PM
For the past three hours, there hasn’t been a single break in the hundreds of shells which hit this end of the island!
11:30 PM
INVASION!
A runner just made his way over here through heavy artillery fire. JAPS HAVE LANDED, under this heavy artillery fire at Monkey Point, about an hour ago! The communications having been cut off, no one knew they had landed, only the men in the immediate vicinity of the invasion points!
A bunch of us loaded into a truck, which had all tires flat from shell shrapnel, and made our way over a shell-blasted road to site a machine gun on a small hill overlooking the beach and the airfield, only about 500 yards away, which the Japs had already succeeded in advancing to. We managed to hold the Japs at this point, except for the few Jap snipers who managed to filter through the gaps in our lines.
Artillery continued to blast away all night from Bataan and there was a fierce exchange of machine gun fire between us, but our losses were small during the night, as compared with large numbers of Japs which we killed while they attempted to mass-attack us. One of my biggest scares of the night was when an American mistook me for a Jap sniper, as I was moving up nearer to the Jap lines, and opened up with a tommy gun on me!
May 6, 1942: 5:00 AM
At first I thought I would be glad to see daylight, so we could see what we were doing, but when Jap planes started their daylight bombing and spotting for the artillery from Bataan, I soon changed my mind! With the cover of darkness gone, it was impossible for us to fire without being seen by the hundreds of snipers who had by this time stationed themselves all over the island!
8:00 AM
By this time we suffered many losses, we managed however to continue holding back the main force of Japs until they started landing tanks. With no guns left to combat the tanks, we were forced to surrender at noon. Then is when I received the bad news of Drake’s and Bailey’s death, two very close buddies of mine. The last time that I saw Bailey was about midnight when he and I were firing at a Jap sniper from the same bomb crater. Dead tired, sweaty, and dirty with minor scratches and bruises suffered from diving in shell holes and going through the bush, I climbed on top of a stack empty ammunition boxes and slept until 5 o’clock, at which time the Japs came and stripped us of most our belongings and marched us down near the Malinta Tunnel, where we stayed for the night.
The Fall of Corregidor
The landing of the tanks finally decided the issue as they began to move up toward the Tunnel. With no possibility of relief and no good options, General Jonathan Wainwright radioed President Roosevelt, ‘There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed.’ The formal surrender on May 6th marked the fall of the Philippines. Like Joe, nearly 11,000 of the garrison on the ‘Rock’, including 77 nurses, would be now at the mercy of their enemy.
May 7, 1942
[Forced to] work on airfield for Japs. Hot as heck!
May 8, 1942
Forced by Japs to bury American dead. God! What sights! Some were lying in foxholes bloated up twice their natural size! Buried one who had his hands tied to a tree with the brutal marks all over his body, showing clearly what type of death he must have died when one of those cruel Japs got him. Some were torn up pretty bad, and after lying in the sun two or three days, the flies and smell from those poor boys’ bodies was almost unbearable!
8:00 PM
Carried heavy load of Jap landing equipment on my back from the invasion point to top side of the island, about a three-mile hike. Thirsty as heck before I got there.
May 9, 1942
Sent to 92nd Garage [an open air, flat ten-acre area on the south shore] where about 1,200 prisoners were jammed into a very small space almost on top of one another. [17]
May 10 to May 22, 1942
With very little food and water and no sanitation at all around here, diseases started breaking out and the dead are beginning to pile up. Filth and flies around here are terrible! Dead bodies still lie on top of the hill uncovered, men who died on May 5/6. We tried to get permission to go up there and bury them, but they refused us. I guess those filthy Japs don’t mind this terrible smell around here at all.
After days in the open sun, the Japanese began moving the men across the bay to Manila, parading the sick, wounded and exhausted prisoners in a humiliating fashion down Dewey Boulevard on the way to their first prison.
May 23, 1942
Several thousand of us were packed into a small Jap freighter and landed at the end of Dewey Boulevard, south of Manila. From there we were marched through Manila to Bilibid Prison, a distance of about eight miles. Saw several men get kicked around by Japs because they were too weak to make the march.
6:00 PM
Received my first meal, prepared by the Japs, which consisted of plain rice. Slept outside on the ground until 5 AM.
May 24, 1942
We were marched to the station, jammed into closed boxcars, a hundred men to car, and sent to Cabanatuan [what would become the largest American POW camp in the Far East] where we stayed overnight in a schoolyard. [18]
May 25, 1942
Left Cabanatuan for Camp III, a distance of 12 miles. Several men were unable to carry their bags so were forced to throw them away. Others managed to drag themselves to camp but died from overexposure. I managed, however, to get through with a blanket and a few other odds and ends, suffering only from the lack of water and the intense heat of the day.
May 26 to June 15, 1942
Sick from diseases. Got very weak. Nothing but rice and thin onion soup since we arrived here. Saw four men get shot for trying to escape.
General MacArthur’s Army of the Pacific had been defeated in less than half a year. Like most of the prisoners who survived, Joe Minder and John Parsons would spend three and a half years in captivity. For most of the men of the 803rd Engineer Aviation Battalion and all of the American captives of Bataan and Corregidor, eight months to a year would pass before family back home were properly notified. [19]
According to Major Gordon, General King told his men in an assembled prison camp session that ‘we had been asked to “lay down a bunt to gain time”. The baseball metaphor was probably the best way to explain [the “big picture” of the tragedy of Bataan, and Corregidor].’ [20] The defense of Bataan thwarted Japanese timetables and planning, and forced them to commit many more troops than was expected, unsettling their ferocious drive in their conquest of the Pacific and perhaps, Australia.
chapter three
Captivity
The nightmare of being a prisoner of the Japanese Imperial Army was unfolding with a stunning rapidity. Joseph Minder continued to risk taking down notes and recording the horrors, never knowing if his diary would ever see the light of day. These
actions must have helped to keep him going, especially when he could open himself to find wonder and be thankful, even there.
The Things Our Fathers Saw—The Untold Stories of the World War II Generation From Hometown, USA-Volume I: Voices of the Pacific Theater Page 4