Lieutenant Gonzalez, a constabulary man in Bataan, was stationed 1-1/4 kilometers from Joe. He told me that Joe was seen around Limay, probably under Lieutenant Colonel Tarpley. When they surrendered, Gonzalez tried to get Joe to declare he was a Filipino, but Joe chose to stick it out with the staff officers. "Useless patriotism," said Gonzalez, "he could have been a free man now."

Of 49,000 Filipino prisoners, Gonzalez said that some 20,000 have died and the rest are sick. He strongly urged me to send medicines to Joe. I thought about the Macias package, which I understood had reached Joe, and another package still in Pepe's hands.

An hour later, Gabby turned up with two young Filipinos who worked at Cabanatuan and had seen Joe. They were going to take some notes, money and medicine to pass on to one Captain Ellis, who distributes them to the POWs somehow. I told them I'd have a package ready in the morning, and that I had sent one a couple of months ago through Macias. They both looked surprised and spoke at the same time:

"Those packages didn't get delivered... we were the ones that took them up. The Japs confiscated them."

"But I thought...."

"No sir. There were 50 packages in all. The Japs opened them all and sent all the medicines to the Philippine Red Cross. You might be able to get them back from a Miss Betty Wright."

Funnily enough, someone else had told me I could get medicines to Joe through her. Now I have to go and get them from her. Anyway, when I went to retrieve my other package from Pepe later, he told me it had already gone this morning. Worst of all, I had stuffed a discreet note into one of the vitamin bottles for Joe!