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| Pg.1 | Pg.2 Country News |
January 16, 1943
Cabanatuan NotesFather Theo brought me a written receipt from Joe in Cabanatuan. It simply said: 10/12/42 Father Theo wasn't able to get any packages to the prisoners since July — until the Japanese relaxed conditions in December 23. Hendricks received five packages and wrote a long letter to Manila. He said there were 16,000 prisoners up there now, 7,000 of them ill. Dysentery and Malaria is prevalent because of the poor diet. The camp is asking for a long list of medicines and other items. I've been tasked to find some 40 dozen handkerchiefs [I'm having the material cut and hemmed already] and arrange for other clothing. I made Schaer promise to donate 20 liters of alcohol for the next trip. Some American prisoners continue to work at the Manila piers. One described as tall, thin and bearded dropped dead the other day. It's hard work for the poor diet, though a few are opening and helping themselves to some of the boxes destined for Japan — shoes, canned milk, even the occasional beer drank warm on the spot. There's so much stuff in the piers that one prisoner worried there wouldn't be anything left in the city! |
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| Pg.1 Cabanatuan Notes| Pg.2 |
Supplement
January 16, 1943
Country NewsThe provinces are seething everywhere. In Nueva Vizcaya there are plenty of guerrillas. Two truckloads of Japanese soldiers about to enter a town were annihilated in an ambush. In retaliation, the Japanese bombed the village, killing 18 and wounding more. A friend from there was contacted by the USAFFE and asked for a donation to "further the cause." He gave, but scared that the Japanese would find out, fled to Manila for an "indefinite" stay. In Tuguegarao, one side is quiet, but just across the river it's no man's land. Pork there sells for 25 centavos a kilo because they can't ship it out. Aparri doesn't even have a government tax collection agent. It's safe inside the city, but try getting there.... It's such a long time since tobacco was brought down from the Cagayan Valley that factories in Manila are running out — only Tabacalera has enough stocks for the moment. Both the Tribune and Vanguardia reported that "because of the inadequacy of transportation facilities, no reports are available from the municipality of Palawan." Down south is even worse. As one Japanese officer put it: "Visayan people — very bad." A recent traveler said the guerrillas in Cebu are "real USAFFE men" — disciplined, controlled and efficient. Japanese troops sent south to ostensibly annihilate the guerrillas can only guard the "safe zones" and towns they occupy. They're so mad that when a batel of Visayan civilians fleeing the fighting recently landed in Lucena, they were slapped around and detained. Surigao in the northern tip of Mindanao is relatively quiet, but elsewhere, particularly in Oriental Misamis, there is hell to pay. The tough people in Samar and Leyte who gave the early Americans many a headache years ago are now dishing it out to the Japanese. |