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BATAAN UNCENSORED

COL. E. B. MILLER

COPYRIGHTED By COL. E. B. MILLER Brainerd, Minn.

February 1949

The Hart Publications, Inc. Long Prairie, Minn.

Introduction AMONG THE REPORTS of World War II, this book has three distinctive qualities: It is written by a citizen soldier, a non-professional military manColonel Ernest B. Miller of Brainerd, Minnesota-commander of the 194th Tank Battalion (National Guard). Colonel Miller and his citizen soldiers were mobilized, and in the Philippines some time before Pearl Harbor. They covered the withdrawals into Bataan and became an integral part in that heroic siege against the overpowering Japanese hordes. They gasped for strength on the Death March, they elbowed death away in the confines of the hell ships, their sense of defeat fought with their American pride through the starvation and abuse of J ap prison camps. This book tells that story-but the story is built on more than seared memory. For Colonel Miller, at risk of death himself, kept notes of what happened. Humiliated by defeat, he obtained affidavits from men who were there, smuggled his history-in-the-making past Jap sentries, hid the notes in Jap prison camps, remembered and recovered them wheri victory came. Thus this book is unique. Colonel Miller writes as a patriot, rather than a professional. He survived the war's darkest hours. He relies on records as well as graven memory. Some will dispute what Colonel Miller has to say, but none can match his right to say what he does. He did not put pen to paper until he was no longer in the Army. He is free of restraint. So he writes with candor. But his candor is the frankness of a man trying to preserve and protect a nation and a way of life-it is not the bickering and bitter frankness of a man striving to belittle or destroy individuals or institutions. He has a vital interest in the United States of America. Not only did he undergo physical suffering for it, himself, but the day that he landed in Manila, freed from Japanese prisons, he was met with the tragic news that one of his sons had been killed on the Anzio Beachhead in Italy. From this cauldron of experience has boiled this book. It deserves respectful reading. The Minneapolis Tribune carried "Bataan Uncensored" in a series of articles which were in abridged form. Colonel Miller was assisted in this first draft by Bill Smollett, Tribune reporter. At the time, Miller was the State Commander of the American Legion-a whirling dervish existence of meetings, conferences, and speeches in every part of the state. Smollett rode with Miller, lived with him. He wrote this impression: "I have met a man who actually knows the true value of a single slice of bread. He unconsciously lends drama to the routine procedure of every bite.

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"But he is not acting. When he bites into a piece of bread, he is silently thanking Providence for it. You see-there was a time when his very soul cried out for a single crumb. That was through the bitter, starving days of Bataan. And through three agonizing phases of the infamous Death March. And through 19 days and 19 nights on a Japanese hell ship. And then through no less than five hell holes that the Japs called prison camps. "Out of those endless days and nights of starvation, Colonel Ernie Miller found a new philosophy concerning food. It is a philosophy that he believes America could well afford to turn toward as something to grasp during a period of world-wide unrest. "His philosophy: Be thankful for what you have. "There is no pose in his attitude. His manner is not ingratiating. He speaks from personal knowledge and bitter experience. He has eaten practically everything that man could eat when man is imbued with the idea of saving his life. He shared the half-rations at Bataan, and the ,quarter-rations, and finally the rations that included horses and mules whose usefulness as food was more demanding than anything else. "He partook of the meager portions of rice, handed out grudgingly, brushed the worms off, and later swallowed them, not being too particular. He slumped down, like the others, to face a tin can containing nothing but a sickly cucumber soup, and to stare at the rice that was composed mostly of sweepings. "He recalls Rokuroshi where snakes were caught and roasted, where larvae from wasp's nests were roasted, where any root that could be chewed was used for food. He can remember the soup that contained nothing but pieces of common weed, jerked from the ground by work parties consisting of men who had only one aimto live. ' "Colonel Miller knows the terror of starvation. He knows how it feels to go to bed at night-hungry. To wake up each morninghungry. To carry on throughout a long day with a ravenous, clutching feeling of never having enough to eat. He 'knows the nightmarish dreams that were a part of each black night during his prison life. Dreams that consisted only of food and more food. He remembers the everyday conversations in the prison camps, conversations that always turned to food. "Yes, this man knows the value of food. He says: 'The bitter dregs of adversity have taught us to truly appreciate the simple things of life such as a crust of bread, a pinch of salt, a chair to sit upon, or a pipe of unadulterated tobacco.' "And in his Americanism talks throughout Minnesota, he emphasizes that it is high time for Americans to appreciate what they have. "Even a single slice of bread." WILLIAM P. STEVEN Managing Editor Minneapolis Tribune

