Text Version


 
 eight hours. Another incident occurred when a Japanese 
 
sentry  began to beat an Army enlisted man without
 
 provocation--we did  not know at the time that such
 
 actions were commonplace. The  soldier made as if to
 
 hit the sentry with his fists. He was shot dead by another
 
 sentry before he could complete the motion.
 
 
  Lieutenant Colonel Mellnik:
                     
        Two days  after the surrender the 7,000 Americans
 
 and 5,000 Filipinos were awakened at night and ordered
 
 out of the tunnels on The Rock. We did not know where 
 
we were going, but were prodded along in the darkness
 
 at the point of Jap bayonets.
 
 
          We soon saw that we were being concentrated in
 
 the Kindley Field Garage area. This had formerly been
 
 a balloon station, but the roof had been torn off by Jap
 
 shells, and the walls knocked down. It was now only a
 
 square of concrete, about 100 yards to the side, and
 
 with one side extending into the water of the Bay.
 
         The twelve thousand of us were crowded into
 
 this area. All the wounded who could walk also were
 
 ordered to join us, many with broken bones or serious
 
 injuries.
                 
        For seven days we were kept on this concrete square
 
without food, except for that which could be scavenged
 
by the few of us who were formed into work parties,
 
 to clear away the dead  and to remove the rubble caused
 
 by Jap artillery. Most of the prisoners got nothing to eat
 
 during those seven days.
                                
         There was only one water spigot for the twelve
 
 thousand. A twelve-hour wait to fill one canteen was
 
 the usual rule.
 
 
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