CHAPTER THREE "Death At Cabanatuan" The American prisoner-of-war camp at Cabanatuan, 75 miles north of Manila in the Province of Luzon, was roughly a long rectangle of about 5OO by 700 yards, bounded on one of the shorter sides by the road from Cabanatuan City and on the other three sides by once-cultivated fields. These fields had not been tended since the Japanese attack on the Philippines, and they were now overgrown due to neglect. The prison stockadewas split crosswise into three groups of about 230 yards wide each. Both of us were in group 1, the section nearest the road. Each group contained barracks for approximately two thousand American prisoners, mostly officers, although there were some enlisted men. Caban&tuan Camp No. 2, six miles further into the jungle, was laid out along similar lines, with most of its prisoners American enlisted men. At the north end of our rectangle was a moat which occasionally filled with water during heavy rains, and which we used for drainage for our latrines and urinals. Nearly always in this section were to be found a number ofprisoners dead or dying of dysentery and starvation, men who had made it this far and could go no further. At the opposite end from the moat was the enclosure used by the Japanese soldiery for their barracks, mess halls, - 38 - |