Preface BATAAN UNCENSORED is just what the name implies. It is the true story of the Philippine Campaign and its tragic aftermath. Naturally, in presenting that story, individual contacts, together with the individuals themselves, had to be made a part of the narrative in order that it be told at all. The 194th Tank Battalion was a National Guard outfit, composed entirely of citizen soldiers. They came from practically every walk of life. It so happened that this battalion was decreed by fate to take part in the most crucial phases of the Philippine Campaign. It might have been some other outfit except that events determined otherwise. Therefore, it has not been with any intention of slighting other units if they do not appear in the story. The 194th was actually engaged in these most important events, and except as otherwise stated, no other units participated. It is also a fact that the true story of the withdrawals into Bataan, and some of the events that occurred on that blood-soaked soil, could not be told without the complete and detailed testimony of the 194th Tank Battalion, because of the crucial part it played, and the absence of other personnel and the higher commands. As commanding officer, the WTiter actually saw and participated in these events, not only from a command post, but also in active and personal contact with all phases from the top echelons down through the lower elements. The attempt has been made to portray the campaign just as it occurred, insofar as the 194th was concerned. While it is true that the military must take their share of the blame for not making use of those things they did have at their disposal, and for adopting and fostering a Rip Van Winkle attitude, it is also true that if the American people had been actively interÂˇ ested in their own security during prewar years, the military would have been alert, and the inefficient system would not have been allowed to exist-and this story would not have been told. The WTiter, having had more than 31 years service in the National Guard, involving active service in the Mexican Border Campaign, World Wars I and II, can testify to the extreme indifference of American citizens and Congress during the 23 years between those wars. Therefore, it only follows that the military was the victim of a system which never should have been allowed to exist in the first place. There is no doubt in the WTiter's mind, that if Americans as a

whole, had been more interested in their national security than they were in their own individual affairs, there would have been no World War II-or, at least, it would have been ended shortly. About 7; percent of the Philippine defenders did not come back! If the reader will bear in mind the foregoing, as the story unfolds, he will find no malice or thought of casting reflections in any direction. The only object is to focus attention on the results of apathy, in which thousands of Americans were sacrified and the fate of the American Way of Life hung in the balance. THE AUTHOR

Contents CHAPTER

PAGE

Why? Soldier~

Prewar Mobilization of Citizen

The Team Is Kicked Apart

Secret Orders -

Operation "Movement" -

The Battle of Supply

There Will Be No War With Japan

War Comes

The Rice Storage at Cabanatuan

Invasion

The Agno River Rat Trap

Confusion

101

Empty Trucks- and Death

111

The Road to Bataan

.122

Behind the "Gates"

133

The Abucay-Hacienda Line

144

Between Outpost and Japs

152

The Battle of January 26th

U. S. Propaganda

171

Hope-Bataan Airfields

181

163

PAGE

CHAPTER

"Help Is on the Way"

190

The Fall of Bataan

202

The J aps Take Over

211

March of Death

221

Camp O'Donnell-Offspring of Hell

231

Administration by Remote Control

242

The Hell Shi p

253

"No Man Has Really Eaten Until He Has Starved"

264

The Session on Food

274

"Donald Duck" Becomes Sick

284

"War" Conferences With the Japs -

294

POW's Go Over the Fence

305

Japanese Way of Thinking

316

Christmas at Zentsuji

326

Our Chief Is Dead!

336

The War Is Overl

346

Freedom!

356

The Japanese -

366

'Vho Should '!\Te Blame for Bataanr

372

Unification of the Armed Forces

375

An Integrated Program for National Defense -

381

The Gray Board Report

391

Elegy of a Prisoner of '!\Tar

400

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.. E R I T ACE Balaan uncensored I E.B. Miller